Tony the Production Assistant: Working on an Indie Doc

We Are Movie Geeks welcomes guest blogger Tony Fernandez, a production assistant taking us inside the underworld of indie filmmaking.

PUSH: MADISON VS. MADISON is an independent documentary that I worked on that is premiering at this year’s Cinequest Film Festival.

The film follows Dennis Wilson, head coach of the Madison Park High School basketball team and their ride through a 15-0 season and a shot at the state championship and an undefeated season for the first time in school history. The film also gives an insight into the personal lives of the players and the challenges they face on the court as well as on the street.

Working on a documentary is very different from working on a scripted feature – different and frustrating. Different for the obvious fact that you are working without scripted dialogue, without complete control over the subject matter, and of course not knowing how long the shooting day will be. Working on a documentary is frustrating for the same reasons.

It can be awkward to be on set during a scripted shoot, watching actors do their jobs. Being on the set of a doc, watching and listening to people being interviewed about their lives is even more awkward. Watching someone pour their heart out while trying hard to not react to what is happening as to not distract the person is strange. It feels unnatural for me to ignore someone who is talking.

I remember shooting an interview with a woman in front of her house. It was the last interview of the day and we were losing daylight, we had no time to waste. Her interview, which included a story of the loss of a loved one, was repeatedly interrupted by neighborhood noise. The type of neighborhood sounds you wouldn’t notice unless you were shooting something.

A saw was the first thing to interrupt us; it was a neighbor down the street doing home repairs. After a friendly chat he agreed to hold the work. The second interruption was a radio on the front porch across the street, the owner agreed to keep it low until we were finished after I had asked. The third interruption was a group of children playing in the street, after a few minutes of begging they agreed to play down the street, away from us. These are the types of things that happen while filming a documentary, it is nearly impossible to have any control over the environment you are in.

As difficult as it may be to make a documentary, it is exciting to see what plays out. Working on this picture was one of the more rewarding experiences I’ve had during my brief time working in this industry. The director of the project, Rudy Hypolite, impressed me with the ability to somehow grab hold of the uncontrollable and to always come out getting the footage he needs and sometimes more.

I had the pleasure of spending most of my time on set with Coach Wilson and talking with him about his semi- professional basketball days and his current career as the Madison Park boys’ basketball head coach. I like Coach Wilson. He’s a very sociable man, always talking and laughing with more than enough stories to tell. The joke going around set is that Coach Wilson had to have surgery to fix his vocal chords because he talks so much – the surgery really happened, but I’m not sure why.

We shot b-roll of Coach Wilson walking through Washington Park. The park was filled with people playing basketball, families on the playground, people barbecuing and sharing with everyone, it was awesome. I noticed the reaction Coach Wilson was getting from everyone in the neighborhood. We couldn’t walk ten feet without people stopping what they were doing to say hello to him. “Wow, you seem to know everybody!” I said to him.

“No, I don’t know everybody.” He said.

He does. He knows everybody. People were getting out of their cars in the middle of traffic to say hello to Coach Wilson. It was pretty cool to see how much of an impact this man has had in these peoples’ lives.

Push Madison V Madison Trailer from Rudy Hypolite on Vimeo.