Director Zac Zlatic talks to Fest Track about approach, logistics and intent in regards to his film: "City Kids" playing the Documentary Feature section at the Deep In The Heart Film Festival in Waco, Texas.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Kind of the beauty of both worlds,
00:27 you plan for what you can, and then you just
00:29 be a fly on the wall for the rest.
00:31 So as far as logistics go, we had our interview set up.
00:34 We had one long 13-hour day.
00:36 I think we had 30-plus interviews total.
00:38 So there was probably almost half of those on day one
00:41 of what we were trying to do.
00:42 And then the rest is just kind of accompanying that to
00:44 strengthen and expand as far as the verite pieces,
00:48 but mostly just B-roll to tell the story.
00:50 So there is some similarity in that,
00:52 where you can kind of pre-plan.
00:53 You got your A-roll.
00:54 You're accompanying that to make it look beautiful.
00:56 There's so much that happens that you're not expecting.
00:59 And that's the beauty of doc and that in general.
01:03 Could you talk about the intrinsic nature of it,
01:04 though?
01:05 Because the thing is, as far as capturing
01:06 these personal stories, everybody has one.
01:09 But you have to figure out which ones work in sort of the fabric.
01:12 Right.
01:12 Yeah.
01:13 It's difficult, for sure.
01:14 That's the part that, especially kind
01:16 of being my first foray into something this long,
01:19 was a challenge for sure, especially while on the road.
01:22 You kind of just have to be--
01:23 take a deep breath, and let it all come to you a little bit.
01:26 What does it take to change someone's life?
01:28 What happens when you take a kid who only knows the inner city
01:36 and introduce them to life outside?
01:38 What happens when you challenge them to get comfortable
01:43 with the uncomfortable?
01:45 Discover the rewards of hard work.
01:48 Realize opportunities they never knew existed.
01:52 And don't just give them to fish, but teach them to fish.
01:55 Yeah, we broke it down to a digestible amount,
01:57 to where it still was scheduled out
01:59 to be able to kind of feel for it.
02:02 So we knew we needed some variety in location
02:04 as far as scenery.
02:05 But what they do is visually so beautiful.
02:07 So that was the easy part for us.
02:09 I knew that if we showed up to these locations,
02:12 got the drone, got a couple cameras,
02:14 it was going to be visually beautiful
02:15 and kind of show what these kids get
02:17 to experience for the first time.
02:20 Yeah, but it's tough when you're just starting from square one
02:22 to be like, we're trying to tell a piece.
02:24 We don't know how long it's going to be.
02:25 We didn't even know if it was going
02:26 to be feature length at all.
02:28 It was kind of up to us.
02:28 And it was nice to have that creative freedom.
02:30 I feel like that's pretty rare.
02:31 They steer the ship.
02:32 They've been doing this for 30 years.
02:34 But we knew that it was the story of them
02:36 and their love and their dedication,
02:38 because those are the themes that I think people
02:40 would relate to overall.
02:41 And yeah, so it's just following them
02:43 and kind of letting them guide us based on--
02:46 they have these fireside chats and self-development talks
02:49 every time they sit down every weekend.
02:51 And so it's moments to reflect.
02:53 And it really is beautiful for us,
02:55 because we kind of can just be flies on the wall.
02:57 And that is extra interview pieces right there.
02:59 It's people talking about difficulties
03:01 they've had at home and taking it to a group of 50 kids
03:04 that they know sometimes a little bit,
03:05 sometimes really well.
03:06 And yeah, it really lends itself well
03:09 to telling this overall story.
03:10 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:14 Would they survive it?
03:16 Thrive in it?
03:20 Can you grow a flower from the concrete?
03:22 Can you talk about looking at it cinematically,
03:34 how the editing works?
03:36 Because the thing is, it's about pace.
03:38 It's always about pace.
03:39 But it's about slowing down enough a little bit
03:41 to understand the weight.
03:43 Yeah.
03:43 Yeah, it's a beautiful thing.
03:45 It's something that I was really excited about,
03:47 knowing that we were getting into something that could
03:49 potentially be this hour length.
03:51 Yeah, but just to be able to put the camera on sticks
03:53 and have establishing shots of these beautiful places
03:55 to kind of slow things down.
03:57 I've always wanted to.
03:58 I just haven't had the ability, based
04:00 on the clients and projects we're working on,
04:02 to be able to do so.
04:03 And so to do that, I knew we'd have little--
04:05 I think my favorite part about the overall editing process
04:08 and got feedback from friends and family
04:10 when showing them too, is just to have
04:11 these little mini breathing points within the story.
04:13 And just to show the ups and downs,
04:15 not to have that ability to kind of have those build ups
04:18 and then fall down.
04:20 So it's kind of the fun part of the editing process.
04:22 What does it take to change someone's life?
04:24 Or better yet, who?
04:31 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:33 But it's also the fact that you knew about this place
04:48 before.
04:49 And so that's how you sort of got involved in it, correct?
04:51 Right, right.
04:52 We were able to take a little bit of a mentorship role
04:55 beforehand, going to some of the camps.
04:57 We actually went to Big Bend out in the middle of Texas.
05:00 So this beautiful landscape that--
05:02 it'll blow anybody's mind for the most part.
05:04 But these kids, especially if it's one of their first camps,
05:07 it's like they've literally never seen stars before.
05:10 In San Antonio, you're surrounded by buildings.
05:12 You're not seeing stars or anything like that.
05:14 So just to get them out there, even just at night,
05:18 doing nothing, just sitting around the campfire,
05:20 it's like such a breath of fresh air, literally, to them.
05:23 No pun intended.
05:24 But yeah, it blows their mind.
05:26 And to be able to capture that was such a blessing for us.
05:28 And it just contributes to how powerful this story is overall.
05:31 [MUSIC PLAYING]
05:34 [CHEERING]
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05:40 [CHEERING]
05:43 [APPLAUSE]
05:46 [MUSIC PLAYING]
05:50 Let's go.
05:50 Let's go.
05:51 Let's go.
05:51 Let's go.
05:52 Let's go.
05:52 Let's go.
05:53 Let's go.
05:53 Let's go.
05:54 Let's go.
05:54 Let's go.
05:55 Let's go.
05:55 Yeah, the universality of it is the power of the outdoors,
05:58 right?
05:58 No matter where you are, it's meditative.
06:01 It's healing.
06:03 And so that's the part that anybody watching
06:05 can kind of apply to.
06:06 But Texas, yeah, it may ruffle some feathers
06:09 looking at a 10-year-old, 12-year-old--
06:12 I think you have to be 12.
06:13 But they're incredibly mature kids.
06:14 And that's step one.
06:16 They have to be a certain age.
06:17 And then it's a mentorship program.
06:18 So they're looking up at these older kids
06:20 and seeing how it's done.
06:21 And so handling a firearm, looking
06:23 at a kid who comes from an inner city, violent environment,
06:26 handling a firearm is definitely visually intriguing,
06:29 but exciting as well.
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06:56 (gentle music)