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Home , Dayton Duncan, Peter Coyote, The West (miniseries)

presentation – completed, I had earned a co-writer OUT OF THE credit. That film, Footsteps to FRYING PAN AND , was recognized as a INTO THE FIRE OF Spur Award finalist (the win- ner that year was Boone and DOCUMENTARY Crockett: The Hunter Heroes, FILMS written by Hutton and Dan Gagliasso for Gary L. Fore- man’s Native Sun Productions). Gaglias- so, by the way, was the lead writer on the By Candy Moulton the experience, learning some key Trail Center project so he earned double I became a documentary film pro- lessons from that LA producer: 1) Eat recognition in the Spur Awards that year. ducer by accident and entirely because whenever you see food because you The first film project I wrote and pro- of WWA. Twenty years ago, a content won’t get regular meals. 2) Stay behind duced myself came seven years later and developer for BPI, a multimedia the camera. 3) Get everybody to sign a was a short film for a stagecoach experi- production company in Boston, called release before you film them. 4) Don’t ence, also for the National Historic Trails WWA member Paul Andrew Hutton, worry about the current scene being Interpretive Center. Two years after that who was nationally known for his many filmed; instead get ready for the next production, we were deep into planning appearances in documentary one. 5) Watch what’s going on in front of a major documentary films being pro- of the camera, but more importantly film, In Pursuit of a Dream, duced for a variety watch for what is behind it! developed for the Oregon- of cable television I earned my paycheck the first day Trails Association, channels. The of filming when I saw an irate member which won the Spur Award company was pursu- of the wagon train making a beeline for documentary film in ing a project in toward her husband, who was involved 2010, my first major award Wyoming for the in a scene. I managed to intercept her for writing and producing a National Historic before she could ruin the shot. Paul Andrew Hutton documentary film. The film Trails Interpretive I knew nothing about film produc- won many other awards and ultimately Center and sought a content researcher tion, but what served me and the pro- went into distribution to the education and a scriptwriter. Hutton gave them my duction was the fact that I did know market under an agreement OCTA nego- name for research and suggested a the story. tiated with Landmark Media. scriptwriter as well. As we worked on script development We had a talented group of content The company got the job, and so did and later shoots, I had a bigger role; and film experts who had a hand in I. Production moved quickly. Less than the company recognized my under- that production, including several who a month after being hired, we were standing of westward migration. By are WWA members: BPI director and filming in Wyoming. I’d started as a the time we wrapped the shooting and cinematographer Bob Noll, line pro- researcher, but my role quickly changed. had the film – a five-screen theatrical The film called for footage of a Ice Age foods and geology expert Bruce Bjornstad provides commentary for flms for the Hanford wagon train. At the time, I was traveling Reach Interpretive Center. Candy Moulton with Ben Kern and his California Trail Wagon Train. When the LA-based pro- ducer asked if I could hire wagons and find people to appear in the shoot, it was easy for me to say yes. I hired Ben’s wagon train and found other wagons, teams and people from throughout Wy- oming to be involved. I found wardrobe and props. Along the way I was given the title of associate producer. Since I did not even know what an associate producer did, I called WWA member Miles Swarthout and asked him. He told me, “Anything the producer does not want to do.” My first exposure to production was in early June 1999. I managed to survive

DECEMBER 2019 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE 17 ducer Quackgrass Sally and film Awards from the National and content experts Hutton, Will and Western Heritage Museum for Bagley and Terry Del Bene. Best Documentary Script in 1998 That film set me on a path I for Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the never sought and did not expect. Corps of Discovery and in 2013 for In the years since, I have devel- The Dust Bowl. He won a prime- oped several dozen films and time Emmy for Outstanding Writ- multimedia pieces with Noll and ing for Nonfiction Programming BPI for museums and visitor dress. I gleaned many other details and also Outstanding Nonfiction centers ranging from the Flint Hills – that ever-important writing color – Series in 2009 for The National Parks: Discovery Center and Hanford Reach from Bagley’s book. During filming he America’s Best Idea and was a nominee Interpretive Center to the Minuteman was on hand to explain the background for a Primetime Emmy for The Dust Bowl Missile National Historic Site. to the story and for the episode “The Great Plow-Up.” While filming in , provide critical Duncan has also written or consulted I earned the name Three overview for and advised on documentaries that are Horse Woman from Dr. filmmakers and not centered on the American West, Jerry Bread, a Comanche, actors. That film including miniseries documentaries The who told me the name Mountain Massacre Civil War, Baseball, , and fit me perfectly – “You won Hutton, Kurtis The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. know,” he said, “nag, and Jamie Schenk Hutton, besides giving me a hand up, nag, nag.” Yep! That’s a Spur Award in has appeared as a subject matter expert what