DeZ Vylenz Log

A captain's log of activities and projects, affiliations and developments involving the Shadowsnake ship and various guerilla film expeditions. Updated in between storms by DeZ Vylenz, Writer - Director - Martial Arts Choreographer

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Cinema: Sad state

Independents were supposed to get it easier by now, with the broader public in want of more interesting and original stories than the Hollywood popcorn industry is churning out. And don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good action flick now and then, but the different genres and budget level productions should co-exist with each other. Yet the big ones are still monopolising both theatrical space and the choice of the audience.

An independent distributor friend of mine--based in London--is releasing a pretty successful Spanish thriller right now and cinemas have been full with most screenings, especially during the crucial opening weekend. Yet she had to fight after the weekend to keep the film in the theatres at the proper evening time slots. Then after another two weeks of more successful screenings, the fight is on to keep it in the cinemas at all. Incredible, the exhibitors barely give you the chance to even make money, even though the potential is clearly there. And this is just one of many Kafka-esque stories I've heard in the last few years, especially when it comes to funding.

Film business sounds more like the Olympics now, who can make more money in the shortest time, win the most awards and all that rather than bringing good STORIES to the screen. Wealthier distributors (mostly the Hollywood affiliated companies) have the resources to buy cinema space and thus decide the majority of choice on offer for cinema visitors. The most feasible way for independents to still bring their material out there, seems to be DVD or digital downloads.

After a lot of work, took some time off in the last two weeks to see a few films. Zodiac, great work, never boring during its nearly 3 hours. Spiderman 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: $ 250 million dollar films. Cliche humour and overlong. CGI budget took most of it. Script budget: $ ??, wouldn't surprise anyone if the script was added to the mix last minute. But these blockbusters were all raking it in at the box office, so will continue to set a trend. No further comment. Old discussion.

Posted by DeZ Vylenz  

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Art VS Commerce

Very hectic time. Sailing some heavy storms, but the course is still clear. As Shadowsnake slowly transformed from a film production company to a broader enterprise with the distribution company as spear head and the creative development at the core of it all, my own development as a filmmaker never stopped. It must have been around 2005-2006 when I finally managed to switch within minutes between the different mind sets of artist and entrepreneur.

In fact they are very similar, as both create a scenario, a script to materialise ideas, a vision. It's all about projection. The difference with pure business people, is that money for them is often the main goal, while for an artist it is a tool. Prior to this it was very frustrating when there was no time left for the creative outlet, and it felt like a blocked volcano. Now I've learned to put the ideas in the fridge and let them brood.

Although a lot of the freelance consultancy activities, sessions as personal trainer, script and treatment doctoring and the overseeing of the Shadowsnake distribution often distract from the creative writing, nowadays I tend to see any obstacle or task to deal with in life as part of the learning curve. In fact, business activities is taken seriously demand discipline and planning, all extremely important as well to artists to materialise their projects and bring them into fruition. This is the 21st century and more and more artists are taking control of their own creation, financing, production AND distribution as they realise most entertainment businesses have no interest in producing genuine and original material, only in pure hard cash.

I'm not sure if it was Michael Angelo who said: "Art is about ten percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration." Or as Jose Villarubia pointed out (quoting Picasso): "When the muse arrives, she should catch you working."

The Mindscape of Alan Moore DVDs should be arriving in the UK by Thursday afternoon or night, so we are looking forward with much anticipation after some serious trench warfare post-production session since October 2006 on the DVD alone.

The film will finally end up where it belongs, in front of more audiences than those who managed to see it at festivals or selected theatre screenings. Considering most people have Dolby Surround systems in the comfort of their home and large TV screens, it should still remain quite a psychedelic trip.

Check it out.

Posted by DeZ Vylenz  

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Alan Moore & Melinda Gebbie Wedding

Saturday 12 May, 2007: Sacred Matrimony

It won't happen very often that I write about a wedding, but then again it's a rare event when an extraordinary gentleman such as Alan Moore marries an extraordinary lady like Melinda Gebbie, who have been together for nearly two decades and produced the historical pornography Lost Girls.

Both were costumed by Tamsin, a specialist theatre designer, so a distinct nineteenth century atmosphere descended on Northampton's Guildhall where about thirty people from Northampton and all over the world came to pay their respects. The wedding vows were monumental pieces of poetry, which I won't even repeat here out of respect for privacy.

I was capturing as much as possible on video, while juggling a stills camera and just trying to enjoy the good vibes (Jose Villarubia was rapid firing his own stills camera the entire day, so surely must have a great range of photographs). As they exited the Guildhall, and passing cab drivers pressed the horns it became clear that Alan and Melinda were without a doubt the uncrowned king and queen of Northampton.

As they left with the horse drawn coach, we all met up later at the social club where slowly more guests from around the world poured in--around a hundred or less--ranging from the comics industry's Neil Gaiman, Todd Klein, Oscar Zarate, Gary Spencer Millidge, Chris Staros, Dave Gibbons, Kevin O'Neill, Leah Moore and many more musicians, artists, friends, strangers and not to forget the guys still working on his longtime ongoing "cellar project."

