John Lee Hancock doesn't like to direct movies back to back. His last helming turn came on The Blind Side, a 2009 release which was nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award and featured a Best Lead Actress Oscar-winning performance by Sandra Bullock. While the iron was hot for him to again direct on the heels of that success, Hancock instead continued writing (he penned the script for The Blind Side, after which he collaborated on the screenplay for Snow White and the Huntsman, directed by Rupert Sanders).
"I have a family," explained Hancock. "I can make a living as a writer. When I choose to direct something, it has to be special and mean something to me–to be worth taking time away from my family. Directing is a year and a half out of your life. It's not a date. It's a marriage."
Hancock found that special project when he read the script for Saving Mr. Banks, written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith. The story centers on the turbulent making of Mary Poppins in the 1960s–the turbulence coming primarily from author P.L. Travers who didn't want her beloved Poppins character to be fodder for a sugar-coated Disney movie. Walt Disney himself had been trying to get the film rights for some 20 years. Travers finally came out from the United Kingdom to Los Angeles to meet with Disney and his staff, beginning quite a rollercoaster ride over just a couple of weeks.
That ride didn't start nor did it seemingly end well, with Travers hopping a flight back to the U.K. She was not only fleeing Hollywood but also the memories of her childhood and her father sparked by the talks/negotiations about adapting the Poppins story into a movie. The feelings stirred were behind her reluctance to relinquish control of the Poppins character who sprung from the adversity as well as the wonder Travers experienced as a youngster. Walt Disney, though, pursued Travers across the Atlantic, showing up immediately at the author's flat back in the U.K. Their heart-to-heart exchange led to a greenlight for the making of what became a classic, treasured family movie.
"I loved the story–Travers being exposed to Hollywood and our showing memories of her childhood back in Australia," said Hancock. "I was working on another project I had been trying to get going for several years and was getting close but I loved this [Saving Mr. Banks] script so much that I pursued it."
At the same time, Hancock wasn't all that optimistic that he'd get the gig that he very much wanted.
"I thought the chances were slim that they'd hire a guy from a refinery town in Texas to tell a story about Walt Disney and behind-the-scenes of the movie industry. I met with Alison Owen who has amazing taste and is an incredible producer, handling lots of classy projects through her Ruby Films in London. She was lovely to meet with but I still thought they weren't going to hire me. Fortunately, I was wrong."
Emma Thompson portrays Travers, with Tom Hanks as Disney. The project originated outside the Disney studio only to eventually be acquired by the iconic house of Mickey Mouse. "We were able to show Walt Disney as a human being. It was a fair portrayal of Walt," said Hancock who acknowledged feeling some trepidation as to whether the Disney studio would give him the freedom to show an unseen side of its founder.
"I was a tad worried that at the 11th hour, the Disney studio would come in and say, 'Don't show Walt this way or that, don't show him drinking, smoking, saying a curse word.' To their credit, they never did."
Hancock also felt a little nervous about musical elements of the film. "I'm not a musicals guy. I'm not Rob Marshall [a DGA Award winner and Best Director Oscar nominee for Chicago] who does it so well. You're reading the script and see that there's singing and dancing–not choreographed as in a musical but in a rehearsal room which is different. Still, I thought, 'people are singing in a movie of mine. This will never happen again.' But I ended up enjoying it. It was a challenge in different ways yet I found that having music on the set lifts up the entire crew. It's a very interesting dynamic."
There was also an inherent balancing act in telling two distinct stories. "We had the story of Mary Poppins' origin and how it integrates itself in the mind and psyche of Travers as she spends those two weeks in Los Angeles," related Hancock. "The audience is privy to that story even though the people Travers is interacting with in Los Angeles aren't privy. We go back and forth between Travers with Disney and Travers during her childhood. We didn't want to have it feel like a flashback even though two stories are happening."
Helping Hancock towards that storytelling end was the opportunity to bring in several trusted collaborators such as cinematographer John Schwartzman, ASC, production designer Michael Corenblith, costume designer Daniel Orlandi, and editor Mark Livolsi.
The latter cut The Blind Side of which Hancock observed, "That movie had to be funny in a character way even though it's a serious movie. From the editing standpoint, we needed someone who could do bittersweet, sad and smart funny–it was sort of a Devil Wears Prada world [a film for which Livolsi received an ACE Eddie Award nomination] that we wanted The Blind Side to live in at times. Mark is so good at pulling out those character moments, pulling little smiles out from the performances. It's a little smile that goes into a bank and builds up during the movie."
