Art Police is in the bag! Shambolic though the whole process was, and despite being flaked out on at the last moment by a certain someone who was supposed to be our camerawoman, we got it done in a three-day marathon filming session, starting Saturday morning. And I really haven’t had this much fun, this much of a creative high that is, in quite a long time. I will definitely be doing more film work in the future. It may turn out to be my metier, although I don’t think I’ll ever confine myself to one particular medium. The sort of artists I admire are the ones who can move effortlessly from one medium to another and express themselves in all of them. That’s the kind of artist I am, and I think that will only become more apparent with time. I was talking with a friend the other day who said that Chris Haberman is a true artist – a pretty common opinion here in our lovely little pond. Now, I’m certainly not going to talk any shit about Haberman. He’s a great guy, super nice, super committed to other artists as well as his own work, and certainly an artist. But I’m a different kind of artist from him. I don’t churn out 10 paintings a week, I don’t always have that manic energy every moment of the day. I go through ups and downs. But if you don’t think I’m an artist, then you don’t know me very well, or else you’re someone I probably don’t want to be friends with any more, if we’re really “friends” at all. The three-day shoot I just completed reminded me of the fact that the only time I’m really happy is when I’m up to my ears in a collaborative creative project. It’s the main passion of my life. I was making my own comic books and selling them to other people in my apartment complex when I was 12 years old. I started writing, drawing and building long before that. But collaboration is the direction I need to go in. It is all too easy to write or paint in solitude, that’s what comes most naturally to me, but there’s something very healthy and engaging and growth-oriented about the sort of project we just completed for this film – working with other people, mingling my ideas with theirs, adding new things as they arise and discarding others when we find they don’t work, and then the communal, shared pleasure of enjoying the fruits of our collective labors afterwards. It keeps me from veering too far into solipsism.
So, yeah, the film shoot. We made the egregious error of not looking at our footage as we were filming, so the second day we had to re-shoot about 50% of what we’d shot the first, but it was worth it, because the second time everything looked and sounded so much better.We got kicked out of the Hostess/Wonderbread Outlet Store parking lot (have you ever been in that store? it’s like depression in the form of food – but it seems to do a brisk business!) and got it on tape! Everywhere we went we attracted attention, and whenever we filmed in public (outside Emie’s salon by the Clinton Street Theater, the Food Mart on 21st and Division where the guy was nice and non-corporate enough to let us film outside his store) people watched from their cars, or came up and talked to us. People just love movies, and watching them be made is exciting for them. Justin and Emie’s friend Dan stuck with us through the whole shoot, alternating between camera and boom mic. Another one of Justin’s friends helped us out with camera during the gallery scene. At one point we corralled a couple little boys from the house next door to help with the boom mic after Dan had to go to work, and they were so excited about it, it was cute (production still above). On the second day Joel came over (at very short notice) and took over the photography, and sat in with us as we recorded a soundtrack in the basement, including an awesome little theme song that’s going to sound SO GOOD over the closing credits, that I did vocals on! (With help from Justin and Emie.) That was the first time I’ve recorded music in years, and it made me think I might want to take the stage at a rock show at some point. The way all this music arose so spontaneously was really inspiring. Then the third day we logged all the clips from both days of shooting in detail, which will help a lot with editing, which I have to do FAST, and alone, because Emie and Justin have to work, and our submission to Gold Coyote must be postmarked by this Sunday the 1st.
It’s funny how certain people who were prominent in your life for awhile recede into the background and others unexpectedly move into the foreground. Justin and Emie have really become two of my best friends in Portland since I got back from Glacier. We have a similarity of temperament that smoothes over all the occasional flare-ups and arguments. When it was the three of us and Dan it was a perfect mix: three bossy megalomaniacs and one mellow, calm person (Dan) who sort of glued us all together! And to think that all of them were doing it without any hope of being paid for all of our hard work (unless we actually DO win the prize, which is one in a thousand), simply for the natural high you get from completing a creative project, just like I do. They are like me, depressed when they’re not working on something. We also share certain self-destructive tendencies as well, but I have a hard time working with completely sober, straight-edge, vegan, PC, prim and proper people who don’t know how to party and get work done at the same time. There is something about chaos that fuels me creatively. Making order out of chaos. Creating beauty out of a big crazy mess. If it was never messy to begin with, it doesn’t interest me.
Also there is a certain jagged beauty to Emie and Justin’s relationship, which continues to fascinate me. They take turns being the belligerent one. They are cool people, without being hipsters. They weren’t nerds in high school. I like being around people who still embody the attitude of what I consider rock and roll, because I think that’s such a rare thing these days. As someone (I think it was Beej) pointed out, we live in an era when Coldplay (even the freaking JONAS BROTHERS?) are considered rock and roll. I may not record rock n roll – although I have in the past, and may again – but I have some rock bones in my body, all the same. I went and saw my friend Dylan’s metal band Cull play at Mississippi Pizza last Thursday (even sacrificed my favorite night of television for it). It was good stuff. The place was hot with body heat, full of lots of people who all smelled like animals. But hey, we are animals.
Cousin Anthony got to watch Sean Penn’s acceptance speech for the Best Actor Oscar at the Castro Theatre in San Fran! Imagine that excitement. Although he said there were PROTESTERS outside the theatre. What were they protesting? Good movies?
Sorry, anti-gay conservatives, but it’s the 21st Century now, and you lost. Put your bible down and get a life. LIVE AND LET LIVE. Just like Jesus would.
