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| VIFF ’06 Interview – Rampage director George Gittoes |
Get Rampaged at this year's VIFF (www.viff.org) |
by Jason Whyte
“Rampage is a journey into the forbidden zones: America's war in Iraq, and in it's own backyard - life in a Miami ‘hood - an exploration of hiphop's musical innovations, as important as the fields the field hollers, the blue, the blues, and jazz, which also began in the black ghettos, and went on to evolve as major music styles.” George Gittoes, director of “Rampage” which screens at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival (September 28th – October 13th).
Is this your first film in the VIFF? Do you have any other festival experience? If you’re a festival veteran, let us know your favourite and least-favourite parts of the festival experience.
This is not my first film fest experience. Rampage has already been shown at Panorama in the Berlin Film Festival (February 06), Sydney and Melbourne International Festivals and recently at JIMFF Music Film Festival in Korea (June, July, August 06). My last film Soundtrack To War (2004) went direct to Cable and Broadcast TV then to DVD so there was no time to put it into festivals.
It has been a number of years since I have had films in festivals – the last being Bullets of the Poets about Sandinista Women Soldier Poets in Nicaragua and that was 1986. I took a long break from making films in that time to work in other visual mediums – painting, drawing, photography – and then returning to filmmaking in 2003.
The most important part of the film festival for me is getting audience feedback, especially in the Q&A and also hearing what critics have to say. It is very useful feedback if the film still has not been locked off and the comments indicate changes that can benefit the film prior to the theatrical release. Even after the film is locked off, these comments can assist with making better films in the future. I also like the contact with other filmmakers and sharing experiences. There is nothing that springs to mind about festival exposure except that there usually is not the time to see all the other films I would like to. Sometimes I am frustrated that too many of the questions in the short time of a Q&A are about side issues rather than the actual content and structure of the film work. But this does not worry me too much because it shows that the film has made people think in a broader context.
Could you give me a little look into your background (your own personal biography, if you will), and what led you to the desire to want to make film?
People are often puzzled by the number of mediums I work in. I am a painter, writer, journalist, photographer, script writer, musician, and so forth. When they ask me about this I explain that when I speak to Arts and Humanity students at Universities it is common to find a great number of them who define themselves as multimedia artists and do not want to be tagged with just one aspect of the arts. You can look up my artist website (www.gittoes.com) and find I have been exhibiting for many years with books and films being made on my painting and drawing. What unifies all my mediums is the subject. Most of my life’s work has been about cultures in crisis – it is the meltdowns and tensions of crisis, where I see creativity spring up – I seek out culture, as it is created, at the fault lines, so to speak.
As a multimedia artist I have covered conflicts in Nicaragua, Philippines, Cambodia, Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, South Africa, Israel-Palestine, Southern Lebanon, Yemen, Pakistan (including Tribal Belt), Afghanistan, Tibet , Congo , East Timor, Western Sahara , Bougainville , Burma , Mozambique, Northern Ireland and Iraq... and more. This is a short list.
My films are all an affirmation of human creativity over the impulse to destroy, as in war. My film Bullets of the Poets- made in 1986 was about women who fought in the revolution, getting blood on their hands but they were also poets – writing verses while they fought. Soundtrack to War ( from which 16 scenes were used in Fahrenheit 9/11) is about all roles music performs in war – from therapy to the inspiration to kill.
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Rampage shows how regardless of the poverty and danger a person is surrounded by, music can make them rich in another way and provide a way out.[br]
When I arrive in Baghdad my Iraqi friends welcome me with the line “Ah George it is so wonderful to have someone here who is creating and not part of the destruction of our country!” That I paint, draw, record music and make films in war zones is in itself a conscious act of defiance against all the forces of the destruction a military conflict represents.
I grew up in a tough working class (blue collar) neighbourhood and while I played most sports including rugby and boxing I had a deeper love of the visual arts and film. I loved film but with my background I never thought it could be possible I could end up making them – it was way out of the reach of kids from a tough suburb like, Rockdale, Sydney, where I came from.
Then in my late teens I saw films like Juliet of the Spirits by Fellini and realized film was not just entertainment but also art and a visual imagination could have a place. I got interested, bought a 16mm camera and started shooting film when I was 22 or 23 years old in the very early 70’s. The first films were abstract and ‘experimental’ but I got them into Film Festivals and as shorts in Cinemas.
