Indy Film Fest -- Interview: Kevin Weaver

The co-director of "The B1G Story: George Taliaferro" talks about bringing the story of a Hoosier sports and civil rights icon into focus.

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Film Yap: Why did you want to bring the story of George Taliaferro to the screen?

Kevin Weaver: In 2015 I was working on a commercial for IU Football. When someone on my team brought up George Taliaferro to read the voiceover, I had no idea who he was. Meeting him during the process of filming that commercial was like meeting a legend that more people should have already known about. I want more people to know his name and know what he stood for.

Film Yap: How did you go about assembling your team, which seems IU-centered?

Kevin Weaver: We were fortunate to partner with the Big Ten Network to bring this film to life. The core crew consisted of Blueline employees. We are a production company that is based in Bloomington so we have very deep connections to IU. The core crew has really grown up together over the past ten years doing documentary and commercial work. I also teach at IU's Media School so I was able to bring some past students onto the crew as well.

Film Yap: Talk about the production process, interviewing George, finding archival footage, tracking down other notables to interview, and putting it all together?

Kevin Weaver: When we first interviewed George in 2015 our focus was not to make a feature length documentary, we were focused on telling a shorter story at the time. So one of my biggest regrets is not asking more questions when he was still with us.

We poured through archives from IU, Gary, Baltimore anywhere that George may have spoken on camera and built a rough outline based off of what existed already. We then began with identifying who we could speak to who could fill in the gaps for us.

George's daughters were pivotal in helping us see the full picture of George. We spent days with Renee Taliaferro going through boxes of photo albums, memorabilia and old reels which we got digitized. We became keepers of the family heirlooms. The home movies were really impactful. The daughters were also our partners in identifying who we could speak to in order to show the full picture of George.

Production was done in two waves and done during the height of the pandemic. We mostly did production in Bloomington and Gary, but also did interviews in Chicago and San Francisco.

For the post-production of this film we tried something we hadn't done before and had a team of five editors collaborate on the project. We would take scenes and then swap them and keep iterating off of each other. I think this process helped us keep editing to six months and really was a more collaborative experience.

Film Yap: What’s the challenge of making historical documentaries you wish somebody had told you about when you were starting your filmmaking career?

Kevin Weaver: When there are no photos and no videos you have to get creative. Much of George's story happened before these mediums were prevalent, which is why we decided to bring on an illustrator and animator to bring those stories to life. I also think one of the biggest challenges of historical documentaries and those focused on the life of a person, is just the sheer amount of things you can't fit in the film.

So many touching moments and beautiful stories did not make it into the film. Having to make a choice of what not to put in is one of the biggest challenges of filmmaking that I have encountered. When you go deep into something like this you get attached to the people and the stories and it was so helpful to bring other producers in from the Big Ten Network to help workshop the story through the post-production phase.

Film Yap: What’s the takeaways you hope people will take away from your film?

Kevin Weaver: I hope people will see the life George lived beyond his football career. He was an incredible player in college and in the pros but more importantly he was an incredible human. He holds records and can claim firsts but the impact he made on a personal level to individuals who came into his life continue to impact the world.

Film Yap: What’s next for you?

Kevin Weaver: I am currently in Post-Production on a narrative feature shot in Indianapolis called Christine's Wager and also creating a pilot for a show focused on the adaptive sports world.