producers do. The 2006. and has also been a writer for many finished film, Settling the Plains: The For any documentary film producer, documentary films. Among his writing Story of Fort Griffin, is an interpretive the work of the writers is critical. Pro- credits are the TV movie Eighty Acres of documentary that tells a story of a ducers rely on not just the writer for Hell, the TV movie documentaries Car- place from two unique perspectives – the film under production, but also the son and Cody: The Hunter Heroes and Time the American Indian view from Bread writers who have chronicled any of the Machine: Boone and Crockett and an historian’s perspective provided details of the story being told. – The Hunter Heroes. He also by Henry Crawford. *** wrote the short film, The This point-counterpoint technique is the most recognized Wilderness Road: Spirit of A plays well across the three-screen pre- documentary filmmaker working to- Nation, and wrote several sentation. It is in typical documentary day, having produced dozens of films, scripts for the documen- style: subject matter experts or “talking including the exceptional Country tary TV series Investigating heads” telling a story that is visualized Music that aired in September on PBS. History. with a blend of layered archival photo- Burns has focused on some of the epic On camera, Hutton has graphs and images, small-scale reenact- stories of the American West, includ- been featured in a number ments and original B-Roll (supplemen- ing Lewis and Clark: the Journey of the of series including The American West, tal footage) that set the scenes. Corps of Discovery, The Dust Bowl and America: Facts vs. Fiction, Gunslingers Having the opportunity to bring The West itself. and American Experience programs on stories to life on a screen – either big is one of the best- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, or small – is work and fun all rolled known documentary film writers. Most Custer’s Last Stand, Billy the Kid and together. And the work of producing of his work has been in coordination Wyatt Earp. He has also been on The has made me a better writer because I with Burns. He wrote nine episodes of Wild West, History’s Mysteries, The Untold now know the real importance of the The West, including “Ghost Dance,” West and The Real West. His work on small details – the “color,” as the great “One Sky Above You,” “The Geog- documentary films as writer and subject popular nonfiction writer and editor raphy of Hope,” “Fight No More expert has spanned more than three Dale L. Walker once taught me. Forever” and “The People.” decades. He has three Spur Awards and When Bill Kurtis and Hutton Duncan wrote The National Parks: Wrangler Awards for both writing and produced a film about the Mountain America’s Best Idea, The Dust Bowl and on-camera work. Meadows Massacre for Investigating Country Music, all TV miniseries docu- Former WWA president Kirk Ellis History, I had a chance to assist with mentaries. He also wrote multiple epi- won a Spur Award in 2006 for Hell on field production and carefully dissected sodes for the TV movie documentaries Wheels, an episode of the Into the West Will Bagley’s book, Blood of the Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps TV miniseries, but he is best known for Prophets, to get the details correct, such of Discovery, and Horatio’s his work on the miniseries John Adams, as the fact that the 8-year-old girl who Drive: America’s First Road Trip. for which he won two carried the surrender “flag” for the Duncan won Spur Awards from (among the 13 garnered by the series). Fancher Wagon Train wore a white WWA and Western Heritage Wrangler Additionally, he has written many other 18 18 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2019 documentary programs for film and television audiences, Spur-winning documentary scripts including the PBS production for the National Memorial (tie, presented in 1993) and His Wild Day Concert this year. 1992: West by Robert Kirk and Last Stand at Little Bighorn by Throughout the West, producers are developing short and Paul Stekler and James Welch long documentaries for local PBS stations, museums, inter- 1993: (presented in 1994) The Hunt for Pancho Villa by Paul pretive centers, local television programming and for entry Espinosa in film festivals, among other outlets. One of these pro- 1994: (presented in 1995) One Hundred Years of Hollywood ducers/writers is Geoff O’Gara, whose Spur Award-win- Westerns by Jack Haley Jr., Phil Savenik and Aubrey ning film The Drift: An American Cattle Drive for Wyoming Solomon PBS highlights the ranch tradition of moving cattle through 1995: (presented in 1996) Ruby to the Green River valley following pasture from near Big Paradise and the Legends in Between by Piney and Pinedale to the high country. Vicki Evans ______1998: (tie) by “Eventually, I don’t know what happens, Arthur Drooker and Lewis & Clark by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns but the land kind of gets a hold of you.” 1999: Frontier Legends: of the Old – The Drift Northwest by Gary L. Foreman 2000: Annie Oakley: Crackshot in “The Drift is a way of life. It is an almost Petticoats by Arthur Drooker tribal movement of cattle. These families 2002: Boone and Crockett: The Hunter have been doing this over 100 years. – It’s Heroes by Paul Andrew Hutton with Dan clannish.” Gagliasso – Albert Sommers in The Drift 2003: Custer’s Last Stand by The story of the Green River Drift is not only one of Daniel Leavitt cowboy tradition, but a contemporary view of land use. As 2004: Carson and Cody: The one of the range riders says in the film, “The Upper Green Hunter Heroes by Paul is the bull's eye for livestock-predator conflict in Wyoming.” Andrew Hutton O’Gara’s film clearly shows that the politics of public land 2005: Wild West Tech: grazing has gotten more and more intense due to competing Deadwood Tech by Laura Verklan interests from grazing to wildlife to oil and gas development and even highway traffic. 