“Grind Verite”
“Grind 24 hours a days, seven days a week. Some days I don’t eat or sleep, only grind.” Richard Hoak
“Cinema Verite” a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics. In French the term means, roughly, “truthful cinema”. wikipedia.com
I guess this is really pretentious, having some term or whatever for the kind of work you do, but since the beginning we’ve been all about doing things our own way – making movies how we want to make them. I think the way you make a movie is just as important as what the movie is about…and the way we make movies is to grind, and keep it real.
Here’s a list of suggestions that we try to follow whenever possible:
- No assistants
- No tripods
- No video assist or playback
- Crew only on set
- Whenever possible, crew members must hold multiple positions
- no one but the director talks to the actors
- the director must edit the film
- the d.o.p must operate too
- no one, ever, at any time, is to say anything about continuity
- no late night shoots when subject matter permits
- technical error is not an option
- you must have fun
- you have to satisfy your own artistic needs
- be selfish
