We uncorked the champagne to celebrate wrapping up the film shoot of the Dog Walking documentary for Australian director Peter Wilson of Red Hawk Films Ltd. Here at San Telmo Productions, we provided complete production services as well as acted a local fixer in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We provided everything a foreign director would need to complete his documentary, that while was his idea, he had little time to pre-produce, and he DOESN´T SPEAK SPANISH!!
DoP Jorge Crespo films the "Dogmobile"
We spent close to a month an a half researching potential subjects and choosing the best ones for the documentary, including a man who invented a “dog-mobile” that runs on dog power, a dog walker who rescues dogs in her spare time and a client who has four dogs and fourteen cats!
Hired the crew, which included a production chief (Gabriel Balanovsky), assistant director (me), Director of Photography/cameraman, HD assistant, sound recorder (with mixer), and production assistant.
Rented all needed equipment and took care of logistics, meals, transport (in a hired luxury van), security and insurance.
Provided on set-translation and help in choosing best locations, etc.
And most important, listened to the goals of the director and suggested the best ways (both artistically and logistics wise) to meet those goals.
Production chief Gabriel Balanovsky lines up a shot.
The shoot lasted two weeks (plus a day that we shot without the director in December to get a dog walker who only walks poodles because his clients all go on vacation) and included locations in the city, as well as in the suburbs. The final score: over 16 hours of footage shot on full HD using the Sony XDCAM EX1, the industry standard for high quality documentaries.
Getting nice slow-mo shots of the "dog-mobile"
Assistant Director Ginger Gentile lines up a shot.
Interviewing dog walker at the dog rescue shelter.
Filming the dog shelter: a dog gets taken out of the common pen for some love and affection.
This angle is refered to as "contra-picada" in Spanish.
Director Peter Wilson explains to DoP and HD assistant how he wants the shot.
