It’s really that simple.
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This doc caught my eye several months ago and arrived on my doorstep last week via the miracle that is Netflix. After popping in the DVD, I sat entranced for 90 minutes because of the production value of this film.

Immediately, you’ll recognize it’s been shot in HD. Can I explain that in technical terms? No I can’t. If you live and work with HD you live and work with HD. Scratch that - if you live and work with pixels you know what you’re looking at. Consider it a gift and a curse.

But on that note, yeah - this is a really really great looking film. Not only that, this is an evenhanded documentary that SUCESSFULLY merges five story lines together by letting the characters tell their own tales - there is NO NARRATOR here to help you understand.

The minimalist power contained in that sole omission is striking. With vivid images, you’re instantly pulled in. The real life stories and storytellers propel the action.

Conversely, with a hot-button issue such as illegal immigration - getting rid of the omni-present narrator is a great way to remove judgment.

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BORDER WAR: The Battle Over Illegal Immigration facts:

- $300K production/ post-production budget
- Shot over several months with several crews via Sony F900 and JVC-HD100u
- HDCAM downconverted to 720p. Film cut natively (online) at 720p.
- Hardware upconverted at post house to D5 MASTER for DaVinci color correction and audio sweetening.
- Creators blew up HD footy into a handful of 35mm prints (added about $50K-$75K to the budget)
- “Four-walled” (rented) theater space in 20 cities for a mini/ self theatrical distribution run
- DVD picked up for distribution by Genius Entertainment

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$300,000 is not a ton of cash to shoot an HD doc, and every bit of it here was used effectively.

Some of the most dramatic footage in the film comes from camera crews imbedded with a Homeland Security’s/ US Border Patrol’s Disrupt Team - agents on the front lines of this battle. In one harrowing scene, an immigrant smuggler rams his car into the chasing border patrol’s truck sending HD100u cameraman and editor Matthew Taylor flying from the vehicle.

After viewing the doc, I was so impressed by the story and professional polish of the film that I decided to track down writer/ director/ producer Kevin Knoblock for a chat. After an initial phone conversation, you’ll find the Q&A of our email session below.

**PRE-PRODUCTION**

WHERE DID YOU GET THE IDEA FOR THIS FILM?
In the spring of 2005 I was in Israel interviewing famed former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky for my feature documentary on the United Nations (Broken Promises: the United Nations at 60). The Israeli security fence made me think of stories I had seen regarding Operation Gatekeeper - the fence built by the Clinton Administration to curtail the massive movement of illegal immigrants south of San Diego. Though the Israeli fence was built to keep suicide bombers out - and the San Diego fence designed to maintain legal and orderly immigration into the US, they were both visually powerful and a jumping off point for me.

I was also seeing stories of migrants dying in the desert. I wondered why thousands of people a day were risking their lives to get out of Mexico and other Central and South American countries. This, coupled with the firestorm of media regarding the Minuteman Project, convinced me that my next film would be on illegal immigration- its causes and effects.

WHERE DID YOU FIND FINANCING AND HOW DID THIS FILM GET OFF THE GROUND?
I first went to Dave Bossie at Citizens United for funding. Dave had hired me to produce, write and direct Broken Promises in the spring and summer of 2005 and direct a political documentary on the Bush/Kerry election in 2004.

Dave represents politically a center/right funding source, but I feel my company, Peace River Company, as a non-partisan production company brings CU to the center. I pitched the Border film idea to Dave and he was interested. This issue, however, was not as hot in Wash DC (where CU has offices) as it was here in Los Angeles.

During the month it took Dave to green light the project, I began to gather my ‘cast’ of real life characters and do some preliminary shooting. When I had commitments from Lupe Moreno, Teri March, and Enrique Morones, Dave got the okay for funding from his board of directors.

I knew I wanted to follow 5 or 6 people from the front lines of the issue. I also wanted to present all sides of the illegal immigration debate - from border enforcers to open border advocates.

The border security issue and uncontrolled immigration impacts millions of people, and as I found out there are no easy answers. This is what I wanted to convey in my film. As a filmmaker I am drawn to compelling real-life stories, and I have no interest in creating propaganda for one side or the other.

I knew I needed a politician involved with immigration reform legislation and a Border Patrol agent to complete the cast. Dave’s contacts in DC helped with both.

SINCE YOU STARTED FILMING BEFORE BEING GREEN-LIT, WHAT WERE YOUR PLANS HAD CITIZENS UNITED NOT STEPPED UP WITH FUNDING?
I always believed Dave Bossie would see the attraction of the project. However, I would have gone to other sources (my primary funding sources are with the cable outlets - A&E, The History Channel, and co ventures with other production companies) if he had passed.