DP Schwartzman had shot the Hancock-directed film The Rookie. "That was a movie that got John back in the world of adult drama. He had been doing fabulous work on bigger, louder movies by Michael Bay," recalled Hancock. "John was interested in getting back to adult drama after starting there years earlier with Benny and Joon–that's where a part of his heart was. After The Rookie, he started getting more of that work, including Sea Biscuit which got him an Oscar nomination [for Best Cinematography, and an ASC Award, both in 2004]. He's a busy cinematographer on features and is directing commercials, so timing wise it's hard for me to lock him in. I feel so fortunate to have gotten him to shoot Saving Mr. Banks."
As for production designer Corenblith, Hancock assessed, "Once I had a chance to work with Michael, I fell in love with him. Our association has been tremendous." Corenblith previously worked on the Hanock-directed The Alamo, for which Ron Howard served as producer. Corenblith has two Oscar nominations–both for Howard-directed films, Apollo 13 and How The Grinch Stole Christmas. "I inherited Michael and costume designer Dan Orlandi from Ron Howard–both worked with me on The Alamo. Michael is one of the smartest people I've ever met. He's a great creative artist. He and Dan have done several movies for Ron Howard–I think the last one they both did together was Frost/Nixon. I'm blessed to have them all as collaborators.
"I bring John, Michael and Dan early on in terms of prep," continued Hancock. "Movies are made in preparation and fail due to lack of prep. We make the time to have discussions in advance. Schwartzman talks with Orlandi and Corenblith. We all kick around good ideas, bad ideas. Their creativity, experience and sharing of ideas and approaches make us all better. That's what you need as a director when you're going into battle with a limited number of days and budget."
Saving Mr. Banks premiered at the London International Film Festival last month. The film opens wide in the U.K. later this month. It is slated for a limited debut in select U.S. theaters on Dec. 13 and then goes wide on Dec. 20.
Her
After it ran as the closing night film at the New York Film Festival, the Spike Jonze-directed Her began to build momentum as an Oscar contender across several categories.
Joaquin Phoenix stars in Her as a Los Angeles resident in the not-all-that-distant future who gets an operational system (OS) that connects with him via a voice (Scarlett Johansson). The woman's voice starts to grow on him, taking on a human-like presence and influence. He finds himself falling in love with "her."
Eric Zumbrunnen and Jeff Buchanan–who have track records of collaborating with Jonze–edited Her. Zumbrunnen's history with Jonze goes back nearly 20 years, spanning assorted commercials (e.g., the lauded Ikea's "Lamp," the Absolut short I'm Here) and music videos (Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice," Weezer's "Buddy Holly") as well as the features Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Where the Wild Things Are. (The latter was cut by Zumbrunnen and Union Editorial's James Haygood.)
Being John Malkovich received three Oscar nominations and earned Zumbrunnen both a BAFTA nomination and an ACE Eddie Award for Best Edited Feature Film. Adaptation garnered four Academy Award nominations and netted Zumbrunnen an Eddie nomination.
While not as extensive as that of his colleague Zumbrunnen, Buchanan too has a filmography that includes various projects directed by Jonze such as the Arcade Fire music video "Suburbs," Jay-Z/Kanye West's "Otis," and the documentary short Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak. Buchanan also cut the Directors Label series of DVDs devoted to notable music video directors, including one chronicling the work of Jonze.
Besides their common bond with Jonze, Zumbrunnen and Buchanan also share the same roost for commercials and branded content–editorial house Final Cut which maintains shops in New York, Los Angeles and London. Zumbrunnen is a partner in the company and founded the L.A. office.
Both Zumbrunnen and Buchanan concurred that one of the biggest challenges posed to them as editors by Her was to capture what in essence is a romance between two people with one of them never seen. "Luckily Phoenix is an amazing actor and we benefitted from his performance," related Zumbrunnen. "Clearly, though, there are things you can't do if you only have one actor physically in scenes."
Buchanan expounded on that, noting, "We have these dialogue scenes between two characters with only one on screen. We cut to some visual motifs but often we were just on Joaquin for entire scenes."
Zumbrunnen and Buchanan both described Jonze as being "a great collaborator" who is open to different ideas and approaches. Initially, for example, Zumbrunnen recalled that Jonze thought there wouldn't be that many moving parts in Her, meaning that the edit wouldn't be all that open-ended. "Yet when we got more into the project, Spike felt the edit would be more open-ended. In the past, he's said that it can take a long time to find the movie in the edit."
