Danny Jarabek
If you’re familiar with the 2020 documentary Boys State, which followed a thousand teenage boys attending a summer political citizenship simulation, you’ll quickly understand the premise of its companion film Girls State from the same directors, Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine (interviewed here by Joey). Girls State (streaming on Apple TV+) works on a similar entry point, this time navigating a group of girls in the Missouri iteration as they perform mock government exercises and campaign for leadership roles.
In Girls State, cinematographer Laura Hudock, one of seven DPs on the project, was tasked with documenting the journey of one of the film’s primary subjects, Emily Worthmore (one of the subjects Joey interviewed here). In our conversation, Laura details the verité approach to the film’s cinematography, and embracing the imperfections of the campus setting. She also speaks about the relationship and trust required between herself and Emily that allowed the pair to capture the journey of Girls State together while respecting the boundaries and challenges presented in the one-week program.
Read our full conversation with Girls State cinematographer Laura Hudock below.
Hi, this is Danny Jarabek, here with Awards Radar, and I’m very delighted to have with me today, Laura Hudock, cinematographer for the documentary on Apple TV+, Girls State. Laura, thank you so much for joining me. It is a pleasure, and congratulations as well on your Emmy nomination for Outstanding Cinematography for a Nonfiction Program!
Laura: Thank you so much! It’s exciting to be here. Thank you.
Absolutely. So, to start it off, with this documentary of Girls State, I’m just curious to know what your familiarity level going into this project with what the Girls State and Boys State program was. Because I know when I watch each of these films, I grew up in a state where this wasn’t a thing, so I also learned a lot along the way.
Laura: Yeah. It was all new to me before I came on the project. I learned a lot. But what was helpful, of course, was that Boys State already existed. So, I watched that, not necessarily for influence on how to film it but as an example of certain scenarios that we might come across. In that sense, that was my research. I learned a lot along the way.
You have a background in cinematography for documentary format. What’s your approach going into photographing a documentary in comparison to other formats of the film medium?
Laura: I shoot both narrative and doc. While there’s a lot of crossover, there’s a different set of obstacles and a different approach that’s required. Mainly, so much of documentary cinematography, most of the time, the light is out of your control. Obviously, you can light the interviews. Sometimes you can jump in a room and open or close a blind or turn off the light or get yourself in the best position possible to get the best angle and the lighting, but you’re pretty much trying to find the best way to deal with what you’ve got. You need to be able to accept imperfection and embrace imperfection, in a way. Mostly, so much of documentary cinematography is your trust, access, and connection to your subject. With Girls State, we had seven cinematographers on board. Each of us was paired with a different subject, in a very small team of just a cinematographer and the sound. So, true verité intimate filming, allows you to get more intimate in the world. That’s really what it’s all about, having time to gain trust with your subject, knowing when to put down the camera and connect. Having an energy when you walk into the room. People feel energy. You’ve got to walk in with a nonjudgmental, positive energy. People can feel that energy. Try and connect with your subject as another human. I’m not a robot with a camera, I’m an artist who cares and a storyteller. When they saw that—and I followed Emily Worthmore, that was a very magical pairing because we connected quite quickly. Even though we may have different views and political beliefs, we respected each other. Yeah. It’s a whole other ballgame because you’re dealing with elements out of your control. And so much of it is not where you’re putting the lights but it’s gaining access to your subject and then being so present to the moment and empathetic and connected to the scene that you can tell the story instantaneously edited in your head, like how do I communicate what’s happening as it’s unfolding in front of me? There are so many thought processes that are happening at one time on top of the technical of I’ve got to pull focus, what’s the F stop, and where’s the light, and what’s the story, and I’m listening to the dialogue. You have way more tasks going on in your mind than a narrative.
No, that was wonderful. You spoke to having this very verité approach to how this film was shot. What were you dealing with in terms of your camera package, the gear you had with your very small crew once you followed Emily?
Laura: I shot with a Canon C500 Mark II. Some cinematographers opted for the C70 on a gimbal or would bounce between that and the C500. Emily was the energizer bunny of the cast. So, I didn’t feel like I had time to even swap to a different camera. I like to use my body when I operate, so I prefer handheld rather than gimbal operating. I like having my eye in the eyepiece because it makes me feel more connected. For my story, the C500 Mark II, and then across the cameras, we mostly shot with a Canon 50mm Cine Prime. We had a few other Cine Primes on hand and some of the gimbal stuff I think was shot on a 35mm, but we wanted to have some level of consistency across all the pieces. We wanted to shoot with the same lens in a similar focal length so we’d have the same level of compression and collectively mostly shot with the 50mm, which was challenging because it’s a full-frame camera. We’re shooting mostly wide open or close to it, so it’s a pretty shallow depth of field. You have to navigate the space as a cinematographer moving in and out rather than zooming in and out to get the wide shot and the close-up and be light on your feet moving and not disturb the scene. So, you have to become part of what’s unfolding in front of you. Eventually, they let go and allow you in their space to capture it. So, Canon cameras. We had ACs come and run batteries and cards and stuff like that, but on my own were the times I needed a lightweight camera, not having a grip to take it off my shoulder. I needed a small package to have a small footprint. We needed a small package for a small footprint so we could be intimate scenes in small spaces and operate on our own, self-sufficient, so the Canon cameras worked well for that, and the Cine Primes were good for lenses across the board.
So, as you said, you worked with Emily on this documentary. She’s a central part of the narrative and becomes a fascinating and compelling part of it for a lot of the themes that she’s grappling and tackling with. A lot of those become very prevalent, especially with the very specific characteristics of this edition of Girls State which was set during the very particular point in time. Some of the themes that come up are the relationship to the Boys State program that’s happening for the first time on the same campus, as well as the Roe v. Wade, leaked decision. There are a lot of really fascinating and compelling themes. How did that all come together through following Emily who is, as you describe, an energizer bunny? She’s all over the place talking to everybody.
Laura: She did her race for governor and unfortunately did not do the best in her speech. She got nervous. At that point, she realized that her run was over. She had a choice at that moment to give up and, okay, that’s the end of my Girls State run, or use the rest of her time to do something and find her path of victory. She’s studying journalism. She was starting to have discussions with her friends about what’s the difference between Boys State and Girls State. She decided to go for it. I captured it as it unfolded. There is no fly on the wall in verité cinema. You’re enmeshed. I know that she and I had a pretty strong connection, and she was very excited to be working with filmmakers, and also probably women, too. I know that she saw some of my hard work and even said to me, ‘I want to be you,’ which hits your heart and is also flattering, of course. Maybe part of it was being inspired also by what was happening around her, that she made that choice to not give up. Ultimately, she made her path to victory, and I captured it. You’d have to ask her what led her there. It was kind of like documentary magic, you know? That’s the kind of stuff you hope happens, the kind of story arcs you hope will develop and you never know. Luckily, it all came together.
Laura, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate getting to hear a little bit more about Girls State. It is a cool documentary, and I hope more people get to see it. So, congratulations on your Emmy nomination.
Laura: Thank you!
Best of luck with everything moving forward and thank you again for your time.
Laura: Of course.
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