One-man-band doc. on Swiss Public TV
 

"Joe's Winchester", my latest 30' doc., has just been aired by Swiss Public TV
(Italian-speaking branch). Shot with a Canon XH-A1 in one-man-band mode and
edited on a vintage Pentium4+DVRaptor+Premiere6.5 suite.

Best thing about it, IMHO?
Timing: it was aired one or two days after the Sarah Palin acceptance speech.
Given that the doc. is an "introduction to American Redneckism for European audiences", well... you see what I mean.
(see Joe Bageant or
RTSI - Falò
but of course it's in Italian)

Vasco

A lovely film Vasco.
Congratulations for selling it to RTSI.
As you say the timing was impeccable.
I don't speak Italian but after watching ten minutes of the film I was starting to feel like I do.
Some excellent camerawork. Nice to see a film about ordinary working people.

some questions
 

hi,

very nice doc.
I am planning to do my first doc myself too.
can you tell me wich lavs and other sound equipment you used? did you experience some technical or other probs?
how much time/footage you spend on this doc? did you had a well writen scenario?
thanks a lot for sharing this..
grtz
niels

Richard,
thank you!
I actually didn't have to "sell" it:
we agreed on the project last year,
and so they basically "commissioned" it.

Niels,

a) sound: a Rode NTG-2, two wired lavs (AT & Sony), a wireless lav
(Sennheiser). That's it.
b) script: no. Since it was based on Joe Bageant's book,
that was my "script", so-to-speak. Then it all depended on the people's
willingness to talk and to tell me their stories (and
let me add that, for a documentary filmmaker,
America is paradise: once you've gained their trust, people talk freely and very openly).
c) time: eight or nine days of shooting; way too many days screening and editing
(many more than the TV station was willing to pay for, but that's irrelevant. Or isn't it?)
d) footage: 15 60' tapes + some archive footage from the Prelinger archives
(may I use this opportunity to thank Rick Prelinger for his wonderful, online archives?
A wealth of great footage that can be found under www.archives.org )
e) technical problems: not really; the BIG problem is the one-man-band mode:
it's not a modus operandi that I would recommend. A two-men crew would be perfect, but budget constraints (RTSI is a very small public TV) force me to work this way.
Take it or leave it...

Feel free to ask more.
Best

Vasco
PS: Niels, if you want to check out a couple of other
docs I shot for Swiss TV
(in the same one-man-band mode), here are a few links:
RTSI - Storie
RTSI - Falò
RTSI - Falò (click under "2a parte": it's buried in there...)

Excellent, Vasco -- congrats on a fine movie!

Thank you, Stefan!

Vasco