Blog Post
a City Named Benicia Documentary Premier
Making the documentary a City Named Benicia was a great and rewarding experience. Producing the documentary took few years to record and editing, but in the process I learned more about the City of Benicia and the importance of it in California’s history.
Making the film was a slow and difficult process that couldn’t happen if it was not for Sam Chohan’s interest and passion for California history and his role as board member in Benicia Historical museum. Everything began a year before when I was working as a teacher assistant for the producing and directing films class at Solano Community College in Fairfield California. During that time I had to meet a lot of students and Sam was one I did a good connection with in the manner Sam was always interested in film as an art form and liked to talk about the technological side of the film making process because he is an technology engineer. During the premier I learned many people are interested in the history of their town Benicia, in the manner they came with good and meaningful questions at the end of the two screenings premier. It was great feeling of accomplishment to see the screen room at the museum packed during both of the screenings some people had to watch the movie standing because all the seats taken.
Creating a documentary takes time and experience because is something people will see, enjoy and judge by the quality of your work. Personally, I felt I was ready to take on the director of photography job for the years shooting and editing documentaries in the bay area and abroad. From the beginning Sam wanted the film to look something like Ken Burns documentaries. However, Ken Burns films mostly relies on a static images that slowly zoom in and out making the film too static in my point of view, even people says the opposite.
Producing the documentary was an adventure that I decided to get involved because I love documentary film and as a Mexican-American I think telling the story of Benicia for future generations to come is important in the manner the documentary talks about California history, specifically the general Vallejo’s Wife Benicia which form part of the rich Spanish-Mexican History dating back to late 1800’s.
Sam wanted to create a documentary with the style such as Ken Burns, and we took that idea into perspective during production which make sense for a historical documentary but I wanted to add some of my documentary style which relies more on camera movement and vivid colors making it look smooth and fresh. The end product is a fusion of historical images moving back and forth and panoramic cinematography with various views of Benicia green Highlands, establishing shots of downtown buildings and of places such as, Benicia’s port, Downtown Benicia, Benicia Capitol and other detail museum artifacts. Moreover, at the time to record interviews as Director of Photography I discussed with Sam to take a more interactive approach and to record multi camera sessions instead of one camera only.
Before production I remembered watching the shot list. The shot list contained many details that we recorded nicely but the takes looked somewhat static so I decided to come with the idea to record the interviews on a multi-camera setting. I remember during the last day of production, Suddenly in the last take from Benicia’s pier I got it, probably a traveling shot from downtown would help to smooth the beginning sequence making more interesting to watch.
So briefly after discussing the plans with Sam we got
nto the back of the SUV and recorded downtown Benicia’ pier even this traveling shot was not on the shot list. As an engineer, Sam always tried to do whatever was planned accordingly to plan. However as a good director, he listened and trusted my decision. As a result I learned you need sometimes follow your gut in order to create something cool to watch.
Camera technology gets better and better everyday and what helped us getting away with this traveling shot was the new Gimbo stabilization technology 4K cameras have nowadays, this stabilization system holds the camera lens not to shake when camera hits bumps and holes on the ground.
I personally like to record natural landscapes and multi camera interviews and it was a good idea once I saw the results at the premier, making the film more interactive and visually exciting.
Been part of the production of the film was a rewarding experience in the manner A City Named Benicia documentary is going to form part of the city’s history and imagination for future generations visit the museum and look at the permanent exhibition at the museum.
The expectations and results from a City named Benicia documentary premier made me think that making documentaries sometimes pays off and is what I want to keep doing in the upcoming years.
Visions of The Fire, The Northern California Wildfires
Everything began a night in October 2017 when the air started strangely howling making windows and walls shake. I was aware that it was howling stronger than before. The next day, when I wake up in the morning it was cloudy and when I went out I saw few layers of what I first thought was fog, but not it was smoke moved by air carrying tons of leaves and branches.
As a documentary filmmaker and community member of some of the affected areas I can say it was interesting to see with my own eyes and document on video how an event such as The Tubbs Fire shows how global warming every year gets worst creating destruction in several regions of California and around the world. Every year after few weeks of heavy rain the heavy drought comes in making the soil easy to create fires such as the 2017 Northern California Wildfires which it expanded to fourteen large fires simultaneously burning in eight Northern California counties. The event was considered a national security event.
Driving thru heavy clouds of smoke on 1-80 west was new for me and everyone else I asked were little bit confused and scared how the Northern California Wildfires could had happened and why couldn’t be consumed as any other fires. Nobody believed this would last more than one day or two but it lasted for days burning more than 210,000 acres (85,000 ha) while forcing 90,000 people to evacuate from their homes. The Northern California fires have killed at least 44 people and hospitalized at least 185.