WHY DID YOU CHOSE TO SHOOT IN HIGH DEF?
My previous 2 feature documentaries were shot in standard def and then also outputted to film. This resulted in the image stuttering at times (when converting 30 frames per second to 24) - especially noticeable when doing motion controlled moves on stills. I knew my next project must be shot and edited at 24fps, (or 23.98) to achieve the best film output.

However, even if I did not foresee outputting to film, HD is now standard for all of my current projects.

**PRODUCTION**

HOW DID THE STORY EVOLVE AS YOU BEGAN PRODUCTION?
We shot for around 6 months total. I needed at least 2 lengthy sitdown interviews with each ‘character’ and multiple b roll shoots. I needed to find story arcs for each character - I wanted to be sure there were 3 ‘acts’ for each character - and these only came about as they lived their lives - and I found out what was coming up and followed along with my crews. I was always looking for a clear and dramatic framework.

In the case of Agent Lu Maheda - I had no idea what his act structure would be when I arrived in Nogales with my video crews.

However, based on our reputation for fairness in our documentary work, we had received unprecedented access to the undercover US Border patrol Disrupt Team by Department of Homeland Security. When, on the second day of shooting, Agent Maheda was struck in the hit and run incident by the Green Escort Coyote, I knew I had my structure.

Here was an agent going to work one day and having his life nearly taken by a human smuggler. His arc is completed when we find out who the driver was. (Unfortunately, the Mexican border authorities released him after our agents and me and my crews pursued the coyote during a high speed chase to the border crossing. The Green Escort Coyote is still at large).

With so many dramatic events happening to my characters, I decided early on to think of this as less a traditional documentary and more as a drama. Every character has a dramatic arc - a beginning, middle and an end.

HOW MANY CAMERA TEAMS WERE YOU RUNNING?
We ran 1 for most shoots - 2 and sometimes 3 cameras in Nogales with the Border Patrol.

WHAT CAMERAS DID YOU USE AND HOW DID EACH PLAY A ROLE?
I had two primary needs when selecting cameras - a great image that would blow up to film, and when shooting on the border and in helicopters and border patrol vehicles - a portable HD camera that would intercut with the more expensive rig.

My principle director of photography was Matthew Taylor (also my editor). Matthew and I discussed which camera would be best for shooting on the border and in tight spaces and would best intercut with a higher-end camera - and we took a chance with the JVC GY-HD 100u. It turned out to be a great choice. It blew up beautifully to film.

For most of the Los Angeles shoots (Lupe Moreno, Teri March) we used a Sony HDW-F900 HDCAM. Emmy Winner Jody Eldred was my Los Angeles cameraman. I’ve worked and traveled the world with Jody on various shows since we met at KABC in the mid 1980’s. His setup - with wide angles lenses - was over $125,000 in gear.

It might seem crazy to intercut a $125,000 setup (the Sony) with a sub $10,000 camera (the JVC). We were amazed at the results - and so were our colorists. In fact, using different cameras for different characters added to the overall look.

The Sony F900 is an awesome tool, and if we had had the budget I would have shot the entire film on the Sony in 1080p. We didn’t have the budget for this or the storage space for uncompressed HDCAM, so we downconverted the Sony to 720p.

Having said that, the JVC GY-HD 100u can be used to shoot an entire feature doc intended to be blown up to 35mm film with outstanding results.

We also shot some mini dv for a few remote b roll shoots. We used a Panasonic DVX-100a and a Sony PDX-10.

All the formats influenced our post choices. We decided to dub everything to DVC PRO HD for editing: (we down-converted the HDCAM to 720p, dubbed across the JVC ‘Pro HD’ HDV minicassettes to DVC PRO HD, and upconverted the mini dv) and cut it 23.98 (or true 24p? - check with my editor Matthew) in Final Cut Pro HD. We had a few hitches here and there but it worked well for the most part.

**POST**

HOW DID YOU FINALIZE THE STORY WHILE EDITING?
I started to write the script as we shot. (We were also shooting up through the May 1 rallies of 2006.)

I had originally hired my editor Matthew Taylor to do some clean up edits on Broken Promises and loved his work. I thought of him again for Border War (to shoot and edit). Matthew lives in Washington and we set up a FCP suite in DC.

Matthew sent me the dailies on a hard drive in MPEG streamclip format. I would make notes and write the script and send paper edits with exact time code notes for Matthew to assemble. I made frequent trips to DC, and we also set up a AV iChat system were I would sit at my office computer in Los Angeles and watch and give notes to Matthew in DC. This virtual edit suite saved me a lot of extra trips to DC. Matthew would also burn each new sequence cut onto DVDs and overnight them to me for my notes.

