SHITTY RIGS AND CHEAP LENSES

5 days ago
14 min read

A Conversation with Filmmakers Jacob Oster and Alex Palumbo About Their Recent Film 'For The Sake of It' with Jacob Callaghan

For The Sake of It photographed by Alex Palumbo

Jacob Oster is a filmmaker and creative director based out of Salt Lake City, UT. Throughout his career, Jacob has seamlessly navigated various roles in filmmaking—from producing and directing to shooting and editing—ensuring that each project is executed with meticulous attention to detail and reflects his distinct creative vision. His work spans the globe, from documenting Cuba’s vibrant surf culture to capturing big wall climbing expeditions in the Middle East.

With a deep curiosity for the human experience, Jacob’s documentary work explores the complexities of culture and character, striving to reveal the universal truths that connect us all while bringing a unique creative taste to every project. A compassionate creative leader, Jacob values the power of collaboration, fostering environments where every voice is heard and every idea is valued.

@oster.jacob

Alex Palumbo is a filmmaker, photographer, and waterman. Having a keen eye for detail and an uncanny ability to capture the most genuine moments as they unfold, he has been trusted to tell the stories of people, places, and moments both large and small over the years.

@alxpalumbo

slacktidefilms.com

For The Sake of It photographed by Alex Palumbo

Jacob Oster: I originally met Jacob Callaghan in a Salt Lake City coffee shop sometime around 2017. I noticed that he was editing a ski video, so naturally, I approached him. Next thing you know, I’m checking out his footage and we quickly connected over our shared love of skiing and filmmaking. The more we got to know each other the more I was inspired by him and the way he lives his life. His ability to, one, identify what it is that he wants to learn or do, two, dive super deep into whatever it is and, three, get really, really good at it. Whether that’s music, filmmaking, skiing, van building, or simply the way in which he lives his life—he brings a level of intention into all that he does.

Fast-forward seven or so years later, we both booked ski trips to Japan. We’d be on our own programs but knew we’d make an effort to hang and ride together. It happened that my new friend and Director of Photography, Alex (who I met during my time living in Encinitas), was traveling and riding with me. On an off-day, Jacob came to me and was like, “Hey, man, I've got an idea for a film. I’d love to chat with you.”

He loosely pitched his idea. He’d always wanted to create a film that blends three passions of his–skiing, music, and building vintage Volkswagens. There was a kicker, though. The film would center around him as the main character. For anybody who spends most of their time behind the camera (and Jacob is a brilliant Director of Photography and editor himself), it’s a weird predicament to be in. Jacob asked if I wanted to help build out the concept and direct the film. Of course, I was down. So we carved out a couple of hours to brainstorm together. I did a pre-interview with him, and we mined different themes and philosophies and ideas that would become our foundational inspiration in crafting the concept.

For The Sake of It photographed by Alex Palumbo

It’s no doubt that Jacob is an interesting human. He’s got cool style. He’s a ripping skier. He makes good music, and he drives vintage Volkswagens. All of this checked our “is this film going to at least look and feel good?” box.

But what was most interesting to me, as a friend, collaborator, and director, are Jacob’s deeper philosophies and insights in relation to his passions. He’s come to the realization that it doesn't really matter if people dig your music. And there’s no reason to get caught up in whether or not car lovers think your Volkswagens are cool. And it’s irrelevant whether people think you’re a good skier or not. It’s more about just doing it. It’s about the moment-by-moment process of learning things that you find fascinating and failing and enjoying the moments that come with simply doing these things. The rest is just noise. So that's the main theme, and I hope that it comes across in the film.

Tommy Moore: From when you guys initially sat down, starting to dive into themes to getting into the nitty-gritty of everything, what was the evolution of refining that general vision?

Jacob Oster: As a director, I obsess over pre-production and fully fleshing out a concept, story, etc. We created a detailed story map, outlined strong thematic elements, created a shot list and script, etc, but even then, I think we always knew it was going to be a difficult piece to put together.

"There are essentially three different parts to this film: vintage Volkswagens, music, and skiing. None of which have much to do with each other."

