Why the Boring Work Is the Most Important Work

Why the Boring Work Is the Most Important Work

Documentary First: The Deep Dive · built from Episode 277 with Teddy Cannon · 9 minutes · May 14, 2026

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Why does the boring work have to come first?

In this Deep Dive on Documentary First Episode 277 with Teddy Cannon, Christian starts with the film business. Teddy is an ARC producer, an Archival Rights and Clearance Producer, and his message to filmmakers was to bring clearance in at the top, in pre-production, before a second of footage is shot. His example: a team that had already locked a nine-episode series, then learned that about 30 seconds of one Jackson 5 song in the first episode would cost $50,000 to $70,000 to license.

In the days after that conversation, Christian realized Teddy's advice applies well beyond film. She follows it through the contractor who skips permits, the surgeon and the pilot who skip their checklists, the AI companies now paying for training on work they didn't have the right to use, and the parable in Luke 14 about counting the cost before you build a tower. Then she comes home to her father.

Closer to home, Christian has been the primary caregiver for her father for five years. He never made a plan for this part of his life, so she has made those decisions for him. She calls caring for him an honor, and she uses his story to show why the planning nobody wants to do protects the people who come after.

In this Deep Dive, Christian explores

  • What an ARC producer does: tracking down third-party footage, music, photos and documents and getting the legal permission to use them
  • Why ARC producers are so often brought in at the end, when filmmakers are scrambling to finish a Rights Bible for Errors & Omissions insurance
  • How 30 seconds of a Jackson 5 song in a locked nine-episode series came to a licensing estimate of $50,000 to $70,000
  • Why Teddy wants clearance in pre-production, and what budgeting for it across the whole production protects you from
  • What a contractor without permits, a surgeon without a pre-op checklist and a pilot without a preflight check have in common with filmmakers
  • Why Christian sees the AI copyright lawsuits as the same mistake at a different scale: build first, clear the rights later
  • What the parable in Luke 14:28-30 says about estimating the cost before you lay a foundation
  • What Christian has learned as her father's caregiver about the plan he never made
  • The hard things Christian says to do first: the will, the estate plan, the hard conversation, the ARC producer in pre-production

Questions and answers

What does an ARC producer do?

An ARC producer, or Archival Rights and Clearance Producer, tracks down third-party assets for a film, such as footage, music, photos and documents, and gets the legal permission to use them. Christian Taylor explains that the job has traditionally sat at the bottom of the post-production ladder. In independent film, ARC producers are often brought in after the film is finished, when filmmakers are scrambling to complete the Rights Bible for the Errors & Omissions insurance every film needs for distribution.

Why can one music clip cost $70,000 to license?

ARC producer Teddy Cannon told Christian Taylor about a nine-episode, for-profit learning series that came to him already cut and locked. The first episode used about 30 seconds of a Jackson 5 performance, with the music running over the video and continuing after the cut, so there were several layers of licensing. Music is very difficult to fair use, and the series did not qualify. Teddy estimated $50,000 to $70,000 for that one clip. "I'm sure for them, it was a jaw-dropping moment," he says.

When should a documentary bring in a clearance producer?

At the start. Teddy Cannon's advice to filmmakers is "Bring us on at the top," meaning in pre-production, before any footage is shot. Christian Taylor acknowledges that this means budgeting for an ARC producer across the life of the production. In return, she says, you are protected from going over budget at the end, and from the worst outcome, losing the project altogether. Bringing one in after the film is locked is expensive, complicated and sometimes project ending.

What does Luke 14:28-30 say about counting the cost?

In Luke 14:28-30, Jesus asks who would build a tower without first sitting down to estimate the cost, since a builder who lays the foundation and can't finish will be ridiculed. Christian Taylor connects it to filmmakers who cut the film and pick the music, then discover they can't afford to license it. "Counting the cost is really not about money. It's about asking the hard questions before you get locked in," she says.

What can filmmakers learn from the AI copyright lawsuits?

Christian Taylor sees the same mistake many filmmakers make. Anthropic settled a class action for $1.5 billion over training its AI on books it didn't have the right to use. The Authors Guild describes the September 2025 settlement in Bartz v. Anthropic as the largest copyright settlement in US history. Christian also points to the New York Times suit against OpenAI and music companies suing over song lyrics. "They built first. They tried to clear the rights later," she says.

Why is estate planning like clearing rights for a film?

Christian Taylor is the primary caregiver for her father, who has Alzheimer's disease and never made a will or a plan for his care. For five years she has had to make those decisions for him. She says he did what unwise filmmakers do: he skipped the boring work at the top. Her advice, as much for herself as anyone: "Plan ahead. Count the cost. Do the hard things first." That means the will, the estate plan and the hard conversation.

