The Last Repair Shop is nominated for an Oscar in the Best Documentary Short Film category for the 96th Annual Academy Awards. Directed by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers, the short looks at the Los Angeles shop that fixes the musical instruments for its public school students, at no cost. Four craftspeople are profiled, each representing a different section of an orchestra. The short concludes with a performance by LA school district alumni.
David Feeney-Mosier served as director of photography and says the project was shot using Arri’s Alexa Mini with Cooke Anamorphic lenses.
“We started filming in 2019,” he recalls. “We shot all the interviews with the four main repair-shop employees then, as well as b-roll around the shop. We shot the interviews with the students in 2022, and the end credit’s musical sequence in 2023.”
While the interviews are the heart of the film, Feeney-Mosier says the short’s the end-credits sequence was both memorable and challenging.
“We had about a half-day at the Eastwood Sound Stage on the Warner Bros. lot to not only film the entire end-credits sequence, which involved nearly 100 musicians, but they also had to record the usable audio of the song being performed,” he explains. “So our half day turned into a few hours to complete a very intricate sequence with two cameras. The scene was also a very important moment of levity in the film, as it united the two halves of our story in a magical final showcase: the repair shop employees, and the students and former students, who benefited directly from those repairs. Fortunately directors Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers came incredibly prepared for the ambitious day. They actually made a shot list right on the sheet music, so we knew exactly which part of the orchestra we needed to focus on for each part of the score.”
Feeney-Mosier adds that they had a larger crew that day, greatly helping to make the shoot a success.
“We could not have made our day without the hard work of Steadicam operator Orlando Duguay, B-camera operator Mike Simpson, camera assistants Jordan Scott and Jordan Pelligrini, gaffer Kazmo Kida, lighting technician Quinn Brudos-Sommers and balloon tech Brian Scotti.”