13 articles
A beautiful place isn't a story. A story is a person and a change; everything else is execution. Six articles on finding a story worth travelling to, filming it on your own, and coming back with a film rather than an archive.
Before you travel — Finding a story worth filming · What to know before you arrive
On the ground — The local fixer · Filming alone in a country you don't know · Interviewing across a language
After you're back — Four hundred clips and no film
He had a city permit, raised the camera inside the shrine, and a man stopped him politely. A permit does not replace the place's own permission. Three circles of permission, four questions before you raise the camera, and what you never publish even once filmed.
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He got off the plane and started filming in the first hour. By day four he was worn out and his cards were full. On day six the real scene happened, and he had neither energy nor space left. A seven-day schedule that protects the best of the trip.
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He wrote narration covering the film from start to finish, and ended up with a film that explains what your eye can see. Four jobs narration does, five places it must stay silent, and why you write it onto the picture rather than before it.
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He said hello and raised the camera in the second minute, and the answers came back three words long. He returned the next day with no camera and drank tea for an hour, and on the third day the man talked for forty minutes.
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He flew four thousand kilometres to film one man, and found the house shut and the phone ringing out. How to tell whether your film rests on a single point, four backup plans to write before you leave, and what to do in the first three hours.
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He walked into the market at its busiest hour and came out half an hour later with twenty minutes of shaky footage and two questions he never answered. Why the crowd is not the problem, three positions to film from, and what to say when someone asks.
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He flew nine hours, and at the first location they asked for the permit. Four kinds of permission people confuse, five steps before you travel, a request template, and what to do if you are stopped.
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You reached the place you travelled for, raised the camera, and a small red screen lit up: battery empty. What you actually carry, why power is the real problem, and what you can't film alone.
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You came back with four hundred clips, sat in front of the editor for two hours, and closed it. Why the editor can't solve this, and how to write your film on paper before you open it.
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The man talked for two full minutes, then the translator turned to you and said: "he says life is hard." A translator chooses what reaches you, so how do you make them a partner?
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You read about the place for a week, then arrived to find half of it outdated and the other half unnecessary. The five things worth knowing before you travel, and one page that holds them.
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Three days of your week vanished into simple questions, then a man said one sentence and everything opened. Who the local fixer is, four routes to finding one, and how to test them first.
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