Then I began to feel this was preaching to the converted and decided to try to learn to make documentaries for Television (this was a process of self education – as I had no formal training in filmmaking). My first doc feature was Tracks of the Rainbow and was about a group of urban Aboriginal teenagers making a journey to discover their traditional way of life and culture, as experienced in the wild regions of the Northern Territory, Outback Australia. This was followed by three more features also made in the Northern Territory – Warriors and Lawmen , Unbroken Spirit and Frontier Women. All were televised in Australia and around the world.
My first theatrical release film was Bullets of the Poets, which I shoot in Nicaragua in 1986. Between 1986 and 2003 I did a lot of current affairs shooting about war for television along with my art, but it was the introduction of 3-chip digital cameras and similar digital sound technology that allowed me to get back into films. In the past the cost of 16mm film and processing made documentaries prohibitively expensive; digital technology has made them accessible again. I can now shoot and direct on my own and the process, for me, is little more complicated than working with a pencil and paper or still camera in the same kind of situation – yet the footage has the potential to be shown on broadcast television and enlarged to film for the big screen.
Growing up, you were no doubt asked the eternal question “When I grow up I want to be a …” Finish this sentence, please![/br]
An artist – and the meaning of that term I am still stretching to explore its limits.
While you were making the movie, were you thinking about the future release of the film, be it film festivals, paying customers, critical response, and so forth?
Having made Soundtrack to War and wishing I had released it theatrically before letting it go Cable (VH1) and Broadcast (TV ABC) – I really was aiming to make Rampage a theatrical release and knew it would need to gain the credibility of being shown in Festivals to achieve this. I consciously aimed at giving the film the kind of visual richness and dramatic power to make it work on the big screen.
How did this project come to fruition? If you could, please provide me with a rundown, start to finish, from your involvement.
Rampage started in Baghdad when one of the soldiers who were rapping for my camera at Uday Hussein’s captured palace, said “You know George, I feel more secure in the army -- even here in Baghdad -- than I do in my own hood in Miami. It really is safer for me in Baghdad than Miami.’ His name was Elliot Lovett and he was a frontline soldier who had completed 200 combat missions. I found this quite an incredible statement and decided to check it out.
I organised for Elliot to fly back to Miami during a short leave and quickly discovered the truth of what he had said. It truly felt like a war zone and daily statistics of young men killed by violence in his project area called Brown Sub were staggering. Every young male I met had been stabbed or shot and had the scars to prove it.
I never expected someone as close as Elliot’s brother Marcus to be killed but once this happened the film took a dramatic twist. The family wanted me to go on filming as a kind of memorial to Marcus’s memory and by then I had been accepted into their lives and the community.
My 19 year old son Harley joined me in Miami and shot second camera after Marcus’s funeral. Going in alone, at first, made the film intimate and unobtrusive; with Harley joining me it was family and did not change. From the beginning Elliot (soldier) had wanted me to take his brother Marcus into a studio to help him fulfil his dreams of becoming a rap star – with Marcus dead and Denzell expressing a similar passion I decided to commit to him, honouring the promise I had made to Marcus.
I have been co-producer with my wife Gabrielle Dalton: director, writer, narrator, studio executive producer on all the music, and worked closely with the editor Nick Meyers in post production. I would consider this the most difficult and complex project of my career – but it has been worth it – I am enormously proud of Rampage as a film and of the development of Denzell as a recording artist.I had a very small, closeknit team behind me to achieve Rampage, and we intend to work together on my next 2 films.
What was the biggest challenge in the production of the movie, be it principal photography or post-production?
The biggest challenge has been to make a film with the language of rap sub culture accessible to a wider audience. The need to make the meaning of what is being rapped and spoken about clear has been a challenge at every stage of production. Hopefully, if we have succeeded this film will work for rap audiences and the wider public of all ages.
The film covers some very tragic events as well as a journey of hope. All of this is expressed in the live rap lyrics of the participants as events unfold. It has been an aim to make these lyrics integral to the films’ basic dialogue. I see the film not only a documentary about real events but as a rap opera performed live on the streets as events unfolded.
