Ep. 63 Overcoming problems in documentary production: Troubleshooting tips! Part 2

Documentary production is an exciting time, but it's also full of daunting obstacles that need to be managed. 

In this week's episode, we're talking through even more of the problems we've encountered as filmmakers and how we've dealt with them (or not!).

We're going to discuss:
-Faulty gear
-Nervous talent
-Losing locations
Just to name a few!

For MORE INFO check out our blog:
https://www.moonshinecommunicationsacademy.com/blog

You can also follow us on social via these links: 

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/MoonshineCommunicationsAcademy

INSTAGRAM:
https://www.instagram.com/moonshinecommunicationsacademy/

TWITTER:
https://twitter.com/MoonshineComms

LinkedIn Mike Hill 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikehillmoonshineagency/

LinkedIn Sue Collins 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sue-collins-moonshine-agency/

LinkedIn Company Page Moonshine Communications Academy  https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/moonshine-communications-academy

#filmproduction #location  #documentaryfilm

📩 Want to stay up to date with the latest? Head to www.thedocumentaryfilmmaker.com to join our weekly newsletter and get all resources to make you the best impact filmmaker in the business. 

Find & Follow The Documentary Filmmaker on social:
Website: www.thedocumentaryfilmmaker.com
Facebook:
Instagram: @TheDocumentaryFilmmakerPodcast
LinkedIn: Sue Collins [Host] || The Documentary Filmmaker [ Company Page]