Someone joked that there were probably more artists and writers in that small cosy and intimate club than at the Bristol Comic Expo going on that same Saturday a few hours away by train.

It was a really special atmosphere and great to see old acquaintances (especially mutual friend musician-film maker Tina from San Francisco, who came to visit Melinda), with Scarlett's Welland The Gonzo Dog-do Bar Band complementing it all with great music till late in the night. Something like this is hard to describe, but it was just one of those events where everybody was interesting and great to talk to and enjoyed themselves. The day flew by much too fast as if it was a trippy scene from a surreal film or one of Alan Moore's writings with a whole range of colourful characters.

For both it is hopefully a well deserved holiday/honeymoon and we all wish the couple many healthy blessings and prosperity.

Posted by DeZ Vylenz  

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Creole Languages 3: Another POV on English

Hooking in on last week's piece on creole languages in Notes From the Other Ground, there still is an elitist view on most other forms of language outside of the socially accepted standard versions. Although I agree that the standard version is extremely important to know, as it's the common ground for efficient communication, the many different ways of expression are just as interesting culturally, as they are gateways to understanding how different groups of people think and live.

Some of the major million dollar mainstream success of hiphop and previously rock'n roll as music genres with their own lingo have made people somehow a little bit more aware that "deviating" language also sells. Advertising and marketing make clever use of the polarisation between standards and varieties.

The first versions of English as we know it now, can in some ways also be classified linguistically as creole languages. A strange mix between Saxon, Scandinavian (from the Nordic invasions) and later on French (through the Normans invaders) and Latin (through the clergy) if a more academic or religious dynamic was involved. Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is therefore a crucial stepping stone for the English language, as it wrote down one of the first incarnations of that vernacular hybrid of Middle English, before it transformed to Modern English.

But the story of English is different, as the ruling classes also started to speak the language, abandoning Latin and French, while still borrowing from them. The history of creole languages in the New World is therefore more equivalent to Welsh and Gaelic, oppressed and slowly rooted out by a colonial type of rule. When one language acquires legal status, it usually means that others are either outlawed or sidetracked as inferior. So its longevity depends on the number of users who pass it on to each other and the next generations. It spreads, through people, through time and space.

As William Burroughs said: "Language is a virus from outer space."

English for example as a language is written and spoken mostly by people who originally are not native speakers and therefore make up their own as they go along. It functions as a lingua franca on the crossroads of different cultures and most of the technological advances are given English names at present, therefore it will last quite a while as the dominant language.

Mandarin is together with Spanish (another one with numerous dialects, national differences etc.) the language with the most speakers globally. But although China is becoming e a major economic power, with its own entertainment industry, the Chinese language is just not that accessible to most other cultures as English has been for at least the last century.

For me it's still one of the most powerful languages, because of all the nuances within the vocabulary and the ease with which it seems to adapt words from other languages and fields. The world jungle for example comes from India "jangal" meaning wild place.

But at present on a metalanguage level, the same elitist attitude prevails in mainstream culture as well. One form of expression is taken as the dominant one and other voices are simply deemed as not interesting enough to be heard. It's like one monotonous radio or TV channel broadcasting us the same kind of stories and formulae over and over again. The cinema theatres are still dominated by films with the lowest common denominators, to use a cliche.

The most interesting stories are simply not seen by most people, although it seems to be slowly changing as audiences are getting tired of CGI, pyrotechnics, star ridden films and bombastic scores in lieu of story.

However, no matter what kind of hybrid our shared popular culture will become, the division between the "norm" and the "other" will continue to exist and hopefully that's for the better, as the one feeds of the other. Most likely they will be complementary and not a strict duality of opposites, but rather a unity, a shared frame of reference that will become our global lingua franca.

Posted by DeZ Vylenz  

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

All Tomorrow's Parties: curated by Dirty Three

This gonna be a long one folks, for the fellow music lovers.

Last Friday me and photographer-friend-R&R samurai Alex embarked on a 7 hour coach ride from London to Minehead to check out All Tomorrow's Parties music festival, where we had been invited by the organisation. It's a very laid back festival for alternative music that has grown from 3,500 to 5,000 visitors, all accommodated in chalets close to the sea side, or simply put a village with motel like rooms with proper showers and some with cooking facilities. So no tents, no VIP sections, no mud, just indoor halls and a lot of music, more than anybody has time or energy for. The choice and high level of originality and artistry is overwhelming as gigs are from 13:00 to 02:00 and every event is curated by different artists.

The last two I did filming for in 2005 were curated by Vincent Gallo and The Mars Volta, with a range of artists from Yoko Ono, Ted Curson, Peaches, Sean Lennon, John Frusciante, Gang Gang Dance,PJ Harvey, Suicide, Acid Mothers Temple, Antony and the Johnsons, The Cinematic Orchestra, CocoRosie, Damo Suzuki + Jelly Planet, Dälek, Diamanda Galás, Lydia Lunch, Madlib, Mastodon, Michael Rother, Quintron And Miss Pussycat, Saul Williams, Subtitle, to name a few.