Some viewers find the film raw and like uncut, unedited rushes. This does not worry me as the aim has always been to give the film a freestyle wildness, as if it has just come “off the top of the dome”. To achieve this sense of freedom, the cut has actually required very precise, complex and highly structured editing. We have succeeded if people watching Rampage are unaware of the tightness of the edit or structure because we want the film to start out like a wild walk through the hood and end with the sense of being Denzell’s companion on his journey to get a deal.
Please tell me about the technical side of the film; your relation to the film’s cinematographer, what the film was shot on and why it was decided to be photographed this way.
I shoot and direct. I like to use two cameras so at the beginning handed the second camera to various people who wanted to learn more about the film process. Then once my son left high school I got him to shoot second camera. My son Harley had already shot a couple of short films while in school and at a special film course in a technical college so was familiar with the cameras. Harley understands me better than anyone else, so it was much easier for him than anyone else to do the kind of second camera work the film required. The scene with Professor Joe Byrne is a good example of our collaboration. While my camera shoots the basic interview Harley follows the action as Elliot becomes nervous about the dangers of the situation and begins walking to the car for cover. The resulting confrontation between Elliot and I is then also covered by Harley so the whole scene makes sense in a way it could never do with only one camera or a second camera operator who did not realise the story that was unfolding and was able to make directing decisions without reference to the director [me].
I began shooting the film on Sony PDX10 cameras using PAL format. I chose these over other small 3-chip cameras because they have a dedicated 16X9 format chip which means no pixels are wasted when it goes to widescreen. Usually I have 4 microphones on the subject – two external wireless remotes and two shotgun mikes mounted externally on the two cameras. I keep the sound level display on while filming and adjust it visually rather than relying on headphones. Sometimes I wear a lapel mic myself which is wired directly into my own camera. I never use tripods - the whole film is hand held including all the interviews. No footage has been purchased from any outside sources. (The footage from Iraq was all shot by me when shooting Soundtrack to War). All of the helicopter aerials were shot by me from small two seater choppers – while some of the high NY shots are from the top of the Empire State Building.
About half way through the shooting of the film I purchased a Sony HDZ camera and began shooting with my camera on HD to Mini DV tape. Unfortunately had I been able to afford it I should have purchased 2 of these cameras and had Harley shooting on the same HD format. As a result the film has only benefited from the better optics on my camera. We have only done the first 6 minutes of Rampage in HD as the costs of upgrading the whole film to a higher resolution are so prohibitive. We will buy a second identical HD camera for our upcoming film projects and never shoot two formats at the same time again.
The film has been edited on Final Cut Pro – all the footage was captured to hard drives as it was delivered to the editor so he had total access to all the footage. Shooting two cameras meant they had to be in sync. Having worked in 16mm for many years using film cameras and nagra quarter inch tape has been a great help in shooting this film. I am familiar with difficult light conditions and do not have to rely on the automatic functions either with the sound recording or cinematography. Since most of the people in Rampage are African American it was important and at times difficult to get the best exposures on the faces – especially when there was extreme backlight – my years of experience shooting with non automatic, fully manual 16mm and stills cameras helped with this.
Talk a bit about the festival experiences, if any, that you have had with this particular film. Have you had any interesting audience stories or questions that have arisen at screenings?
Rampage has been shown in the Berlin Film Festival plus Sydney and Melbourne. I decided before these Festivals that the cut would not be locked off and that I would use feedback, especially from the Q&A’s to produce the final cut before the film went from digital to the 35mm blow up. In Berlin the film was 118 minutes and my aim in the fine cut was to get it down at least 15 minutes, which we have with the final theatrical version being 103. Once it is in 35 mm film I see the film as being set in concrete and when it is at this stage I accept it is what it is…beyond change. In Berlin the ‘to camera’ interview with Denzell about his Brother Marcus’s death suggests the documentary cameras could have been part of the cause. This became the dominate question people wanted to know about in Berlin. From this strong reaction I realised the question needed to be answered by me within the film. I had answered the question while Denzell was in Australia to local Triple J Radio. In Denzell’s presence I answered the question “By shining a light on the Lovett family do you think you put them in any kind of danger” - by accepting the possibility the filming could have been a contributing factor to the tragedy. Since adding this tense interview to the film, audiences in Sydney and Melbourne felt they had what they needed and did not ask the question after in the Q&A’s. As well as this significant addition the film went through a major recut and restructure – material going out and new in after Berlin.
