Our Process
Steam Fog uses a slow, patient, and thoughtful documentary process to create documentaries about interesting people with passionate beliefs.
We like to imagine our documentaries are drawing from the same place as Irish poet W.B. Yeats’ defined as “Spiritus Mundi.” Yeats describes an invisible world out of reach of the material world from which all art and poetry comes from. A world that surrounds us, but we can not see it. In Irish and celtic art, mist or fog was often seen as a portal to this world (hence the name Steam Fog). A poet’s job is to listen to this world and convey messages. Our documentaries try to draw from a similar place.
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We develop a lot of ideas, and we are looking for people who are connected to something deeper and driven to action as a result. To quote Kerouac, we are looking for “the mad ones, the ones mad to live.”
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We start filming a number ideas, many of which never come to fruition, and we produce short sketches. These sketches are not designed to look anything like the final film. Instead, they are explorations of style, music, themes, etc.
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Every project requires funding. Once we have some sketches put together, we begin to fundraise. Steam Fog has a growing community that subscribe to our watch site, which helps offset costs. And we have an ongoing relationship with the International Documentary Association as fiscal sponsors of projects to allow for tax deductible donations.
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Our team tends to rely heavily on combining verite’ style shooting with stylized elements. We love taking grounded, realistic scenes and adding some magical elements. In this way, we hope to take that which looks ordinary and give it the magical qualities out of Spiritus Mundi.
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We work slowly, and we carefully whittle away footage. We shoot roughly higher than a 100:1 ratio of footage to what ends up in the final film. Often editing takes place over a number of years, and we work on a number of projects simultaneously.
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We are always on the lookout for ways to distribute. PBS NC has been a great partner in the past, though sometimes our projects push too far into experimental filmmaking to make a good fit. We distribute most of our projects on our watch site as well.
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We host screenings. We help other filmmakers produce their work, and we have regular meetups with filmmakers and others. We are based in Durham, North Carolina and love being a part of the growing wave of filmmakers telling original stories about the south.
David’s Story
I’ve been making documentary films my whole life. What started as an obsession has somehow turned into a career, something I am very grateful for.
Passion.
I am passionate about independent documentaries produced in the south. There is magic and untapped stories in the south that others benefits from seeing. I’m constantly fascinated by how history lives out in the present day here.
Belief.
I also believe, admittedly with some naiveté, that the answer to the insane media environment we find ourselves in is slowing down and creating more thoughtful documentaries. The work our team does is slow. It is designed to try to call attention to small things, things often overlooked.