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Guess what, movie makers? As much as we don't like to admit it, mistakes happen. And it's not the mistakes that count, it's the way you solve the problem that matters. And trust me, I have made plenty of mistakes and I have learned to solve a lot of problems. So that's why this podcast episode is going to cover even more of the trials and tribulations that I have worked through on production shoots. If you've missed part one of Troubleshooting Podcasts, then have a listen to episode 62. Just one back after you've listened in here, and there'll be loads more on how to troubleshoot for your filmmaking. Now, why am I the one to tell you all about this? Well, I am glad you asked. I am Sue Collins and I'm your host on the Moonshine Moonshot podcast on making movies that matter. And I'm part of the team behind Moonshine Agency, an impact film production house producing multi-award-winning films that have a positive social impact. Impact films are films that are designed to take an audience from passive viewing to being an active participant. It gets them doing something, getting involved, being part of a solution. And I've also recognised that learning how to craft films, well, it's challenging. And when I was just starting out, it was really hard to find information and learn about filmmaking without formal study or without being under the wing of a great mentor. So avoiding the pitfalls, being pigeonholed, running out of funding, or simply not understanding the business side of the industry has meant that over the years I have seen many people with a lot of talent give up or simply move on to more stable work. My hope is to see the industry thrive here in Australia and beyond. And I recognize that to do that, I've got to be way more open with my own skills sharing. So that's what I'm doing. I'm sharing more of what I've learned through many years of filmmaking in this podcast, The Moonshine Moonshot. And I'm also with online courses over at the Moonshine Communications Academy. So please make sure you check out the Academy, particularly the resource section, where you can access free downloads like check sheets and ebooks. And if you haven't come across them already, there are some great online courses available through the Academy, such as Define Your Ideal Audience, which helps you figure out who your project is best suited to well before you even roll camera, and that is gold for any marketer. Alright, let's get into this episode on troubleshooting. Have you ever been given the advice? Have you tried turning it off and on again? Look, it's possibly the most condescending advice you can receive, but it works, and it works for iPhones, laptops, and just about every piece of equipment I have ever used. Sometimes, believe it or not, simply turning it off, giving it a minute, and then turning it back on does work. Not always, but often it's enough. And it's really advice worth trying based on my personal experience. And I don't know why if it's gremlins and you just need to turn them off and stop giving them power so that they go away. And when you turn it on, it get works. I don't know. But it does work. So filming technology. Look, it has come a really long way from when I first started. I was laughing the other day because I was thinking about the tape stock that we used to record to from the camera. And I actually think it might only be like maybe not even 15 years since that technology was phased out. But honestly, it seems like the dark ages to be filming onto tape rather than onto cards. And although most gear is much easier and more reliable to use than it's ever been, every now and again it does fail. And the only foolproof way around this to stop your shoot being completely unraveled is to have spares. You know, carry extra batteries for your camera equipment, um, batteries for your lapel mics, whatever equipment you're using, make sure you've got backup batteries. And really have a backup option for just about anything that's crucial to your shoot day. And I know that can mean having a lot more gear that you don't use, but you've just got to have those redundancies. Now, of course, you need to be conscious of weight limits, especially if you are traveling overseas. So having a lot of backups isn't always practical. But anytime you can have a redundancy, as I said, have one. So before you travel, research if there's camera stores or video hire places in the location that you're headed to and check their opening times because that way you could potentially hire or purchase a backup option if something in your kit fails, because you know you've just got to have some way to resolve the problem and keep your shoot on track. And look, it's not ideal. But if you're heading overseas, then having that kind of contingency is going to be better than having to abandon a chute because your camera won't work for whatever reason. And I mean, even worse, your checked baggage just has gone missing. So you don't even know where your tripod is. Best solution, just make sure you've got some kind of backup plan in place. So it really is, it's that whole plan for the best, but prepare for the worst. And I'm not trying to be all doom and gloom because production filming is really fun. But this is about troubleshooting, so that's why I'm telling you terrible stories. And you know, maybe you can learn from these stories, and maybe then you won't have some of these issues. But there really are some things you simply cannot plan for, and no contingency plan is going to save the day. I have just returned from a month filming in the USA, and it was for a new version of a film that we've produced called Conquering Cervical Cancer, and we're making a US-specific version of that film. It was an amazing trip. It was months and months in the planning. We did so much research, coordinating, bookings, checking gear, you know, making sure all the participants were lined up and it all worked with our schedule. The works. It was a really big trip. And there were three of us heading over for the month, and we flew out from Melbourne to San Francisco, from San Francisco to Chicago, and then we had a very tight connection to get us down to Alabama, which we were all very excited to be going to Alabama. I had never been south in America before, so that was very exciting. But we also knew that that last connection from Chicago through to Alabama would be potentially a big problem because it was a 40-minute connection time. And the airline had assured us that this was standard and they created the route and it was all possible. There really wasn't that many other flight options. Um so we we rolled with it. But sure enough, after a long haul, 14 hours to San Francisco, and then the four hours onward to Chicago, we'd been in transit for, you know, over 24 hours. And we landed in Chicago to discover our connection had not just been delayed, but it had been cancelled altogether due to a really fierce storm that was hitting the airport literally as we landed. It was torrential rain, and I think they were actually worried there was going to be a twister or something like that. So we thought, okay, you know, we might be spending the night here in Chicago. There is no flights going out anywhere, so we'll find a local hotel, we'll stay the night and fly out tomorrow. So we don't allowed a day in the schedule for something like that to happen, so we weren't too stressed about time. But when we went to the desk to work out