It went into the Sydney FF and got a great audience response but Nick Meyers (editor) and myself ‘felt’ the film in a way, only possible in the midst of a live audience – becoming alert to remaining faults - from these insights we did another fine cut. When we showed it in Melbourne IFF both of us (Nick and I) finally were satisfied there was nothing much more to do. Prior to committing to 35mm, however, we did a new sound mix which enabled us to add more effects to intensify the drama – and even the song “Rampage” which opens the film got a new mix in which we added gunshot, bomb and siren noises on top of the background beat.
For me, festivals are fantastic as a way of getting honest feedback prior to committing to a final Theatrical Release Cut. I think I will always calculate to use them in this way. Also the reviews we received and comments from distributors were taken into consideration. My attitude is every critic is a collaborator on the film making team and should be regarded positively, no matter how severe their comments are. This is especially useful when the post production is still fluid and open for changes.
Who would you say your biggest inspirations are in the film world (directors, actors, cinematographers, etc)? Did you have any direct inspirations from filmmakers for this film in particular?
The film Black Orpheus by Marcel Camus was probably the biggest influence on Rampage and one of the biggest influences on my filmmaking in general. Movies like The Deer Hunter and The Godfather were background influences and Scarface is hard to ignore when working in Miami. City of God was an inspiration as was Oliver Stone’s film Salvador. I had not seen Hoop Dreams when I was shooting Rampage but so many people told me I should see it once they saw the rushes [so] I bought the DVD. It certainly supported our editing, especially when considering the length and making the decision not to cut Rampage down to 90 minutes as many people suggested. Since finishing Rampage I have seen Hustle and Flow and enjoyed it as it covered so much common ground. 8 Mile was, also, a background inspiration. I generally try to see every film that is available so my influences are enormous but as you can see from the notes above I am more influenced and inspired by feature dramas than documentaries.
I believe it is important for a documentary director to try to get the best performances from the people in the reality film as it is in a fictional drama film. I edited Rampage to have similar tensions and impact to a drama. One of my favourite documentary makers is Oliver Stone – his documentary Persona Non Gratis about Arafat was sent to me in post-production while editing Rampage and had the kind of existential feel I was after. I have often worked in Gaza and the Palestinian Territories and this was the first film I had seen that captured what it felt like to be there. Since finishing Rampage I saw Murderball and enjoyed it but it was too late to be an influence. Some Kind of Monster – the film about Metallica was definitely one of the best music docs I have seen in recent times but that also came to me after finishing Rampage. I wanted to avoid the kind of posthumous films that have been made about Tupac Shakur. I kept thinking, however, how wonderful it would have been if someone could have been there like that for Tupac in his early teens as he began to find himself; same with Bob Dylan. While I enjoyed the Scorsese film on him it was such a pity no one was able to be there up close in the early days. These genius artists seem to find out who they are very young and that is the most interesting time to document them. I felt this about Denzell; at times he seemed to be talking with the wisdom of an old man, like he had been born knowing he was an artist and what his destiny was. Yet he still does not have a deal and we all still have our fingers crossed for him.
How far do you think you would want to go in this industry? Do you see yourself directing larger stories for a larger budget under the studio system, or do you feel that you would like to continue down the independent film path?
I take things as they come. I always have ideas for a next film. I have already started No Exit, the third film in the series of 3 documentaries – Soundtrack to War and Rampage being the first two – No Exit will deal with the subject of film and war the way Soundtrack to War dealt with music and war. Each film adds to my knowledge of the craft and art of documentary film and at 56 years of age I still feel excited by the medium and know I have a lot to learn.
I feel this is a very exciting period to be making documentaries as they are being recognized as an art form in their own right more than any other time I know of in history. I have just written a first draft for a feature drama called Drill about the war in Iraq based on my own experiences. Hopefully, I will be able to make it as a low budget feature and drama. If Drill’ works and I enjoy the process I will be interested in making more fiction dramas, but I do not ever want to put documentaries behind me. Alongside No Exit I am making a film called Songs of Sudan which will again deal with war and music.
