I rode the levels on sound, too, which caused some initial panic on Yolanda's part before I normalized the sound tracks for her in post (they were fine, I'm just used to more head room). But I felt like a complete incompetent for a couple of months in between.
I found documentary extremely stressful, with odd moments of magic that make it all worthwhile. There is the constant feeling that whatever is happening right behind your head is more interesting than what you are pointing the lens at. You find yourself with beautiful light, on auto-iris so it's all blown out, you bobble the camera changing to manual, the subjects walk outside, and you've missed that shot too.
So this project completely changed my working habits. It taught me the importance of choosing backgrounds carefully, that it's better to white balance whenever the chance arises, even if you miss a shot, that autoiris is for sucks, you have to learn to judge compromise exposures quickly and ride the iris, checking the viewfinder as the LCD lies like a rug about exposure depending on the angle and ambient light when you look at it, and a dozen other lessons, each representing (at least one) lost shot. Since we didn't look at dailies, these lessons came a couple of months later, in time for my next documentary job, anyway.
But then the mom picks up the kid and he kicks his feet in the air so that the LEDs in his sneakers flash, and you're soft lit with the sun through curtains, and all is right with the world.
I speak little Spanish and no Chatino, so I had the opportunity to watch faces without comprehension. These were some of the most beautiful, transparent, and honest faces I've ever seen. I despair of finding an actor who can reproduce this quality. Without exception, the Oaxacans were generous to a fault and easily accepting of me, even when Yolanda wasn't present. I had to turn down a lot of salted beer, at least until we were finished shooting.
I only have a couple of images from one of the shoots, but I've thrown them up here against the day when I can get more from Yolanda. This room was lit with an incandescent chandelier, daylight (fading to night) through vertical blinds from one wall, and pink and blue neon lights. Whee!
Directed by Yolanda Cruz
