Category Archives: All Things Video
There’s a LOT I discuss; I promise to make things more precise.
Wesley Wolfe: “Only Ray of Sunshine”
First the clip, then the story (but for this one, I recommend clicking on the “Vimeo” link in the bottom right, so you can see this video in its full glory. There are a lot of moving parts…):
The song is “Only Ray of Sunshine”, from Wesley Wolfe’s Storage album (Odessa Records, 2010).
Wes is a really nice guy — soft-spoken, polite, and hard working.
Why, exactly, would his video have a lot of bad cops doing a lot of bad things as one poor couple sat there bound (and the female, hooded)?
Because we talked him into it. Half-kidding — it started from a germ of an idea about this sweet little love song and how to shake up the visuals. Showing a couple in the park holding hands wasn’t going to cut it. The project needed the Creato Destructo Imagery edge.
“It started out as a concept about a guy tied up in a trunk being dropped off mysteriously in front of a woman already tied up — basically the action at the core of the produced video,” said director Jerry Stifelman. “Then we had a creative session with Wes, who came up with the idea of making everyone cops, based on the lyric, ‘We are all criminals disguised as cops.’ Then we all came up with having all the cops being as uncoplike as possible… I love working with an artist to bring the video even closer to the essence of the song.”
As producer, it was a great moment when we really connected with the talent on the concept. Truly, this was an idea that hasn’t been done many times over in a music video.
But also as producer, I began tugging at what hair I have left — there were so many questions:
- Where are we going to find all these people?
- How are we going to find (and pay for) the cop uniforms and accessories (badges, caps, etc.) for all these people?
- WHERE can we pull this off?
- We’re in a small town. This really has to be done in public to visually “sell” the concept. What will our REAL cops think?
The good news is Wesley is well liked, so we were able to draft a lot of his friends, fans and family. And the good folks at Odessa Records also joined in. Then, we worked our own lists of good-humored friends, and supporters of Creato Destructo, and got enough bodies to approach a visual critical mass the video scenarion needed.
In terms of the uniforms, accessories, and other things that were needed — hire us and we’ll tell you all about it. (But one thing that worked in our favor was Halloween.)
We also benefitted from the great talent at Playmakers Repertory Company and the affiliated UNC Department of Dramatic Art. Not only were we able to “seed” trained actors into the bad-cop group — we also found standout talent Kelsey Didion, who earned my undying loyalty to her acting skills by sitting there, for hours, bound and hooded on a cold and windy day. (Kelsey, I hope someday to see you win an Oscar…)
And for location, well… we’ll have to protect the names of innocent property owners.
But enough from me. What does Wesley Wolfe think about the video?
“Jerry, James and Tracy are the kind of people I love to work with. People that have the need to create, and find any way possible to do so,” Wolfe said. ”They let no obstacle — especially the all-mighty one, budget, stop them. Through ingenuity and resourcefulness they have found away to put on bigtime productions with little budget…
“I feel fortunate to be a part of their collection of work. I have only heard great thing from people that have seen it. My closest friends we’re blown away by the video. The production value speaks for itself.”
So far, so good. How did he feel about the process of taking his song (a highly personal thing), and handing it over to others, to translate it into a video that wasn’t necessarily… his?
“Another thing I admire is how open and flexible Jerry was to ideas and changes in post production. He truly treated this project as a collaboration. I have no doubts that my ideas and thoughts were taken into consideration, and not just tossed to the side. Something rare in any art project, especially when all I had to do was just show up for the shoot,” Wolfe said.
Aren’t those some production values? Damn right! Even though I personally was still anxious on shoot day — because we had so many extras to manage — it was an amazing experience to watch as each person put on a uniform shirt, pinned on a badge, and donned headgear. They became bad cops right in front of our eyes, and it went from concept to stunning reality in just a few minutes.
