Day One on Our Hollywood Documentary
A few days have passed and I am working on my list of To-Do’s. The team and I have been talking about the documentary with other artists and the list of interviewees is growing.
Erin’s pick for producer was Emily Morton. Emily is the Director of Communications at Ecclesia, the church on Hollywood Blvd that the creative team and I are a part of. I asked Emily if she would be our producer and she joyfully accepted. I am overcome by her generosity and psyched to have her. She too is awesome.
Immediately emails began flying back and forth securing equipment and finalizing details for our first interview. A friend dropped off the donated equipment (thank you Jesus!) by my house the night before the shoot.
The following morning I arrived at Erin’s house with snacks and equipment. I helped Erin move the couch and coffee table. After returning with our dolled up interviewee, Lauretta Coumarbatch, Erin informs me I was the sound person for the day.
She hands me a device that looks much like a medical scanner from Star Trek and proceeds to show me how to operate it. There is a headset attached and a long gunshaped microphone called a “boom.” My job is to point the mic at Lauretta off screen and listen for background noise that interrupts the vocals. Erin unplugged the refrigerator so it’s hum would not interfere.
While we were filming the dogs downstairs barked, doors in the complex slammed, trash trucks and helicopters passed by. If the noise interfered with anything brilliant Lauretta was saying Erin would pause us and have Lauretta repeat it. Erin also explained to me she was using two cameras so she could gracefully edit the interview with the different perspectives. I also learned a bit about skin tone and lighting effects.
Besides snacks for the planning meeting and shoot the only other items to hit our budget were a pack of AA batteries from Costco and two cellphone-sized one-terabyte memory devices called “WD Passports” costing $100 each. The passports hold the “dailies” which is the camera and sound feed. We have two so the content is backed up twice. This also means I can review a copy of the footage at home while Erin works with the other.
Lauretta was in Epiphany Space’s first Artists Listening Group.Hollywood Prayer Network hosted our eight week study on hearing God in their office space located across from First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. That is the church Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie, Dr. Henrietta Mears, Billy Graham andBill Bright (Campus Crusade) were a part of while in LA. Hollywood Presbyterian has an incredible history of God moving though their church however, the last few years have been tough for them practically and spiritually. It is worth noting the church is flanked by the Scientology Celebrity Center and the Museum of Death.
Lauretta shares most of her story in the interview so I won’t disclose many details. It is a privilege to know her. She is an incredible lady and God has big plans for her. She has been faithfully praying for us and Epiphany Space since we met. She is even watching Craigslist for free equipment and supplies. If we had the space, we could have had free cubicles from a business that was shutting down. As of now we don’t have anywhere to store any large equipment. Lauretta is an encourager and will be loving on other artists when we open our space.