Why two and not one?

in Behind the Camera by Kevin Railsback — November 18, 2009 at 2:49 pm | 1 comment

I was talking to another filmmaker in LA last week, catching up on projects we were currently working on.

They were kind of surprised when I mentioned that I was starting my second year of filming Tiffany and the Spirits. They wanted to know why I was taking so long to film a “year in the life” type of documentary.

The way most documentaries work is you spend a lot of your time up front doing research and planning as much as possible for the upcoming shooting.

Editing can take as much time as the preproduction, sometimes even more if it’s a big project.

The actual shooting is really a very small part of the project. So to this filmmaker in LA, they were puzzled why I’d want to spend two years filming a one year project.

For me it was really simple. I wanted to go beyond the dancing and try to show you who Tiffany and the Spirits really are. That’s not something you can accomplish by waltzing in with your big cigar dangling from the corner of your mouth barking commands to do this or do that. Sure you’ll get some good footage of the dancing but you’ll walk away knowing nothing about Tiffany and the Spirits and who they really are.

If you want to know Tiffany and the Spirits, you have to take the time to watch, listen and learn.

Even though these women can dance in front of thousands of people, I knew bringing a camera into the mix would make them uncomfortable. So my goal was to give them the time they needed to get comfortable in front of the camera.

During that time I really got to know Tiffany and the Spirits. The more time I spent with them the more I realized this was going to be something more than a documentary about dancing. If I had not taken the time, I would have only scratched the surface of who the Spirits really are and the documentary would be nothing more than what you see at one of their performances.

So that means changes.

Now, the hard work is about to begin. I’ve had long talks with Tiffany about the film and what I’d like it to become and the filming is really going to go into high gear very soon.

That means some filming changes from what the team is used to. I’m sure some of the changes they’re not going to be happy with but I think when they see the final product they’ll be glad they put up with them.

I also know the team well enough to know that by now Tiffany has received five or six text messages asking what the changes are. ☺

Although a documentary is MY goal, I have to remember that the Spirits are a dance team first. I have to allow Tiffany and the team to get where they need to be in order to be on top of their game. So I’m constantly running ideas past Tiffany with the caveat that she will let me know if and when we can implement them.

I can already see changes from last year to this year. Tiffany is working them harder and pushing them to bring their “A” game one hundred percent of the time. Not that they didn’t work hard last year because they did. I think the difference this year is that they’re going beyond what they’ve done in the past. There’s no doubt that this year is going to be bigger than last year. The new routines are incredible, the team is energized and they are fired up like you wouldn’t believe.

All that is great, but you know, that really doesn’t answer the question the filmmaker posed.

To me, the answer is in the picture of Amy at the top of this post. Maybe you don’t see it just yet because you haven’t spent the time with them like I have. But this is the Amy that cigar chomping filmmakers would never see. It’s the Amy that could never be scripted by any writer. It’s Amy just being Amy. And THAT is why I’m taking two years to film a one year project.

It might not make a lot of sense to you right now but I think if I can do my job you’ll understand what it is I’m talking about. I sure hope I can because incredible doesn’t begin to describe the Spirits and it would be a shame if all you saw was a film about dancing.

Tags: Cedar Rapids CR Spirits Dance Team Escape to the Music Iowa Kuehl Tiffany