EP075 - Naked And Vulnerable W/ Ben & Keith

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: THE EYES OF ME (2009) | DAY WITH JOHN (2002) | SALESMAN (1969) | GIMME SHELTER (1970) | TOWER (2016) | DEAR MR. BRODY (2022) | CALLS TO OKIES: THE PARK GRUBBS STORY (2015) | NANOOK OF THE NORTH (1922) | THE VOYAGE OUT (2025) | THE THIN BLUE LINE (1988) | THE ACT OF KILLING (2012) | LA 92 (2017) | LET THE FIRE BURN (2013) | BUCKS HARBOR (2026) | WTO/99 (2025) | FLAG DAY (2026) 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