Chapters

  • 0:00 The 2,000-Year-Old Lesson
  • 0:15 Intro: Bringing Gold to the Surface
  • 0:41 What Is an ARC Producer?
  • 1:35 The Jackson 5 Sticker Shock
  • 2:12 The "Boring Person" at the Top
  • 3:04 From Surgeons to Pilots: Skipping the Checklist
  • 3:42 AI Companies and the Billion Dollar Mistake
  • 4:26 The Parable of the Tower
  • 5:06 Counting the Cost
  • 5:55 A Personal Deep Dive: Caregiving and Planning
  • 7:20 Being the "Editor" of a Life
  • 7:37 Final Thought: Look Anyway
  • 8:09 Final Ask: One Share

About the topic

Archival rights and clearance is the work of making sure a film has the legal right to every piece of footage, music, photo and document it uses. Every film needs Errors & Omissions insurance to secure distribution, and that insurance depends on the paperwork. In Episode 277, Teddy Cannon explained why he wants that work to start in the pre-production meeting, not after the edit is locked.

Christian describes her father with love: he built things, provided, gave freely, worked hard and loved deeply. He lived in the here and now and didn't write down what he wanted to happen when he was no longer here to make it happen. "This work gets skipped because it asks people to look at things they'd rather not look at," she says. "The end of a budget. The end of a project. The end of a life." She asks listeners to send the episode to one person: a filmmaker making a first film, or a friend who keeps meaning to write a will.

About Teddy Cannon

Teddy Cannon is an ARC producer and the founder of Crux Entertainment. In Episode 277 he talked with Christian about who owns the footage in a film, how fair use works, what an ARC producer costs, and ArcWorks, clearance software from 3P Sync.

The source episode

Why Does One Documentary Clip Cost $70,000?, Documentary First Episode 277 with Teddy Cannon, ARC producer and founder of Crux Entertainment. Read the episode page: Why Does One Documentary Clip Cost $70,000?.

About Documentary First

Documentary First is a weekly podcast about the people behind documentaries and how the work changed them. Host Christian Taylor, director of the award-winning The Girl Who Wore Freedom, talks with filmmakers, distributors, entertainment lawyers, actors and more, from Ken Burns and PBS American Masters creator Susan Lacy to first-timers, across more than 290 episodes. Each week brings one of two formats: a long-form conversation with the people behind films for HBO, Netflix, PBS and independent film, or The Deep Dive, where Christian takes one insight from a recent conversation and follows it wherever it leads. Listen Notes ranks the show in the top 5% of all podcasts worldwide. New episodes every week. Follow the show · About the podcast · Support the show on Patreon

Resources mentioned

Full transcript

Read the full transcript of Why the Boring Work Is the Most Important Work

0:00
However, the oldest version of this lesson was taught over 2,000 years ago. In Luke 14, verses 28 through 30 in the Bible, Jesus shared a parable and it goes like this. This is Documentary First: The Deep Dive, where I take an insight from a recent podcast conversation, plumb it's depths and see what gold we can bring to the surface. I'm Christian Taylor. Let's dive in. Last week on the podcast, I sat down with Teddy Cannon. Teddy is an archival rights and clearance Producer in the film industry. It's also known as an ARC Producer Now you might be asking yourself what the heck is an ARC Producer and why should I care? Those are two very good questions, my friend, and I have the answers. So buckle up. An ARC Producer is the person who tracks down third party assets for a film, things like footage, music, photos, and documents and then he gets, he or she, gets the legal permission to use them. But here's the thing. Their job has traditionally been at the bottom end of the production ladder and at the post- production ladder at that. Often, especially an independent film, they're brought in when the film is already finished and filmmakers are scrambling to complete their "Rights Bible" for Errors & Omissions insurance.

1:20
That's insurance that every film has to have to secure distribution. And by that time, adding an ARC Producer to solve the problem is going to be expensive. It's going to be complicated. And sometimes it can be project ending. Now, when I talked to Teddy last week, he had a fantastic example of this to share. A team had come to him with a nine-episode learning series already cut, already locked, filled with music video footage of famous artists, and one of them was the Jackson 5. In just one instance, the filmmakers used about 30 seconds of a Jackson 5 song in the first episode. After a bit of research, Teddy discovered it would cost about $50,000 to $70,000 to license - for ONE clip. in ONE episode out of nine. The number, in his words, was a jaw-dropping moment for the filmmakers. But the number isn't actually what I want to talk about today. What I want to talk about is the point that Teddy was trying to make, bringing ARC Producers in at the top. In pre-production. Before a second of footage is shot. And yes, that does mean you have to budget for an ARC Producer across the life of your production, but it also means that you would be protected from going over budget at the end, worst of all, losing your project altogether, In the days after our conversation, as I kept thinking about what Teddy said, it dawned on me.

