The Pioneer Hour

Tonight at Vinegar Hill I saw outtakes of Albert Maysles films and spoke to him briefly afterwards. With his brother he made Gimme Shelter which is one of my favorites. I had been thinking about this movie a lot lately--about the way the camera lingered on certain scenes longer than you would in other types of films. I realize now that it's an approach called Direct Cinema or Verite, and that I've probably been thinking about it in relation to my own radio work.

I'm working on a story now, about The Extraordinaires and I'm narrating. Because it's a short piece (maybe 5-6 minutes if I'm lucky) this means I won't get to use much of the verite tape I gathered. I have arguments, hanging out, crying, storming off... all these revealing moments I could use to tell a much different story. And while I think the story that I'm working hard to tell is true, I'm not sure it's the story that intrigued me in the first place.

I think now that if I had pitched the story as non-narrated, I could have done it much differently, and perhaps told the story I wanted. Narration seemed like an interesting challenge (it's often scared me and I do think I'm a lot better at it) but as of now, I officially want to make a non-narrated version. And If you want to give me 1000$ to do it, I'm listening.