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| "The Nazi Drawings" is Iowa City filmmaker Lane Wyrick's first major documentary production. Wyrick, a 1990 Graduate of The University of Iowa in Film & Broadcasting, is owner of Xap Interactive, Inc., a company he founded in 1995 to create professional quality video and multimedia productions. He served as director, videographer, and editor on "The Nazi Drawings" Documentary. |
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| The Nazi Drawings Documentary Project began in the fall of 1997, with grants from the University of Iowa Foundation, Richard & Jeanne S. Levitt of Minneapolis, Marvin & Rose Lee Pomerantz of Des Moines, and Webster & Gloria Gelman of Iowa City. |
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Shooting commenced in January of 1998. Wyrick, Mauricio and Phillip Lasansky flew to Providence Rhode Island to tape an interview with Edwin Honig, author of the text to the original Nazi Drawings "Catalog". |
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From these free-form discussions between Honig and Lasansky, much of the content of the documentary was derived. Upon returning to Iowa City, three more interviews of Lasansky were taped, two at Lasansky's studio in Iowa City and one at the University of Iowa Museum of Art in front of The Nazi Drawings. During the editing process, Wyrick taped another interview with Lasansky to fill important concepts that needed to be expanded upon. He then drove to Des Moines to interview Richard S. Levitt to get his perspective on The Nazi Drawings (the Richard Levitt Foundation is the current owner of The Nazi Drawings). |
| Wyrick began to assemble the DVCam footage on the computer, using Digital Origin's EditDV software to remain in the digital realm from start to finish. |
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In the beginning of 1999, Wyrick had assembled a very rough cut, using only the best segments from the interview footage, and low resolution still images of The Nazi Drawings. After viewing the footage with his wife Angela, they both agreed that narration was needed to provide the necessary "glue" to blend the scenes together and to provide a broader context for the documentary. The Drawings were scanned in at high resolution from The Nazi Drawings Catalog, as were many historical photographs of Lasansky. Wyrick upgraded to the Adobe After Effects Production Bundle, which allowed him to create very smooth and precise motion, zooming into details of the Drawings and photographs, and fine tuning the edits to match with the music and narration. Wyrick designed the tape case and spine/top labels for the video, which were then professionally printed and inserted into specially ordered black tape cases, to achieve the highest quality packaging for the video. |
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Throughout the production, Wyrick closely collaborated with Content Advisor Phillip Lasansky, who provided historical accuracy and insight concerning The Nazi Drawings. |
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Together they crafted the narration, sending revisions back and forth by email, until the script was completed.
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| Meanwhile, University of Iowa School of New Music Professor David K. Gompper was approached to create an original music soundtrack for the documentary. | ![]() |
Gompper and Wyrick viewed The Nazi Drawings in person and discussed the musical styles and concepts that would be appropriate for the documentary. Wyrick provided Gompper with a rough edit of the video with timecode so he could compose the individual segments accurately.
Gompper's powerful original music score gave depth and emotion to the documentary. Wyrick then fine-tuned the edit by matching the movement of the Drawings and photographs to Gompper's soundtrack.
A private screening was scheduled for October 7, 1999 and the final push to completion was made. Editing continued up to the day of the show. The Digital Master Tape was used to play the documentary that night for the investors, family members, and several University of Iowa Board members, UI Faculty and Staff. The screening took place in a brand new, circular conference room with three video projectors.
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After the showing, Gompper re-recorded the musical score, and Wyrick made some minor changes to the project.
The final edit of The Nazi Drawings Documentary was completed on November 7, 1999.
From there, discussions took place on how best to get the documentary out to the public, and planning began to have a large event to honor Mauricio Lasansky which would serve as the Public Premiere of the documentary.
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On Sunday, April 9th, 2000 at 1 p.m., The Nazi Drawings Documentary premiered to a packed house at the Levitt Center for University Advancement in Iowa City. The documentary was played on two main halls with projection screens, and in a third conference room for overflow seating. Crowd estimates were around 350.