SHOOTING THE BREEZE: A Q&A with documentary filmmaker Chris Boyd


Chris Boyd's career in the movie business appears to be on the verge of taking off.

A 2006 graduate of USC's film school, he earned a graduate degree from a prestigious university in England and he now lives in London, where he worked as a production assistant on the 2011 big-budget picture "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows."

At heart, though, Boyd is more interested in telling stories about subjects that hold personal meaning to him. For the aspiring filmmaker from San Diego, that meant doing a debut documentary on the roots of the Padres, the baseball team he was weaned on all the way up to his years at San Marcos High.

Of course, like many Padres fans, Boyd was initially unaware that the franchise's history extends for more than three decades beyond the major league inception in 1969, to a Pacific Coast League team that played in a small, wooden ballpark by the bay during the Great Depression.

The fruit of his nearly four years of research and production is "The First Padres," a one-hour, 25-minute film narrated by longtime Padres broadcaster Bob Chandler that will premiere on Monday at 9 p.m. on KPBS.

Question: What are your emotions right now, with the premiere right around the corner?

Answer: It's been pretty exciting. It was 3½ years of work, so it's a little bit surreal that it's actually going to be on TV. When I first started, I didn't really know where this project could go, so it feels good. But it's definitely strange because I've never had one of my films on TV. It's going to be completely new.

Q: How did you get the idea for this project?

A: I was looking for a film I could make about San Diego. And I was interested in something I could do on my own because I wasn't part of a production company; I was trying to make my name as a documentary producer, director and writer. I was looking for something I could do that would be personal, that no one else would be doing on a national scale, that would be representative of my hometown. I'm not even sure how, but I came across the fact that there was a minor-league Padres team. Being born in 1984 and growing up with Tony Gwynn, I had no idea about that and I thought it was interesting. I did a little bit of research and uncovered the only books on the subject, which are by (San Diego historian) Bill Swank. In one of his books, Swank lists his address, so he wasn't hard to track down. I gave him a call, and from there it kind of snowballed.

Q: In making the movie, did you find that many people shared your lack of knowledge about the Padres' roots?

A: Definitely the younger generations. With people my age, it's virtually unknown that they existed before 1969. But in my generation, it's virtually unknown that they existed before Ken Caminiti. My family came to San Diego in the late 1960s, and they weren't really aware that the Padres existed before the major leagues, either. I found that everywhere I went, in telling the story to people, they were very interested, saying, "Oh, that's cool, I never knew that."