our new flight, we were there with another 200 others who were also having their flight cancelled and told that the next flight that they could get us on would be on Wednesday. Yeah. It was Friday night, and we were meant to start filming on the Sunday. So flying on the Wednesday would mean we would miss the first four days of the shoot. They also wouldn't release our bags. Apparently they were on the next flight to Alabama, only we couldn't go with them. Yeah, what the? So, you know, it's pretty hard to keep your wits about you when you're extraordinarily fatigued after 24 hours in transit. But our problem solving kicked into our very tired and unraveled minds. What airport was near Alabama? Could we fly somewhere near Alabama and rent a car and drive the last part of the distance? Look, this turned out to be a really good option. We were able to get booked onto a flight to Atlanta the following morning, and that was just a two and a half hour drive to our destination. All manageable, we're okay with that. And also because I'm a planner, we all had a change of clothes with us. So we haven't didn't have a big deal about spending a night at a hotel near the airport, and we could change before flying out the next day, which was a huge relief because we were absolutely spent. And after 24 hours in transit, sleeping at the terminal and waiting at the gate was simply not on my agenda. So luckily we had the budget and we could actually get a hotel. And also, one saving grace is because we had air tags in our luggage, when we boarded the flight the next morning to Atlanta, we worked out our bags had actually been rerouted onto our flight to Alabama, sorry, to Atlanta with us, and we were able to find them when we arrive and pick them up. So that was pretty awesome having that technology of air tags in our luggage. Highly recommend that one. We also had booked a car, so we went to the rental car pickup location and we found about a thousand very tired and angry travellers. The four-story car hire location, which had about seven to ten different rental car companies, was completely overrun and there were no cars. Some people had been waiting for over 12 hours for their rental car, and we were told that we could be waiting up to 24 hours with no guarantee of what we would get if we got a car at all. And because we had a lot of gear, we couldn't take a very small rental car because we simply wouldn't have fit. So we were getting a little bit strung out and panicky at this point, as was the other thousand people at the airport who were ahead of us in the queue. And I don't even know how rental cars can rent cars, but not even have the stock available. That boggles my mind anyway. That was the situation. We were Googling there were no Greyhound buses, they were all booked out, there was no local trains, there was no options that we could find to get us there by any kind of public transport or anything even remotely accessible to get us the two and a half hours to our destination, and there definitely were no flights. Actually, I think there was a flight, but it was like two and a half thousand dollars a ticket. So talk about price gouging because of high demand. So what were we gonna do? Stuck in Atlanta, two and a half hours from our destination, after about now up to almost 48 hours in transit. We were getting pretty desperate. We had to start shooting the next day, and we really, really had to get there. So Uber. Yep, we called an Uber. We called an Uber and this amazing driver took us two and a half hours, including a coffee stop, to where we needed to go. I know, amazing, right? Unbelievable. Still can't believe we managed to pull that off. And the cost of the Uber was comparable to the cost of the hire car. So it's a tale of travel and how you just have to adapt and be as prepared as you can be. Spare clothes, air tags, and we'll make it work mindset. There is simply no room for being a princess on an overseas shooting trip. You just have to roll with the punches and make it work. But the good news on that trip is that although that was a pretty stressful, exhausting, and somewhat of an inconvenient trip, the travel god smiled on us for the rest of the trip and everything else ran as smoothly as you could hope for. So, troubleshooting. Back to back to the that was such a big sidebar. But anyway, I just thought I'd share that story with you because it was quite recent and it was, you know, it was a pretty interesting experience. What else can go wrong? What else can happen that you just can't plan for? Gear. Let's talk a bit more about gear stuff. Myself and the moonshine team experienced an unexpected issue, and it was on a shoot in a very busy Melbourne hospital a couple of months ago. It had taken us a really long time to coordinate this particular shoot because the talent was the head of ER, and you can imagine the tight time frame we had to set up and shoot for this interview because this person was very hard to pin down. And it wasn't until after the shoot when we were back in the studio that we discovered that the SD card was corrupt and that our footage was unsalvageable. And of course, it was on the A camera which had recorded the audio. So even the B footage wasn't, it it just wasn't gonna work. And there was no way to know that this had happened during the shoot. The camera didn't issue a card warning, it didn't do anything unexpected. Everything appeared to record as per usual. This is gear we shoot with week in, week out. It, as you can imagine, was more than a palm slap to the head. It was frustrating and very disappointing result from an otherwise successful shoot. There was just nothing we could do, no amount of research on solutions, apps to try and recover the footage or efforts of any kind could recover the data. In the end, we just had to reshoot. And the talent, although I can't say they were particularly pleased about it, they complied and were very accommodating, and we reshot the interview, and it was all fine from that perspective. But look, hindsight is a great thing. So, what can you do in a situation like that? The card that failed was an older card that we had used many, many times, but it was also a cheaper version of the cards that are currently now available. So the lesson that we learned is invest in the best quality cards whenever you can to avoid this issue. And even then, I'm not actually certain that a top-of-the-line card couldn't fail, but I think it would be far less likely to. So whenever you've got the budget to invest the best quality gear, try to do that. And when you make a purchase on any new gear, check the ratings and reviews because that will really help you choose good options for what you're trying to do. All right, I'm gonna switch away from gear. I'm gonna shift gear. I'm gonna talk about stage fright. I know, stage fright. Managing technology is one thing, but managing people is a whole different game. Sometimes you just don't know how your talent is gonna behave on a shoot day until they're sitting in front of the camera. Those people who oozed charisma during a pre-interview conversation and you thought would shine on camera can suddenly freeze up and stutter on every word. It happens more than you think. So in this situation, what do you do? Well, one situ one solution that I have found is that you need to distract them. And I don't mean with games and jokes. I mean talk to them, connect with them one-on-one, make them forget about the camera. Usually some conversation that's