The Year of the Spirits

in Behind the Camera by Kevin Railsback — January 3, 2010 at 1:57 pm | 4 comments

Next month begins the Chinese year of the Tiger. Around these parts it will better be known as the Year of the Spirits.

There’s been a lot of activity going on in the background not only about this documentary but the Spirits in general. Some changes may not come to fruition for a while yet. Others, you’ll notice with their first performance.

I had an opportunity to spend some time with Tiffany going over the game plan for the coming year. The Spirits will find the camera a lot more mobile this year.

It was easy to show Tiffany how powerful a shot was of one of the Spirits looking head on into the camera versus shooting them at an angle. The problem with shooting the Spirits head on is that you have to be in their face to do that. Well, that may be fine at a performance, but a vast majority of the footage I shoot is during a practice. I think the last thing the team wants is to have a camera in their face blocking the view of the mirror when they are trying to clean their routines.

So that’s why we’re going to wait a bit yet. The most important thing is for the team to clean their routines and perfect them. Once that’s done, Tiffany will let me know when I can move about the room and become a huge inconvenience to the girls I happen to be shoot that night. I apologize up front but when you see the footage, you’ll be happy that I blocked your view of the mirrors. ( I Hope! )

We’re going to do more interviews this year. Not only of the new girls but the returning members as well. Nothing’s wrong with the interviews we did last year but I think this time around, the nerves won’t be on edge like they were last time. I also invested in more lighting, backdrops and some other gear to raise the level of the footage even more.

We’re going to bring back the lights in the studio again. I think this time around we’ll shoot with the lights until the studio warms up and then we’ll give everyone a break. The lights I use actually run very cool but I’m sure having thousands of watts of light beating down on you grows old quickly. Besides, this team practices hard. They’re all in fantastic shape but by the time they’re done with practice, it looks like they’ve had one hell of a workout.

We’re going to break up the teams into smaller groups at times.

In order to get most of the team in the frame, I have to shoot a very wide shot. The problem with that is it leaves a lot of empty space above and below the team. If I can come in closer then the frame is filled with less empty space and more of what the shot is about, the Spirits. So at times I may shoot just one girl at a time or maybe two, three or four.

Deatra needs to smile more.

Everyone needs to gang up on Emily and get her to smile as well.

Those are just a few of the changes that will be going on where the documentary is concerned. There’s more but we’ll go over that in person so if the team has any questions I can explain that I’m really not trying to make their life miserable on purpose.

I want to thank Tiffany again for the opportunity to collaborate with her on this project. I think it’s evolving into something that will be quite special. It’s certainly a far cry from where it started I can tell you that.

I also want to thank the team not only for putting up with me but also for the hardships they’ll be putting up with in the future to complete this doc on time. They are a 100% volunteer team and they do it because they love to dance.

I appreciate all the extra they have to do for the camera when all they want to do is catch their breath so they can dance some more.

Although they would say they’ve never seen any change, I’ve changed quite a bit since I started this project. I have to say all of it for the better. There’s no doubt it’s a direct result of working with them.

There’s no doubt in my mind that 2010 will be the Year of the Spirits. You can say you read about it here first!

Lastly since 2010 is the year of the Tiger for the rest of the world until total CR Spirit domination, I leave you with an image I took a few years back. In case you wanted to know, there’s no fence, just a can of pepper spray, a tranquilizer gun and dumb luck between me and the tiger.

The question I get asked the most is “Weren’t you scared?” My answer is always the same. Tigers, lions, grizzly bears don’t scare me. The Spirits scare me!

I can run around the grasslands of Africa filming a pride of lions or walk a trail in Glacier National park where a grizzly was just spotted and not have a care in the world. But put me in a room with CR Spirits and it’s like I’m on an episode of Scare Tactics!