Alan Gwizdowksi: “Streaming services have become great outlets for indie movies that otherwise may not have been seen by a broad audience”
CARSON TIMAR: Looking throughout your career it is clear that you have bounced between working on content for both the big and small screen. How different is your mindset for a theatrical release compared to that of a streaming release?
ALAN GWIZSOWKSI: We shot "Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul" with the intention of submitting it to film festivals and hoping for a theatrical release. That being said, I think more people will end up seeing it on a TV than on a movie screen. Streaming services have become great outlets for indie movies that otherwise may not have been seen by a broad audience and they are now an expected avenue for viewing. Even if the film had a theatrical release, it would probably end up on one of the streaming services. Also, the documentary style lends nicely to viewing on a TV; most people watch documentaries at home, so it's a familiar setting for the type of movie. The average TV size is about 50", and the faces in our close-up shots make the character's heads about the same size as a person in real life, which helps the viewer get more immersed in the scene.
You also recently worked on Paramount+ Players. How different is it for you to work on documentary content compared to narrative fiction?
Regarding narrative content, I always work with the director to pinpoint the visual style we want to achieve for the project; for "Players" and "Honk for Jesus," the visual style in which the narrative is told just happens to be through a documentary lens. I've worked on many factual documentaries in the past and am very familiar with what it takes to shoot them. The Faux-documentary combines techniques learned from shooting actual docs with strategies and techniques needed to run a traditional narrative production.
Factual documentaries usually consist of archival footage compiled with interviews and maybe B-roll; all the archival footage already exists and is collected for the edit. For faux-documentaries, any archival footage you need has to be created from scratch but still feel authentic to the format it would have been. The best way to do that is to shoot with the actual camera format that would have been used in that scenario. For example, in "Honk for Jesus," the archival sermon footage with Lee-Curtis on stage, we shot with the same Sony Beta-Cams the church used to produce their sermon broadcasts. For "Players," we used iPhone 6 for 2016 archival social media footage and the iPhone13 for the 2021 footage so that you can feel the subtle difference; those are just 2 of the 13 different types of cameras we used for the show.
Would you say that helped you prepare for Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul considering the film uses a mockumentary style?
Having shot many actual docs and faux-docs helped prepare me for "Honk for Jesus." In the script, the scenes would state whether it was "documentary" or "cinematic"; cinematic refers to the portion of the film behind the documentary, the personal moments the doc cameras don't see. With my experience working on shows like "American Vandal" and various other faux-docs with Tony Yacenda, I knew what it would take to create this kind of production from scratch. Going into my interview with Adamma, I broke down how I would approach documentary scenes and how we need to set rules to make it feel real. "American Vandal" was a big reference for the "Honk," so I explained how our approach on that show was to treat the camera work and lighting as seriously as possible and let the comedy come from the characters and situations they are in. The camera doesn't need to be in on the joke; it just needs to showcase it authentically.
To make it feel as accurate as possible, we needed to set parameters and rules to guide the visuals toward the right look. For example, we withheld blocking info from the operators and rolled on rehearsals. This way, when the operator follows the action of a scene, it naturally has a reactionary feel to it; with documentaries, you don't know what's going to happen; it's real life on the fly. Of course, after the first take, the blocking is given away, but subtle reminders to look for imperfections are what keep it feeling as authentic.
What was it that drew you to Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul?
When I first read the script, I knew I had never seen any other movie like it, which is rare these days. As soon as I saw that it consisted of the faux-doc style and traditional narrative, I instantly viewed it as a challenge. I've shot many projects in both styles, but I've never had a project call for the techniques to be mixed. It was a giant puzzle to figure out when each style should be used and how to navigate the visuals so they don't confuse the viewer but rather lend additional information to them as they interpret the movie for themselves.
Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul is a feature adaptation of a short film that came out in 2018. What is your process coming into a project that already has an established look when it comes to cinematography? Do you try to recreate what was already done or do you try to change things up for the feature project?
Having the short film as a reference was great because it was a starting point for conversations with Adamma; she had the experience of going through the process once before and had ideas about what she wanted to change from the first go around. Once we had our initial conversations about the look, we started fresh and created our own style for the film. We cherry-picked aspects of other documentaries like "Marjoe" and movies like "Boogie Nights."
Are there any films specifically you would name as an inspiration for you? What are some of your favorite shot films?
My favorite two cinematographers are Roger Deakins and Emanuel Lubinski. I love following their careers and watching them tackle every type of genre and technical challenge. I'm a big fan of long takes and oners, so "1917" and "Birdman" stand out.
Are there any new releases this year you have particularly enjoyed?
My favorite movie of the year has been "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once." I think the Daniels are genius; they graduated from Emerson College a few years after me, so I've followed them since their early music video days. They always have some new and refreshing story to tell. It's hard to tell an original story these days; their latest feature stands out among anything else I've seen this year.
Lastly, are there any future projects we can look forward to?
I recently had another movie called "Out Of Office" premiere on Comedy Central; it is now streaming on Paramount+. We had a great cast consisting of Ken Jeong, Milana Vayntrub, Leslie Jones, and Jay Pharoah, to name a few. Besides that, I recently had a baby girl and have taken some time off. I'll stay in the commercial and music video world for a few months and look forward to finding the next long-form project towards the end of the year.
Check out Honk for Jesus in theaters and on Peacock, as well as Players and Out of Office on Paramount+.
