All you need to know about documentary making

Documentary filmmakers will benefit from having Professor Emeritus John Hewitt’s new book with them from the idea stage to production, editing and distribution.

“Documentary Filmmaking: A Contemporary Field Guide” (Oxford University Press), written with Gustavo Vasquez, is a skills-oriented, step-by-step portable guide intended for students. The book features documentary recommendations for the film buff; illustrations and examples from working documentary makers, producers, editors and distributors; trends in Internet video and other forms of new media; and financial tips, fundraising ideas and legal considerations.

Hewitt, who taught in the Broadcast and Electronic Communications Department from 1974 to 2007, is a lauded documentary producer, with credits on Bay Area affiliate stations and PBS with “Landmines of the Heart” and “Jarvis Gann: Will It Pay Off?” His documentaries have screened at film festivals in Chicago, Texas and California, and he won a Northern California Emmy. His other textbooks are “Air Words: Writing for Broadcast News” and “Sequences: Strategies for Shooting News in the Real World.” Before joining SF State, Hewitt was a newspaper reporter and editor, broadcast news producer, executive producer and television reporter.