And the Best Mockumentary of 2010 is…

January 20, 2011 / / No Comments

First, the clip, then the story:

You might have already seen “Exit Through the Gift Shop”, the film by famed street artist/social provacateur Banksy.

For a film placed in the documentary category, it’s done well at the box office: nearly $5 million worldwide so far, which places it in the Top 40 gross of all documentaries released theatrically. (Trivia: “Farenheit 9/11”, “March of the Penguins” and “Earth” are the top performing docs. I knew you’d wonder…)

I got on the “Exit” tangent because I mentioned to a friend recently that I’d hoped to be blown away by “The Philosopher Kings” — but wasn’t.

They followed with “Hey, you know what’s a great documentary? ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’. That was a great documentary.”

After I stopped pulling out my hair, I mustered a “You really thought that was a straight-up doc?”, and got just a quizzical look in return.

— Don’t get me wrong. If you haven’t seen this film, definitely check it out. It’s incredibly entertaining. But while the filmmakers themselves will be loathe to ever tell the whole and full story about how it was made, I’ll bet everything in my 401(k) that it ain’t what many believe it to be: a real documentary.

It IS a fascinating look at the history of street art (think Banksy, of course, but also Shepard Fairey, Space Invader and Zevs, to name a few); Andy Warhol and his continued influence on contemporary art and contemporary society; and then, essentially a one-sided pissing match between the street-art community and contemporary, famous and well-paid “established” artists. Guess who comes out on top?

Oh, and this fight is cleverly wrapped inside another “fight” between alleged original director
“Thierry Guetta” and Banksy himself — who claims he had to take the project over because of “Guetta’s” incompetence as a filmmaker. Incompetence like this, which I challenge you to match yourselves:

Anyway, Banksy says you can, at home, in a couple hours or so. and that’s why he took over the project.

But let’s move on to the REAL controversy.

— Will “Exit Through the Gift Shop” get nominated in the Best Documentary category at this year’s Oscars? (It’s on the short list of 15 docs, although only 5 will make the final selection…)

— If it does, is that like Milli Vanilli getting nominated for and winning a Grammy? Okay, assume Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus actually were self-aware and in control of their careers, if you wanted to make it a better comparison.

— What if it actually wins the Oscar for Best Doc? (“Waiting for ‘Superman'” will take it, although “Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spencer”, “Inside Job” and “Restrepro” are better, but far more political and therefore problematic.)

Oh, and just so you know, “Exit” was nominated for the 2010 International Documentary Association’s “Distinguished Feature” award (it lost to “Waste Land”), and is also up for the “Independent Spirit Award” sponsored by IFC.

It could win (the event is Feb. 26), but if I were Banksy, I’d keep a wide berth from Sebastian Junger if “Restrepro” loses to him. Something about all that time spent at a forward operation base in Afghanistan, real bullets, real death, etc…

“One True Thing” – the documentary starts

December 7, 2010 / / No Comments

First, the clip, then the story:

There are a lot of projects on my short list, but it’s the usual excuses of too long a list, and not enough money or time.

But excuses just don’t cut it anymore, so my plan to get this documentary project going is to just do it — and structure the plan in such a way that all the shooting can be done on incredibly flexible schedules, and the budget can remain miniscule (for now, at least).

So here’s “One True Thing”.  The idea is that our team sits down with someone at their preferred location, and once everything’s set up, all we do is ask for your first name, and to tell us one true thing.

It can be anything, from trivial to profound. So long as it’s true to you.

We also have some ground rules for ourselves/the project:

— First name only

— We won’t edit your response once you start on your true thing. That means once you being, we’ll run until you stop. So, no edits to make you look better, worse, or more concise.

— You can have more than one thing to say. We’ll just treat them separately.

— Don’t pressure yourself. We don’t expect Dalai Lama-league answers, so no worries. Something about your cat is acceptable…

What do WE get out of all this? Good question.

Expectations:

Sure, the first clip is three guys of various ages working in various levels of seriousness.

The real payoff should be when we reach a certain critical mass and broader themes emerge. Personally, I fully expect this to start focusing on religion, relationships and philosophy — but I could be completely wrong.

Maybe folks hone in on sports and cosmology, who knows?

If I were to point to an existing model for how I expect this to turn out, I’m going to reference one of my all-time favorite books and life guides: Directing the Film: Film Directors on Their Art, edited by Eric Sherman.

Yes, you’ll find a lot of practical advice on nearly every aspect of filmmaking by some of the greatest in the field — but that’s essentially a bonus.

What I find great is that within Sherman’s 352 pages of collected wisdom, you can read one absolutely sterling, profound and compelling piece of advice put forth by an absolute master of their craft — and on the next page, there’s another absolutely sterling, profound, and compelling piece of advice from yet ANOTHER master, completely and absolutely contradicting the first.