The fourth day driving throughout Rockville Road closer to Green Valley in Fairfield felt like I was in a action movie, I remember no the usual car’s traffic and the air was tick and hard to breath. While driving there I received a text message from Nixle an automated service that gives important alerts about important events saying the Atlas fire was moving close to Green Valley in Fairfield. The Atlas Fire burned Napa County, north of the city of Napa, near Napa Soda Springs and by October 29, the fire had burned 51,057 acres. Driving and looking the big cloud of smoke throughout my window covering the horizon made me think in a apocalypse scene from a movie. Everyone was just waiting the fire to go away, but couldn’t be contained yet and people started evacuating zones were the fire was about to reach. I remember while driving watching some of the few drivers wearing air masks making the feeling more real and as a first instinct I called my sister to see how she was doing.
Strangely, even the news said the fire was considered a national security event that day and for the entire duration of the Atlas fire my sister and everyone else in Vacaville-Fairfield Solano County worked their regular job hours. She answered the phone and let me know everything was fine at work, she works at the retirement home in Rancho Solano in Fairfield as a manager. I asked her what time she was planning to leave, she said; as a manager I can’t leave because if I leave who is going to take care of the people living there? so I offered to rescue her dog “little Bro” in case something happens. Personally, I never think about what to do in an event like this, It changes the way to see the world. Driving throughout Rockville Ln street was bad but no as bad as the areas touched by fires such as, The Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa.
The way I got closer to one of the Tubbs Fire affected areas was because I received a call from Christina Baird. She owns a public relations and marketing company named Little Wing Connections and a hot dog car business called Holy Mo’s she used to volunteer feeding the workers on the affected areas. One of the reasons she decided to do this was because she was born and raised in Santa Rosa which was the most affected cities in northern California. She as many other community members and leaders between counties of the affected areas collaborated to help the best they can to the effort at the Utilities field operations training center.
While we drove throughout Highway 12 to enter Napa I started noticing the devastation and burned areas the fires caused and I got my camera out and started recording the road full of ashes and debris from the houses and barns that disappeared with the fire. Me as Christina and his son Christopher were impressed to see the houses and structures on the road gone all into ashes.Once we got to Santa Rosa field operations training center I started doing interviews to the the crew and victims. nobody couldn’t believed what just happened. Bob Chield, a Santa Rosa resident that lost his house on the fire gave me testimonial describing vividly the story. He said, everything happened so fast that night that the only thing he and his wife were able to do was a quick list of the most important things to take with them before the fire reached the house. The quick list contained the most important that was them and the cat that survived the fire.
He continued his testimonial saying that during the night the electricity went off and he had a device that started beeping and then he heard megaphone outside with a amplifying voice saying “everyone has to get out everybody needs to evacuate now.” He as many other survivors couldn’t believed the fire was coming until they saw the flames and ashes flying outside and approaching not many miles away.
Bob Chield finalized his story saying that he believed he is going to come back home to find everything he left behind , but when he went back home everything was gone with the fire.
That day After went home in Vacaville and I felt blessed and hopeful the fire could be contained before coming closer. Few weeks after eventually it did. However, the next year 2018 the Mendocino fire which is considered the biggest in California history to this day started early summer.
Memories from Jinja
It is nine in the morning, a huge snail lie stock on the Safari bus’s side panel surface is driving nine Actuality Media documentary program students and me, one of their supervisors, to Jinja in one of our production weekends off.Alfred, the gatekeeper opens the gate and kindly greets us before we drive outside the ICU guest house. The unpaved streets outside the guest house are reddish in color, but clean even do Kampala is one of the most populated cities in Uganda. We cross the busy city on Jinja Road getting us closer to our destination. As we are driving to Jinja the scenery starts to change, the color green starts covering most part of the LCD screen of my Sony handycam viewfinder and the sound levels start decreasing. My plan today was to enjoy my day off, but the natural scenery attracts me and makes me take it out my camera and start shooting some video. This may be the last time I am in Africa. I feel that every place I point my camera is a postcard that talks about another place, another state of mind, some people call it “the cradle of mankind.” Looking at this images thru the viewfinder makes me think of how the world and humanity has changed. The vast natural landscape talks to me about the past and the current life of Ugandans.
