SYNOPSIS:

Episode 75, the Diamond Jubilee, and it’s just the two of us. With no guest, with no safety net or buffer, this one finds Ben feeling both naked and vulnerable. But Keith is there to calm his nerves with: a full craft episode, with three buckets.

First bucket up, OBSERVATIONAL FILMMAKING. What’s right & wrong about fly-on-the-wall as a premise and who gets it right. Ben walks through his plan for an upcoming shoot, and Keith pokes at whether that’s observation at all. We’ll talk Wiseman and the Maysles and turn to our experiences with 100-plus days hanging out with teenagers at the Texas School for the Blind for Keith’s THE EYES OF ME; and one great day on Ben’s undergrad short DAY WITH JOHN.

Bucket two: RE-CREATION. Keith’s got opinions. And a time-tested theory that re-cre (as well as animation) works when it’s A-roll and fails as a B-roll Band-Aid. We get into our work on TOWER, DEAR MR. BRODY, and CALLS TO OKIES—and widen out to discuss the subjects and objects of NANOOK OF THE NORTH, THE THIN BLUE LINE and THE ACT OF KILLING. Speaking of subjectivity, Keith drops the bold claim that re-creation is more truthful than observation because it announces itself and Ben has thoughts.

Bucket three, for today was meant to be ARCHIVAL STORYTELLING.  But as episode 75 runs out of road, we punt on an archival deep-dive for a future episode. So, call this one: 2 out of 3 buckets.

Plus: a callback to Barlow Jacobs & Pete Muller; we start counting steps; and we close with some in-theater, under-the-radar recs: WTO/99 and FLAG DAY.

DISCUSSION LINKS

SECRET MALL APARTMENT (2024) | SCHOOL FOR DEFECTORS (2026) | LILY TOPPLES THE WORLD (2021) | THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET (2018) | WILD INSIDE (2026) | AMERICAN PACHUCO: THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ (2026) | WHO MOVES AMERICA (2026) | SHERMAN’S MARCH (1985) | DEAR MR. BRODY (2021) | TOWER (2016) | THE EYES OF ME (2009) | WHAT IS CINEMA? (2013) | THANK YOU VERY MUCH (2023) | MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (1929) | GATES OF HEAVEN (1978) | THE THIN BLUE LINE (1988) | THEREMIN: AN ELECTRONIC ODYSSEY (1993)

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Cold open: selfie sticks and old live oaks
00:55 Episode 75, and no guest
02:00 Why we’re doing a craft episode
02:30 The step counter starts now
03:30 Three buckets: observation, recreation, archival
04:15 The Diamond Jubilee and the fire department boats
06:00 Bucket one: what is observational filmmaking?
07:00 Ben’s upcoming shoot: a podcast, a conference, a plan
10:30 Be Fred Wiseman for a minute
15:30 People vs. places
17:00 THE EYES OF ME: 100 days at the Texas School for the Blind
19:30 DAY WITH JOHN and learning to direct
23:30 Casting, premise and structure
27:00 The Maysles, SALESMAN and “the Al of this combo”
29:00 Quickfire advice on observation: patience
30:30 Your temperament is how you see the world
32:00 Bucket two: recreation
34:00 TOWER and DEAR MR. BRODY
38:30 Recreation works as A-roll, fails as B-roll
42:30 CALLS TO OKIES and imagining the character
45:30 NANOOK OF THE NORTH and the ethics of artifice
50:00 THE VOYAGE OUT and “recreation is more true than observation”
52:30 Why fiction can tell you more about an era
54:00 Not “should you?” but “how?”
55:30 THE THIN BLUE LINE
57:00 THE ACT OF KILLING
1:00:30 Replaying the walk on the drive home
1:01:00 Bucket three: archival (saved for later)
1:02:30 Recs: WTO/99
1:03:50 Recs: FLAG DAY
1:06:00 Thank-yous and sign-off