Table Of ContentDOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING FOR
ARCHAEOLOGISTS
To my son,Joseph Pepe, a trusted friend and confidant,
a great teacher, and an outstanding husband and father.
—Peter Pepe
To the two most important people in my life,
my adoring wife, Pat Meaney, and
my lovely goddaughter, Lisa Randesi.
Both inspire me.
—Joseph W. Zarzynski
DOCUMENTARY
FILMMAKING FOR
ARCHAEOLOGISTS
PETERPEPEANDJOSEPHW. ZARZYNSKI
Walnut Creek, California
LEFT COAST PRESS, INC.
1630 North Main Street, #400
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
http://www.LCoastPress.com
Copyright ã2012 by Left Coast Press, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN 978-1-61132-201-9 hardback
ISBN 978-1-61132-202-6 paperback
ISBN 978-1-61132-203-3 institutional eBook
ISBN 978-1-61132-686-4 consumer eBook
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Pepe, Peter, 1952-
Documentary filmmaking for archaeologists / Peter Pepe and Joseph W. Zarzynski.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61132-201-9 (hardback : alkaline paper)
— ISBN 978-1-61132-202-6 (paperback : alkaline paper)
— ISBN (invalid) 978-1-61132-203-3 (institutional ebook)
— ISBN (invalid) 978-1-61132-686-4 (consumer ebook)
1. Motion pictures in archaeology. 2. Archaeology—Methodology. 3. Documentary
films—Production and direction. I. Zarzynski, Joseph W. II. Title.
CC85.P47 2012
070.1'8--dc23
201203751
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992.
CONTENTS
Illustrations.......................................................................................................7
Acknowledgments.............................................................................................9
Introduction....................................................................................................11
CHAPTER1:Forming the Archaeologist/Documentary Filmmaker Team...17
CHAPTER2: A Brief History of the Documentary Film Genre.....................23
CHAPTER3:The Introduction of Home Video, Television, and
Documentary Filmmaking..........................................................................31
CHAPTER4:Production Equipment and Screen and Standards Formats.....37
CHAPTER5:The Popularity of Documentaries.............................................43
CHAPTER6:The Stages of Documentary Film Production..........................51
CHAPTER7: Considering Making a Documentary—Your Idea and Title.....59
CHAPTER8:Pitching a Proposal and Writing a Treatment...........................65
CHAPTER9: Developing a Budget and Securing a Contract.........................73
CHAPTER10:Shaping Your Archaeological Documentary............................77
CHAPTER11:From Outline to First Script....................................................83
CHAPTER12:Preproduction—Production Costs, Funding, Assembling
the Crew, Compiling the Shot List, and On and On.................................87
CHAPTER13: The Art of the Interview and B-roll......................................101
CHAPTER14: Work Following the Interviews and B-roll...........................109
CHAPTER15:Choosing the Narrator and Other Voice Talent...................113
CHAPTER16:Shot Making...........................................................................117
CHAPTER17:Shooting Reenactments for Your Documentary...................121
CHAPTER18:Using Still Photography, Historic Film Footage,
Illustrations, Maps, Historic Newspapers, and Animation.......................127
CHAPTER19:Postproduction and Editing...................................................133
CHAPTER20: Thoughts on the Beginning and the End of Your
Documentary Film....................................................................................141
CHAPTER21: The Digital Revolution and Its Role in Documentary
Filmmaking...............................................................................................147
CHAPTER22: Television, Theatrical Release, Finding a Distributor,
Self-Distribution, and Other Outlets.......................................................151
CHAPTER23:Promoting Your Documentary..............................................159
CHAPTER24: Documentaries in Miniature..................................................175
CHAPTER25: Creating Your Trailer.............................................................181
CHAPTER26: Conclusion.............................................................................185
APPENDIX1: Sample Documentary Proposal..............................................187
APPENDIX2: Documentary Treatment.........................................................191
APPENDIX3: The Lost RadeauVideo Script...................................................196
APPENDIX4:Simplified Sample Budget Outline.........................................197
GLOSSARY......................................................................................................199
REFERENCES..................................................................................................209
INDEX............................................................................................................215
ABOUTTHEAUTHORS...................................................................................229
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure I.1: The archaeologist/documentary filmmaker
collaborative team.......................................................................................14
Figure 1.1: Award-winning documentarian Werner Herzog with
Peter Zeitlinger and documentary film crew.............................................19
