This summer I have been spending quite a bit of time surrounded by chickens, pigs and cows. Lots of cows. No, I have not traded in my camera gear for tractors and pitch forks (although I have been up before the sun on several occasions).
A friend and producer I work with quite a bit, Paul Dewey, was hired by filmmaker Kristin Canty to work on her documentary film, “Farmageddon”, and I joined him as director of photography. This documentary is taking a look at the government’s over-regulation of our food and basically having too much say in what goes into our stomachs.
This job came along at a perfect time. One of my repeat clients that normally does a large video job in the summer had to take the year off due to budget restrictions, and basically as I got that news, this documentary came along. Plus, on a personal level, this film is right up my alley. Over the last couple years my wife and I have made much more conscious decisions about what we eat, and having read books by Michael Pollen and watched recent food films like “King Corn” and “Food, Inc”, I was psyched to be a part of the food/agriculture conversation that is sweeping the media.
Documentaries are hard work, and especially in this case, take a lot of travel. We have filmed in 8 states and our very lean production crew (just me, Paul and Kristin, with an occasional assistant picked up along the way) have logged over 50 hours of car travel, not to mention several flights, plane delays, and waiting for our smoking car radiator to be fixed while trying to get out of NYC last week. But it has been worth it. We have been to some beautiful places and heard some fascinating and almost unbelievable stories. I think this film will really open people’s eyes to some of the serious issues being dealt with by small farmers as well as consumers who are making conscious, educated decisions about what they want to eat. I will blog more about this project as it continues over the months to come, but you can check out some stills from our travels.
Tags: director of photography, documentary, travel