For The Sake of It photographed by Alex Palumbo

There are essentially three different parts to this film: vintage Volkswagens, music, and skiing—none of which have much to do with each other. So we knew from the get-go that it’d be a challenge to create a film that feels cohesive and connects three seemingly disparate parts while not following the arc of a traditional documentary or story. It’s not like Jacob is setting out to achieve a particular goal. He doesn’t face intense conflict, and we don’t really follow him from point A to point B in the way that people may expect. To be honest, we found the connective tissue and put the pieces together in post.

The editing went as follows:

1. Build out a scene and feel like we’ve got momentum.

2. Hit a roadblock.

3. Bang head against keyboard for an indeterminate amount of time.

4. Find a breakthrough.

5. Repeat.

Alex Palumbo: Even while shooting, we had detailed scenes in mind, but the actual setups, blocking, and composition we came up with as we went. We spit some ideas around, got different versions of things. So the theme of the film—doing things for the sake of it—is essentially how we shot the film itself, too. It’s very meta in that way.

"The lens we used primarily on the RED for this piece was a lens I bought for $50 on eBay. It's an old Olympus push-pull zoom lens. It’s a 35-105 with variable aperture zoom. That was the lens we used for, like, 80% of the film."

For The Sake of It photographed by Alex Palumbo

Jacob Oster: That's a good point and a really unique part of this process for this particular film. It was a self-funded passion project for us. No budget meant that it was mostly just the three of us (along with help from fellow filmmaker Johnathon Reynolds, who shot the skiing sequences and gimbal footage).

We're all filmmakers in our own right. We have our own sources of inspiration, life experiences, styles, and creative taste. So it turned into this constant leveling-up process. It was also challenging, right? You have three cooks in the kitchen who are equally experienced, talented in their own ways, and have their own creative opinions.

For me, it was a great interpersonal practice, to be like, “All three of us know what we’re doing. I need to relinquish the feeling that I should control everything as the ‘director’ and embrace and encourage moments of flow, chatting through all of our ideas, while practicing collaboration in the purest definition of the word that we can.” I feel that we found a solid collaborative equilibrium. One that allowed us to execute and actually elevate what we set out to create.

For The Sake of It photographed by Alex Palumbo

Alex Palumbo: I'd also add to that, because there were three cooks in the kitchen, there was a good level of challenge and healthy conflict. The three of us were staying in the same house for five days and basically with each other the entire time. So it added this level of, “Hey, how can we make this best?” And there were moments of, “Sell me on it,” or like, “Why? Why is that better?” and I think it elevated each scene because there were three people who are all directors and DPs in some way themselves.

Jacob Oster: Although I really focus on the “what” and the “why” behind a film that I make, I sometimes find it difficult to fully justify in the moment why my creative idea may be, indeed, the correct idea to execute, especially a project that embraced strong sense of collaboration and creativity. You can over-analyze an idea to death if you explain it enough, right? So I found that to be challenging because some of the creative decisions I make are really intuition based—it just feels right in the moment. I have a sense that this shot may work better than that shot in the edit. Whereas JCal is an extremely logical person, and his opinions are often backed up with solid reasoning.

"These types of projects are always such a great reminder that you don't need a massive team as long as you trust the team that you're working with."

For The Sake of It photographed by Alex Palumbo

Alex Palumbo: I kind of fell in the middle. I think I’m very much gut instinct, but also some logic. So I felt like the middle ground between you two.

Tommy Moore: I think overall there's this really interesting level of complicated simplicity in how all the shots are composed. But there's also this really healthy mix of scales and perspectives across the board, too. I can see some of the different voices coming in, but it all feels really cohesive, like it’s one centered voice.

Jacob Oster: I’m happy to hear that you felt that way about the film. I feel like we found a nice balance between our own individual creative preferences and a collective vision.

These types of projects are always such a great reminder that you don't need a massive team as long as you trust the team that you're working with.

"That’s a shitty rig, man. Any established filmmaker who is used to shooting commercial work, Hollywood films, or has proper teams would be like, 'Dude, you guys are loose.'"

