And as mentioned earlier, this is an ongoing concert series by a diverse community of musicians performing the whole of Third/Sister Lovers, working from scores re-created by composer Carl Marsh. Chris Stamey (the dB’s) provides additional orchestration and serves as the series producer.
This video captures the performance at the historic Playmakers Theater on the University of North Carolina campus, February 2011.
The next performance of Big Star’s Third/Sister Lovers will be on Saturday, March 26, at Mason Hall in NYC, 8 p.m.
The NYC concert will include the rhythm section of Jody Stephens (the only remaining original Big Star member), Mike Mills (REM), Will Rigby and Charles Cleaver. They will be joined by Stamey, Michael Stipe, Matthew Sweet, M. Ward, Norman Blake (Teenage Fan Club), Ira Kaplan (Yo La Tengo), Mitch Easter, Tift Merritt, plus special guests Lost In Trees, with Jane Scarpantoni, Django Haskins (The Old Ceremony), Brett Harris, Sidney Dixon and Matt McMichaels.
Video by CreatoDestructo Imagery; Jerry Stifelman directing, James Hyatt 1st AD and Shay Stifelman, camera par excellence.
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.
I’m biased. I love “Garden & Gun” magazine, and have been a subscriber since their second issue. (And then, only because the first issue snuck past me and managed to sell out on newsstands). As a Southerner by birth and now by choice, I love how they blend a lot of different elements of Southern culture (high, low and all around) into an interesting mix, issue to issue.
The name’s also deceptive, since there’s usually incredibly little about gardening (breathes sign of relief), not so much about guns (awww…), but a lot about lifestyle — music, history, travel, food, drinking, etc. etc. etc.
The magazine also has a decent online presence, and the roots to really flourish from here.
This video is one example: Justin Townes Earle is Steve Earle’s son, and he now lives in Brooklyn, NY. He hasn’t yet been profiled in G&G’s print version (it’ll be the Dec/Jan issue), but this type of video profile is incredibly savvy for several reasons:
1. You can push content out far ahead of traditional print schedules. (Now, versus Dec/Jan issue delivery).
2. You can benefit from the work of other people (not just yourself or your staff). Earles obviously isn’t G&G’s in-house musician. And this piece was directed by Tim Sutton, who’s an art director in NYC — although he’s worked on a handful of G&G videos.
3. This external/different work (different aesthetics, different subjects and themes, etc) can bring in different, new, fresh audiences. You never want to be stagnant in terms of outreach, so a foray into music video can make great intuitive sense for a print publication — even though it may not make a great deal of short-term, direct-path business sense.
4. Your site needs a wide variety of content, period. Remember, your website is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It’s like 7/11, always open. And that being the case, you want to offer a variety of content for a variety of content consumers, in a range of media types.
5. Sometimes, you just need to connect with bourbon-drinkin’, chain-smokin’, tattooed Southern musicians. Trust me. (Although you should red-flag any thoughts about a Ryan Adams profile. Again, trust me on this.)
All this said, you should now be thinking about what kind of video profiles might liven up your website.
— If you’re a college or university MarComm rep, you’ve got a wealth of alumni, donors, faculty, staff, students and community supporters out there. Why not go for some color?
— If you’re in the pop-culture/entertainment-media industry, you should be way ahead of this. If not, call me.
— Even for more traditional industries, there are a lot of great ideas that would be completely fun and help burnish your image while reaching into new demographics.
I’m also willing to hear the counter-argument, from those who might want to play it safer or more traditionally. So let’s hear what you have to say…
But the REAL story is we shot this in North Carolina, late one January evening, hoping we’d get some great nighttime footage, illuminated by just hand-held lights, lanterns, candles, etc.
Our first set-up was around 6pm. It started snowing about 6:30. And not just “North Carolina snowing” — these were real, fat, heavy flakes coming down in a hurry.
So we thought about that, and discussed it for a while. Our options were to either stop, because there’d be NO WAY to match any snow scene on any other day or night in North Carolina; or keep going that night until we had everything in the can. Yes, continue shooting in a snowstorm.
