I thought I might interrupt the 31 Day Film Challenge for a moment to update you readers on my own little adventure into film-making. I’ve undertaken a project this summer that I’ve wanted to do for a long, long time: a documentary film about “working” Memphis musicians. For what it’s worth, all the photos in this post are stills from the film. The one to your left may be my favorite so far.
First, let me give you our elevator pitch for the film. (I’ve practiced it a lot.) The pitch goes something like this: Everyone knows that Memphis is legendary as a “music” town… but when people who aren’t from Memphis think of Memphis music, they tend to think first and foremost of Elvis Presley, Al Green, and Isaac Hayes, or of the countless Stax and Sun and Hi/Royal artists who helped craft the unmistakable sound of American R&B, soul and early rock ‘n roll. BUT (and, when I’m giving this pitch, I say this “BUT…” very dramatically)… for every Elvis, Al and Isaac that Memphis has launched into stardom, there are literally thousands of Memphis musicians whose names you don’t know, who never make it big, many of whom never leave this town, who grind it out playing gigs every night, sometimes as many as 300 nights a year, and who entertain millions of tourists that come here every year in search of “authenticity.” They play for very little fame and even less money, and they are the ones to be credited with keeping the legend of Memphis music alive. The documentary we’re filming this summer is about all those “other” musicians. The ones that have played with the greats, who are themselves great, but who never became one of “the greats.” Ours is a documentary about the Memphis-music-version of what poker players call a rounder, the men and women who grind it out day and night, working in Memphis and making it work in Memphis as a musician.
[No kidding, I’ve said that paragraph above so many times in the last month that it’s like my own private version of the Nicene Creed.]
For the last three weeks, my very talented student, Sophie Osella, and I have been shooting film for this project, my/our very first documentary film. We’re doing this at the behest of (and on the dime of) the Rhodes Institute for Regional Studies, a truly amazing summer program at Rhodes College, headed up by Professor Milton Moreland, which allows students and faculty to work together on independent research projects related in some way to the Memphis/Mid-South region. Sophie and I will be working long, hard and late hours for the next three weeks to come, in hopes of getting everything we need filmed and edited before July 29, which is when we are scheduled to screen our first rough cut of the film. For those of you who may not appreciate how incredibly difficult it is to shoot a film in 7 weeks– and, to be honest, I was one of those people before beginning this project– let me just say that by “incredibly difficult” I mean “damn near impossible.” But we’re doing it, we’re going to do it, and every day I wake up and pray to the Universe that it will get done. Putting aside for a moment our insanely challenging timeline, we’re also working with only two sets of eyes and hands, limited (but very high-quality) equipment, practically zero money, totally unpredictable weather (and subjects), and in environments that are, technically speaking, extremely difficult to navigate. Still, I think that Sophie and I make a good pair for this project. She’s got a great eye and far more editing/camera/film-making skills than I do, and I’ve got all the “inside” connections and a pretty good sense of the larger narrative arc. She shoots great film. I get great stories. This has a better-than-average shot a being a really good film, I think.
As it turns out, my twenty-plus years of staying up late and hanging out with musicians in Memphis has definitely payed off for this project. I’ve called in a lot of favors and, as a result, we’ve managed to get almost all of the hardworking Memphis musicians on board for our documentary, including Joyce Henderson, Earl “the Pearl” Banks, Ruby “The Queen of Beale Street” Wilson, Patrick Dodd, Chris McDaniel, Brad Birkedahl, Vince Johnson and many, many others. Aside from the steep technical learning-curve that I’ve had to overcome, I’d say the next biggest challenge has been navigating the vicissitudes of musicians’ schedules. You really never know which show is going to be a good one, so I learned very quickly that you have shoot a lot of film at a lot of shows. And when it comes to trying to schedule musicians for solid interview times… well, that’s just a total crap-shoot. The hardest thing so far, for me anyway, has been telling the musicians (many of whom are very close friends who I’ve known for many years) that their participation in this project has to be a favor to me, that is, not for pay. I hate that more than anything.
As this is my first foray into film-making, I can’t help but say that this whole adventure has been really, incredibly exciting. In fact, the only (non-academic) project I’ve ever undertaken that has excited me as much as this was my American Values Project last year. And, to be honest, I wouldn’t really count either of those projects as “non-academic,” technically speaking, though I’m sure I’ll find detractors on that claim. The one thing I really regret is that we don’t have at least one more person on our team, mostly because I wish someone could film our filming. So, so many of the very best moments have happened after I’ve turned my camera off and the musicians have come over, sat down and just hung out with me off-camera. What I wouldn’t give to have had even a fraction of those conversations on film! (GAH!) At any rate, I did manage to capture this one (below), one of my favorite moments during a set-break with Archie “Hubby” Turner, who I’ve known for almost twenty years now and who was clearly hamming it up for the camera at the moment. This is a good indication of what happens when we go off-record and which makes me wish everything was on-record.
And here’s just a short, random outtake from our footage, featuring Blind Mississippi Morris. Who knows if or where this will fit into the final cut, but it’s at least something that can give you an idea of what our film will look like. In the coming weeks, I’ll try to post more about this still-untitled project as it develops, so stay tuned!