One Shot Documentary: Moxie

Director's Reflection

For this film, I was attempting to communicate a large portion of my personality. Throughout my life, I’ve hated hearing people tell me that I cannot accomplish something or do something. As a result, I would set about proving them wrong. With this film, I wanted to capture a process that illustrated the tenacity to keep trying even when failure over and over is inevitable.

This project was difficult for me, and after reflection, I learned an awful lot. In most documentary films, you want to make sure you capture the action, and then you have the opportunity to capture b-roll later for things to cut to. This project required not only the forethought into exactly the framing you wanted to capture, but also the ability to purposefully adjust on the fly. Knowing that I couldn’t cut to another shot if I messed up was nerve-racking, and because of that, I wasn’t able to adjust on the fly as much as I would have liked. After our 10 minutes of surf time was up, I began seeing everything about the setting that I would have liked to capture (the character of the peeling wall, the “no running/slip zone cones”, and everyone just sitting in the hot tub staring at us).

One of the biggest mistakes I made was technical/procedural out of a root fear. Rather than call ahead and ensure that Provo Beach would allow me to film, I simply decided to use a small rig and say I was just taking pictures to avoid even asking for permission. As it turned out, the management was absolutely fine with my filming and even allowed us to purchase 10 minutes of private surf time. Because of my lack of planning due to fear of rejection, I only had a small single handle shoulder rig and the resulting film contained a great deal more shake than I desired.

While I feel I adequately captured a progression of James learning how to indoor-surf in an interesting and ambiguous opening, I am sad that I do not have better sound. I am also sad that I was not more upfront about my intentions with Provo Beach, as they ended up being incredibly accommodating. I wish that I had spent more time pre-planning on location (I felt comfortable with my shot list before showing up), as I only had 10 minutes of surf time to capture. I’m happy with the resulting understanding on how ever-present the ubiquitous winged witness must be in my mind’s eye.