…So we went for it, with the full support of the band. I believe we wrapped up about 11pm that night; wet, shivering and frozen. But heck, Ari did most of the shoot without a jacket (he wasn’t wearing one during the first scene, so…) , a lot of the band members had to keep holding their instruments (including a very large, cold, snow-covered tuba), and people had to keep running up and down a very dark trail just to keep up with the set-ups. In the snow. Did I mention that?
And personally, I think it looks great. The snowfall looks fantastic and has production values we couldn’t have bought with Jay-Z’s platinum card.
Hats off to Jerry and Ari for making that call and sticking with it, and for the creative vision we now have with this music video.
For even more background, here’s Jerry’s description:
“The concept of is simple — Ari leaves his cabin in the night, walking through the forest, picking up members of the band along the way. Unlike many music videos, this one was as much about mood as concept. We wanted to convey a vibe that was appropriate to the song and the band. There is a feeling of timelessness to Lost In The Trees’ music. We wanted to be true to this by shooting under the light of the full moon supplemented only with candles — and by keeping the band dressed in simple vintage clothing. The idea was to make the “walk” to feel like it could have taken place 100 years ago. This made things hard for band members, many of who had to carry both their instruments and a candles while walking in the freezing snowfall. (This was especially hard for Mark, since he had a tuba to carry around). Another aspect of Lost In The Trees that makes them special is the genuine sense of family. Filming the whole group singing the song was an important part of this, and it turned out so special that we added the live audio of the band singing to backing track of the final video. If you listen, you can hear Ari laughing as he sings. The extreme cold and snowfall made even the most simplest things, like turning cameras on and off, became a challenge, but everyone hung together. Originally, we were going to film Ari actually walking into the lake, but it was so cold, we were afraid he might not come out alive. But ultimately we think the video’s open-ended finish is better leaving it up to the imagination of the viewer.”
For our first foray into animation, and specifically using the really neat Xtranormal service, we present a brief discussion of Apple’s recent communications regarding the new phone, and their iPhone OS update.
Also, it’s Friday, so we wanted to lighten things up.
I’ve been on the road this week (in fact, drove 850 miles in 11 hours on Monday — it wasn’t a great idea, but I will brag about it), so this post isn’t exactly timely. But I want to vent before tomorrow’s post-turkey overdose.
I’m generally not a sports assclown, but I am a huge fan of football, and would like to note that the Chicago Bears lost AGAIN Sunday, 24-20, at home to the Philadelphia Eagles.
But the Bears could just as easily lost to the Eagles, the band, in their current touring lineup:
Timothy B. Schmit – bass guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals
And Frey has no wind at all because he doobed his way through the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
Why do the Bears suck so bad? It has to come from the top: ownership, management, coaching, star players. That’s obvious, but not too interesting.
What’s stunning to me as a current Chicago resident is that the sports base in the greater Chicagoland area actually puts up with this crap. Come on, this is a storied franchise! Why the suckball for so many seasons? And who in ownership is so in love with Rex Grossman that they’ve essentially cloned him as Jay Cutler?
But I don’t put this on Cutler. It takes a village of underperformers to keep things this mediocre, and few QBs could stand in the pocket as their O-line collapses like Iceland’s economy. Not to mention not having a true 1-WR, stand-out backs and ends, et al.
I didn’t grow up a Bears fan, so I feel more objective in my criticism. Being from North Carolina, the choices then were the Atlanta Falcons or Washington Redskins, which is why I pulled for the Miami Dolphins and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Oh, speaking of, here’s hoping the Panthers suck just enough to get their head coach, John Fox, booted so Bill Cowher can step in with little fuss. It may not happen, but it would be sweet.
So the Bears will likely not collapse completely — they play the Ravens and the Rams, although they have to play the Vikings twice in 30 days — but it can’t look good for next season.
Posts like this may explain why Lovie hasn’t yet accepted my friend request on Facebook, though.
James Hyatt 