If you weren’t in this profession, what other career do you think you would be interested in?
I often think documentary making is as difficult a profession as can be imagined. Sometimes I feel it may have been better to have done law, medicine or science; all were open possibilities when I entered university, but I have no regrets. In addition I am an established artist and photographer as well as various other excursions into theatre and novel writing.
Please tell me some filmmakers or talent that you would love to work with, even if money was no object.
Gosh the answer to that is so big I would fill a book with it. I am generally a fan of most successful actors, writers and directors.
Do you think that you have “made it” in this profession yet? If you don’t believe so, what do you think would happen for that moment to occur?
I don’t really feel it is healthy to say “I have made it!” It is like something final…it is good for artists to feel insecure and vulnerable. I have never been able to carry a sense of success around with me – if I did I think it would be a very destructive burden. I believe in travelling light and considering I am only as good as what I can achieve in my next project. I learnt a long time ago with my painting that there are periods of work that seem to be better than others but it is pointless to try to imitate past successes. Right or wrong I always believe the project I am working on now is the best thing.
How important do you think the critical/media response is to film these days, be it a large production, independent film or festival title?
I can use criticism good or bad, but I have already covered this in the earlier answer. Of course, survival to be able to go on to the next project often depends on the success of the last. It is disappointing when reviews and other public criticism gets in the way of enabling a film to make back its money. Personally I have learnt to see all critics as friends – kind of like sculptors helping to chip away unwanted marble. A feature film is such a huge item with so many images and such diverse ideas there will always be valid scope for criticism, but it is constructive and informed criticism that, as a filmmaker, you hope for.
If your film could play in any movie theatre in the world, which one would you choose?
I am looking forward to Rampage playing to London audiences at the Haymarket, in the upcoming Raindance Festival, and to seeing it screening to US audiences in cinemas on the East and West Coast. There a lot of old theatres around the world I love for their atmosphere – but I really do not care about the venue, so much as the audiences. Rampage is going to open its season to outdoor audiences here in Australia this summer – I am looking forward to sitting back in a deck chair with a crowd in relaxed holiday mode.
Do you have an opinion on the issue of “A Film by (Insert Director Here)” ? Is this something you use? Many people collaborate to make a film yet simultaneously, the director is the final word on the production.
I love collaboration but will always fight for my right to have the final word over those who would try to play the role of censor. Often someone working with me will put forward and debate an idea; if they are convincing I am always happy to go with their suggestion because the end objective is to make a better film. I only work with strong minded people who do not hold back in saying what they think. This is no threat to me as I also only work with people whom I respect. I believe the buck ends with the director, however, and I take full responsibility for any flaws in my films.
What would you say to someone on the street to see your film instead of the latest blockbuster playing at the Paramount?
I would tell them that if they like what is real, and want a wild ride, then go and see Rampage.
No doubt there are a lot of aspiring filmmakers at film festivals who are out there curious about making a film of their own. Do you have any advice that you could provide for those looking to get a start?
I would tell them there has never been a better time to make films, as the technology is now within everyone’s reach. They should just shoot and shoot and shoot and by analysing their own footage they will learn quicker than any film school could teach.
And finally…what is your all time favourite motion picture, and why?
Apocalypse Now (Author’s note: Mr Gittoes, you da man!)The vision is amazing and I like the open ended way it was made. I agree with Picasso when he advised “not to seek but to find”. Coppola took great risks to find the picture knowing it was there while remaining open to the unpredictable. The reason I prefer the kind of documentary I make over scripted films is dealing with the unpredictable and the kind of magic which occurs when it comes together. I value making independent films because it means there is no need to deal with commissioning editors who all expect documentary makers to be clairvoyant and detail everything before the shoot starts.
The 25th Vancouver International Film Festival runs from September 28th to October 13th, 2006. To see when this film is playing, and for more information on other screenings, happenings and what is going on at this year’s VIFF, point your browser to viff.org. – Jason Whyte, jasonwhyte@efilmcritic.com
link directly to this feature at http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/feature.php?feature=1958
originally posted: 09/29/06 05:59:01
last updated: 10/31/06 20:40:28
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