Example: Think about rehearsing your actors. There are a number of directors that weigh in on how their actors must be absolutely well rehearsed and prepared, so there’s no doubt about the lines, nuances or inflections before the cameras roll.

And there are a number of directors that talk about why anything beyond nominal rehearsal kills the energy and dampens the creative sparks from fresh discovery.

Who’s right? They all are. And that’s the point — the truths within this book are the truths that work for each person.

So that’s where I personally see “One True Thing”‘s potential. But we’ll see.

Technical Points:

As we add in clips, we’ll update the master video, and keep individual clips for easy reference.

We’re also COMPLETELY OPEN AND ENCOURAGING of outside submissions. So feel free to crank up your webcam or video recorder, work up a segment, and send it on.

Contact me at OneTrueThingDocumentary@gmail.com, or visit the project site at OneTrueThingDocumentary.com .

And of course, a special shout-out of thanks to my Creato Destructo compatriots, Jerry and Shay Stifelman. (Tracey, let’s get you taped!)

– James

New music video: “Lazy Demons” by The Strugglers

July 12, 2010 / / No Comments

Hats off to Randy Bickford and Wyley Pamplin of The Strugglers, may your musical careers be anything but a struggle from here on.

And nice work, Team Creato-Destructo! Jerry Stifelman, director, Trace Oliveto, producer. Ian Ostrowski as the actor, lots of folks in and around Carrboro in other roles (including Wyley again). Production support, Becky Davis and Shay Stifelman (also nice editing!).

Oh, and I was 1st A.D., but enough of my yakkin’. Here’s the video:

My ’00’s List, Part 1: The Velvet Underground is still relevant, dammit

January 4, 2010 / / No Comments

Most end-of-year “Best Of” lists are a huge waste of time.

If we’re talking art — or even pop-culture product — I don’t buy that a few months or even weeks are enough time to gauge the true impact of an artist and his/her work. Still, I watch the Oscars and the Grammys, mostly expecting free entertainment rather than cultural significance.

Also, I loathe the “Most Popular” lists that just rehash sales figures. Although those can be interesting like a car crash can be interesting, I find them mostly sad, depressing, sobering commentaries on exactly where American culture isn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to enforce a rigid aesthetic view, I just think my cultural product should have at least some intelligence behind it.

This end-of-decade business is a little better. There’s enough time gone by for trends and influences to take form more clearly, and even if the handwriting isn’t fully on the wall, at least there’s some fairly clear scribbling up for view.

It was with this in mind that I sat down with Rolling Stone’s “100 Best Albums of the Decade” — not the least because I actually was sitting with a copy of Rolling Stone after many, many, many years away (something to do with relevance).

It’s an interesting take on things. I’m sure their “Best” decisions involved a lot of internal argument and bruised feelings, but hey, they gotta do something to earn their pay.

The list also reminded me of what musician/producer/genius Brian Eno famously said about the Velvet Underground: that while few people actually bought their albums, everyone who did went out and started a band.

I was in a band for four/five years back in the ’90s — don’t waste your time asking, nearly all of our recorded material sucks, and we were held together by a commonality of emotional issues. That, and we changed our names pretty much with the seasons, so building a following was beside the point.

What brought us together was, really, one thing: Nirvana. They dropped an album that was the sonic and cultural equivalent of Fat Man, coming in just as unexpectedly and leveling all the Potemkin-Village music industry creations, and leaving behind what many of us believed was a new world just waiting to be built up. But the Nirvana analogy seems a little too trendy and recent, so I’m going with Velvet Underground on this one.

What’s the criteria for my list? Eh, mostly an instinct as to who’s doing work that makes people start bands or — for people already in bands — gives them enough reason to explore different directions.

Is this list complete? Hell no. I’m adding at least a second part. Is it fair? Nope. Could you do better? Probably.

“They were such a huge early influence on me…”

Radiohead: These Oxfordians showed you could rock out HARD, stay intelligent, and not devolve into some dickhead stereotype. Plus, you can rock out while completely de-emphasizing guitars. Quite the trick for a rock band. And tell me no song on “Kid A” gave you goosebumps. Liar.

Jack White (and all his incarnations): Because he loves and lives the blues, and can make better, more interesting music with a battered guitar, three days and $16 than some people can with $16 million and 14 years.

Jay-Z: Because he can do it all, and does. And he’s managed to hold on to huge success without going insane from drugs/booze or get himself shot. And he can make careers, which is a big deal.

Beck: This one would seem obvious, in terms of starting low-fi and moving on to huge artistic and commercial success, again without burying himself in groupies or releasing a crappy self-indulgent concept album.

Amy Winehouse: Because even though she’s done a great job of destroying herself, she cleared the path for real crooners to get out and croon again. And “Back to Black” will always be a heartbreaking album. Deal with it.

To be continued…