Memorable documentaries typically start with gripping subjects such as wars, scandals, and natural catastrophes. But what if you want to shoot a documentary and aren’t lucky enough to encounter a momentous happening? Award-winning mobile journalist Leonor Suárez has the answer: be ready. That was the key to making “El Colacho” an impromptu mobile doc about a baby-jumping medieval tradition. It helps that the event offered eye-catching elements including an athletic devil, infants, and mattresses improbably set out on a public plaza.
A prize-winning mobile journalist, Suárez posted a tweet providing background on the production: “The baby-jumping festival is a medieval tradition kept alive in Burgos, Spain, meant to free newborns from evil. I happened to be around during the last edition and shot this video on the go, just with the iphone 6s plus.” She edited the piece on an IPad.
Your always-present smartphone is the key to making impromptu mobile docs. But because you’re not likely carrying an external microphone getting quality sound is a challenge. Suárez cleverly solved the problem by using large, colorful text blocks to provide background information, for example, that the Catholic Church has embraced the festival for four centuries. One of the text blocks even comforted viewers with the key fact that—spoiler alert—no babies have been injured in the ceremony.
A subtle sign of the filmmaker’s professionalism: Each baby’s face was blurred in the post to provide privacy.
You can see more of Leonor Suárez’s work on Vimeo and follow her on Twitter.
The editors of MobileMovieMaking Magazine have chosen “El Colacho” as a Mobile Movie of the Week.