Success Stories:
The Fog of War wins Oscar - Best Documentary Feature
By Rule Broadcast SystemsRule Broadcast Systems would like to congratulate Michael Williams of Scout Productions and Director Errol Morris for receiving an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for The Fog of War.
Errol Morris’s The Fog of War
When Errol Morris’ TV series First Person began pre-production in December of 1999, one of Errol’s first requests was to interview former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara for the show.
One of the most influential and controversial figures to influence world politics, Robert S. McNamara has lived a life few can even imagine. Despite the enormous amount of material about McNamara and the historical events with which he was involved, much of McNamara’s story has never been told. Most of the world identifies him solely as the man responsible for the Vietnam War. Errol wanted to put Mr. McNamara in front of his famous “Interrotron” for an interview of a lifetime.
As producer of First Person, I spent a year trying to convince Mr. McNamara to agree to an interview. Finally last spring he agreed to come. In anticipation of this interview, we began to re-evaluate how we were going to shoot the interview. The first season and most of the second season of First Person was shot on DV Cam with the DSR 500, but with this interview we faced a dilemma: although we intended to use the interview as one of our First Person episodes, we knew there was a fairly good chance that we would want to do some sort of theatrical release using the material. What format could we afford to shoot on that would leave theatrical and broadcast options open to us? The answer was HD 24P. Scout had used the Sony Cine-Alta 24p camera with great success on Brad Anderson’s Session 9, and Radical Media, Errol’s commercial production company were raving about their results with the camera as well.
From the very beginning, HD24p was a success. We were able to cut and promote the potential film in a way that advertised extremely well what the finished product would look like. Whereas we had constantly struggled with making video look “softer” and more film-like, our 24P looked beautiful, and we knew it would both broadcast well and go to film smoothly. It was also a great help to be able to tape for eighty minutes without a break. Those eighty minutes flew by when Errol and Mr. McNamara began to discuss some of the tragedies and glories of the 20th Century. It was the most dynamic interview I have seen. Originally Mr. McNamara agreed to a two-hour interview. We now have eighteen hours on tape with another shoot planned for April.
Combining extraordinary archival footage, documents, and an original score by composer, Philip Glass, Errol believes that The Fog of War will be his best film.
Written by Michael Williams
Scout Productions