The experience is well described by our own Tracey Oliveto:
“This shoot was really fun because once everyone was dressed and given their marks, it was like a big outdoor party. I couldn’t stop smiling at the image of 30 or more people dressed in uniforms, doing their thing in the sunshine and it definitely makes you stop and think about the roles we all play in life,” stated Oliveto, Creato Destructo’s associate creative director. “It was quite a spectacle and drew curious attention from passersby. Of course, James gave our Carrboro (police department), a heads up – after all, it could have looked like some kind of conspiracy.”
Tto be honest, we had a few uneasy weeks as the local police tried to figure out if we were making fun of them, or cops in general, or if it was some kind of weird art project. This being Carrboro/Chapel Hill, it appears they settled on “weird art project” and decided not to pursue the matter any further…
All that said, the last words belong to Wolfe:
“I was nervous at first about being on camera. I really don’t like posing for pictures or seeing video of myself. They talked me into it, I trusted them fully, and I don’t regret it one bit… All in all, a great experience.”
We’ll be happy to do it again, Wes!
Wesley Wolfe (left) photographs the anarchic chaos.
Southern Story Standoff
I’m standing in my favorite coffeehouse in the world (Open Eye, Carrboro NC), innocently waiting for my drink. Minding my own business.
In walks a friend, someone I hadn’t seen in weeks, possibly months.
There’s something different about him. Oh, that would be the sterile pad covering the lower part of his throat.
Almost as if it were covering… a tracheotomy scar?
“What’s up?” I say. And did I mention my buddy was a little wild-eyed?
“Not much,” my friend rasps.
Dammit. He HAS had a tracheotomy.
“How things by you?” he asks.
Oh my God. He’s not only held back his story, he’s just checked me (think chess).
I have to respond. And ss a storyteller myself, i know I have two options, neither of them great:
1. I can blow him off as politely as possible, and try to get the condensed version of whatever has happened either from other friends, or from the man himself when I have more time or he has less time.
2. I can open myself up for the narrative, right there. And this is tricky, because there’s a code of conduct involved. Once I open myself up, I have to let him tell the story in full, as he sees fit.
It could be five minutes, or it could be an hour and five minutes. It could be as straightforward as Hemingway or as ornate as Faulkner. It could be as clean as… well, no Southern writer I know of, but it could be clean. Or it could be as profanity-filled as a Navy riot, possibly describing things I didn’t know were physically possible or even part of the human imagination.
You just never know with these things. You also never know if it’ll be worth the effort, or if it’ll be something you immediately want to scrub out of your mind.
But that’s the chance you take.
Once you start, you can’t stop the story. It’s worse than hitting someone’s Mom. They can hit back. But once you cut a story short, you’ve essentially killed it, and wounded the storyteller.
And there will be payback.
So… what to do?
“It’s just been a lot of hurry up and wait. You know,” I reply.
The coward’s way.
“Boy do I,” his rasp now even more pronounced.
Is he doing that on purpose? Can he modulate with that scar? How long do they stay open? I could ask, but…
“I gotta run,” I say, coffee now firmly in hand. “But call me, let’s catch up.”
He gives me the look. The look that says, ‘Next time, I own you.’
“Yeah, my brother, we’ll catch up,” he wheezes.
I turn and shuffle out the door, in shame.
I’ve let a good storyteller down, and I’ve left a possible great story hanging out there. But next time. Next time.
Maybe even with a drink or two. I wonder. What happens if you slam a beer with a reasonably fresh tracheotomy scar?
So many questions…
And because it might save a life, here’s this clip:
Sundance 2011: Day 7
Quick hits, because local wireless is overwhelmed by Sundance attendees:
“HERE” is gorgeously shot, but an inexplicable two full hours. The male and female leads are compelling, and good actors.
The story is incredibly thin, and so little happens you wonder if a 90-minute version would have saved this.
“Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest” is directed by Michael Rapaport. Yes, that actor.
And it’s good! The first half is raucous and fun. The second half drags with some extended personal drama, but as a whole, this is well worth checking out.
