BTS Breakdown – BLACK AND BLUE
Bobby Peacock is a Sioux Falls-based filmmaker with a passion for tackling difficult conversations through film, specifically to educate people on diversity and the issues that stem from diversity. To help him accomplish that goal, he co-founded Hazard with Daniel Bergeson.
Made possible by the Bush Foundation and funded through Passenger, Bobby had an opportunity to tell an important story that our region needs to hear about South Dakota State Trooper Julian Beaudion, the challenges he faces as a black officer in a region with very little diversity on its police force, and the ways he’s looking to overcome those challenges and impact the community in a positive way.
Check out the short film below, then check out the conversation we had with Bobby to dive deeper into Black and Blue.
For starters, how did this project develop?
Joe from Passenger hit me up and said they were looking to support filmmakers with projects they wanted to pursue. I co-founded a non-profit called Hazard which was created to tackle difficult conversations through film and we knew this would be a really cool project for us to partner with Passenger on.
We sat at the table and talked about how, with everything happening in 2020 and going into 2021, we wanted to do a project that continued to move that conversation forward. From there, we met with Julian (the subject of the piece) and thought this was a story that needed to be told so people could be educated.
What was your personal thought process going into this piece?
My personal thought process was how do we educate people on the topic of racial justice and do it in a creative way? And how do we make it local? I was sitting down with someone and his wife was talking to me about past videos I had worked on and she mentioned one thing that made them more powerful was that they talk about Sioux Falls. When it comes to racial issues, people here tend to think “that can’t happen here in Sioux Falls,” but it does. So taking something national and making it local and having someone who spoke at this event in Sioux Falls sharing his heart was a great opportunity to do that.
Can you share some about the aesthetics?
I’m a huge fan of Spike Lee and specifically how he uses Dutch angles, so when I did this project I wanted it to make people uncomfortable. There are a couple shots where we cut off the top of Julian’s head, added a Dutch angle to multiple shots, that kind of thing. I just wanted people to be a little bit uncomfortable because when you’re talking about race, it’s an uncomfortable conversation to have with people. It’s often confused with political issues and political sides, but someone once told me you can’t argue with someone’s story. Aesthetically, we wanted it to be in the city, downtown specifically, to have that ambiance of being in the city.
What about this project were you really excited about or looking forward to?
I’m not gonna lie, I was excited to shoot on an Arri camera. But honestly, I was excited to push my creative ability and do something that was more outside of the box than the projects I would usually do. I was excited, honestly, to work with Passenger on a project. I was excited to work with a team. And the cool thing about that team is we made it a priority to make sure it was a diverse team, both in terms of experience but also color. And finally, doing something outside of our comfort zone, going for a location that looked really cool (Downtown Sioux Falls).
What was the biggest challenge you faced while making this piece?
There were a couple of challenges. One was scheduling our actual subject for the film. We had a shoot day scheduled out and ready to go and then at the last minute something came up in his personal life and we had to reschedule the shoot. The other challenge was the edit. I had a lot going on and the edit was difficult for me because I’m still growing as an editor. But I feel great about how it all came out.
What is your hope for this project?
With this project specifically, race was the hot topic of 2019 and 2020, and it is no longer the hot topic. With that being said, I want this project to spark more conversation within the topic of racial justice and racial injustice. We want to educate people with this film. The hope is that we’ll see change and education resulting from this project.
What was an unexpected outcome from this project?
One thing was before we started this film we were under the impression that we’d be able to see Julian in uniform and get b-roll of him in uniform, but because this was such a sensitive topic, he either wasn’t allowed—or felt like he wasn’t allowed—to be able to his uniform in the video. He talked about how other people were able to use their uniforms for a platform and he wasn’t able to. And that was frustrating to deal with because that’s something he should be proud of and shouldn’t feel like he has to hide, but he did. So having to adjust to that wasn’t initially part of our plan.
Also, the growth of working with a team and learning from one of the great talents of the Sioux Falls film community (Joe from Passenger) and learning how to be a better cinematographer and learning about things to look out for were really positive outcomes.
What did you learn in this process that you feel like you can apply to your future work?
I learned that I need to continue to push myself creatively. A lot of times as filmmakers, especially doing corporate or commercial work, you start to feel like it can be just another project. But you really should reach for the sky and try to attain something more creative. I think it’s awesome that we were reaching to shoot this piece in the heart of Sioux Falls, Downtown, and ended up only a block away from our original desired location.
Also, being more aware of surroundings and angles and a lot of the technical specifics and the way aesthetics play such a big role in things. Once we got it all shot, I realized other ways I could’ve done things, other ideas for shots, so learning to take in the whole environment when you’re shooting was a good lesson. And I learned to always shoot more b-roll.
What’s your next project?
I want to work with the Sioux Falls Police Department and get a diverse array of police officers’ stories. I think there are always two sides to every story, so to be able to tell a diverse array of police officers’ stories to let people know not all officers are bad.
Is there anything else you’d like to add about this project?
I’m just super thankful to have had an opportunity to work on a project like this. Just to continue the conversation and move that forward. Huge shoutout to Passenger and the Bush Foundation for letting Hazard and myself work on this.
Joe, is there anything you want to add about Passenger’s role in this?
Yeah, we feel grateful to be able to partner with Bobby on this. It means a lot and I’m grateful for that opportunity. I would hope that other established filmmakers and production companies in the Sioux Falls film community will consider making it possible for younger filmmakers different from their own backgrounds be able to tell the stories they want to tell because that diversity of stories makes our community stronger.
Before we go, can you tell us more about Hazard?
Yeah, the co-founder of Hazard Film Project is Daniel Bergeson. He was a huge asset to our team. Hazard tackles difficult conversations through film with a goal of education and diversity. He was a producer on this project and was my right hand man from the start. As far as the location and getting core details, if he hadn’t been producing, this project would’ve fallen apart. He did an amazing job with that and he has a true heart for having these conversations and getting the word out about them.
He also helped with Taylor Yocum’s recent project as a producer, so it was cool to have him working not just on a project with me but also another person in the community as well.
Hazard is in post-production on its short film, titled Hazard, in spring of 2022. We’re really excited about that and we’re talking about bigger projects happening in the next few years.