DID YOU KNOW ALL ALONG THE FILM WOULD LIVE WITHOUT NARRATION?
Yes. I didn’t want my voice over at all. I wanted these 5 people to tell us in their own words how illegal immigration had effected their lives or loved ones.

HOW LONG WAS THE FILM IN POST?
We spent about 3-4 months to get to the locked cut (before the final finish) I have written, produced and directed hundreds of hours of syndicated tv, cable docs and 3 feature documentaries. I prefer to write my scripts with very specific shots and soundbites. Of course, I welcome my editor’s input and always hope they will improve on what I’ve given them.

My method was this: I wrote the 5 character scripts as 5 separate 20+ minute films - (plus shorter scripts for the ancillary characters - former Border patrol agent Dave Stoddard, border resident Olga Robles, rancher Roger Barnett). I wanted to be certain that each character worked dramatically. When we were satisfied that each story worked, I then wrote what I called the ‘intercut’ - where I shuffled back and forth between characters.

I did at least 7-10 cuts and rewrites and recuts on each character and probably 6 full intercuts before I was satisfied.

WHAT DID YOUR FINISHING PIPELINE CONSIST OF?
We took our drive with the locked movie, made D5 dubs, and sent one to Matchframe Video in Burbank, CA for coloring on a DaVinci and the other to Savage Pictures in Salt Lake City for titling, mastering and a Dolby 5.1 mix.

In the meantime, we made a Quicktime movie for my composer Anthony Marinelli. Anthony and I are old friends and his work is amazing. He has scored over 50 feature films and he loved the subject matter and rough cut so much we were able to make a deal to affordably score Border War. Otherwise, he’s far too expensive for a low budget documentary.

I had used a lot of temp music for Border War during editing and left it in when I sent it to Anthony. The temp music, from an eclectic mix of artists including Moby, Air, and various feature film soundtracks, was very evocative. Anthony insisted I knew my ‘characters’ better than anyone and wanted me to sit in during the scoring sessions. It was a real treat and a very creative 3 weeks in the studio.

Anthony created an incredible score, aided by music co-producer Clint Bennett, at Anthony’s Music Forever Studios in Hollywood.

Efilm transferred our finished master to film. Deluxe handled the 35mm prints.

HOW DID THE FINAL LOOK OF THE FILM COME ABOUT IN GRADING?
Matchframe colorist Greg White helped bring everything together. We didn’t go for an unnatural look, however. The colors of the southwest desert were saturated to begin with - so were JD Hayworth’s office in DC and the rest of our locations.

**DISTRIBUTION**

WHERE DID THE FILM PREMIER AND HOW WAS THE THEATRE RUN STAGED?
I really think the issue of illegal immigration was so politically charged that some potential distributors shied away. And because documentaries are so popular now, it is also conversely incredibly competitive for documentaries to get theatrical distribution.

Consequently, we ended up ‘four-walling’ it - meaning we rented the theaters ourselves - mostly from the AMC chain, and charged conventional admission prices. We premiered in Los Angeles in late August and then played in nearly 20 cities nationwide as we began to gather press attention. We had a lot of theaters call us to arrange screenings.

Early buzz on the film brought it to the attention of Steve Bannon at Genius Entertainment. (Genius is 70% owned by the Weinstein Company). Steve loved the film and Genius took the DVD rights and TV rights. This was a real boost for us. Genius was able to get the dvd into all the big box stores, including Blockbuster, Barnes and Noble, and Borders. You can contact Genius for current dvd sales statistics and tv sales plans.

AS CREATOR, HOW MANY EYES DO YOU HOPE TO GET ON THIS PICTURE? WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER A SUCCESS?
Genius presold a considerable amount of dvds. This, coupled with our theatrical run, and several high profile screenings gathered us a lot of press. We had premieres in DC for Homeland Security. JD Hayworth hosted the premiere in Phoenix. Radio hosts John and Ken hosted a listener screening in Newport Beach where they broadcast live from the theatre’s stage before the screening. I was on their radio show for the full hour, and did numerous other radio, tv and print interviews for both English and Spanish language outlets.

We are just beginning the festival circuit. At our first festival, the Liberty Film Festival, we won the top prize - Best Feature Film.

WHAT PROJECTS ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW?
I am working on another UN documentary on the UN and the war on terror. I am also developing a cable series based on certain elements from Border War.

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MORE
Official Film Website: www.borderwarmovie.com
Trailer (hosted locally - I think my server is a bit faster): here

Executive Producer: David N. Bossie - Citizens United
Writer/ Director/ Producer: Kevin Knoblock
F900 DP: Jody Eldred
JVC HD100u DP/ FCP Editor: Matthew Taylor
Composer: Anthony Marinelli

Color Correction: Greg White @Matchframe
Transfer House: Efilm

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- Oakhurst