Perseverance in Post

Julie Checkoway has worn many professional hats since leaving her hometown of Newburyport, MA.  She has been a high school teacher, author, professor, and producer for public radio.  Notice the absence of documentary filmmaker on that list.  That vacancy has since been filled.   

In 2002, Julie was living in Houston and working on a project for NPR when she heard about a young artist from Baltimore by the name of Billy Pappas.  Pappas was aiming to change the way the world looked at realism in art and to that end, had been working on a single portrait for close to a decade.  Julie knew a great tale when she heard one and immediately traveled to Baltimore to meet the artist. 

She found that Pappas was surrounded by a group of great characters.  There was the clergyman, the professor, and the architect who called himself “Dr. Lifestyle.”  Plus, there was Pappas’s quest to have noted artist David Hockney view the portrait and offer his opinion.  But countless trips and 30 hours of audio interviews later, Julie started to feel like the story was getting away from her.   

While five months pregnant and on vacation with her brother, Neal, Julie spoke about Pappas’s story and the problems she was having.  Neal Checkoway immediately understood the challenges.  The subject was visual, the journey was long, and the characters were larger than life.  It wasn’t a radio piece; it was a film. “It was Neal that issued the challenge,” Julie said.  

Neal’s version of that initial conversation is slightly different: “I asked, ‘Do you have the fire in your belly?’ and she said, ‘No, I have a child in my belly.’” 

Julie knew that Neal was right, but she had never made a film before.  Could she do it?  “All you need is the will and desire to learn,” she decided, inspired from observing her brother’s success.  With no official business training, Neal founded the online travel portal Travelocity.  Success is an understatement.   

With the full support of her family, Julie decided she did have the fire in her belly and wanted to “experiment in storytelling" in a new way.  She also found an ally and helper she didn’t expect -- her brother.  “I just went along for the ride,” he said. 

Luck and serendipity would become Julie’s best friends as she began shooting footage for what would eventually be titled Waiting for Hockney.  While living in Salt Lake City, Julie met Geralyn White Dreyfous who had won an Academy Award as an executive producer for the documentary Born Into Brothels.  It turns out their kids were attending the same school, White Dreyfous had gone to the same college as Julie, and they both grew up in New England, just 20 miles apart.  White Dreyfous came on board as a producer on the film. 

After adding 80 hours of video footage to her 30 hours of audio Julie ended up in the edit room, which she says was the most challenging part.  “The learning curve was intense.”

She spent an entire year working with one editor before she decided to let him go and find another.  Things just weren’t coming together the way she wanted and she wasn’t exactly sure why.   

Her new editor, Chris Peterson, had some great advice to help solve some of her story issues.  Before they cut a frame, he asked her:  What is the story about?  Where do you want the audience to be at the start?  The end?  How do you want them to feel when the leave the theater?  Julie had never thought of the film in those terms before.  They didn’t start cutting material until she had answered those questions and formulated a basic outline.  

The edit was a long process and once again, Julie’s brother became an incredible ally. Although it was Neal who had started the filmmaking-ball rolling, he had only attended one shooting day.  In post-production he became much more hands-on.  Even Julie was surprised. “I didn’t expect him to get as involved as he did,” she said.  

The edit was happening in LA, but Julie was living in Utah and traveling…a lot.  It became too much for her to juggle editing with her responsibilities to her kids and husband.  Neal stepped up and became her “proxy” in the edit room.  He and Peterson would work on the cut and bounce ideas off Julie via Skype.  Every couple of weeks, Julie would travel to LA for a meeting with Peterson.  This was a huge relief for Julie and her family.

As a businessman, Neal looked at the filmmaking process a bit differently than a filmmaker. “I treated it like a product development process,” he said.  “There is a prototype, a beta version, and a first release.”  Neal also pointed out that he, Julie, and Peterson each had backgrounds in music, which gave them a common language when talking about the pace and rhythm of the film. 

The post process would end up taking two years before Julie had a finished film or, as Neal would say, “first release.”  Julie speaks passionately about the themes of Waiting for Hockney -- family, overcoming class barriers, and the pursuit of the American dream, which she thinks drew the best work from everybody involved. “Everyone decided to commit themselves completely.” 

Neal echoes those thoughts. “We had a really good team with really good ideas and a common vision for what we were trying to say.” And, when asked what it was like working so closely with his sister he said, “At times we drove each other crazy and other times it was immaterial.  But, in the end I think we learned some things about each other.”       

Both Julie and Neal Checkoway will return to their hometown of Newburyport for the screening of Waiting for Hockney at the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival.