Wesley Wolfe: “Only Ray of Sunshine”

March 31, 2011 / / No Comments

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!

Wes Snaps Pic

Wesley Wolfe (left) photographs the anarchic chaos.

“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…

Paradise, something-something-something.

December 22, 2009 / / 2 Comments

I’ve been lax here after one decent inaugral bit. Shame on me; my excuse is travel and work. But that’s not even an excuse given the fact I’ve been connected most all the time. Maybe I should blame social-media fatigue and take 2010 off…

Anyway, I just finished an interesting trip from Chicago to Asheville, NC,  my hometown.

Interesting in the sense that it was punctuated by bad weather, heartbreaking football results (at least for my fantasy league standings), a detour to Oak Ridge, TN, where my Dad worked during and after WWII and then dealing with the aftermath of this, maybe one of the best “Hey turn on the camera and let’s see what happens” moments in recent history. And yes, they’re still digging out and no, there aren’t great detour options.

But at the risk of sounding like a Chamber of Commerce geek, it’s worth it to be in Asheville. Why?

Because it’s a beautiful town set in a beautiful mountain location, with a downtown that’s kept many great old buildings, and a progressive feel that translates into more cool things to do, see, eat and drink than a town this size would deserve, normally. But Asheville isn’t a normal town by any stretch.

I also feel like a whore for giving this place even more publicity, because as some stoned millionaire rock star once pointed out, “you call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye.”

Still, this one posting hopefully won’t bring on the next tsunami of moneyed hipster-wannabees, or drop a Starbucks on every alternate corner, or force the kids out of the drum circle.  But maybe it will.

It’s a bit like announcing to your barroom friends: “I have the most awesome girlfriend in the world!” and waiting to see what happens 3 months down the road….

Anyway, more later. I have video to shoot and a road trip to Athens, GA. I hear things about that place…