In The Eye Of An Expert
Documentary
By making documentaries,
we reach the truth.
We may not be lucky
or may not have enough tech skills
to express this truth
but the truth itself is there.
Completely different than in the feature films.
The documentaries are about the truth.
And I believe this is what makes the documentaries beautiful.
My name is Marcin Sauter
and I am a professional photographer.
Over the first decade or so of my professional life,
I was a photojournalist.
Later on,
as a mature man,
I started making documentaries - as a director and cameraman.
For me the biggest challenge is finding the connection
- through the camera - with the protagonist.
It’s all about intuitively feeling
what is happening in front of the camera
between the protagonist and outside world
or between two characters on set.
If I start to feel this connection,
I can't often even name it,
but in the same time I immediately find the right angle,
the right lenses.
Although photography is not mathematics.
I always begin with the image itself,
but for me the form,
especially in documentaries,
is something that is often forgotten.
I really like movies that are formally perfect,
or try to be close to perfection.
For me, the main thing is that the camera should be comfortable.
That it fits well in hand, that it is ergonomic
and easy to use.
I want the camera to work intuitively in my hands.
Obviously, the lenses are the most important,
so - like most cinematographers -
I try to reduce the digital image quality
by using either filters that soften the image
and blur it a bit,
or by using old lenses.
And I found a very nice Canon set.
These are an old,
photographic,
Canon FD lenses.
Lenses that give the effect of halation beautifully,
give a very vivid image,
great blur of lights,
fantastic bokeh,
and at the same time it has a bit lower resolution
comparing to the latest lenses.
Although it has a good effect
on final digital image.
This time we were shooting
in a very difficult conditions,
in the Himalayas,
so we had to take relatively small cameras
which are powerful and high quality enough
to ensure the footage in a modern,
technological style.
We decided to use two cameras,
the Canon C300,
which has the best possible
Super 35mm image sensor,
which i like.
Additionally, we took the EOS C70
as a backup camera.
A camera that is very small and can be used in very harsh environments.
Our story is about the strength of the character.
About a boy, who suffers from a very serious disease
– spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
He challenges himself again and again,
Now he decided to go to the highest mountains in the world
- the Himalayas -
and we accompany him in this journey.
Michael - our hero
has such a strong character that is going for an expedition
that is unattainable and impossible even for most of healthy people.
We had just finished the shooting.
We're back from Nepal.
Now we’ve been going through the footage
and evaluate.
I already see that these Canon cameras and lenses
have done the job very well.
We've got the right distance from the characters.
The cameras were so portable that we could be close to them.
The image is expressive and vivid.
We achieved exactly what we wanted.
This wideo contains shoots from "Krok po kroku" documentary directed by Eliza Kubarska and Michał Woroch.