Production
The Filming of the Documentary
The Camino Documentary has been in the making since fall, 2008. From fruitful pre-production trips, to collaborating with various affiliated organizations – such as OPB, PBS, Jacobeo.net, author John Brierley (Camino Guides), Refugio Acacio & Orietta, various Friends of the Camino associations, WiebeTech, Hotel Puerta del Camino, and the governments of Navarra, La Rioja and Castilla y León – support for our film has grown exponentially, enabling us to take transform our vision into reality.
We began production on this documentary on April 22nd, 2009. Two film crews were formed to follow four to five pilgrims each, whom we encountered along the beginning stages of the Camino. Under the direction of Lydia B. Smith and Theresa Tollini-Coleman, the two crews documented the pilgrims’ collective experiences, individual challenges and personal breakthroughs.
On June 8th, 2009, after a seven-week shoot, the filming of this journey was complete. Our two camera units (which eventually turned into three), shot primarily on the Sony EX-1 & 3 High Definition video-cameras. Coming from Chile, Germany, Italy, Spain, the USA, Argentina, and Brazil, and ranging in age from 21 to 62 years old, our 12 crewmembers were as diverse as the pilgrims themselves.
The hundreds of hours of HD footage shot were systematically downloaded and backed up daily onto dozens of hard-drives. We also provided each featured pilgrim with a portable, mini-HD camera to record their own intimate video-diary footage when our crews were not around. Additionally, we conducted interviews with the crewmembers, documenting the impact of Camino on them. Behind the scenes, several crewmembers captured the crew's candid experiences throughout the making of The Camino Documentary. We returned to the United States with over 300 hours of footage, having followed over 15 pilgrims and interviewed dozens of Camino experts including historians, priests, scholars, health professionals and hospitaleros (workers in the Camino’s special pilgrim hostels called ‘albergues’).
The bulk of our shooting days were spent walking for miles alongside our featured pilgrims, conducting intimate interviews with them, and capturing their daily activities within the albergues. Given drastically different paces and the multitude of ways one can approach the Camino, there often lay a considerable stretch of miles between our pilgrims. Even though they all started out within a day or two of each other, by the end, the distance between our first and last pilgrim was over one hundred miles. So, while our crewmembers spent the bulk of their time on foot, each crew needed a support vehicle to haul the their backpacks, and the camera, sound and lighting equipment to cover the long separations.
See our blog for a closer look at the crew’s journey.