Towards that end, Zumbrunnen noted that in pre-pro Lee came to the conclusion that an extra editor would be needed. "We immediately thought Jeff would be the right guy," said Zumbrunnen. "Both of us have known Jeff for awhile and he was the natural choice." At the time Buchanan was working on another movie so he came on a few months after principal photography on Her had been wrapped. Zumbrunnen, though, was working on Her from the very beginning, cutting during shooting and afterwards. As for the division of labor between he and Buchanan, Zumbrunnen related, "I was working from the beginning and end of the movie toward the middle; Jeff from the middle toward the beginning and end. After that, we kind of jumped around, cutting and collaborating."
This marked the first time that Zumbrunnen and Buchanan worked together on a project and they found the experience gratifying. At press time, Zumbrunnen was still working on Her, specifically on deleted sequences from the movie that could serve as DVD extra or perhaps even a short film. He should wrap that endeavor shortly. Buchanan meanwhile has jumped back into spots at Final Cut, cutting an ESPN job directed by Stacy Wall of production house Imperial Woodpecker for Wieden+Kennedy.
Mandela
Editor Rick Russell–who founded Final Cut in London in 1995, expanding the company with the launch of a NY shop in 2001 and then opening an L.A. office in 2006 (for which he recruited Zumbrunnen as a partner)–also has a feature generating Oscar buzz: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, directed by Justin Chadwick.
The film is based on Mandela's autobiography of the same title, chronicling his life and of course his 27 years in prison before becoming President of South Africa and helping to heal and bring together a country divided by apartheid. Idris Elba stars as Mandela with Naomie Harris as Winnie Mandela.
Russell has known Chadwick for 20 years, cutting the director's first short film, Boy, starring a then relatively unknown actor, Ewan McGregor.
From that point, Russell established himself as an editor of commercials and branded content while Chadwick got his break at the BBC, directing serialized dramas. Chadwick then made a major splash with the BBC's take on Charles Dickens' Bleak House that won the director a BAFTA Television Award, leading to the feature The Other Boleyn Girl.
Over the years Russell and Chadwick kept in touch, and occasionally teamed on commercials. Russell related that Chadwick asked him to come aboard The Other Boleyn Girl but the studio picture didn't embrace Russell due to his lack of theatrical feature film credits.
Still Russell and Chadwick managed to stay connected, coming together on a short film for the Summer Olympics in London, part of British Airways "Great Britons" campaign. A week after wrapping that project, Russell recalled, "Justin put a manuscript on my desk."
That script was for Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. Still, it took time for all the elements to come together and to get a final green light for the picture.
The big difference, though, for Russell was that he had since cut his first theatrical feature, director Malcolm Venville's 44 Inch Chest. That experience made him more marketable this time around for Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. "It [Mandela] was an independent feature even though it was a big production," shared Russell. "Justin was able to lobby successfully for me. I'm grateful for his support and the opportunity he gave me."
Russell observed that Chadwick's approach to the movie was key. "He took a point of view that centered on Mandela's human story, his loss of love and family, his and Winnie's self-sacrifice. The performances were extraordinary. Justin captured the real South Africa. In a funny way it wasn't all that daunting from an editing standpoint. The material was strong and seemed to go together intuitively."
One of the challenges Russell dealt with on the film was figuring out how to best deploy archival footage.
"I did quite a bit of work looking at archival footage, cutting scenes together and we quickly realized that we needed our own material. We filmed as much original footage as we could. And we found the most useful archival material was the sound."
The meshing of this audio with original material achieved great effect. Upon becoming President of South Africa, Mandela had to bring the country together, coping with interracial and intertribal violence, a faction of whites trying to destabilize society and other problems.
Mandela addresses his country's people on television, which was recreated through new original footage yet complemented by archival audio. "We had a cacophony of world press as he enters the building for his speech. There were reporters from all over the world. And we married this audio with our original footage. It was the best of both worlds," affirmed Russell.
A couple of factors helped Russell get his first feature editing gig, the aforementioned 44 Inch Chest. First came the opportunity to cut director Daniel Barber's The Tonto Woman, which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Short Live-Action Film in 2008. Cutting an Oscar-nominated short made Russell more viable as a prospective feature editor. He felt that helped him get his foot in the door.