For The Sake of It photographed by Alex Palumbo

On top of all that, especially Alex, not only does he have amazing style and ability, but he’s also good at making things work with whatever he has. At one point, he was like, “Hey man, I've got this OG Blackmagic camera. It's the first 1080 Blackmagic Pocket cam, and nobody fucking shoots on that anymore. Nobody even thinks about using that camera. It's got a 16mm sensor, so it's gonna have some natural grain in there.” We used it as our crash cam, mounting it to $20 magic arm for most of our car mount and POV shots. We even put it in a fire.

Alex Palumbo: I could definitely nerd out on gear for too long, but I think a lot of the look of the film comes because we shot it primarily on just two lenses—two vintage Olympus lenses. They were on the REDs we used. No one's slapping that lens on a RED. The lens we used primarily on the RED for this piece was a lens I bought for $50 on eBay. It's an old Olympus push-pull zoom lens. It’s a 35-105 with variable aperture zoom. That was the lens we used for, like, 80% of the film. I geek out on that.

And then we shot, like Jacob was saying, on this Blackmagic Pocket—the original from 2012. The battery dies in like 10 minutes, but it's got this look to it. So we used that camera for all the clamp and mounted shots outside of the van. We got some really fun angles with that, which Jacob then really cut well together, like the POV shot from Jacob’s steering wheel as he ripped doughnuts matched to a spinning shot of Jacob laying on his back in his music studio.

"It was the perfect amount of wind to make it pop open. I think we actually waited a second for it to flip open, and I remember we cheered afterward."

For The Sake of It photographed by Alex Palumbo

Jacob Oster: Another issue that we faced with shooting the exterior car shots with Jacob’s Volkswagens is that they don’t have a hood, so we couldn’t suction-mount the camera onto the hood. Nor did we have a grip team or the gear to build a complicated car mount system.

So we jammed a tripod into the rusty bumper of Jacob’s VW. We then ratchet-strapped the tripod at around a 30-degree angle and put a RED on it. That’s a shitty rig, man. Any established filmmaker who is used to shooting commercial work, Hollywood films, or has proper teams would be like, “Dude, you guys are loose.”

But it was fine by us. We had nothing to prove to ourselves. We’re all self-taught, so we’re used to doing questionable things to get the shot.

Alex Palumbo: I would also argue that, because a lot of the hard mounts we used were attached to parts of his car, it made for an interesting visual style. Jacob’s Volkswagens are really old, so they're wobbly—even the bumper wobbles. So it was a hard mount, but it did have movement to it, which I think added to the feeling of almost a period piece. Those shots had this weirdness to them that maybe other people would try to keep out. I think the shitty nature of those mounts added to the feeling of it. I don't think it was an intentional thing; it was what we had available to us at the time, but I think it's one of those instinct things because of all the other variables that we faced.

"It wasn’t our intention to make it so DIY and unpredictable, but by embracing that unpredictability, we captured something honest and artful."

For The Sake of It photographed by Alex Palumbo

I would even say one of my favorite shots we did was when we placed the tripod in the bed of the Volkswagen truck, legs spread out fully wide, and ratcheted down. Jacob and I hid in the bed and just held the tripod down as his truck drove out of the garage and onto some city road. It almost feels like a World War II, Band of Brothers-type shot.

Tommy Moore: There's one sequence, too, where one of the buses is going by, a mailbox, and the mailbox opens up perfectly on point.

Alex Palumbo: Yeah, glad you noticed the mailbox. It happened organically. We were out in the street shooting long shots of Jacob passing by in his truck, and I’m like, “If we can have the van blow by these mailboxes, and if one of them comes open, that would look incredible.” So Jacob O. loosened the mailbox door just a little bit. We radioed to the other Jacob to drive by us but to hug the side of the road as close to the mailbox as he felt comfortable with. It was the perfect amount of wind to make it pop open. I think we actually waited a second for it to flip open, and I remember we cheered afterward.

Tommy Moore: That’s the beautiful thing, too, where when it’s a team of the three of you guys versus a 20-person crew that has so many moving pieces, you can actually slow down and go with the flow and deal with whatever's been dealt. I think that's definitely something that bleeds through between the look, the sound, and the voice behind it.

"I think these are the things you get hired for down the road. You never really get hired for the commercials you shoot. You get hired for the stuff you do for fun with your friends."

