Lately I've been working on a script for a High Noon remake which would swap the old west for Carleton College and the town marshal for an Intramural team captain. If you've ever played intramural sports at some point in your college career, you can probably already start to see why these two seemingly irrelevant situations are in fact, very similar. Both involve desperate protagonists who turn to their neighbors for help in the face of a definite, clear cut conflict. When I was assigned to make a short documentary for my non-fiction video production class, I decided I'd try and see what that story would be like with real people.
The good news is that I picked a good time to film the event. This particular game was the first of the season, making everybody on the floor especially reluctant and squirmish. Great documentary material. The bad news is that I ended up completely undershooting. For a piece that was supposed to be 4-6 minutes at the final cut, I sadly put down the camera after shooting only a little over 8 minutes. At minimum, this means I had about a 2:1 shooting ratio, which is even less than what most narrative films end up with. To have that little amount to work with while producing a documentary is like shooting yourself in the foot.
The result, as you will see, is a rather aggressively edited product that ultimately feels a bit forced and contrived. I also learned that it's not a good idea to take part in the subject of your story. You might notice, for example, that there is no soccer game. This is because I was playing in it. Of course, I told myself I'd shoot some B-roll while I was taking a break on the sideline, but yeah, that didn't happen. We were a man down most of the game and I was having too much fun.
As I sat in the media lab the next day cursing myself for not even getting ONE shot of the climax of my story, I realized I was going to have to edit more like a reality show than a traditional documentary to keep people interested and engaged. I like to think of the finished product as more of an impressionist painting than a photorealistic one. While you might not learn the hard facts as to who the characters are and where they are, you should at least find satisfaction as a fly on the wall of an interesting room.
IM Legend from Alexander Cooney on Vimeo.
Muy bien. Cuantos goles con la mano de Dios?
Posted by: Diego Maradona | April 27, 2008 at 03:26 PM
Lo siento, Diego. No se como se hace alli en Las Pampas, pero aqui en Los Estados Unidos se juegue con dignidad.
Locos Argentinos...
Posted by: Alexander | April 28, 2008 at 06:19 AM