Also instrumental was the commitment of veteran executive Steve Golin, founder/CEO of Anonymous Content, who's active in both commercials and features. Russell noted that Golin, dating back to his days at Propaganda Films, has been instrumental in helping numerous commercial directors break into features, including Venville, who's with Anonymous Content, on 44 Inch Chest. "Steve knows people from both worlds–commercials and features–and knows when they can cross over. He was key in letting me edit 44 Inch Chest. He has advised and helped many directors and editors."
After wrapping Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom back in July, Russell has gotten back into the advertising arena, editing several jobs, including an Audi commercial directed by Noam Murro, Guinness helmed by Nicolai Fuglsig, and an Axe campaign directed by Tim Godsall.
Blackfish
Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite's second independent feature-length documentary, Blackfish, was one of five films recently nominated in the Features category of the 2013 International Documentary Association (IDA) Awards. Blackfish is a revealing, emotionally wrenching investigation of what being kept in captivity does to orcas and the devastating results on their human interactions.
One such interaction ended tragically at SeaWorld Orlando on Feb. 24, 2010, when veteran killer whale trainer Dawn Brancheau was brutally attacked and killed by one of the amusement park's oldest performers, an orca named Tilikum. Delving into the incident, Blackfish uncovers much more, going back to the initial capture of Tilikum in the North Atlantic in 1983 at approximately two years of age, to his first non-ocean "home" at another park, Sealand of the Pacific, where in 1991 he killed trainer Keltie Byrne. Shortly after, he was sold to SeaWorld Orlando where trainers were largely kept in the dark about Byrne's death as they worked closely with the orca. Blackfish details a case brought against SeaWorld by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and sheds insightful light on the cruelty of keeping whales in captivity, wresting away baby orcas from their mothers.
This cruelty is a prime factor in what can cause an orca to kill even the trainers who feed and love them–a stark reality that is in sharp contrast to the fact that there is no record of an orca assaulting a human being in the open sea.
Cowperthwaite initially set out to make a film about the relationships between humans and their animal counterparts. "I have no history of animal activism," Cowperthwaite told SHOOT. "I didn't plan on making something controversial. If anything, I thought the film would be more philosophical in nature about a complex relationship in which we are obsessed with animals and injecting ourselves into their lives."
But the film evolved into something quite different as Cowperthwaite dug more deeply into the death of Brancheau which SeaWorld characterized as a tragic accident. "Her death confounded me. She was a highly skilled trainer," said Cowperthwaite. "And the more I kept reading, I'd have another question. And with each question, four more questions would be unearthed. I couldn't understand why a highly intelligent animal would bite the hand that feeds it."
Cowperthwaite said it took two years to make Blackfish, which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival where it was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize.
Magnolia Pictures acquired theatrical distribution for the film and licensed the United States broadcasting rights to CNN where it has found a significant audience, particularly among young viewers, which in turn has sparked a social media frenzy on the subject.
"We think about the youth generation as being into video games and entertainment content but when you give them something of substance, they respond," observed Cowperthwaite. "They not only watched the documentary but also the debate afterwards and have continued to tweet and engage in social media, asking what they can do and how they can meaningfully get involved."
Before breaking into independent documentary-making in 2008, Cowperthwaite was involved in commissioned work on TV for more than 12 years, directing, producing and writing documentary programs for such outlets as ESPN, National Geographic, Animal Planet, Discovery and History.
In 2010, Cowperthwaite completed her first indie feature-length documentary, City LAX: An Urban Lacrosse Story (SHOOTonline, 6/21/10). Acquired by ESPN and DirecTV, City LAX was developed and co-produced by Tor Myhren, chief creative officer at Grey New York (who recently became Grey's worldwide chief creative officer while retaining his responsibilities in NY).
Winner of the Jury Prize for Best Documentary as well as the Audience Award at the Sonoma International Film Festival, City LAX: An Urban Lacrosse Story introduces us to Erik Myhren (Tor's brother), a teacher/coach who helps disadvantaged kids at his school find an outlet and positive influence through the unlikely sport of lacrosse. The film chronicles the lives of six 12-year-olds in inner-city Denver as they try to come together as a lacrosse team while they and their families struggle in a gang-ridden neighborhood.
