| |
What compelled you to make this piece? How does this work address issues that are important to you or close to your heart?
One, it was obvious that I had to make a film with my father after he, at the age of 79, had miraculously recovered from a brain injury and a six-week coma. He had been a successful commercial actor the last two decades and I had worked with him before in the various photo/performance projects. Now we would work together on borrowed time. Two, I had to make a film -- any film. It was time to enlarge my audience.
As for the subject matter, I'll let the BIG TIME OPERATOR's house musician, Walter Steding, say a word. "The film's concept of time and chemistry is not that far-fetched. Powers are already fighting over control of such potions as thebebane."
 |
| Video still from BIG TIME OPERATOR. |
How does living in the New York metropolitan area affect your work?
As I openly curse our city, I secretly gloat in the ways I have made this city work. Environments have nothing to do with creativity and everything to do with how they are implemented.
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?
It seems that the only thing that pushes television is advertising, and I'm constantly entranced by how far television has been pushed. Hopefully, the BIG TIME OPERATOR being broadcast on REEL NEW YORK will push me.
What about access to the tools of production and post-production?
Access to post-production should be getting easier. For no-budget projects there's always Millennium and FVA. In the digital world, post is now competitive. I have used DDTV and Stand-By, rented Steenbecks, and have made deals with individuals with access. Still, it's a question of funding and time, and that's everybody's own story. This is a good forum to attack the industry's (still set by Hollywood) use of our city. Now it is blocks and blocks of vans and important-looking people and the film commissioner catering to their gross whims. These productions should be heavily taxed and the funds spent on public access media and experimental venues.
 |
| Video still from BIG TIME OPERATOR. |
Why did you become a film/video artist/maker?
Simply because I have visions and they spring from the world around me. I was heavily schooled in the film mode of the '60s -- underground and foreign films and light shows. Part of filmmaking is finding a strategy to return to those visions.
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 am amazed that there are so many open and helpful persons in the so-called independent film community. They must be leftovers, because what is called independent is now big business and produces only formulas and attempts at silly self-expressionism. Distribution is still key and king. There are not enough film venues for expanded video and film works. Film education is at an all-time low. Where are the film advocates? I find help from wherever or however, whoever and whatever. I have a close association with Destiny Productions/Staso MSG, who share similar views.
Do you have any interesting behind-the-scenes stories about the making of this particular work?
BIG TIME OPERATOR was filmed strictly guerrilla-style -- with no permits and little permission. Part of the film was to see what would come from filming kids and an old man. Battery [Park] City is a modern urban location to invade. To film there, even on off-hours, you have to pay bribes. Several times our extended home-film production got busted. All the shots were used. The production even got busted for interrupting recess -- we surprised a bunch of school kids who knew us. There was better luck in the fine art department. Jake Woolworth invited the production into his grandmother's house on Park Avenue while she was sick in the hospital. Renoirs and all the Peales, and jade from the Ming Dynasty fill the rooms. We could only film on a day of a snowstorm; bulbs blew and cameras crashed. Again all the shots were used. A week later poor Mrs. Woolworth died, and the family moved Jake out of the residence.
|
|
