LoPretzel Productions
Cinematography Portfolio

Three Identical Strangers is a documentary about the discovery of triplets who were separated at birth. They discovered

one another when they were all 19 years old, which lead to a lot of publicity about their story. This publicity lead to more people finding their long lost twin. A reporter uncovered a scientific study that was based on twins separated at birth, revealing two decades worth of lies and deceit. 

One thing I noticed immediately is how they filmed B-roll for this documentary. They didn't only find pictures

from that time, but they also dressed people up and filmed. The first scene felt like the beginning of a movie, with a voiceover about the first day of school and a video of a car driving down a road. The way they pulled this off is by never showing the actors face- it was easy to believe it was the person speaking because we didn't know what the actor looked like, we couldn't pick out differences. Another thing they did was to use multiple cameras for each interview. This is something I noticed with Muench's documentary as well, the handheld close up shots are a nice change of pace from the normal-looking interview still shot. I want to do this in my documentary- either to cover cuts in an interview or just to change it up a little. Something smart they did was when everyone was discussing the "meaty hands" of the triplets, they did a close up on David's hands. It was kind of quirky and I liked it. They also used a variety of angles in the film, as you should, with Bobby's interview on the centerline, Michael's interview on the right line, and  Ellen's interview was on the left side of the screen (rule of thirds is so important to add variety and interest to interviews! it keeps the eye moving). Another thing they did within interviews is "the office" zoom. When it was kind of a comedic moment, the DP would zoom in the camera on the interviewee's face. When Bobby was on the phone with Eddy, they edited the audio so that when Bobby voiced Eddy's response, it sounded like it was coming through the phone. It was actually really cool and well done- better than most tv shows I've seen.

Throughout the film, I tried to pay close attention to music choice. What kind of music they played when they were

talking about sad or upsetting issues (an example would be when Bobby and David were talking about being in psych wards and how they all had disturbing childhoods), and what music they played when they were talking about exciting issues (such as the first time they met). I'm still unsure as to what kind of music I want to use for my documentary- I may even have one of the students compose a piece for it. 

Story-wise, they had a very nice transition between the excitement of finding out you had two brothers that are exactly

like you in every way, to "I used to slam my head against the wall because of separation anxiety". That also hit me really hard, the fact that they felt like there was something missing because they were so used to being a pack of 3, and then six months into their lives they were ripped apart. Finally, it came to light that it was all an experiment. The editors used past quotes from interviews, such as the three types of families they were placed into. It all made sense to me now, the story was all building up to the climax- finding out that it was all an experiment. We seem to follow the investigation process, thinking it was just about nature vs nurture, and then eventually understanding that it was an experiment to test if mental illnesses were heritable. 

I knew something was up from the beginning when Eddy never appeared in an interview. But I didn't think anything of it,

as everyone who spoke about him kept their composure- they were all smiling and talking about him as if he was still alive. However, this was false hope. The audience eventually finds out that Eddy killed himself. This part was the most important for me, personally. Talking about death is difficult, and I'm going to be asking people to do it very soon. This part gave me an example of how to edit, with leaving moments of silence to see the interviewees processing, perhaps even showing an emotional moment after answering a question. I know that this is going to be difficult for me to do. I'll want to reach out, to console the person I'm interviewing- but I can't. I need to sit and give them silent time to either continue talking or be emotional. I'm also debating whether or not I should have the interviewee look directly into the camera or look at me. 

I appreciated the ending, tying everything together and wrapping up with a moral of sorts. That our genes guide us, they

pull us in a direction, but our biology is not our destiny. Nurture can overcome nature. 

I would recommend this film to someone else to watch. Specifically, I think this would be an interesting watch for

any psychology student. They discussed "nature vs nurture" a lot after the idea of the experiment was introduced- this was where the documentary diverged from the three brothers to an experiment that affected quite a few people. Actually, I asked Muench to suggest a film that I could look to for ideas for my documentary. I wanted to watch for specific lighting tactics, how best to place b-roll (or when not to put b-roll) over emotional moments, and how to tell a story through the documentary style. However, the issue I'm thinking about is that this is one cohesive story- while my film is telling the stories of multiple people. In any case, this film was very interesting and well filmed.