Producing "Dirty Laundry"
This documentary follows two cousins, Conor and Zack, on a cross country bicycle tour as they search for answers about the disease that killed their grandmother. On their journey, they discover a corporate cover up of the deadly mineral, asbestos, and a trail of broken families just like theirs, struggling to deal with the implications of the widespread exposure of countless other families across the US.
When I began working on this project the 1st of January 2017, Conor and Zack had already completed their tour and wrapped principle photography. I was asked to help take the hundreds of hours of content and come up with a compelling narrative. Starting with watching every second of footage they captured, we began storyboarding, editing, more storyboarding, and more editing until we had a direction to take the film.
June 2017 - Conor and Bryan talk during a break from filming 'The Cube'.
I was brought on by Conor and Zack to help them find, understand and tell the narrative they wanted to in the film. Under Conor's direction, it was my responsibility to write and refine the story in written and edited form. Once the final edit was made I was also tasked with color grading the film before it was mastered.
January 2017 - Conor and Zack brainstorming ideas for the narrative of the film.
June 2017 - Production still of Zack from "Dirty Laundry" during the filming of 'The Cube' scene.
Conor had an idea to make their interviews a little more engaging than just a typical trip recap sit down interview. The idea was inspired by the desire to tell their grandmother all the things they learned about her in making this film that they wish they could have told her while she was still alive. It made me think of photographs I've seen at military grave sites where family members visit the burial site of their deceased. It was that image that drove our decision to film Conor and Zack's interviews in the style chosen. We called it, 'The Cube', where essentially, they had a FaceTime interview with their grandmother.
Color Grading
Before (left) and After (After) from a scene of “Dirty Laundry”. Graded in DaVinci Resolve. Most of the trip footage was captured on Panasonic GH4 or Sony RX100miv. Graded to look slightly more cinematic than an action camera.
All scenes of the film, with the exception of ‘The Cube’, were meant to feel run and gun. Like they got off their bikes, set up cameras, sat down, and stared the their interview. Before (Left), After (Right).
Post Production wrapped in January of 2018. We began our festival run in March with "Dirty Laundry" having its World Premiere at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival. I helped guide Conor and Zack through the Festival run. Serving as the media director, setting up press appoints and interviews, dealing with festival programers, networking and directing PR efforts during the run. From there, we showed at 10 other festivals around the country.
2019 will be an exciting year as we expect to have distribution of our film, in addition to OnDemand streaming through Vimeo, to make "Dirty Laundry" available to everyone! Stay tuned.
- Bryan