After seeing City LAX, Tim Case, founder and managing partner of Supply & Demand, sought out Cowperthwaite, resulting in the production house representing her for commercials and branded content. Under the Supply & Demand banner, Cowperthwaite has directed documentary-style, real people/patient campaigns for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
"It's work that lets me find the truth of the story and allows people to be themselves," she shared, noting that commercial production also affords her the opportunity to work with fully staffed crews and to "play with toys I might not get to otherwise in a documentary with a limited budget." One such "toy" was the ARRI Alexa digital camera which Cowperthwaite deployed on the Pittsburgh Medical Center spots.
As for the Oscar buzz now surrounding Blackfish, Cowperthwaite said she cannot put her head around that prospect. "As a documentary filmmaker, you're surprised and grateful that people are seeing your film on purpose. I'm just happy Blackfish is finding an audience. And getting the recognition from the IDA Awards is a tremendous honor."
The Crash Reel
Supply & Demand handles commercial/branded content representation for another acclaimed documentary filmmaker who again is in the Oscar conversation. Director Lucy Walker last month earned her first Gotham Independent Film Award nomination for Best Documentary on the strength of The Crash Reel (HBO Documentary Films), which introduces us to American snowboarding champion Kevin Pearce who in 2009 was enjoying the most successful season of his career, winning several events and challenging the dominance of legendary extreme sports athlete Shaun White.
But while riding the slopes of Park City, Utah, in training for the 2010 Winter Olympics, Pearce suffered a traumatic brain injury that left him in a coma, followed by a long road of adjusting to what would be a lifelong disability. Still, he aspires and strives mightily to return to competitive snowboarding.
Walker is already a two-time Oscar nominee, the first coming in 2011 for the feature-length Waste Land, followed the next year by a Short Subject Documentary nomination on the basis of The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom.
As for what drew her to the story of Kevin Pearce, his family and friends, Walker recalled, "I was interested in making a film in the world of extreme sports. I love watching extreme sports–the eye popping visuals suck my eyeballs out of my head, I can't rip my eyes away from big-wave surfing, mega-ramp skating, half-pipe snowboarding. But the stakes are visibly life and death. So I thought it was a fascinating, dramatic world to explore. I was also interested in how athletes adapt to injury or paralysis. I'd wanted to make a film following the journey of an athlete adapting to a new life in a wheelchair. And I happened to meet Kevin and instantly thought he was a superstar and his story was dynamite."
The Crash Reel was three-and-a-half years in the making. Walker reflected on how the project evolved over that span. "I had a vision for the start of the story and the stakes and direction, but I didn't know where it was going to end, because nobody knew what was going to happen to Kevin," shared Walker. "Kevin was taking a terrifying course and I worried that I was making a film about a beautiful young man killing himself despite the efforts of everyone around him to prevent that. The doctors were saying that if he hit his head again, even lightly, he'd kill himself, but all he wanted to do was get back out on a snowboard, where he would inevitably hit his head. Tragically so many others have passed away doing exactly what Kevin was trying to do. When the audience is watching the movie they don't know what is going to happen next–and I had the same experience when we were filming it. But when you are making a documentary you don't need to know where it is going, you just need to know that it is going to be interesting no matter where it goes. And I knew The Crash Reel would be a riveting ride no matter what."
Walker affirmed, "I loved the opportunity to work with an incredible young man, his truly remarkable family, his exuberant 'Frends' (because there is no "i" in friend), to create exhilarating sequences with the stunning sports footage, to work with brilliant music selection and really go to town with the music and editing, to shoot compelling verité scenes as the story unfolded, and to bring emotion and sensitivity to the heavy life stuff in the film (traumatic brain injury, down syndrome, death…)."
A key component in The Crash Reel is verite footage chronicling the rivalry between half-pipe athletes Pearce and White, childhood friends who become fierce adversaries.
Walker noted that among the challenges the documentary posed was "tracking down an insane quantity (19 terabytes) of miscellaneous archival footage from 232 different sources, most of them not formal archives but simply individuals who had odd bits of footage in some closet or ex-girlfriend's storage locker that was a little part of the puzzle.
Asked what the Gotham nomination means to her personally and professionally, Walker related, "I haven't ever been nominated for a Gotham Award before and so it's an honor I've always aspired to. The committee who determined the award are famous for their good taste, and for them to consider The Crash Reel one of the five best films of the year is huge, especially when I look around at the record number of great documentaries being produced this past year. And awards are especially important for documentaries because they encourage audiences to take a chance on watching them – I want the whole world to see the incredible people in The Crash Reel, and to see the incredible craft that my collaborators put into making it, and so this honor is a great help as we build to our December 13th theatrical release date."
