PARK CITY, Utah – Proponents of digital filmmaking call it "the tyranny of principal photography." It's the idea, entrenched in Hollywood, that a movie must be shot in a specific block of time, using a sizable crew and rigid scheduling.
DV filmmakers will tell you that this traditional concept of moviemaking limits creativity. The clock becomes an opponent. Film artists become managers. And the financiers have final say.
That's why many filmmakers, including Henry Barrial, have begun looking for new models of filmmaking.
Barrial's feature, Some Body, was created more like a novel – constantly revised, with the action evolving as the piece progressed. Shooting on weekends and after work, and editing as they went, Barrial and his collaborators crafted Some Body over a period of months.
The film, which premiered last week at the Sundance Film Festival, provides a window into the possibilities that digital filmmaking might allow.
Some Body follows a woman (played by the film's co-writer and co-producer, Stephanie Bennett) whose life is thrown into turmoil after she leaves her boyfriend. The supporting cast consists of actors who are real-life friends of Bennett and Barrial.
"We spent more time on casting than on the writing," Barrial said. "We really wanted to walk the line between documentary and narrative filmmaking, to give it a real truthfulness, so we concentrated on finding the perfect person for each role, finding people we were familiar with."
The pace and style of Some Body might remind some viewers of MTV's The Real World – the sometimes-frenetic film feels as though it is evolving organically, rather than by design. The intent of Some Body, however, is illumination, not titillation.
"We discovered the film's arc as we went along," Barrial said. "We all come from a theater group that focuses on exploring scenes, and that's what we did here. What we found is what you end up seeing on the screen."
The film cost nearly nothing to produce. The costs, Barrial said, were limited to tape stock, food for the cast and a few hard drives. Much of the film was shot with a hand-held camera, and without additional lighting. Barrial and Geoffrey Pepos, the film's cinematographer/composer/editor/co-producer, used a consumer editing system, set up in Pepos' bedroom, to cut the film.
By owning the means of production, the tiny crew was able to dictate how and when they would shoot and edit. Setting up a shoot was as simple as making a few phone calls and making sure Barrial and Pepos had enough DV tapes.
"We held the reins, we made the film we wanted to make," Barrial said. "No one was looking over our shoulders. I don't know if I'd do it this way again, but it was a great learning process.
"Making this film was really my film school. Thanks to digital video, I have the equipment and wherewithal to discover what filmmaking means to me."