Figure 1.2:Cave of Forgotten Dreams documentary poster............................20
Figure 2.1: Eadweard Muybridge, English photographer, recorded
“The Horse in Motion”..............................................................................25
Figure 2.2: Nanook of the Northdocumentary poster.....................................26
Figure 5.1: James P. Delgado, an underwater archaeologist and program
host for the popular television series, The Sea Hunters..............................45
Figure 6.1: Stages of documentary filmmaking.............................................52
Figure 6.2: Documentarian Peter Pepe (right) shoots B-roll video
footage at an archaeological excavation......................................................56
Figure 6.3: Documentary poster for The Lost Radeau: North America’s
Oldest Intact Warship...................................................................................58
Figure 12.1: Example of a storyboard constructed by documentarian
Peter Pepe.................................................................................................100
Figure 13.1: When conducting a video interview, the camera and
interviewee setup is critical ......................................................................104
Figure 16.1: Peter Pepe (left), director and cameraman, and Chuck Meide
(right), director of the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program,
during an interview setup..........................................................................118
Figure 17.1: Reenactors Brendan Burke (left) and James Bullock (right)
during videotaping of a historical reenactment of William Tillman
retaking the schooner S. J. Waringfrom Confederate privateersmen......123
Figure 17.2: Documentary filmmakers need period-looking props to
complement their scenes...........................................................................125
Figure 18.1: Mathew Brady was a nineteenth-century photographer
whose crew visually documented the American Civil War......................129
Figure 22.1: The DVD case for The Lost Radeau: North America’s Oldest
Intact Warship............................................................................................156
Figure 23.1: Make sure you hire a professional photographer or use a
production assistant to get quality production photographs...................162
Figure 23.2: Film festival “Official Selection” laurel for the Sixth Annual
Buffalo Niagara Film Festival...................................................................164
Figure 23.3: Poster for the Duke City Docfest held annually in
Albuquerque, New Mexico.......................................................................167
Figure 23.4: Space ad printed in the program for the 2012 Buffalo
Niagara Film Festival................................................................................170
Figure 24.1: 3-D artist/animator Ryan Knope works on animation for
Black Laser Learning’s remote sensing training DVDs...........................178
Figure A3: First page of the editing script for The Lost Radeau: North
America’s Oldest Intact Warship.................................................................196
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THISBOOKISANOUTGROWTHOFa workshop that we first taught in January 2008
at the Society for Historical Archaeology’s 41st Annual Conference on His-
torical and Underwater Archaeology held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. En-
titled “An Archaeologist’s Guide to Documentary Filmmaking,” the one-day
workshop was well received, and we have held it at several other Society for
Historical Archaeology (SHA) annual conferences and at other venues, too.
Without that initial SHA workshop, this book probably would not have come
into being. So, we want to thank Karen Hutchinson, Executive Director for the
SHA, and our initial SHA workshop coordinator, Jamie C. Brandon, an ar-
chaeologist and anthropologist at Southern Arkansas University. Both had the
vision to accept our workshop proposal.
Furthermore, this book would not have been possible without the patience,
enthusiasm, and understanding of our publisher, Mitch Allen. Mitch is a regu-
lar attendee at major archaeology and anthropology conferences around the
country. At these conferences, he can generally be found in the conference book
room where he both promotes the science of archaeology and displays the
many fine books that his company publishes. When we first proposed our book
idea to him, he promptly opened up a line of communication that we often ex-
ercised, and which culminated in Mitch offering us the book deal. It has been
a pleasure working with him and his talented staff at Left Coast Press, Inc.
There are several other people that need to be acknowledged, too. Joseph
Pepe, Peter’s son and business partner at Pepe Productions, is an enthusias-
tic member of the digital natives of the world, and thus he clearly understands
the magnitude of the digital revolution and the emergence of social media as
a means to promote the genre of documentary filmmaking. Joseph frequently
shares his vast knowledge of video filmmaking and website design which we
put to excellent use when writing those sections in our book. John Whitesel,
a dear friend and an incredible animator and computer technician, also pro-
vided valuable information, about the somewhat esoteric world of computer
animation. Unfortunately, the week before the initial draft of this book went
to Left Coast Press, Inc., John passed away from cancer. His animation and
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