For The Sake of It photographed by Alex Palumbo

Jacob Oster: There were a handful of major roadblocks I hit while editing this film. I’d build out a scene, and it’d feel great, but then I’d hit moments where I thought, ‘Dude, where do we go from here?’

One moment involved Jacob’s car breaking down during an interview. The camera, mounted to the windshield, captured him reacting as the engine sputtered to a stop. Watching him walk down a snowy road empty-handed, then return with a gas can and fill the tank, felt authentic and perfectly communicated the theme of the film. We wanted to present theme of embracing the mechanical unknown in a way that felt natural and not too on-the-nose, and I think it came across so clearly and authentically. But that realization didn’t hit until we were deep in the editing process.

Another breakthrough came when Jacob sent over a bunch of sounds he’d made on the synthesizer, drums, and piano. He told me, ‘I don’t think you’re gonna be able to use these, but here you go.’ At the time, I was struggling to build out the music bed, and those sounds ended up forming the foundation of the entire score.

He also sent me a random WeTransfer link full of archival footage of him skiing as a kid. “My dad just sent me this footage,” he said. “I doubt you can use it, but here you go.” That footage made its way into the final cut, serving as a beautiful bridge between his philosophies on music and skiing.

For The Sake of It photographed by Alex Palumbo

These instances are a testament to just doing the work, banging your head against the keyboard, and staying committed through every phase of the project. It’s almost as if some of the solutions to our creative problems appeared out of thin air, and weirdly enough, they feel like they were the only possible solutions that existed.

I don’t even know how to distill this film down. These examples reflect the very nature and message of the film itself. It wasn’t our intention to make it so DIY and unpredictable, but by embracing that unpredictability, we captured something honest and artful.

Alex Palumbo: I think it's the ultimate example of following instinct and following gut feelings. I think because of not having a sponsor on the front end, it allowed us to be fully free. There was no shot that we had to get, and I think that's a nice level of freedom that we were afforded. Obviously, you always want to get paid for a project like this. But to be able to make it and have that full blank slate, I think that's what allowed the film to turn out as good as it did.

Jacob Oster: Alex, what are your takeaways from making this film?

Alex Palumbo: I think it's the reinforcement of why I do personal projects—why I do projects that are not client-based. It's the reminder to not only do work for paid jobs but to do projects like this, that you might even put money into yourself, but you get something that I think has more legs than the client work. So I'm always big on personal projects. I don't really believe in spec projects, but I believe in doing personal, original projects like this. I think these are the things you get hired for down the road. You never really get hired for the commercials you shoot. You get hired for the stuff you do for fun with your friends. So this was the ultimate example of that.

For The Sake of It photographed by Alex Palumbo

Jacob Oster: I couldn’t agree more. Sometimes with film projects, there’s always something you wish you’d done differently or that you left something on the table. Maybe the story structure is lacking, or the audio quality from the interview sucked, or the cinematography didn’t hit right, or there are things you wish you would’ve done differently in the edit. There are certainly still things I would have done differently with this project.

But that’s part of the process—it pushes us to evolve and apply what we’ve learned to the next project. And I’m proud that we were able to tastefully hit every angle, from the concept to the cinematography to the edit, music, sound design, etc. I attribute a large part of that to our team, and another part of it was the freedom associated with not having the creative restraints that client work may place on us.

Alex Palumbo: Then the final thing is I think these passion projects are a way to experiment with either lenses or angles or techniques of mounting cameras that you wouldn’t maybe have the balls to do on a client project or have the ability to do with producers who are trying to get through a day. But on projects like this, you can do those things and then show the other clients, like, “Hey, look. Here’s something we can do on the next thing.” So it's a sandbox to play in.

Jacob Oster: We took a lot of “risks,” and they weren't even risks because—

Alex Palumbo: —well, there was no downside to taking said risks.

Cameras:

RED Scarlet W

RED Komodo

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Original (1080p)

Sony FX3 (Rotating studio shot)

Lenses:

Vintage Olympus Zuiko 35-105 zoom

Vintage Olympus Zuiko 21mm

Laowa 7.5mm on the Blackmagic