Ben Gruber and Verite

Interview of Ben Gruber, writer and supervising producer.
He’s a friend, so it was somewhat of an easy, stressless shoot.
Is stressless a word?
How about stress free.
What I do notice in interviewing Ben, however, is that when the camera went on, verité tarnishes.
Perhaps I should say that verité ceases.
Not Ben’s fault.
Just an observation.
I’ve known Ben for quite sometime and I know his behavior, so when I see that something as minute as his posture changes when the camera is turned on then, yes, verité ceases.
And except for the fact that it is shot in the present moment (big deal), I kinda believe that there is no way to truly capture reality.
Point a camera.
A personality changes.
Grandly, slightly… It hardly matters, a change does occur.
So how do you actually shoot something verité?
Does it exist at all?
By the very nature of either a camera being in the room, or, even if the subject doesn’t know the camera is there, then usually the environment is manipulated.
Perhaps the only real verité that can be captured is on video surveillance cameras.
ATM machines catching a robbery, or some such.
But who wants to watch that?
Er… I should rethink the above sentence.
Because plenty of people want to watch “caught on tape” shows.
Cops.
Cheaters.
I could go on.
Hmm…
Thinking…
Could I write a script using hidden cameras that actually captures a narrative without the people knowing it was actually being filmed?
An actual hidden camera movie going for verité and not the performance.
Jee-zus, so many variables would have to come together for that to actually work.
Plus, how could you not manipulate the situation?
How could you not tell at least one person that this is going to be a scene?
Christ, it would be dang-near impossible to shoot.
I’d have to create scenarios…
then coordinate the manipulation of the situation…
then it’d be like an improv session.
Ugh.
That’s all we need are another crop of improvisers infecting the entertainment world.
And then there’s the compression of time – i.e.: the edit – that would take place and, therefore, all verité, again, would cease.
Essentially, that’s all reality shows are doing: compressing time, maximizing the moments… I should go back a watch some of John Cassevettes films.
Thinking of his Faces and Husbands, in particular.
There is something to this hidden camera aspect of capturing truth, however.
Perhaps Boiling Points will prove to be something other than having shackled my soul with hairy bacteria.