Soup spills into fish documentary

Ah, Souperwoman. How DO you do it? The videographer arrives from Frisco, the producer from Portsmouth, and the local guy connecting them with Knox County fishermen squires them to Lobsterman Art Johnson for a satisfying go-round in his backyeard amid his still-homeported trap gear. Then to the fish pier, where connector-man checks in with the Western Sea, Plan B, Double Eagle and other boats, all alive with spring-cleaning. He motions them on down to the end: Captain Fill of the ' Sea is willing to talk. They amble down, quick words along the way with the Live Lobster folk and the bait people.

We are all there at end of the fishpier, finally and the good Captain has allotted some time from his busy schedule, sitting relaxed on dock, while his crew works around him, grinning in anticipation of being video'd for national news distribution. The producer begins her low key language dance, working out the psycholinguistics for a good interview.

WHEN IN POPS A VILLAGE SOUP REPORTER

...stepping into the documentary space between the interviewer and her camera shooter, and Capt Fill. "Wait!" she announces, and the camera lowers, pulls back "Me first."

Danny Fill raises an eyebrow at the producer. She shrugs. The reporter demands the Captain's name, inquires as to his business (he tips his head toward the Western Sea, the steel herring seiner rising and falling in the Gulf of Maine swell behind him.) Meanwhile the interviewer, videographer trade glances with the local producer. He clears his throat. The Soupie stops (she is snapping photos of Capt Fill now) and then, recollecting that there ARE other people here, steps back, and Meg the producer restarts to her colloquoy with Danny Fill.
tend to modify the observed, a privilege that is reserved to the documentarians and their subject.

Or should be. Souperwoman stays inside the frame, for all the world as if this were a press conference.

Eventually the interview is over, and as the captain returns to working on his boat, we shift to a lobster smacker, back from transporting lobsters from island fishermen to the mainland. He is interested but declines, politely but firmly, to be interviewed. He does agree to talk off camera and Meg quizzes him about healthcare. The Village Soup reporter again inserts herself into the frame with her own questions and photography. The local producer moves up the pier, considering the next interviewees. They head to the North End Shipyard, where the wooden masts of half a dozen windjammers rake the sky.

Captain Brenda Thomas of the schooner Isaac Evans is nowhere to be found, but the Souper proves useful and finds him the boat's phone #. He calls and reaches her husband, who listens to the proposition of being interviewed. Shortly he walks up through the shipyard. An interview with he, (much Soup insertion, of course). Finally Captain Walker shows, agrees to be interviewed, too, and take camera crew aboard her schooner, clambering across another to reach the Isaac Evans. Only a bit of Soup this time, as the quarters aboard are rather tight for captain and documentary crew AND soup reporter.

Things come to an end. The footage is shot, the words are all in the can. A quick stop to get a release signature from Lobsterman Artie Johnson Local Producer, the the documentary crew a share a round at the Black Bull, and all go their seperate ways. Meg got what she came for. Consumers Union will have its health care story. Village Soup will have its story "the making of a documentary".

And when it duly is published, the local producer reads it and sighs. He's not in the "making of" story at all. A casual reader would think the Souper Reporter had done it all on her ownsome.
He jots her a quick email subject lined with a "Thanks for the coverage of the health care video crew" to fan her ego, but with this message in the body: "...And a hearty middle finger for leaving me entirely out of it."

Childish, but one must observe the proprieties.