The Hudson Dusters Document The Difference GE Makes

How did you get involved in the GE project?

Mike: We'd been talking to Anthony Nelson and George Sholley from BBDO for a while prior to the project. We're fans of what BBDO has been doing and they were fans of ours, so it was just a matter of time before a project came along on which we could all collaborate. It just so happened that the right project was one that literally took us around the globe!

How much prep did you do with the subjects? Did you help source them yourself?

Niles: It was different for each story. Dr Gon in Japan is already pretty well-known. We had a team in China working to find us the right kid to go to the soccer academy. Scotland was the most interesting. We had an amazing researcher named Theresa Schwartzman and she was instrumental in finding our subjects in Orkney. We picked our favorites of the people she presented and began talking to them directly.



The films are beautifully shot. How did you balance the preparation involved in setting up the shots with the spontaneity documentary filmmaking requires?

Niles: Thank you for the compliment. These were very traditional documentary films in that sense. We never got the chance to scout the locations. We had a very small crew and were shooting run-and-gun the whole time. Luckily, we cut our teeth working this way and love the challenge of trying to find the best possible shots on the spot. Our DP, Logan Roos, is also a great camera operator and that's really important for a job like this. I would grab a second camera if we felt a scene needed more coverage, but for most of the job we would just watch over Logan's shoulder and see how beautifully the footage was turning out.

What did you use to shoot the films?

Mike: We shot this project on Canon 5D and 7D's. Until a few years ago much of our reel consisted of 5D work. We've been fans of that camera since it came out. We love shooting on Alexas, Reds and film, but for this particular job the budget was challenging and it called for a very barebones crew. We come from the DIY school and love to just pick up the camera and go. The 5Ds allow us to make that happen so they felt right for this particular job.

Niles: Whenever we shoot with 5Ds we use a lot of filtration on camera and really try our best to give it more of a filmic look. The 5D is used a lot these days and it's our goal to shoot with it in a way that makes it stand apart.



How do you balance the direction duties between yourselves?

Mike: Recently, we've been joking about us being the Ying Yang Twins - by the way, they're an incredible rap group. If Niles likes something I might not, or if he's down I might be up. This is great, however, because we really do balance each other out and the fact that we've worked together since day one of our careers, in one form or another, really helps. There's a real short form to how we work. We collaborate a lot on set and in post and it's great that there are two of us because there can be so much going on all at once. Ultimately, we have the same vision, which is to constantly push the boundaries and make commercial work that's unique and stands out.

It's said that, for documentaries, miles of footage is shot for the smallest moments. How much did you have to shoot for these micro-docs?

Niles: We shot quite a bit during every set up, but the final edits were a testament to how great the footage was because we used shots from almost every scene in China and Japan. Of course, there was a lot that hit the floor because of time constraints. Orkney had even more stories that didn't make the cut and, although we loved the footage, in the end we felt that the three people we focused on made the most sense in the film. We also shot about an hour of interview footage with each subject. We usually don't like to use interview footage in our films because it tends to feel too similar to other documentary work and these films were no exception.



Was it tough to edit the films down to a sub-2-minute duration? Are there longer stories to tell in the footage you shot?

Mike: We come from the longer form world and we got our start on doc-style TV shows. However, in the past five years or so most of the work we have produced is in the two to four minute range, so we are accustomed to it. It helped to have a tight core team that could constantly talk about what we shot that day and what we felt would work and not work for the edit. We definitely could have extend the cuts, especially Orkney since we filmed five subjects, but we felt that this length works great. We also live by the motto, "Leave them wanting more." One of the best comments we can get is,"I really wanted to see more!"

For narrated docs like these, do you tend to edit the audio track first and then match the visuals, or do the visuals dictate the narrative?

Mike: We use our interview process to create the V.O. and we are very careful not to feed our subjects lines. We always want the most honest and natural answers because the subjects are more comfortable in their delivery. From there we transcribe the interview and pick out the best lines. At the same time, we're already building an edit with the best visuals from the footage. So, for us, the process is happening simultaneously. We're paying attention to the sound bytes and trying to find the imagery that will best fit the narration.

We both love cutting to music and feel that it is such an integral part of the final piece. We discuss with our editor, Logan Roos, what type of track we want to find. He's great at finding the right sound. We don't necessarily edit the audio first, but we do a good amount of editing on the song to really hit in the right spots of the piece cinematically.



Did you have a favourite subject/character?

Niles: The Orcadians (the people of Orkney) were really fascinating. They have such a great understanding of the power of nature and respect it wholly. The ocean in particular is so integral to their way of life. Magnus, the farmer, was an incredible individual and resource. Not only did he help us find subjects for the film, but at one point he also saved a whale that beached itself on his shore because something was blocking its blowhole. Besides making us question our manhood, he was truly an amazing subject to film. We could have made a feature out of the Orcadian's stories.

Are you happy with the results? Are there more in the bag?

Niles: We're really happy with the films. It's not often you get to focus so much on story in commercial work. We feel very lucky that GE and BBDO gave us the opportunity to do this work. The entire group, from our small crew to the BBDO posse, was united in trying to make the best films possible and the end results are something we're very proud of. We went around the world in two weeks and had a great time doing it, meeting amazing people and seeing beautiful places. It was some of the most rewarding work we've ever done.

We have heard some rumblings of more to come and we look forward to it.



What's up next for you?

Mike: We want to continue shooting great commercial content. We just shot some doc-style TV spots for Sunoco and allen & gerritsen that we're really proud of. They're supposed to air soon. We're also talking more and more these days about getting back into longer form work. We have some ideas for ESPN's '30 for 30' that we'd like to bring to life as we come from the sports content world. We also have some feature scripts written and we hope to take that leap and get one of them made.

We both play an integral role at Greenpoint Pictures and we just signed quite a few new exciting directors. We are really helping to groom them and get them some commercial work .