I was impressed with the “Why We Fight” documentary on Tyler Ginter’s blog and so I got in contact with him about a write-up. As it turns out a friend of his Matt Freire was the one who had shot and put it together. So I contacted Matt to get not only his production write-up but what life is like in the Army as a combat cameraman. His piece documents the feeling and sentiment of the Afghan people who are tired of war and offer a perspective that most people don’t see.

Matt’s Blog
Matt’s Vimeo profile

Here is his write-up:
I joined the Army in 2004 as a 25V combat documentation production specialist or more commonly know as combat camera “COMCAM”. I joined the military because i was becoming lethargic and i had no real direction. i did a little free lance graphic design and weekly competed in slam poetry contest but something was missing. I heard you could be a graphic designer for the military and they would pay for school. On top of all that i was fascinated with the wars going on and i really wanted to go over and experience it for myself, do my part for my country. when i joined the recruiters said all the slots for graphic designer were full but they had a slot in combat camera. As soon as i heard the name i was hooked. I said i want that.

Life of a COMCAM in a war zone to me is bliss, I would go back in a second. I didn’t want to leave. I loved being in Afghanistan and doing my job. There is no other job in the military where you get to be around and experience everyone else’s job, not just in our military but all the coalition forces. I believe i’ve documented around 30 different countries.

I never really thought of my job as dangerous even after my good friend on my COMCAM team lost his leg in the first month of being in country. There are hazards and dangers doing this job because we look for the high action missions and we get on as many as possible. It’s hard to juggle having a M4 assault rifle and a Canon 5D MKII slung around my neck and trying to decide which one should i use.

one of the things i love about my job is I am the only one that does it when i go on missions. I am the one that’s documenting how it really is for, history, for battle field commanders, for the soldiers, for the world. My job is different form the other camera jobs in the military because i just document. I don’t go out looking for a message, i don’t go out to try to make a story, i just document how it is. The video why we fight just put itself together. i was with these afghan fighters for a few months documenting what they do and one day they were doing some weapons training i pulled a few aside with both our interpreters and started asking random questions like hows the training going on, why do you come out here every day and fight, how do you feel about America and then went on my way. A few months later i was looking over my footage and i found the interviews and that’s when it hit me how powerful their words are. these people are just like us, they are tired of war and they fight so their families can live in peace. i never looked at Afghans in this way till this deployment.

My team was the first team in the military to deploy to a combat zone with HDSLR’s. I loved having the ability to do both photo and video in one small compact machine.

Before the HDSLR i was using a Nikon D2x and a Sony PD-170. If i had a mission i would have to pick one or the other because there is just not enough room to carry both. When i go on missions with different units i have the same gear they have plus my camera gear so i need to be as light and compact as possible. HDSLR’s accomplish so much, light, compact, tough, the ability to change lens quickly.

My camera got beat up, it looked horrible by the end, the whole camera was covered in tape including the back screen because most of my missions were done at night and i couldn’t let light leek while doing video.

The scene in why we fight that shows a 9 banger flash grenade going off was during training so I just set my camera on the ground and took a few steps back from it. the camera was fine, its a beast that can take a beating. i did go through many lens filters through my deployment though. I had two primary lenses I used the 24-105mm f/4 and the 50mm f/1.4. Kept it simple and light weight. I also did use a lens baby on a few missions which I don’t recommend to anyone in a combat zone. It takes to much changing out f stops and manually focusing. I think I was the first for that and hopefully last.

How I carried the camera, I would wolf hook it to a carabiner on my body armor and it would just hang on my left side while my M4 was laid across my chest. For audio I just used an onboard mic and a lavaliere for the interviews that i hooked up but in post realized i set them up incorrectly, so really only the on board mic is all i used.

Advice for those that might want to do this job, first hit the gym, second get your mind right. You go out on missions where you have body armor helmet, ammo, ruck sack with food, supplies everything infantry joe has plus whatever camera gear you have and when they stop to take a break you have to have the energy to run around and still document. The job never ends. When you get back from your mission and everyone cleans their weapons and goes to bed, you have to capture and edit all your work and transmit via ftp. Getting your mind right in understanding you might have to document some bloody gory stuff and then later go back and look at it again when you put a product together. Third, if you feel like you want to do this job in my military, be worth a damn and give a damn. I love this job so much and I am so passionate about this job. If you are in my field don’t just steal oxygen and justify your existence!

Matt

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