I look through the bus window and see some huts sprawled out up beside some small concrete houses. My camera records people sitting on the ground cooking, cleaning rice and coffee beans. Some kids laugh and play around. Further down the road a teenage shepherd with a thin herding stick conducts a big herd of Ankole Longhorn. After an hour or two the color blue becomes predominant making everything look brighter. I am impressed, with a women walking beside the road carrying a big basket on top of her head. Even thou she walks swiftly, she keeps a straight body posture keeping all her valuables inside the basket. a man carries a big pile of long tree branches. He concentrates while moving his body without turning his head as he gaze beyond the road. My camera can’t record the action as I would like so I decide to pull my camera out and enjoy my adventure since we are moving quickly. Between two houses there is a water well with a girl pumping water into a yellow bucket,behind her a boy with two buckets gets in line. He is ready to pump the water for the whole day. Close to them, a woman crouches down and scrubs the family’s clothing intently and repeatedly into a container, slapping and grabbing the clothing forcefully to get out the dirt.
Suddenly a fresh water breeze from the Nile River comes through the window, My fellow passengers start gathering close to the windows excited. We are about to approach the bridge that connects the Nile River to the bay. Everybody take out their cameras and gets ready to take their first picture of the Nile. What a moment, I am about to presence the source of the biggest river in the world. The first time I heard about it and its dimensions was in Mexico at primary school. I thought that I would never visit it in my life. As we cross, I hear various cameras motors and flashes clicks. I have already set up my video recorder for this life event. Looking thorough the LCD screen the bridge looks to me as a military fortress, a soldier dressed in a blue camouflaged uniform quickly steps out of the building. This may be a good moment in the footage, I think. After he sees me he points his finger at me and yells, “HEY YOU! STOP!” My camera captures this in a medium shot. The commander doesn’t look too happy to see me after all. James, the bus driver doesn’t hear anything and the bus keeps moving. The only documentary students aware of it is Ashunda, her sister and Brad who are sitting close to me. I ask, “what’s wrong? … should we stop?” Not knowing what happened I pull down my camera and wait. The bus keeps moving as we finish crossing the bridge.
A couple of minutes passes before a military truck packed with armed soldiers tailgate our bus. Our driver James looks through his mirror and notices that we are we are being chased. He keeps driving since there is no place to stop beside the road. Everyone notices what is going on now. The military truck speeds in front and blocks the road before James could park beside the road. Everybody is looking through the front window. The soldier in the blue camouflage is the first one coming towards us. He looks pissed. Someone screams, “whats wrong, what happened?” He comes directly into my window and points at me again, “You the guy with the camera, you come down, right now!”
Everybody looks at me worried before I get off the bus. Our driver, James gets off as well. I approach the circle where the commander and three other soldiers stand. “How many did you take? Let me see the pictures, you can’t take pictures of the bridge, is not allowed.”
I didn’t know what to say, I can’t deny I took few still as well. “I don’t remember I think four, I am sorry, I didn’t know taking pictures was not allowed, nobody warned me.”
The Commander says, “You didn’t see the sign? I want to see the pictures, now!”
I open the LCD screen and hit the playback function of my camera, carefully scrolling down around the pictures to not play the video thumbnails. If pictures not allowed, I don’t know what trouble I would get for the video. I play some of them for him, the commander sees more than four thumbnails of the bridge on my camera. “You have more than four! Give me your camera, you’ll come with me.”
“Look, I was excited for being in the Nile for the first time, I don’t understand, you can have the memory with the pictures as well as I can format my camera now.” I didn’t see any sign, I am very sorry.”
“You and your friends drive back to base we going to interrogate you.”
Before anything else happens James starts speaking with the commander, they walk close to the military truck. While they were speaking, I tell one of the soldiers, “my sign story.” He replies to me that is not allowed to take pictures of the Nile bridge to protect it against terrorist. Suddenly a more clear view about things comes to my mind. James finishes talking with the commander and approaches me. He quietly says, he will let us go in exchange of one hundred thousand? I walk to the bus, step up little bit relieved, little bit concerned, “One hundred thousand, one hundred what? I turn, walk back and quietly ask James, “hundred dollars?”
James,“No, hundred thousand shillings.”
“UH, OK… Shillings?” I turn again and I walk back to the bus, “Mmm..How much is that?”
I Kayaked later in the evening for few hours in the magnificence and beauty of the source of the Nile River and spend one of the most magical sunsets in the water. This great experience made me forget about what happened earlier in the day. I take a depth breath and look into the few colors the moon provides with the few lights available in the road. Then suddenly, I remember the snail and look down to see if stills there, but he has gone. Maybe decided to stay and spend his days at Jinja.