Actor, television personality and writer Nellie Sciutto hosted an engaging workshop where she shared her experience on creating and selling a documentary based on a story of personal interest. 

Scuitto, it the author of 50 moments: Faking it, Making It In Hollywood as a Working Actor, and has recently directed a documentary last year, The Tailor in Sin City. Using her experience and background in the entertainment industry in Hollywood, she explained the process of documentary filmmaking in a way that was easy to understand, even for students with little prior knowledge.

Scuitto explained the first step in making a documentary is development, which begins with choosing a story that genuinely interests the filmmaker. To get students involved, she asked them to come up with documentary ideas, and gave Starbucks gift cards to those who presented. This moment made the workshop feel more interactive, and Scuitto was encouraging creativity. During this phase, she shared that researching the topic is very important, as well as developing the story and having a message you want to share.

The second step Scuitto discussed was pre-production. This includes planning interviews, determining the style of the documentary and figuring out the budget and locations. She also mentioned that you do not need a large budget.

The third step is production, where the actual filming takes place. This involves more interviews, and gathering footage. She also noted that documentaries require long term commitment. She added that her documentary The Tailor of Sin City took about nine years of preparation and actually 14 months of filming.

Following production is post production, which includes editing the footage, shaping the story, and adding sound and visuals. Sciutto explained that editing is where the documentary comes together. Hearing this made it clear how much responsibility filmmakers have when deciding how real people are portrayed.

The final step Sciutto shared was distribution, which involved deciding how and where to share the documentary. She discussed submitting films to Imax, streaming platforms, and promoting the project.

Scuitto is also known for her most recent work as the tailor in Sin City, a role that allowed her to work closely with the people behind the scenes to help bring the film to life. The documentary was about a celebrity movie tailor in Las Vegas that was also a cocaine dealer. Scuitto had met him, and decided to write a documentary about him. She explained that working in film often depends on collaboration and trust, especially when projects are based on real experiences. She mentioned that she had to do a lot of research, to make sure that the people she was interviewing were saying the true things. 

Throughout the workshop, Sciutto encouraged students to pursue their creative ideas and not to be intimidated by the filmmaking process, even adding that making a documentary is not hard and if you have a good idea you can even upload it to YouTube. I love how Scuitto made documentary production feel accessible and achievable, inspiring people to turn their ideas into stories.