As a Documentary Filmmaker, Things Never Go Quite to Plan.

We Have a Plan, What could go wrong?

"Always plan for the fact that no plan ever goes according to plan." - Simon Sinek.

It seems as a documentary filmmaker I'm constantly making plans around a video shoot only for them to be roundly obliterated by fate and circumstance… usually on the day of filming. But is “having a plan that’s not a plan” really such a bad thing? On a recent shoot in the rural outback of Lesotho, we were soon presented with a resounding answer.

The breathtaking surrounds of the Quthing area of Lesotho

At the best of times, as a documentary filmmaker, documentary filming in Africa can be trying and unpredictable. From the outset, you have to have an acceptance that things are going go to pear shaped and “that’s okay”. Our recent shoot for a global NGO in the Quthing region of Lesotho was probably the Armageddon of best made plans. Every single bit of planning, all the pre-production planning and meetings, every timeline (a tailored line item), erased, imploded, spat out and imploded again, all within the first 5 minutes of the day. And things continued that way for the next 2 days of filming.

Poppy and I arriving at Lesotho border post - Even though it's surrounded by South Africa, you still need a passport to get in.

The “Death of a Very Good Plan” began straight out of the blocks when our local guide was taken off the project with no replacement offered. The next domino to fall was our local driver who seemed a little light on the particulars of the shoot and the destinations (as well as fuel it turned out). Another big problem that soon became evident was that the distances and time estimates we’d been briefed on were so off the mark that looking at your watch was positively pointless. The first location was meant to take 90 minutes to reach, but took over 3 hours. When finally arriving we knew that the entire plan that had been meticulously crafted was now as useful as a tin opener in a swimming pool… oh and just to make matters worse, being so far off the beaten track also meant we had no mobile phone reception. Great start to the day and it wasn’t even 10am.

Heavy rains and endless narrow muddy dangerous mountain roads.

What do you do when a plan doesn’t come together and all control of time has evaporated? Simply embrace it because that’s all you can do. There are “big plans” that are formed over large amounts of time and discussion and then there are “micro plans”, the plans that are made on the run, instant plans if you will. The trick is that when the ‘big plan’ is gone, move on. That’s the key to being successful in video production and especially documentary filming.

Planning new logistics with our local driver

The lesson is simple, Amor Fati, “adore fate”, as the stoics would say. I have been a filmmaker and photographer for over 30 years and one thing I know for certain, is that big stress is kryptonite to creativity and to the love of what we do. As it turned out, the curve ball fate threw us ended up presenting new opportunities that we “allowed ourselves” to recognise. Was it the shoot we planned? NO. Was it a success? YES, and along with that an adventure and a reminder that chaos often opens the route to unimagined creative opportunity.

Have you had a shoot go spectacularly off the rails? We’d love to hear your story — drop it in the comments below. And if you’re looking for a production team that thrives in the unpredictable, get in touch with us at Incubate Productions. Chaos is kind of our thing.