This event was curated by Dirty Three headed by Warren Ellis (not the comics writer, but Bad Seeds member) known for collaborations with Nick Cave.

Diry Three simply blew away the audience on Friday night. Considering they were curating the event, all the respect to Ellis for his energy: the man performed as if possessed, the only thing keeping him somewhat restrained was his violin, with which he produced a beautiful spectrum of sound ranging from the melancholic to pure rage and controlled feedback.

I didn't know their music at all, but as Alex warned me: Its' not like anything you heard before.

Feedback is one of my favourite sounds, but hard to reproduce as it depends on the distance and angle from the amplifiers and many other factors. Carlos Santana was famous for using it to create his signature endless sustain on his guitar. So to hear it melodically used in a great instrumental set with a wall of sound was a clear sign of Warren Ellis' control and artistry, a Jimi Hendrix on violin.

Later in the night we watched Psarandonis, a Greek performer who played the lyra together with a quartet of musicians (3 of which are his children) in a great blend of traditional and modern music, from gentle melodies that gradually whipped up the audience to a frenzy. Another bearded artistic outlaw and with Ellis, and Josh Pearson (wild gig to end the night) walking past with flaming long beards next to thousands of Mindscape of Alan Moore flyers floating around, the whole thing got a bit surreal to us.

Then Saturday Nick Cave (solo) with Warren Ellis and band in a very good show to end that with: "Thank you, and stick around for the next band." Grinderman. Never heard of them before this weekend, but essentially it's Nick Cave with most of the same band, but in a different, more aggressive punk-blues vibe. I had always found Cave's music and poetic storytelling interesting and truly inspired, but had not kept up with the last few albums.

To see him now at 49, back to the roots of his primal rage, but without the angst. It was still dark and haunting, but without the despair. More of a "I'll fuck anything that moves and shoot anybody in my way down" blues on testosterone and moonshine whiskey in an incredible wall of sound. The press and fans seem to speak about "re-inventing" but that doesn't cover the live experience, although I have no idea of the album sounds the same. Cave never really plays the songs the same live and usually changes the orchestra or heaviness.

I don't think I've been blown away like that since Metallica (1993, then in their peak) Rotterdam Feijenoord playing against 50,000 headbanging fans. Grinderman's live debut (and apparently maybe only) live performance had a few thousand people nearly moshing on some songs. Exactly how I liked --and had missed from-- music, full of energy, with a sense of urgency, but paced with variation and ultra heavy. Jim Sclavunos (another bearded guest) on drums was propelling the band forward with great skill and confidence, with Martyn Casey's thundering bass laying the foundation for Ellis on a whole range of instruments from bouzouki to violin and Cave on guitars, hammond (or electric organ) and vocals.

Einsturzende Neubauten's music I had known for at least 10 years, but had never seen them live. The somewhat smaller Centre Stage was packed to the hilt with a long queue, so we snuck past with press passes into the dark and acoustically better hall with the choking fog of cigarette smoke (can't wait till the official ban).The beginning was a bit more "avant garde" and poetic, but the last 30 minutes was an incredible industrial and electronic orchestra that had the crowd calling them back twice.

If all that wasn't enough, Sunday was ripped wide open by Dirty Three again, later followed by Silver Mount Zion Orchestra (another band founded by Godspeed You! Black Emperor guitarist Efrim) in a more cinematic atmosphere. Catpower & Dirty Delta Blues later on, with Nick Cave and Grinderman coming up again

And for the second time I was blown away again. Hopefully these two gigs won't be their last, as it's the biggest musical surprise of this year and with more power than most of the contemporary and much younger bands.

As a lot of good gigs overlapped we missed the lesser known but equally impressive bands, Felix Lajko, Yugoslavian-Hungarian zyther and violin player I just managed to see parts of, but not to be missed next time.

Secretary was literally a secretary style dressed saxophonist first typing her music (with Basic instinct reference included) on the last night, so before going back to base camp to sleep we bumped into Warren Ellis, shaking hands for a last thank you to an incredible line up and festival, which this time had a laid back aussie and outlaw kind of feel.

That was mostly it for the last night as we had to catch a ride back at 5.45 am to be back in London by 11 am. But despite immediately getting back to work, the buzz is still there and can't believe I nearly didn't go because of too many other obligations. This particular ATP was to me one of the most coherent ones, as the performing acts were all different, but on a similar wave length and vibe.

As I didn't have to work the camera commando missions from the inside this time, it was actually very good to experience it from the perspective of an audience and understand the whole phenomenon of festivals much better. In the end, it's an immersion into music and creative energy, a step into another world and vibe, with a large number of individuals suddenly forming a community. Something that can't be replicated by listening to recorded music and a very necessary part of our humanity.

And as a filmmaker it all does wake up dormant or slumbering ideas and drive.

Posted by DeZ Vylenz