Find them in this order.
Team Voodoo members first, because they will vouch for you to the rest. Then the infantry units they rode with — 3/15 and 2/22 are named in the manuscript. Then interpreters. Then family.
Testimony
Everything else on this project can be done next year. This cannot.
01 Why this is the urgent one
Boone is already gone. The men who were in that sector with him are in their forties and fifties now, scattered, some unwell, some unreachable, some who will say no the first time and yes the third. The interpreters are harder to find than the soldiers. Every month that passes, the film loses a voice it will never get back.
Start this before the sizzle is cut. Start it before the money is raised. A camera, a good microphone, a quiet room, and someone who has read the book is enough.
02 Before the camera
Make the first contact by phone, not email.
Say who you are, that Boone’s widow gave you the manuscript, and that you are trying to get his story on film. Then stop talking and let them decide what to say. Do not pitch.
Send the book.
Every participant gets a copy before the interview. They will read it, and they will arrive with corrections, which is exactly what you want.
Paperwork before the shoot, not on the day.
Appearance release, and a short plain-English note on how the material will be used, including that reconstruction footage exists and is labelled. A man signing a release ten minutes before a hard interview signs it without reading it, and that is not consent.
Ask what is off limits before you roll.
Write it down. Honour it exactly. If he says he will not talk about a specific man’s death, do not circle back to it at minute ninety because the room has warmed up. He will notice, and you will lose the rest.
03 The setup
| Item | Standard |
|---|---|
| Duration | Book three hours. Use two. Never plan a one-hour interview — nothing real happens in the first forty minutes. |
| Cameras | Two: a mid on the eyes, a wide for safety and cutaways. |
| Sound | Lav plus a boom. Two recorders. Room tone at the end, sixty seconds, everyone silent. |
| Room | Their space, not a studio. A kitchen table beats a set. |
| People present | Interviewer, one operator. Nobody else. No spouse in the room unless the subject asks. |
| Eyeline | Just off lens. Not to camera — this is testimony, not address. |
Have a plan for a subject who becomes distressed
Stop rolling first, ask second. Know the number for the Veterans Crisis Line before you arrive, and know that the Spartan Pledge exists and that these men mostly already know about it. If someone is struggling, the interview is over for the day and you can come back. There is no shot worth more than that.
04 The questions
Thirty questions, in five movements
Ask them in this order. The order matters more than the wording — you are moving from easy ground to hard ground and back out again, and you do not leave someone in the hard part.
Opening — establishing 20 min
- Say your name, your rank at the time, and what you did in that sector.
- How did you end up in PsyOp? Nobody joins the Army planning on it.
- When did you first meet Boone? What was your first impression of him?
- Describe Sadr City the first time you saw it. Not what it meant — what it looked like, what it smelled like, what the heat was like.
- What did you think the mission was, on day one?
The craft 30 min
- Explain to someone who knows nothing about it: what did your team actually do all day?
- Most people hear “psychological operations” and think manipulation. What is the honest version?
- Talk to me about credibility. What happened to a team that got caught in a lie?
- Tell me about the loudspeaker. What did it feel like to use it? Did it work?
- Boone writes that the real work happened at night, quietly, with a few people. Was that true? What did those conversations look like?
- Describe a message you wrote that worked. Take me through it from the problem to the result.
- Describe one that failed.
- What did the infantry think of you? Be honest.
Boone 25 min
- What was he like to work for?
- What was he like when he was wrong?
- What did he understand that other people in that job didn’t?
- Is there a moment with him you have never told anyone about?
- What did he never talk about?
The cost 30 min — go carefully
- Tell me about 18 December 2005.
- The council member you were three minutes too late for — what do you remember?
- What did the Punishment Committee mean to the people in that sector?
- When did you first notice something had changed in Boone?
- When did you first notice something had changed in you?
- What did coming home look like?
- What do people get wrong about what happened to you?
The long return 25 min
- In October 2019 the kids of Sadr City started a revolution. When did you find out?
- What did you feel?
- Do you think the work you did had anything to do with it? Say what you actually think, not what you hope.
- What do you want people to understand about Boone?
- What should this film not do?
05 Separate protocols
Interpreters
Harder to find than the soldiers, and often still at risk. Ask what they want withheld before you ask anything else, and treat that answer as binding on the edit, not as a preference.
Family
The Producer will not portray any living member of the Cutler family without that person’s separate written consent. Interview them last, when you already know the story well enough not to make them explain it.
The protected source
Audio only. No face, no build, no street, no interior. A documented consent, a security protocol, and a named reviewer who signs off before anything featuring him leaves the building.