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| SxSW ’08 Interview – Here Is What Is director Adam Vollick |
Here Is What Is - Daniel Lanois at SxSW '08! |
by Jason Whyte
“Here Is What Is” is a sonic journey to the source of the art in the recording studio. It is an invitation to experience a year of creation, looking over Daniel Lanois’ shoulder. The songs featured throughout the film are true to the dedication of documenting a live take off the floor.
Garth Hudson, one of Canada’s National treasures opens the film with a timeless piano performance. Lanois takes us with him to Morocco to philosophize with his old friend Brian Eno and to record in a stunning courtyard with U2. Daniel joins Brian Blade in Shreveport at his Father’s Zion Baptist Church for a roaring rendition of “This May Be The Last Time”. Adam Vollick captures a rare Lanois performance mix in a voyeuristic, magic carpet ride above the console, while Daniel explains his moves and musical reasons for making them. His psychedelic past emerges throughout the film as the hyperrealism of the in-studio documentation is contrasted by moments of wild fantasia.” Director Adam Vollick on “Here Is What Is” which is screening at this year’s South By Southwest.
Will you be coming to Austin to attend the festival? If this is your first time, what do you expect to discover? If you have been here before, what do you love most about the city?
Daniel was a keynote speaker at SXSW in 2003. but for the rest of the team it is our first time attending SxSW. We expect to share great music and film.
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?
I fell in love with photography as a kid in Canada. I thought it was magical, and I wanted to know everything about it, I got lost in it, time disappeared, and now I’m here. If you want to see what it’s like to get lost in it, come see the film, it’s here.
This first time film maker originally from Quebec is finally responding to what people have been asking him to do for thirty years, which is to show the creative process of his work in the recording studio. Mr. Lanois, one of Canada’s musical exports is the recipient of ten Grammy awards and five Juno awards. In a quiet way he has helped catapult the careers of many of our favorite artists to high artistic commercial places. Technology is easy to measure but heart and soul is not. Lanois has ridden the constant wave of change and finds himself right back where he started embracing passion and people. The people in the room have always been his power and his contagious commitment is still his vital ingredient. What drives people is what interests Lanois, he doesn't like to talk about it because it might then disappear.
Growing up, you were no doubt asked the eternal question “When I grow up I want to be a …” Finish this sentence, please!
When I grow up I want to be a renaissance man…
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?
The mystery of the recording studio is what keeps me coming back. Many rewards and awards have come to me through this laboratory. It is my temple, my domain, my frustration and my love. But most importantly, it is my place of innovation. The ultimate drug for me is the ever slippery creative process. My greatest joy in this has come from my associations. The creative, musical and lyrical minds that I've been lucky to work with through years of record making. A friend recently suggested that I turn on a camera and try to capture the elusive process. Adam Vollick followed me around the studio to see if we could unveil some of the mystery.
How did this project come to fruition? If you could, please provide me with a rundown, start to finish, from your involvement.
In August 2006, we had the first session for Daniel’s new record with Garth Hudson, Brian Blade, and Tony Garnier for a week at Daniel’s Toronto studio. We setup the studio to be conducive to musicians, their instruments and filming. I began documenting the session with the camera I manned, one on a pod that I constantly moved about and several security cameras that all rolled continuously during the recording days.
That September, I began pouring over the footage of the highlights in my daily rough notes, and assembling rough edits amidst logging footage. I came upon the footage of Garth’s warm up and intro (that opens the film) late one evening, and sent it immediately to Daniel and Samuels in LA. The next day it was suggested that we make a film.
October 2006 and all the way until the following April: I arrived in LA at Daniel’s house with all the footage, a knapsack, and a short haircut. Daniel continues working on his record, we continue documenting and editing, and logging, and editing, and logging, and documenting and editing and logging, and so on and so forth. Along the way Daniel and U2 do a week long session in France somewhere, it goes well and they plan another week in May, this time Morocco. April we secure a screening for the unfinished film in front of the Toronto film festival programmers. We packed up to head north. They accepted the film, and we continued to work on it.
In May 2007, Daniel goes to Dublin to work with Sinead O’Connor then off to Morocco with Brian Eno and U2, on session number 2. I’m in Toronto, editing and logging, eagerly awaiting footage shot by one of my heroes who covered Morocco for me, Anton Corbijn. It comes back, it’s all great we begin sifting through the travel footage. We laughed a lot.
In July, Final approval comes from the Toronto international Film festival and we continue to tweak. In September, the film premieres in Toronto to stellar audiences and we learn about how the film business works.
And finally in December, Adam Samuels and Daniel create red floor records, I designed some packaging and, we release “Here Is What Is” as an exclusive high quality wave file download, with a Hard Copy coming available in March, and a DVD with an extra hour or so of footage coming in early April. It cost us $18 a month, and now my hair is long.
What was the biggest challenge in the production of the movie, be it principal photography or post-production?
The sheer volume of footage -- we have enough material to make another film -- making hard decisions about what not to include. As well as trying to encourage objectivity.
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 am the principle photographer, we chose a pair of Panasonic DVX 100s, mainly for their portability/maneuverability during long days, and lack of intrusiveness. The DV format also allowed the massive volume of footage to be manageable, as I kept everything we did online for the entire duration of the project so we could be spontaneous with the grand sequence of events. I embrace low fidelity if the content is hi-fi, can you dig? If one microphone in the 40’s can capture a room full of musicians and still make you cry, then what’s the most important thing in that situation, the microphone or the talent? That’s why we used some security cameras for their continuous and innocuous capture of talent in close proximity. The fidelity is magnified by its proximity to talent. I also sent a little hard drive camera overseas with Daniel that has a unique look and long record times, so I could be set down and forgotten about.
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?
As a first time film maker to be able to experience the overwhelming reactions of the audience around me for the first time.
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?
I’d say Pennebaker, Ryan and Muybridge.
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?
If I have an opportunity to reveal the truth behind something I will.
If you weren’t in this profession, what other career do you think you would be interested in?
The design of everything.
Please tell me some filmmakers or talent that you would love to work with, even if money was no object.
There are quite a few actually. It would have to be in the same kind of immersive manner in which the Lanois project went down. I’d rather just do my thing for those who wish to invite me in.
If this film could play in any movie theatre in the world, which one would you choose?
The MOMA in NYC.
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?
Don’t give up, work longer days, and remember the medium is the message.
And finally…what is your all time favourite motion picture, and why?
I don’t particularly have an all time favorite but Baraka moved me without words.
This film is one of the many features that will be screening at SxSW this year from March 7th to 15th. For more information on this film, its screening times and for more information on SxSW, point your browser to the official website. – Jason Whyte, efilmcritic.com
link directly to this feature at http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/feature.php?feature=2420
originally posted: 03/01/08 03:10:56
last updated: 03/01/08 03:12:12
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