Filming
INTINERARIO
2
The shooting is a milestone in which the effort made during the development, writing and pre-production of the film is concretized. Working with reality, filming in documentary cinema is particular, often unpredictable and difficult to plan, even long-lasting or dispersed in time. It is therefore essential to reflect on the strategies that allow to capture the reality sought/dreamed, both from the point of view of the direction/production and from the point of view of the photography, camera and direct sound equipment. At this stage, the type of tools, techniques or materials used necessarily mark the planning, the staging, the light or the sound universe of the film.
- address
- director of photography
- sound
When it comes to filming, each reality can be approached from a different strategy. And each film can approach reality in a more or less literal way. The filmmaker’s preparation for the shooting, including planning, staging or possible interviews, may be exhaustive or flexible, calculated or leaving an almost unavoidable margin for improvisation. Thinking about the shooting from the director’s point of view is not simply an individual exercise, but always involves a continuous conversation with the team, which will turn the film into a collective exercise.
The Encounter with the Idea
- How do you recognize that an idea is powerful?
- What makes it suitable to become a film?
- What makes it unique and valuable?
Filming the Unexpected: Strategies
- How do you approach the shooting of your film? How important is the team around you? How do you usually film, and what strategies do you use in your documentary practice?
- How do you film action?
- How do you approach dialogues, conversations, or interviews?
- How do you film the unexpected or something unforeseen?
- Can you provide examples from your documentary practice?
Fictionalizing Reality: Strategies
- How much planning and/or staging is involved in what you film?
- Do you combine capturing the unexpected with an idea of fictionalization?
- How do you fictionalize to creatively represent reality?
- Can you give an example or case of the fiction strategies you use?
From Person to Character: Staging
- How do you portray a character(s) with the camera?
- How do you define their spaces cinematographically?
- How much room for intervention do you allow the people appearing in your films?
The design of photography in documentary filmmaking is sometimes conditioned by the unpredictability of working with reality. Capturing the image requires proposing a practice that is coherent with the film we want to make. The work of the cinematographer and camera operator involves making a series of decisions prior to shooting, both aesthetic and technical, that are in line with this, formally enhance the film and, perhaps, discover new unforeseen paths in previous phases.
Writing with Light: Camera and Cinematography
- How do you work with light in your films?
- How do you collaborate with the cinematographer or director when planning the shoot?
- Can you describe some examples from your filmmaking practice?
Technological Dimension
- How do you make decisions regarding the tools, techniques, and materials used—cameras, lenses, lighting, etc.—that shape our relationship with reality?
- Can you provide examples from your filmmaking practice?
The sound design of a documentary film must be suggested from the first stages of writing, supported in some way by the script. The multiple aesthetic possibilities of sound -music, sound ambience, words or silence- expressively enrich the work. But like the rest of the technical contributions in the cinema of reality, the shooting is above all a space for creation and discovery.
Writing with Light: Camera and Cinematography
- How do you work with light in your films?
- How do you collaborate with the cinematographer or director when planning the shoot?
- Can you describe some examples from your filmmaking practice?
Technological Dimension
- How do you make decisions regarding the tools, techniques, and materials used—cameras, lenses, lighting, etc.—that shape our relationship with reality?
- Can you provide examples from your filmmaking practice?
