Alarmingly off-script

This Notebook entry is meant to show a glimpse of the early efforts that go into producing even a short video report. Many ideas take weeks and sometimes months to materialize, as research to understand the topic and old-fashioned reporting starts the process. Often I hit dead ends with calls and emails looking for information and ultimately the right people to speak on camera. This is not daily journalism.

What started as a seed idea from a phone call to a philosophy professor in Canada led to my look at fire and emergency personnel using improv in their thinking, if even informally (see Preparing for the Unpredicatable). Eric Lewis at McGill University alerted me to an account he had read of U.S. Navy SEALS in San Diego needing to put out a large number of offshore oil fires. The officers had suffered several injuries so the naval academy, looking to make a change, adopted principles of improv to train their firefighters. Disasters do not follow prescribed plans, so preparing for that inevitability was being valued.

As much as my adviser Laura Ruel liked the story idea and as much as I hated to pass up a challenge (and travel), we agreed that it may be taking on too much to head for the west coast to solely tackle that ocean-bound story with the Navy, based on all the other parts of my project. That one sounded like I might need a crew with me!

Instead Laura urged me to hunt for other units—either military or law enforcement—that may be using similar techniques. I aimed to keep the production local and sought out professionals from several agencies to conduct my reporting. I researched FEMA (which is concerned with improvised explosive devices, but that’s different). I talked to the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management, whose rep explained to me how they build exercises that attempt to exploit weaknesses in their plans. They use both discussion-based exercises and operations-based exercises (or simulations) to validate training. In fact the field uses the term scripted disaster to refer to a wheels-turning/boots-on-the-ground simulation. I wanted in on that. I may even get them blowing stuff up. But they are expensive, rare and often kept secret. Therefore I was told, I should look for a live burn.

Visually I was hoping to locate a training session happening at one of those towers meant just for practicing firefighters to run up and down steps. However not only are those facilities less common than one might guess, but they schedule practices rather infrequently (mostly it seemed to be tied to the semester schedule at the technical colleges that offer fire training).

A live burn is a fire academy’s way of getting real-world practice. Someone will usually donate a building—typically one in poor condition that will not expect to sell—and an organized burning down of that building takes place. The teams of firefighters get multiple chances under mostly controlled conditions to put their skills and decision-making to the test. I researched the entire state to find live burns coming up, but I kept being reminded of the unscripted nature of life. These homes that are allowed to be set on fire do not come along very often!

Well I did get the word that a live burn would take place, and not too far from home. May 22, 2009, an old two-story house on church grounds in Efland, N.C., was the site, and several area fire departments showed up to take advantage of the training. I was granted access with my cameras, and was told about the need for safety, but I still was permitted to get as close as I dare to the heat and smoke.

Usually a documentary filmmaker plans to shoot a live event several times in order to get coverage of details that happen only once each time. Yet I felt I would only get one chance in a reasonable time frame to get the materials I needed from the Efland live burn. Fortunately the training lasted about four hours, which gave me lots of chances to circle the house and find moments as well as process on display.