Our first project

By Tessa Moran

As part of our preparation for the Kibbutz film, we decided to produce a short documentary. We hoped it would help us become more comfortable using the new equipment and working as a team. Our first task was to conceive of a topic for the film. It was a difficult task because we wanted to select a shooting location that was accessible and convenient and a topic that was simple enough to shoot during one or two days.

I’ve found that best way to think of an idea for a nonfiction article or film is to survey one’s surroundings. There are fascinating people at every turn, and many are itching for the opportunity to tell their stories. For the next couple of weeks we kept our eyes wide open and in due time we gathered several ideas. In the end, we decided to film “a day at the barbershop.”

We had both been awed by the old-fashioned looking barbershops in our historic African American neighborhood, located around U Street in northwest Washington, DC. One shop, sandwiched between rowhouses, especially intrigued us. Through its bright windows, was a row of shiny fire-engine red chairs with matching mirrors on the wall. In the corner, were shelves dedicated to the sale of reggae cds and rastafarian trinkets. And outside of the door was a box with a sign directing passerbys to donate shoes. The owner, whom I spoke with one day, said the donated shoes were to be sent to Africa. The quirky shop was a filmmaker’s dream.

However, when we presented our idea to the manager of the shop, he appeared unenthusiastic and annoyed. He told us to call him back in a few days when he had spoken with the owner. When we called him several times after, he became paranoid. “Where are you from?” “What do you want?” “Why this shop?”, he asked in accusatory tones. We soon realized that our “dream” barbershop might not be the perfect scenario we once envisioned. So we decided give up on the “practice” film, for the time being at least.

The next weekend, we bought a windmuff for the shotgun mic on the camera, and decided to go and test it out in some windy conditions. After some time, we became frustrated panning the camera from one side of the park to the other. Our frustrations deepened as we worried that our preparation would be insufficient, and that we would fail horribly when we went to Israel. We’ve had many of these doubtful moments throughout the preparation of this film. And each time, we’ve had to remind ourselves why we are doing what we are doing, that we are indeed talented, and that every failure needs to be followed with a “Plan B.”

So we regrouped and decided to try another shop on U Street, called Edges Barbershop. It was less asthetic than the last, but we figured we’d check it out nonetheless. Besides, this film was supposed to be about the people inside the barbershop, not the four walls surrounding them.

We both had a degree of reluctance walking into the second shop, especially after the poor response at the last. I worried about how the clients in an all-black, all-male barbershop might perceive the entrance of of a young white woman. But after speaking the friendly barbers at Edges, we soon realized that our fears were in vain. A man named Tony gave us the card of his manager Donnie to call for permission to make the documentary. Tony shook our hands generously as if there was nothing out place with our presence. When we got back on the street, we glanced at eachother and smiled. We both had a good feeling about this place.

We called Donnie the next day and told him what we wanted to do. He agreed to let us film at the shop the following Saturday, asking us what channel or news organization we were affiliated with — one can dream! He seemed to be pretty interested in the idea, but we didn’t get the impression he took us very seriously. We weren’t even confident in ourselves, and he likely sensed that. But the point of the exercise was to obtain experience working as real documentarians and to gain some self confidence.

We didn’t conduct any research during the days leading up to the shoot, partly due to time, but mostly due to the fact that we didn’t really know what to research. We knew we didn’t want it to be a historical view of a barbershop, but just a slice of life, so we accepted that it was ok to enter the situation relatively blind. Fortunately our plan worked.

We first started shooting by acting like “flies on the wall”, talking little to barbers and clientele and merely observing. We noticed that this tactic helped the barbers become more comfortable with the presence of a camera. It also gave us time to adjust to our surroundings and allowed us to get to know each individual, at least peripherally.

We quickly noticed that Vincent drew the most attention, and loved the camera. Donnie was less talkative, but managed to steal the show from time to time with a couple dirty jokes. George was the older, more composed of the three. Our observations helped guide us as we proceeded to interview the barbers and their clients.

Our interview style was casual, largely because of the setting. We did not take time establishing the Ken Burns interview set up: focused shot of the interviewee with a blurred lamp and flowers in the background. Nor did we mimic Errol Morris’ set-up: dramatic lighting and cloaked backgrounds. Instead, we wanted to capture the subjects talking as they were trimming hair. We found that it made the film far more visual.

The casual set-up also allowed us to quickly turn our camera to other interactions occuring around the room. While we were interviewing Vincent, I noticed a very adorable young boy with a pout on his face. During a pause in our interview with Vincent, I directed Ben to turn the camera to the boy while I asked why he was upset. He said, “My grandad made me mad” and continued to pout. We then turned our focus to his grandfather, waiting in a chair near the front of the shop. I commented on his grandson’s hilarious attitude. Through that one comment, I prompted a very humorous interaction between the grandfather and grandson. The scene has resonated with nearly everyone who has seen the film.

We didn’t know how this interaction would factor into the film, but in editing we matched it with Vincent’s comments about kids being his “hardest clients.” It was the perfect way to both show and tell.

Sometimes in documentary, the stars align and those beautiful moments of pure human reality are captured on camera. It makes up for all the many more moments lost to inattention, shaky camera movements, bad sound and all of the other human errors that are privy to Murphy’s law. And we certainly experienced all of them while filming Barberin’.

Immediately after filming, we were anxious to start editing. The best part of being a low-budget two-person production team, is that we were able to see our project through every stage — research, directing, filming, editing, and marketing. Overseeing every role in the production is a tremendous task, but it ensures that the vision is uniform from start to finish. We didn’t have to concern ourselves with having our vision be understood by several other individuals, as is required by larger productions.

Our next task was to find an editing suite. We didn’t have Final Cut Pro, nor a computer fast enough to run it. Also, every editing suite in the city cost $25 to $45 an hour. Since we had only used the program for a few projects, we were fairly amateur and would likely need many hours to edit the 2 1/2 hours of video we shot at the barbershop. Renting an editing suite would have been costly, and we had budgeted next to nothing for the project. Afterall, it was only a “practice” project.

So we emailed Ben’s former digital art professor at our local alma mater Georgetown University. We wanted to know if we could use the editing suites in the digital art laboratories on campus, but the professor flatly denied our request. So we moved on to plan B: the older editing suites at Georgetown’s Lauinger library. We guessed that our old school id’s would still work as we had graduated just one year ago… and they did! After several bike and bus trips back and forth to Georgetown, and 30 hours in the University’s tight editing suite, we had completed the film. Thank you Georgetown University “alumni services.”

Our product surpassed our expectations. What began as a “practice” project, became a compelling and humorous seven minute short documentary. We were so pleased with the outcome, that we decided to submit the film to DC Shorts Film Festival. We are still waiting to hear whether it is accepted.