Traveling light: A manifesto

The shoot at the New York Public Library, using the "commmuter kit." That's a library PR rep to the left. I seated her as a sight line for the interviewee, and I sat in the chair next to the camera to monitor focus and sound.

As I’ve been working on my current projects, I’ve been running into the same problem, over and over: It’s the problem with the word “documentary.”
Or, more specifically, what people think of when you’re trying to set up a shoot and they hear the word.
A library I wanted to shoot said they charge $200 an hour for filming.
Another location, an ad agency, said that they’d have to arrange for freight elevators for us to bring our equipment up.
Another ad agency wanted proof of insurance.
A subject I asked to interview worried that the circuit breakers in his house would trip when we got the lighting on.
Then I actually show up. Usually just me, sometimes with my co-producer, if he can get time off his full-time job. Usually a small cart of equipment; sometimes stuff I bring in from the trunk of my car.
Then I get the next reaction: This must not be a “real” documentary.
Even when the Maysles brothers were running and gunning with a 16mm camera and an audio tape deck – 40 years ago ­– and even these days when light-and-mobile filmmakers such as Gary Hustwit and the inimitable Ken Burns and Werner Herzog are doing great work with small equipment packages and two-person shooting, it can be amazing to watch a documentary and then watch the credits at the end list a crew so big it seems crazy, especially if your revenue on a documentary is actually supposed to pay all those people.
So we’ve been more interested here at DocumentaryTech at those minimalists.
In an interview with ID magazine, Hustwit talked about when he was making his first documentary, Helvetica, with DP Luke Geissbuhler.

In London we shot this car wash that had Helvetica all over the place. A couple of guys came out, really pissed because they thought we were filming all their illegal workers. But Luke Geissbuhler, our director of photography, had just finished working on Borat, and after six months with Sasha Baron Cohen, shooting letters on a wall was no big deal. During Helvetica he was also nearly run over a couple of times, because we often shot in the middle of the street. Who knew Helvetica could get you killed?

Matthew Clift shot the documentary Cinderella Children in Uganda alone, and said this:

I once read that if you try to do more than one job in the production process, something will suffer. Although there is no doubt there are many benefits to having a large crew, with today’s equipment, it is more than possible for one person with a limited budget to produce a high quality feature length doco. Before you embark to complete a one-man crew production I will stress though the importance of practice. This is essential as there is a bit of an art to be learnt in simultaneously monitoring audio, checking luminance and ensuring the shot looks aesthetically good at the same time. I have made many mistakes in the past (primarily with audio as it seems to be for many filmmakers too), so you need to know how to get things right first time as often with docos there are no ‘take twos’.

I was recently interviewing a well-known writer in his Upper West Side apartment; when I came through the door he looked and said, “That’s it?” He’d been overrun last year by a crew shooting his apartment for a design segment. “They were here seven hours. They moved all my furniture and brought in all these lights, and spent most of the time standing around talking to each other. They yelled at my dog. And the final segment they put on television was just a few minutes long…”
Goodbye spontaneity and goodwill; goodbye one-on-one conversation. The way the man told the story, by the time they were all set up and ready to interview him, he just wanted them to go away.

My "Commuter Kit"

After my interview with him, up at Central Park West, I headed on to the New York Public Library. The cart I bring into New York City (pictured here) is my lightest set-up. I drive to a suburban train station, take commuter rail into Grand Central Station, and then take a cab to where I’m interviewing. The kit fits nicely into the trunk of any vehicle.
For me, who does interview-based documentaries, that small kit has helped me get interviews quickly, at low cost, and without the need for freight elevators, fees and blown circuits. I assembled the kit after speaking with people such as NBC News’s backpack journalist Mara Schiavocampo, Pulitzer-Prize-winning still shoot-turned-filmmaker David Leeson, and others. Here at Documentarytech, Kurt Lancaster has posted interviews with filmmakers such as Danfung Dennis, who is shooting in Afghanistan with super-light setups.
Based on that (and budget), here’s what I’ve got:

1) A photo backpack, which contains:
- A Sony PMW-EX1 camcorder. I remove the lens shade and cover the glass with a 77mm skylight filter so it fits in the main case. I don’t have a field monitor, but use peaking function and a loupe to check focus.
- A Sony ECM-66 lavalier microphone.

- A small backup camera in case the EX1 has problems. I’ve carried a Canon HV20 or a DSLR; never had to use them, but happy they squeeze in the case if there’s a disaster.
- A Rode NTG-2 shotgun microphone I can put on the camcorder or lay as a second microphone on a desktop off camera, just to get backup audio in case of clothing rub, poppedP’s, or other problems that come with lavaliers.
- Gaffer tape, a polarizing filter, a Shooter’s Blue white-balance card (I use the green side to give warmth to the subject) and a focus chart.
- A power strip, two 12-foot XLR cables and extra batteries.
2) A hard case, containing:
- A Flolight LED500 light, my workhorse. It’s small (14″ by 8″), bright, doesn’t burn out and takes a beating.
- A 3-in-1 round reflector, which I can set in a chair or elsewhere to kick back some light on the fill side.
3) A tripod case, containing:
- A Libec TH-650 tripod with ball head, which is light and strong enough when using the EX1. I also bought an extra mounting plate, which I have on the bottom of the backup camcorder for easy switches if needed.
- A light stand. The LED500 only weighs 5 pounds so this light stand is the lightest one I can find.
- Sometimes a second light stand with a microphone mount.

Here's a shot using the commuter kit, of the man who published "Harry Potter" in the U.S. The Wall mural made for a good background and was well-lit by ceiling lights

That’s the “commuting kit.” When shooting in New York, I generally try to frame tightly and get the basic shots. When I can arrive in a car, I can add equipment.

When I can drive, I use a larger camera setup, heavier tripod, and more lights, the big Flolight being visible here

My “car kit” includes:

1) A Large Pelican case, which includes:
- The EX1 coupled with a Letus Elite adapter
- A set of four Nikon lenses: 17-35, 50, 85 and a 35-80 macro
- The lavalier and shotgun microphones and cords
- AC adapter, various filters for the Nikon lenses
2) A smaller case, which includes:
- The LED500, the reflector, plus two small fresnel lights for lighting background
3) A soft case contain the larger Flolight FL-220, with four daylight-balanced fluoresecent bulbs
4) A heavier Manfrotto tripod with fluid head that’s able to handle the weight of the camera rig.
5) A case with four lightstands (two lightweight and two mediumweight), one microphone stand for mounting the shotgun above the subject’s head

The rig here uses an EX1, Letus Elite and Nikon lenses

Even there, it’s still a fairly light setup.
The benefits of this are obvious – you can set up quickly, create a somewhat intimate setting, and take up very little space and power. The downside is that you sacrifice perfection that might come from more lights, a heavier camera rig, a beefier tripod and other add-ons. I really try to get “value” footage when I go on shoots in the car; when I’m using the commuter kit I’ll have to keep things simpler, and try to find useful backgrounds.

It also goes toward the business model. By shooting alone, I save travel costs; by using a small setup, the productions costs stay low enough to actually consider making money on the project.

Hustwit, in a post-screening interview at Toronto, spoke of the “credit card budget” his film “Objectified” used, but also noted “hundred of people worked on it.” But the key, one presumes, is that by covering the bulk of the tasks, Hustwit was able to engage those others on a limited, low-cost way.

In fact, the Q&A revealed that “Hustwit says he is learning from Geissbuhler, as he hadn’t done any filming before Helvetica, and Hustwit ended up shooting about 30 percent of Objectified himself.”

It seems, with the further shrinking of the gear, that it’s a way to go.