not directly related to the interview can calm people down and get them refocused. And I don't mean mindless small talk and banter, but rather ask them questions that get them to relax and feel confident. You know, you could ask them things like how did they get into their field of work? Have they been recognized for their work with awards or media articles that you've researched? So you could ask them about those. Look, even simple discussions about whether they live locally, if they've moved for their job, for their work, or you know, and that can lead to, you know, where do they like to go for dinner? Can they give you a dinner recommendation? Things like this can really help settle people down. So if you have done research on your talent ahead of time, and I hope that you would have, you should be able to ask them a few meaningful questions that will just get them centered and relaxed. And often having those conversations before you roll camera is a really great way to ease people into the interview. Or another problem that you might have is kind of the opposite, and this is where your talent won't stop chatting when you start rolling camera. So at first this might seem like a good problem to have because they've got no issues with just chatting away and answering your questions, but it can become very difficult to navigate if they're chatting, but what they're saying isn't actually relevant to the interview you're conducting. So at some point in this scenario, you're gonna have to cut in and interrupt them and steer them back on track. So providing a lot more detail on what you're looking for in the answers to relate to your film is gonna be helpful. So that's a bit to do with the briefing. Make sure you're always briefing whoever you're interviewing on the angle that you're taking so that when they answer you, they don't end up just rambling. They they understand what type of information you're looking for ahead of, you know, especially if they're chatty. I do advise this. If people are chatty, try and try and give them a really clear brief so that they know what they're working to. And you can also do things like say, look, the amount of screen time we're looking for is probably only around two minutes. So the more concise we are in the answers, the the better it's gonna be. Or you could try and sort of bring it back in that way, but you know, good luck. It's not always easy, but that's a little bit of advice on things that can go wrong with your talent and stage fright. Now the next one I want to talk about is livestock, and you're probably thinking, What are you where are we going here? But look, there is talent, there is technology, and then there is livestock. And I have been on shoots where I've been interrupted by horses and donkeys, and I find the worst culprits are curious children. Curious kids love getting their hands onto the cameras and pretending that they're the director, and they also do cheeky things like whistle into their lapel microphones when you've got headphones on. Yeah, ouch. And it's great to be shooting out in public places, but sometimes passers-by can make that a bit difficult. Naturally, some can get curious about what you're doing, and if they're camera or film enthusiasts, they may inadvertently interrupt the shoot by wanting to speak about all the gear that you use and telling you what they use. And as nice and interesting as this is, um, when you're in the middle of a shoot, you really can't stop to chew the fat. So you do have to politely move them on. Sometimes easier said than done, but you just kind of have to do it. Anyway, so aside from living creatures, you can never underestimate the effect that traffic can have on your production. And I don't know what it is, but as soon as you go for a take, a garbage truck will roll down the street, or a helicopter will fly overhead, or a really loud motorbike will go down the street. And who knew cars honked so much? The sounds of everyday life become so loud when you're trying to capture clean audio. So when tackling any of these issues, the key is to just have some contingency time in your schedule whenever possible so that when you know you get slowed down by these unexpected things, your schedule can, you know, remain on track and you can deal with unexpected livestock, fiddly children, and loud noises as needed. So what to do when you're told what to do? This is another issue is occasionally you have a plan, and it could be a very good plan that you've followed along with this series and you've ticked all of your boxes, and you get to shoot in a certain place and you have a certain time, and then someone unexpectedly tells you, No, you're not going to film here. Think unexpected rain or a grumpy security guard. You may find yourself without a location to film at. Now the first step here is to have written permission to access whatever location it is that you're filming at, because if it's not a public place, you do need permission to film at them. And even then, that security guard might not be interested in reading it or hearing about it, and you will have to just simply move on to another spot. Even if you've got all the permission lined up, if you don't have the on-site, you know, PR person with you to authorize what you're doing, they can just turn you away. So just like your equipment, have a backup. You know, is there somewhere else that you could get the shot, even if it's across the street filming back at the location? Again, footpath, public spot, you might be able to pull that off. So go with the flow. Nobody wants to be handling disaster after disaster, but even with diligent planning, backups of backups and talented actors, things are gonna go wrong. It's true. There's no way around it. But it's all part of learning and learning to adapt to situations and overcome obstacles to get the shoot done is critical in filmmaking. And who knows, maybe your next problem will be an interesting story to tell one day. And I mean, we have certainly got plenty, and I've shared a few with you in this podcast as it is. So next week I'm gonna keep discussing things that can go wrong on your productions, and more importantly, how to solve them. And you know, tenacity is the biggest key to filmmaking. You have got to be tenacious, you have got to just think about how do I get my film made, what do I need, what can I do, how can I fix this problem. And if you just keep that end goal in mind, which is that, you know, beautiful film that you're gonna have at the end, it will all be worth it. And you can get through just about any problems. And you probably just heard a tram go rolling past in the background, and you know that's just a reality. Today I am filming in our front office just because of space and other things that are going on in the studio, and it means it's a little noisier than the usual podcast setup that I have. I'm just gonna roll with it. Hope you don't mind the tram noise, and I will be back next week with more on troubleshooting for your documentary filmmaking. So please do not hesitate to hit subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're listening on because it really helps me to grow this podcast and share this information with more people, and I really appreciate your support. So I look forward to speaking to you again next week. And as always, reach out if you've got any questions. You can find me on all the usual social media platforms at Moonshine Communications Academy. So look forward to speaking soon. Bye.