At the same time, Walker has been active in the advertising arena. At press time she was working on an ambitious campaign for Target.
"We were just shooting with Alaskan salmon fishermen because Target's salmon is 100 percent sustainably sourced and so we were out in the magical little Alaskan islands with these salt of the earth fishermen, grizzled and bearded; it's a fantastic mixture of documentary and polished craft which I'm absolutely loving," said Walker. "I also directed a spot for Amex Small Business Saturday and a documentary film for Kikkoman–I feel so lucky to be working on such beautiful, creative, meaningful projects as these.
Regarding how her work in the shorter-form ad discipline has informed or impacted her documentary filmmaking, Walker said, "There's no need for documentaries to look poor-quality or shabby or have inferior graphics or music or be boring etc.–I'll never settle, regardless of whether it's a doc or a commercial. But opportunities are too rare in docs to work with great cameras, lovely lighting, precise production design, elaborate moving shots, so I love being able to set up more ambitious shots in commercials. I love it when documentary has production value, and conversely when great shots have authenticity. In commercials you get to really play and imagine and push, which I love. Where authenticity and fascinating subject-matter meet beautiful production value is my sweetest spot."
In terms of her approach to commercials as compared to documentaries, Walker observed, "For me, I bring as much heart and soul to everything that I do, whether that is a documentary or commercial project. I don't separate the different worlds and I bring everything and everyone I know to everything I do. I'd love to do some commercial work in the world of sports–I really enjoyed working with the sports footage in The Crash Reel and I want to pick that up in commercials."
CaveDigger
Among the eight films shortlisted in the Documentary Short Subject category is CaveDigger directed by Jeffrey Karoff and produced by his Karoffilms. The film profiles Ra Paulette, an earth artist who digs cathedral-like caves in the sandstone cliffs of New Mexico. The caves are experiential and magical yet earth artist Paulette struggles to make a living while being true to his vision.
Making the Oscar shortlist is particularly gratifying for Karoff. "Generally the Academy has recognized films in this category that have some sort of social issue or hardship at their core," observed Karoff. "CaveDigger is not that kind of film yet seemed to have enough on its own merit to warrant the recognition. The people judging are documentarians, craftspeople. To be recognized by that group means a great deal to me personally and professionally."
Karoff has a house in New Mexico where he met two people during a pancake breakfast fundraiser for the local volunteer fire department. The couple, Liz and Shel, were having a cave dug by Paulette on their property. (Liz is Paulette's former girlfriend.)
"At the time I saw the cave, she was undergoing cancer treatment, which was part of the story we told in the film," related Karoff. "It was so striking to walk into that cave, to experience the visceral impact of a piece of art. It's rare to have a piece of art strike you that deeply. I knew this was something I wanted to make a film about. It took me about 10 years to figure out how to approach making the film after the first time I saw his work. I knew that I wanted to do something that was more than simply an artist creating his art.
"I wanted to find something a little bit more exciting and universal. As we got into it, I didn't know what the trajectory of the film would be. But the stars finally aligned for me to do this. In talking to one of the artist's patrons, we found that Paulette had struggled quite a lot with people who commissioned his work. It was the story of the artist against the financiers. Even deep in the hills of Northern New Mexico working along under the earth, he's dealing with issues that are age old. He's creating caves that are works of art for people who have opinions of what they should be. His quest is to realize his vision, his magnum opus."
Karoff credited his collaborators, including prime contributors, cinematographer Anghel Decca, editor Erin Nordstrom of Optimus, and composer Pete Min.
Karoff and Decca deployed Canon 5Ds for CaveDigger. He and Decca also shot 3D with the Canon 5Ds.
"2D footage of the caves wasn't completely communicating the experience of being in them," said Karoff. "Anghel and I came up with the idea of shooting some footage in 3D. Max Penner from Paradise FX created this fantastic little compact box, a 3D rig for the 5Ds. There aren't many broadcast opportunities in 3D and it can be difficult to show in a theater. We have this 3D footage in the vault now and are waiting to figure exactly what to do with it."
Still the 2D footage is striking and the short documentary resonates with audiences, as reflected not only in the Oscar shortlist distinction but also such honors as the Best Short Audience Award at the Maui Film Festival, Best Short Documentary at the San Antonio film Festival, Best Documentary (Non-European) at ECU-The European Independent Film Festival, and Best Short at the Newbury Port Doc Film Festival. CaveDigger was an official selection at the Brooklyn Film Festival, the Newport Beach Film Festival and the Doctober Film Festival.