2006: Mountain Massacre by Paul Andrew Hutton, What is unique about the Drift is its Bill Kurtis and Jamie cultural importance, recognized when it Schenk was designated a cultural property on the 2007: Gold Rush by National Register of Historic Places. Michelle Ferrari Ben Masters and a group of friends 2008: Maynard Dixon: Art and Spirit by broke and rode wild mustangs along Jayne McKay and Daniel Dixon the Continental Divide from Mexico 2009: by Michelle Ferrari to Canada, recording their journey in In Pursuit of a Dream by Candy documentary style to win the Spur final- 2010: Moulton ist certificate and a Wrangler Award for American Experience: Wyatt Earp Unbranded in 2016. The Spur that year went to Cameron 2011: by Bob Rapley Trego and Dodge Billingsly for Power’s War. Masters has just 2012: Buck directed by Cindy Meehi Buck Brannaman is interviewed for the Spur-winning documentary Buck. 2013: The Dust Bowl by Dayton Cedar Creek Productions Duncan 2014: Indian Relay by M. Smoker 2015: State of Jefferson by Kami Horton 2016: Power’s War by Dodge Billingsley and Cameron Trejo 2017: The Drift: An American Cattle Drive by Geoff O’Gara 2018: Down the Fence by MJ Isakson and Eric Frith DECEMBER 2019 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE 19 ______produced a new documentary film, The One cowboy, talking about the cattle River and The Wall, which chronicles he cares for, shows a bit of sentiment “Max Evans did not, as he the story of five friends who travel toward one cow he’s watched for years: likes to boast, experience a from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico “She’s old enough now I’m just waiting by horse, mountain bike, and canoe to to see how [expletive] long it will take life of adventure. He was the document the borderlands and how a her to die.” adventure, and he’s outlived wall may affect it. The dialogue you hear in these in- most of those who weathered Ranch Album: Real Cowboys, Real Life, terviews with ranchers, with cowboys, the storms he likely created A Film About the Real West, produced for with people of the land, have one thing the Sharlot Hall Museum of Arizona in common: authenticity. Any novel- over the years ...” History in 1987, is one of those docu- ist wanting to grasp cowboy language – Santa Fe New Mexican mentaries that stands up to should get a copy of this film. A synopsis of the film, written five the test of time. The film *** years ago when the project was still in is written and produced by As writers, we appreciate work about its infancy, begins with this from Max: Gail Steiger and his brother one of our own, and Ol’ Max Evans: “By the time I was 17, life was really Lew Steiger. Certainly film The First Thousand whippin’ up and the son of a gun never qualities have changed in the Years is a moving stopped. It has been a dead run for 90 intervening years, but the and detailed damn years and my ears laid back all technique where people tell documentary the time.” their own story, punctuated tribute to a revered Ol’ Max: The First Thousand Years with excellent visual scenes, is routine writer. This PBS blends the books and stories Max has documentary work, and this film is a film is produced written, from The Rounders and The Hi- classic. and written by Lo Country to Bluefeather Fellini, with re- ______Lorene Mills and marks by fellow writers, editors, friends Paul Barnes, edited by David Leach “Calf hunter has a job to do. and archivists. provided and filmed by Barry Kirk. It saw a narration. This film shares many of Some days he’ll have good round of airings in film festivals and Max’s stories including his time in Hol- days. Some days he’ll have special venues before airing on New lywood working with Sam Peckinpah Mexico PBS earlier this year. bad days.” and it highlights his acting debut scene This film is a tribute to Ol’ Max, a in The Ballad of Cable Hogue. – Ranch Album Lifetime Member of WWA who just *** “There’s things you do and celebrated his 95th birthday. It high- Making any documentary is always lights his contributions to literature, don’t do…. You don’t run a challenge as there is the necessity of filmmaking and art. It is a film that travel and filming in a variety of loca- in front of somebody else’s shares his connection to the land – tions, the need to put multiple people horse …. You do a little bit whether for ranching or for mining – on camera, and the need to find a and his incredible legacy as a member of the work yourself – at sponsor, benefactor, or other source of of the Greatest Generation, one of funding. least to my way of thinking.” the men who landed on the beaches at One key to any documentary is – Ranch Album Normandy during D-Day. story, and content is always king. Many WWA members have established themselves as subject matter experts and earn a bit of extra income (and public exposure) from on-camera work for documentary films. Other oppor- tunities exist for those same experts to work behind the camera, provid- ing their expertise to producers who need people to consult and advise on a variety of topics – from the history to the clothing, guns or other weapons, to transportation and more. Another obvious role for writers is how I got my break into the world of documentary filmmaking – by working as a content researcher.

20 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2019