Primary
On the first day Bob Drew, Al Maysles and I walked into the photo studio where Kennedy was having his portrait taken and just shot what happened. They ignored us. We shot Hubert Humphrey on the streets walking and talking, a first at that time. I got into the car with Senator Humphrey and filmed with the tiny camera and recorder that no professional would be seen dead with. He probably thought I was someone’s uncle making home movies and he ignored me, perfect. He fell asleep, even better, then woke up and talked nonsense about how the snow brings nitrogen to the soil. We even filmed him in the men’s room with the Lt. Governor as they planned their TV show.
On the last night, Drew had to persuade me to walk into the Kennedy suite. I was scared but was received with a nod and a smile. I settled into an armchair in the corner, wondering how on earth I was going to get sound without Bob. I noticed that JFK was sitting in the same place most of the time, or close to it, so I went and set the tape recorder behind his sofa, turned it on and put a small microphone in his ashtray. Twenty minutes later, I loaded a new tape! This footage, like all the rest, was made synchronous on the Ryder machine by dint of Pennebaker’s infinite patience and skill. After the election we stayed and edited our own footage. Rewinds and synch blocks, nothing fancy, with Drew having the final say.
We were breaking all the rules of the industry. We were shooting and editing our own footage on location. The people taking sound were not “sound men”, they were reporters, journalists, trained in finding and telling stories. It was a collaborative work: filmmakers and journalists, not cameramen and soundmen.
After three weeks of twenty-hour days and a diet of fast food, we had one hour cut and took it to New York to mix the sound. I loved it, a fabulous film. Paul Rotha, an old friend from London, happened to be in New York and we screened it for him. He was amazed and said, “We have been trying to do this for forty years and you’ve done it!” So we all went out and got smashed on Irish whiskey. But the film was not truly appreciated until we took it to Paris. We never claimed that it was telling some kind of absolute truth or “objective” truth. Of course the film is subjective. One of my favourite sequences is when the lady at the microphone asks that people not smoke cigarettes or cigars because a lady has complained that her dress has been burned by a gentleman smoking a cigar. And yes, we used a shot of such a man followed by a shot of an angry-looking woman. That is not a distortion -- that is filmmaking! This was getting close to “the feeling of being there”!
I think that our original notion was that we were going to make the ultimate, definitive film on the decision-making process in a political election. Well, we never got anywhere near that. But we were very aware that we had crossed some sort of boundary and we were enormously excited. However, the industry -- television – was by no means excited. Drew showed it to Elmer Lower, the President of ABC News, who said, “Bob, you’ve got some nice footage there!” He liked the aspect of thievery! But the networks were not interested in Primary. It was finally broadcast on local stations owned by Time Inc. after the elections were over. But we all knew that we were heading in a direction that was fundamental to the achievement of our dreams. It took a long time for me to figure out what the main problems were.
On the last night, Drew had to persuade me to walk into the Kennedy suite. I was scared but was received with a nod and a smile. I settled into an armchair in the corner, wondering how on earth I was going to get sound without Bob. I noticed that JFK was sitting in the same place most of the time, or close to it, so I went and set the tape recorder behind his sofa, turned it on and put a small microphone in his ashtray. Twenty minutes later, I loaded a new tape! This footage, like all the rest, was made synchronous on the Ryder machine by dint of Pennebaker’s infinite patience and skill. After the election we stayed and edited our own footage. Rewinds and synch blocks, nothing fancy, with Drew having the final say.
We were breaking all the rules of the industry. We were shooting and editing our own footage on location. The people taking sound were not “sound men”, they were reporters, journalists, trained in finding and telling stories. It was a collaborative work: filmmakers and journalists, not cameramen and soundmen.
After three weeks of twenty-hour days and a diet of fast food, we had one hour cut and took it to New York to mix the sound. I loved it, a fabulous film. Paul Rotha, an old friend from London, happened to be in New York and we screened it for him. He was amazed and said, “We have been trying to do this for forty years and you’ve done it!” So we all went out and got smashed on Irish whiskey. But the film was not truly appreciated until we took it to Paris. We never claimed that it was telling some kind of absolute truth or “objective” truth. Of course the film is subjective. One of my favourite sequences is when the lady at the microphone asks that people not smoke cigarettes or cigars because a lady has complained that her dress has been burned by a gentleman smoking a cigar. And yes, we used a shot of such a man followed by a shot of an angry-looking woman. That is not a distortion -- that is filmmaking! This was getting close to “the feeling of being there”!
I think that our original notion was that we were going to make the ultimate, definitive film on the decision-making process in a political election. Well, we never got anywhere near that. But we were very aware that we had crossed some sort of boundary and we were enormously excited. However, the industry -- television – was by no means excited. Drew showed it to Elmer Lower, the President of ABC News, who said, “Bob, you’ve got some nice footage there!” He liked the aspect of thievery! But the networks were not interested in Primary. It was finally broadcast on local stations owned by Time Inc. after the elections were over. But we all knew that we were heading in a direction that was fundamental to the achievement of our dreams. It took a long time for me to figure out what the main problems were.