Capturing Fado: Behind the Scenes of the New Saudade Documentary
On-location with the crew
We gathered in the small town of Alcobaça, Portugal on a cold, rainy night (perfect weather for the subject of the film) with cameras, lights, microphones and a live audience for a documentary film that will help shed light on the Portuguese feeling of ‘saudade.’ The term saudade is uniquely Portuguese, and it’s said that saudade is hard to accurately define in any other language. This film will attempt to define it for audiences using, in part, this live performance of a Fado show (Fado music is also uniquely Portuguese and has some connections to the feeling of saudade).
A few excerpts from the shoot.
Back to Square One - Scouting the Location
One month before, a small part of the team did a location scout at the restaurant/cafe where filming would take place. It’s a great spot, but being an older building, electric was going to be a challenge. There were exactly (2) outlets available to us in the great room so we would have to figure something out (hello extension cords and snakes). We also found that the house lights up-lighting the columns couldn’t be turned off without shutting electric off in the whole room - challenge noted. We found that shooting 25fps with 180-degree shutter worked to reduce any flicker to zero - challenge overcome.
After discussion of where sound would run, where the audience would be sitting, where the musicians would be positioned, and where lights and cameras would be we hatched out plan.
The Plan in Motion
We’re happy to report that this was a successful shoot in that nothing went wrong, nothing went sideways, and we stayed on time. The schedule went like this:
Mic the musicians and do an audio test
Film a performance of the music without the audience - this allowed us to move about freely for close-ups and more intimate shots
Greet the audience and give them some rules of the night (in both Portuguese and Engligh) - silence during the music was mandatory, no cell phones, no pictures or videos during the performance, and signed waivers
Film the performance again with static cameras
Break down and load out
A Good Start to 2026
A well-executed project was the perfect way to start the year and we’re looking ahead to more of them in 2026. Contact us to talk about your project and let’s get things rolling for you.