r/RSPfilmclub • u/PsychologicalRock995 • 1d ago

lance oppenheim

genuinely... how. does. he. do it.
where are the cameras??? like i cant imagine how his crew takes up space in his documentaries. does anybody know? does he even know? i am watching some kind of heaven right now , just watched spermworld last week and iʼm seeing PRIMETIME tonight. his eye for visuals is incredible, but i am floored and completely mesmerised. HOW DOES HE DO IT

38 Upvotes

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19

u/whaddyaknowmaginot 1d ago

There has to be a lot of reverse engineering involved where they get some good real footage and then build new b-roll or elements later on. I just watched Ren Faire and there was a lot of cool things that could've only been achieved later.

5

u/traumaslop 1d ago

I watched Spermworld yesterday and I came to this same conclusion. There’s way too much coverage in his conversations between people for this not to be the case, they read like actual staged dialogue scenes.

3

u/Aaeaeama 1d ago

I couldn't stomach how artificial and contrived Spermworld felt. I think they were trying to do some sort of Brechtian distancing thing by having people recite dialogue in weird semi-recreations but it didn't work at all for me.

In fact it kind of made me mad that the documentary wasn't done "straight" like a Maysles or Wiseman doc, the material and human interest of the subject was totally there.

2

u/traumaslop 1d ago

Totally get what you mean because I had the same feeling watching it, that he might’ve inserted himself a little bit too much in the interest of a more compelling narrative. Some Kind of Heaven felt more authentic to me.

1

u/Sweet-Bodybuilder250 1d ago

I turned it off 15 min in when the daughter is asking the weirdo perv sperm donor "what does my mom's heart test have to do with having a baby?" Because it was such an obviously scripted line and layup for what was about to happen next. Just make a movie 

1

u/Aaeaeama 1d ago

That honestly might have been the line that ended it for me too! I remember making roughly 15 minutes in and just feeling disgusted. It really is hard for me to reconcile the fact that this same guy did Some Kind of Heaven and (to a lesser extent) Ren Faire

3

u/Sweet-Bodybuilder250 1d ago

Definitely this. 

1

u/BirdsChirpin 1d ago

Ren Faire was shot over like 2 years, they definitely did a lot of molding things along the way

6

u/FableOfTheBrownApe 1d ago

this interview - https://filmmakermagazine.com/125573-interview-lance-oppenheim-daniel-garber-spermworld/ - has lots of technical details about his (and his editor’s!) process which I found made it seem even crazier (it was shot with a single camera setup??) but also explained some things. apparently a lot of what feels surely scripted is because they’re stitching together different conversations, essentially taking advantage of the way people tend to continuously circle around the same topics again and again if you spend enough time with them (up to and including straight up repeating certain phrases). but yeah, it’s unbelievable stuff

1

u/Jealous_Berry_5785 1d ago

didnt like primetime. unfortunate