shooting docs. vs news

[videohead]

While all the things I learned in news have been helping me shoot my first documentary, there are certain elements that I am now changing and reaxamining and I would greatly welcome any advice on shooting for a documentary. Firstly, I don't think I was an ahole or anything, but I always viewed excellent shooting as the closer the better. In news this worked because I was quickly in and then out, but now when I'm spending days on end with people, I feel my desire, at certain times, for a true close-up will kill the moment. Also, I almost never used servo zoom in news, but now, while not using it for effect, am using it to go from wide to close, while rolling just so I don't miss something of importance. Basically while still trying to sequence, I'm also making sure I don't lose something in the process. Anyway, this is probably stuff I would have learned with a few more years in news, but I was wandering if anybody had any more advice on shooting long form pieces where going in quick for a true close-up could immediateley kill the intimacy of the situation unfolding.

[Hiding Under Here]

In the long form, you have to shoot for content first. And, before you can do that, you have to have a reasonable understanding of what the story is all about. So, the first thing that happens with documentary or magazine show shooting is you talk. You talk to the producer and ask them to tell you about their story. Before you shoot each day or at each location you talk again. Why are we here? How does this relate to the story? And you keep on talking and talking until the story is inside you to some extent.

The next thing you do, after you talk, is meet your subjects. Nice to meet you. Let's take a look around. What will you be doing? What will we be shooting? Is this a major element? Or does something bigger and more important await?

At a certain point in time you stop talking. Now you become the oberver. You've introduced yourself. You've let them see the camera. Maybe they've even held it to see how heavy it is. You've made them comfortable with you because you found a way to connect with them and to lower their resistance to being photographed close up, right in their face if you have to.

So you've stopped talking. The events are unfolding and there you are with your camera. I presume you are working handheld because so much documentary work is done handheld. The tripod stuff is relatively routine. The camera is on your shoulder and you are following the action. You are narrowing in on what is important and you are selecting out what isn't. You're shooting relatively (most likely completely) wide. You move your body to get closer. Sometimes you zoom. You anticipate cut shots -- let's say they are putting water into a coffee pitcher at the sink. You get it wide with their face and body in the shot. If you're fast and they're slow, you quickly snap off a close-up down at faucet level. Now you have created a cut. It's possible that you may be able to ask them to repeat that action specificially to get the cut. But you rarely ask for those things. You anticipate them and you create sequences by thinking ahead.

When you shoot off the shoulder in longer form, you are looking for moments. You are hopng that some action happens that directly relates to the story you are shooting and you anticipate how that action will develop and when it does you have placed yourself in the best spot to capture it. You NEED sequences. You need to find them and build them. But you also need to hold your shots. Content is most important. Sequences are secondary but still important.

Here's an example. I shot a woman at LAX who had had her legs amputated above the knee. She had been videotaping her recovery from the moment she woke up in the hospital. She's at the airport and her mother is arriving on a plane from Ohio. The mother was at the young woman's bedside while she recovered. But she has returned home and not seen her daughter for months. Now her daughter has new prosthetic legs and she is standing erect at her "normal" height for the first time since her accident. It will be an emotional moment in a crowded airport terminal.

There's a problem. I don't know what the mother looks like. How will we know her when she arrives in time to shoot her first reaction?

The young woman has a friend. We send her friend down the little exitway that leads from the aircraft. She knows the mother. When the mother gets off, the young woman will walk next to her signaling me that the mother is there by simply being next to her.

People start to deplane. I see the friend. There's the mom. We have been rolling since the first passenger walks by (so new tape, new battery). I shoot the mom and get her reaction and follow it until she hugs her daughter. The camera gently moves around them as they hug, very very close. The mom stands back and the daughter starts to walk to show off her new legs. The mom reacts and cries. We have "the moment". Sequence time. I shoot a close up of the young woman's feet from ankle level. She takes a few steps. Camera on the shoulder again. Mom and daughter hug and begin to walk away. I know that if I let them go the swell of people in the airport will eventually swarm the front of the camera and cause them to disappear. I stand still and let them walk away. The crowd covers them. They are gone. End of sequence.

You have to know why you are there. You have to create images that support the story. You need to look for moments that are important. You must anticipate how those moments will occur and be in the right spot when they do. That's "content". After you have that -- or concurrently as you are getting that -- you build your sequences with cut aways and close ups. If you have to wonder about a tight shot, it isn't the right time. And keep in mind, a very wide shot giving perspective will oftimes get the job done. Close ups are hard to come by when you are shooting human activity hand held. Very hard.

[Matt Box]

great post tom! That is the kind of thing most people dont realize about us operators...... We are thinking all the time! This is also the kind of thing that most executives dont seem to understand when they are thinking about the OMB VJ thing.

BTW..... Tom I was just in your neck of the woods.... a quick trip to see Roger Macie... Ive never used Roger before and can say that my Camera has never looked better.... If I had been able to stay longer I was thinking of trying to meet up with you to talk shop and such. Anyway if Im ever in Boston for any lenght of time Id love to buy you a few beers.

[Lensmith]

I think part of the problem for some is they forget what documentaries are all about.

It's not about the "shooting". It's about capturing reality as it happens.

That means not getting caught up in "the sequence". Sequences are still important but not as important as the original goal of "reality".

Most long time doc shooters I've run into don't use servo zoom. They snap in and out in manual if need be.

Again, I'm not saying you don't ever shoot sequences but you have to keep your priorities straight. Tight shots work well for a minute thirty piece where you have little time to offer information and want to grab attention. Shooting lots of tight stuff for long form projects gets old fast for the viewer and can sometimes lead them to wonder if you are really showing them what happened or creating a reality that didn't exist with flashy edits and over sequenced video.

Just my thoughts....