02 - THE VISION
Updated: Aug 22
Writer and Director Dan Sanguineti reveals the behind the scenes stories while making BEYOND THE RUN.
Often, documentary is written in the edit. This holds true, in part, for Beyond the Run. However, as I had a strong vision from day one of how I wanted to tell this story, as well as a clear schedule of events the running group would participate in over the production period, I was able to develop a full story treatment that followed more traditional narrative structures, not always associated with the documentary genre. This allowed me to plan sequences within the film that would normally be more difficult to include in the one-take nature of a cinema verité documentary production.
This was achieved, as an example, by organising a camera operator to travel to a location, set up, wait patiently for an extended period, only to capture less than 10 seconds of footage as a single runner passed by, where they then would be wrapped, unable to move to another location in time to stay ahead of the team.
It didn't always work, with some moments missed completely, but through the planning the production team put together, the film's running sequences are comprehensive and keep the film's pace moving quickly through most of its second half.
I also had to borrow an interview technique from Reality TV shows, where interview producers guide their subjects to narrate story points captured during earlier filmed segments. I learnt this approach, when I worked as a Production Assistant on reality cooking show, My Kitchen Rules, where I discovered first-hand how much TV is manufactured. In response to utilising this technique, it remained important that I instilled genuine authenticity into the story, rather than manufactured moments.