2:41
What he was advocating for in film production isn't just good advice for film production. It's good advice for life. Trying to get around the rules, cost cutting so you can save money somewhere else, not paying attention to the details of a project, those problems aren't unique to filmmaking. They show up in every part of our lives. Think about it, a contractor begins renovating a home without pulling permits because he wants to save money and win the job. But then a city inspector just happens to drive by and see the work. Suddenly, not only is everything more expensive, but his relationship with the homeowner is also ruined. Or a surgeon skips the pre-op checklist because she's in a hurry and she operates on the wrong knee. The patient pays for it and her career pays for it as well. a pilot skips the preflight checklist because he's flown the route a thousand times and he misses a warning light. Everyone on board pays for it. And right now, the biggest AI companies on earth are paying the most expensive version of this lesson. Anthropic just settled a class action for one and a half billion dollars because they trained their AI on books they didn't have the right to use. The New York Times is suing OpenAI for billions more, and the major music companies are suing AI companies for scraping song lyrics.

4:04
These are the smartest engineers in the world, and they made the same mistakes many filmmakers have. They built first. They tried to clear the rights later and they're paying for it. Same problem, just a different scale. However, the oldest version of this lesson was taught over 2,000 years ago. In Luke 14 verses 28 through 30 in the Bible, Jesus shared a parable and it goes like this. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have money enough to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and aren't able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you saying this person began to build and wasn't able to finish it. From Damascus to documentaries, the problem is the same. The filmmakers laid the foundation, they cut the film, they picked the music, they built the tower. And then... They ran into the cost of licensing and they discovered they couldn't finish the film. Counting the cost is really not about money. It's about asking the hard questions before you get locked in. A Galilean carpenter and a veteran ARC Producer separated by 2000 years are saying the same thing.

5:20
Estimate the cost. Estimate the cost of what it's going to take to finish. Because if you can't finish, the right move is not to start in the first place, or at least... not in the way you intended. The right move is to start in a way where you actually can finish. So that's the filmmaker lesson. But this lesson doesn't stop with filmmaking. The same wisdom that protects a film from collapsing also protects a marriage, a business, an inheritance, a family. And unfortunately, I have a little experience here too. My father has Alzheimer's disease and I'm his primary caregiver. And though his father had this disease, he didn't make a plan for what would happen when his turn came. He didn't save money and he didn't decide a course of action. He didn't make a will. He didn't decide even where he wanted to live. So I've had to make those hard decisions. I've had to be the bad guy a lot of times. I felt like I've been paying the price because he didn't take the time to get his affairs in order when he should have. But my father's not a bad guy. He's a man I love to death, a man with weaknesses and imperfections just like the rest of us, just like me, actually, to be honest.

6:36
I'm a lot like him. And caring for my dad these last five years has been an honor, actually, and an effective school of reform. My dad built things he provided. He gave freely, he worked hard, he loved deeply, made a lot of money. He also spent a lot of money because he lived in the here and now. It's not that he was unloving. It's not that he didn't care for his children. He just didn't prepare for the future. He didn't count the cost. He didn't write down what he wanted to happen when he was no longer here to make it happen. He did what unwise filmmakers do. He didn't bring the boring person in at the top, as Teddy called himself last week. So now I'm the editor. I'm the one figuring it out. what to clear, what to drop, and what just can't be saved. I love my dad. And I'm still, all this time later, five years and counting, cleaning up the part of his life that didn't have a plan attached to it. So here's what I want to say. And I'm saying it as much for me as I am for you. Plan ahead. Count the cost. Do the hard things first. the will, the estate plan, the hard conversation, the ARC Producer in pre-production.

7:54
This work gets skipped because it asks people to look at things they'd rather not look at. The end of a budget, the end of a project, the end of a life. The wise ones look anyway. If you found this podcast helpful, please text it to one person. The filmmaker making their first film, the friend who keeps meaning to write the will and hasn't. One share. That's the ask. Hit follow or subscribe wherever you're listening so you don't miss what comes next. And if you want to go deeper with us, join our Patreon community. All the details are in the show notes below. Oh, and if you're listening on Spotify, scroll down in the episode page. There's a quick poll below and we'd love to have you weigh in. All right. That's it for me today. I'm Christian. This has been Documentary First, the Deep Dive. I'll see you next time.

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