How NOT to Make a Doco
Published
28-1-2026
Type of Work
Creative Work - Film
Abstract
How NOT to Make a Doco
Russell Burton, 2025
How NOT to Make a Doco documents a return to unscripted documentary practice after a twenty-year absence, using the proposed “final” Byron Bay Bluesfest as its subject. Conceived as a short poetic and investigative documentary titled What Happens When the Music Stops, the project set out to examine the cultural, economic, and community significance of music festivals in Australia, and to question the widely reported collapse of the festival sector due to rising costs and limited government support.
The documentary followed a three-phase structure—festival set-up, event delivery, and pack-down—to reveal the labour, collaboration, and community effort underpinning large-scale cultural events. Filming focused on festival infrastructure, workers, volunteers, musicians, vendors, and the lived experience of the event, drawing on observational and interview-based documentary techniques. The project was grounded in long-standing professional relationships developed through over two decades of industry engagement between SAE University College and Bluesfest.
Mid-production, it became clear that the festival was not, in fact, ending, despite sustained messaging to workers, artists, and the public that 2025 would be the final Bluesfest. This revelation fundamentally altered the documentary’s premise and rendered the original narrative untenable. Rather than completing the intended film, the project became a reflective practice investigation into authorship, control, ethics, access, and trust in documentary filmmaking—reinforcing Alfred Hitchcock’s assertion that in documentary, the director is ultimately not in control.
The submission therefore takes the form of a reflective blog-style analysis, using the failed documentary as a case study in documentary uncertainty, institutional constraints, and industry power dynamics. It foregrounds the gap between intention and outcome as a legitimate and valuable site of scholarship, demonstrating how practice-led failure can generate critical insight.
Citation
Burton, R. (2026, January 27). How NOT to make a Doco. Russell’s Substack. https://russellburton977.substack.com/p/how-not-to-make-a-doco
Link to Published Work
https://russellburton977.substack.com/p/how-not-to-make-a-doco