Sundance 2011: Days 1 & 2
First, a clip, then some stories:
This is an interview with first-time director Elgin James, whose film “Little Birds” is in the Dramatic Feature competition at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
“Little Birds” is also the film Robert Redford hopes will win the competition, not that there’ll be any undue influence with the judges or anything. Has Redford come out and said that? Not in so many words, but the will and intent is there.
What Elgin James’ film represents is a shifting of the festival’s focus by Redford and Sundance’s leadership (speculation on my part). James is a product of the Sundance Institute’s filmmaker lab, and “Little Birds” is one of six films in competition this year that came out of the labs.
– In previous years, it wasn’t a given that being selected for the directing, screenwriting or producing workshops held by the Institute would be in any way a ticket into the festival itself.
(Background: the two things are essentially separate entities. The Sundance Institute is actually based in Sundance, Utah, not Park City, although it also has offices in Los Angeles and New York. The festival is an offshoot of the Institute, but it’s firmly based in Park City, although there are some screenings in Salt Lake City, and this is the second year the Festival is conducting a multi-city, same-day screening of feature entries. This year it’ll be Jan. 27.)
Back to topic, it had actually become kind of a knock on the prestige of Sundance that much of its carefully selected and nurtured talent hadn’t really broken out into successful (read, “popular”) careers — although Institute folks will tell you that’s not their focus at all — but these “homegrown” films weren’t even represented significantly in past festivals.
For whatever reason — perhaps it’s a great, breakout collection of young filmmakers this time, perhaps not — one of the narratives of 2011 is this is the year of Institute-nurtured films competing with the rest of the world.
How will they do? The festival just started, so there are 9 more days for word-of-mouth to generate, but “Little Birds” has buzz. Is it buzz based on a great film? Too early to say.
Other “homegrown” Sundance films include “Here” by director Braden King; “Circumstance” by director Maryam Keshavarz; “On the Ice” by director Andrew O. MacLean; “Pariah” by director Dee Rees; and “Martha Marcy May Marlene” directed by Sean Durkin.
So break out your scorecards and start taking notes. We know at least the first storyline of SFF 2011.
Just a quick “Drive”…
Oct 18
Posted by jameshyatt
I know, I know. It’s been a long time between posts.
My excuse is I moved all the way across the continent to start a film production company with my amazing partner, Devon Moore.
More on that later.
But here’s the clip, with comments below:
If you haven’t seen this film, and it’s still at your local theater, go see it ASAP.
It stars Ryan Gosling as essentially an updated “Man With No Name” character — he’s variously referenced as “the driver,” “the kid,” etc. Gosling plays a stunt driver, mechanic, and freelance wheel man for whatever job you’re willing to pay him for: legal or not.
The film has two pedigrees.
First, it’s based on the novel by James Sallis (although the screenplay’s by Hossein Amini).
Second, it’s directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, best known for his “Pusher” crime drama series, as well as “Bronson” and “Valhalla Rising”.
Sure, he’s Danish, but don’t think cerebral and soft — Winding Refn knows how to direct some violent action.
With that said, don’t expect a LOT of high-speed car chases. There’s some four-wheel adreneline, but most of the action is violence outside and on foot — between people who are desperate and willing to kill to get what they want.
It’s also a real change of pace for Gosling. If you remember him from “The Notebook,” this movie should completely blow up that little romantic bon-bon. There’s a lot of intense, explicit violence, and his character works right on the edge of extremes.
And although it’s set in contemporary Los Angeles, that’s really just a setting.
This isn’t an American crime drama as such — it’s an artful take on “American” crime dramas of the past, drawing from a clear European sensibility.
But don’t take my word for it. Go see it if you can, and if it’s left your local theater, check it out on DVD or your preferred streaming provider.
Posted in All Things Video, Brunettes, Film, Foreign Affairs, General, Video Aesthetics
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Tags: action, art, cars, Commentary, Directing, Drive, Film, Multimedia, Ryan Gosling, Society, violence