Composer Min and editor Nordstrom were "happy discoveries," said Karoff. Originally Karoff was interested in Min's partner but Min turned out two sample tracks which impressed Karoff.
"My standard for judging the tracks was that I had to be able to turn off the sound in the movie and listen just to the music and like what I was hearing. I wanted that level of richness as well as a track that was appropriate for the scenes. Pete was able to accomplish just that."
Karoff described Nordstrom as "a find. I met her through a mutual friend and loved her work on I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, the documentary about the band Wilco. Yet, until we began cutting together, I had no idea of the depth of her storytelling talent. Erin comes to storytelling from a very intuitive place. From the first rough cut she had bridged sequences with such elegance that even I was swept along in the story. Everything I suggested, she somehow would make better.
"She was always so very focused on how to make the point stronger, the story richer. Plus, everyone at Optimus, with [EP/managing director] Therese Hunsberger leading the way, was exceptionally supportive, offering up their Santa Monica offices, personnel and technical support so that we could cut CaveDigger between Erin's commercial projects."
Nordstrom commented that she likes the challenge of documentary work "because it allows me to exercise my muscles as a writer. In commercial work, everything is so planned out ahead of time so that when you get the footage, there is already a solid structure within which you have to work. In documentaries, you get to create the structure in the edit. There is no script or pre-known outcome. The filmmaker captures whatever happens in the moment and then we figure out the most engaging story within the moments that were filmed. It's a much more collaborative process."
Karoff is no stranger to the ad industry. He recently was with The Artists Company, shifted to production house Original and has since moved over to Xenon Media for East Coast spot representation. He's currently in talks for representation in the rest of the U.S.
Karoff's ad filmography spans commercials and branded content. Among his credits is a 360-degree CircleVision film for Mercedes-Benz, a package for Ford's "Swap Your Ride" campaign chronicling the experiences of consumers who are given a chance to trade their current vehicles for Fords, a series of PSA for Model Environment that used renowned fashion models to promote environmental causes, and fundraising films for the philanthropic Robin Hood Foundation in New York.
The other seven shortlisted Short Subject Oscar contenders are:
Facing Fear directed by Jason Cohen and produced by Jason Cohen Productions. Facing Fear introduces us to a gay man who as a teen was brutally attacked by a gang of neo-Nazis. Twenty-five years later, he encounters one of his attackers.
Jujitsu-ing Reality directed by Chetin Chabuk and produced by Sobini Films. The documentary focuses on how screenwriter Scott Lew copes with Lou Gehrig's Disease and manages to communicate with the world.
Karama Has No Walls directed by Sarah Ishaq and produced by Hot Spot Films. This documentary centers on one brutally tragic day during the 2011 Yemeni revolution.
The Lady In Number 6: Music Saved My Life directed by Malcolm Clarke and produced by Reed Entertainment. This portrait of 109-year-old Holocaust survivor Alice Herz Sommer shares her views on how to live a long and happy life. Clarke along with Bill Guttentag won the Short Subject Documentary Oscar back in 1989 for You Don't Have To Die.
Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall directed by Edgar Barnes and produced by Prison Terminal LLC. Shot over a six-month span at Iowa State Penitentiary, this documentary looks at the final months in the life of a terminally ill prisoner.
Recollections directed by Nathanael Carton and produced by Notrac Productions. This documentary introduces us to a community of survivors of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami who find a measure of comfort from photographs recovered from the debris.
And SLOMO directed by Joshua Izenberg and produced by Big Young Films and Runaway Films. SLOMO follows Dr. John Kitchin, a neurologist who abandons his career to take up rollerblading on the West Coast.
Voters from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Documentary Branch selected these eight documentary shorts from this year's 40 eligible entries. Of the eight shortlisted films, three to five will earn Oscar nominations.
This is the second in a multi-part series with future installments of The Road To Oscar slated to run in SHOOT's December, January and February print issues, concurrent >e.ditions and on SHOOTonline.com. The Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2013 will be presented on March 2, 2014, and televised live on the ABC Television Network. See separate VFX backstory in this week's issue on the visual effects for Gravity, another leading Oscar contender.
To read The Road To Oscar, Part 1, click here.
To read The Road To Oscar, Part 3, click here.
