"Ian Berry, Projectionist." short documentary

M

MutePrint

Active member
I shot this in about three hours last weekend for a documentary production course; the assignment was to document a person at work (in this case Ian Berry, a part-time projectionist at Cinema 21 in Portland, Oregon). It was shot on the 28-135 kit lens entirely with available light, and for almost exclusively 3200-6400 iso, i feel like it held up fairly well. The grain is pleasant enough and mostly unobtrusive (somewhat fitting to the subject matter, hopefully), though I was dying for a wider lens inside that insanely cramped projection booth.

My indislider deluxe had just arrived in the mail a day before, so this was also a test run for that (for the record, it took them a full week to actually get it shipped). Between it and my quickly decomposing budget tripod, smooth shots were pretty difficult, and I'll definitely be greasing it up before my next shoot. Anyway, this is a first edit, and I'd love some feedback from a narrative/compositional standpoint.

Here are a few technical disclaimers:

1. Unfortunately I didn't notice the clock in the interview until it was far too late
2. I only had 15 minutes to shoot the interview, so there was no time for a proper lighting setup
3. The file on vimeo is standard def, as I'm out of upload space this week

Ian Berry, Projectionist
 
I think you picked an appropriate subject. He was personable - the clock did bother me a bit, but nothing you can do about it now. Great shots with the slider (definitely does need greasing before use though..).

I think you really did his job and personality justice with this piece.

Kegan
 
I'll agree with Hunter, a great subject. I always like when you can grasp someone's personality from an interview, and I think this was a fair representation to Ian's character.

As far as shots go, to my taste it was a little soft, though that could be to do with the fact that I wasn't watching with my glasses on - over all the quality and structure of the shots were great! I liked the low light, added to the idea of being in a projectionists room, and I especially liked the sound of the projector rolling whilst the interview was being conducted. I'm not sure if this was intentional or what, but it certainly added to the piece.
 
I really liked this, it was pleasing to the eye and ear. The subject was well spoken, passionate and interesting. Your shots could have been really boring and stagnant given the type of interview but you brilliantly suceeded in making them interesting with the use of some very nice camera movement.

I did a documentary last year on a non-profit boxing gym for kids (you can check it on my vimeo page if your curious), and honestly i like yours better.

The clock thing could be a distraction, but honestly i didnt even spot it the first time through, i never would have noticed it if i hadnt read the comments here.

Im pretty surprised the kit lens held up that well, and especially at such high iso, did you run it through any filters to fix grain?
 
There just seems something odd about interviewing a projectionist with a digital camera. Sort of like saying "I'm going to shoot you with something that will eventually put you out of work."

Lol

Either way I thought it was a great little interview film. Well done. :)
 
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