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What compelled you to make this piece? How does this work address issues that are important to you or close to your heart?
Fairy tales, myths, strange parables . . . I don't think we see them enough any more. Especially stories about the need to see each other as humans, as people, in the middle of the bustle of the city. I wanted to tell a story the way only film can, with pictures. So, I shot and directed, using a camera operator so I could stay connected to the actors.
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| From GOSSAMER. |
How does living in the New York metropolitan area affect your work?
We New York types can be pretty damn cynical, and I think that is not necessarily conducive to taking the plunge on ideas which you want to be tender, or a story for hopeless romantics. But the grit of New York is a great environment that creates its own drama when you add the wonderful or magical to it.
In including your work in REEL NEW YORK, do you think your piece in any way pushes the medium of television, or the viewing audiences' expectations of that medium?
Just that it is working very much on its own logic. How well it keeps you connected while that logic is being deciphered is the test . . . a lot of people have told me they were interested but didn't "get it." I'm just happy they were interested.
What about access to the tools of production and post-production?
I made my film as a Grad thesis project at NYU; the university gives you a camera (SRII), some nice lenses, and a few lights. I work as a gaffer in New York City, and received some great donations from the Broadway Stages and John Dianda, a key grip who owns a company called Tracking Shot. A friend from my undergrad days at Ithaca is an editor, and he cut the film. Hand Held Films rented stuff to me at a good rate. I have no idea how I could have afforded the film without all these people helping me. I still had to finance it with credit cards.
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| From GOSSAMER. |
Why did you become a film/video artist/maker?
Because I didn't go to Arizona to weld steel sculpture and make photographs.
Do you feel the New York independent film/video community has changed in recent years? Do you find support living and working in such a large community of artists?
I orbit within the rather strange solar system of film technicians. I work with a lot of grips, electricians, and ACs [Assistant Camera] who are also making their own movies. It's good in that we can help each other out. You just run a danger of overdosing on film set exposure.
Do you have any interesting behind-the-scenes stories about the making of this particular work?
Many . . . most about disasters. The butterflies I was paying to get raised never hatched. When I found out I walked onto the set and my close friend Deke, who was the main camera operator, says, "What's wrong?" All I could say was, "Fifty of my extras aren't coming to work tomorrow." I ended up working on a music video and being a butterfly wrangler with Ernie Karpeles, a professional animal wrangler. I found out he had animal co-ordinated TWELVE MONKEYS and was helping me out because his friend said I had taken the news very well, with no screaming. That's the best resource you can have, sympathetic people.
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