If Movies Were Music

Two things stand out to me in the discussion so far: film is only 100 years old, and the "instruments" to make movies are just now getting into the hands of the common man.

The birth of Jazz music supposedly benefitted from the decommissioning of marching bands at the end of the civil war. Perhaps the digital revolution will be a similar watershed moment?

Perhaps THE SEARCHERS is the classical music and next comes the blues, and eventually jazz?

Great post Ted. I have always been of the mind that the best filmmakers are those who have an innate understanding of music (not necessarily musicians themselves) Lynch, Kubrick, Wenders, Jarmusch, Godard and others have this in spades.

One of the things I love about (truly) Independent film in the States is that it is often informed by a passion and sensibility that comes from the indie music/DIY scene.

Here in England especially, this attitude is sadly lacking among many people. It's no surprise that I've always related more to friends in bands than I've ever related to most British filmmakers. Outside of Michael Powell, John Boorman, Nic Roeg, Ken Russell, Lynne Ramsay, Terence Davies, Andrew Kotting and a few others, the British don't seem to understand what cinema is, nor do they care that much.

I find the place that we are in at the present time to be thrilling because it is now truly possible for the first time in history to begin a dialogue with those who DO care, are not embarrassed by culture and are willing to fight for it.

Great, Great taste in music btw. Surely Yo La Tengo deserve a place in this illustrious company!

Best,

Adam Jeal

your comment about lyrics from blood on the tracks,imperial bedroom, which is the album that helped me stay in new york in the 80s when i first moved there, and songs of leaonrd cohen who agreed to write a soundtrack for one of my screenplays which he read..if i ever get it made...is inspiring. i'm on christine vachon's twitter as well thogh she don't know me...within the heart howie wiseman

Great post Tom. When you mentioned Transformers it hit a nerve. Yeah, that's the musical film rhythm, and I even didn't like Transformers on an intellectual level. It pissed me off because I felt like it was a military recruitment commercial. Yet something about it held me and I liked watching it. It was that music quality thing plus the cool imagery of cutting edge cars and all that robotic stuff. It hits you on a nervous system level like music does. Michael Bay comes from commercials too. So maybe the commercial world has moved closer to that music like perfection of film. You know, subliminal.

It also reminds me of Cloverfield. Again, I felt the film was shit on one level, yet mesmerizing, and I was completely drawn in. Another military recruitment commercial. Is there some Defense Department psycho-tech formula by Dr. Strangelove at work here?

But Cloverfield has a quality that I think Avatar does, and it's some kind of originality thing. Originality is everything. I think on a scale of rating the elements of greatness you have originality at the top and 15 steps after that you find the next thing, quality or something.

OK, Avatar and Cloverfield don't compare on some levels and yet Avatar is really just a Ferngully / Dances with Wolves remake. It's the technology and the use of it that set them apart, not the content at all, really.

This is dangerous. You can make crappy stuff and get into people's heads. But if you could merge that with awesome content, like you say, Kaufmann maybe. Yeah, talk about spooks.

Great discussion. Love it.

Lou Reed Rock and Roll Animal, Bob Marley Babylon by Bus, Anything played by Joe Pass, Jimi Hendrix or Art Tatum. Whether it is Rock, Jazz, Classical, Samba, Reggae or just a great John Hyatt song I am completely transfixed. ACDC, Led Zepplin and Van Halen all rock. The Police grab me. I always hate when I am preocupied and don't really hear it. But films, I am never spaced out. Every minute in the theater, I am riveted. That is a huge difference between the mediums.

One time I was in Tibet and there was a huge drum being pounded on by a monk. It was huge like 25' tall and he was not all smiley and monk like. He was in a dark place, banging to the skull cup full of blood. Impermanence. His eyes were rolled up into the top of his head. Banging. The waves just blew through me like the after shock waves of The Hurt Locker.

So who is taking film to the "classical music" level? David Lynch? Clint Eastwood's character ballets? The Quay Brothers? Charlie Kaufmann? Synecdoche NYC was pretty compelling if imperfect. Charlie Chaplin? Spike Jonze? Ang Lee?

Perfection is dead. Sometimes I listen to Murray Pariah play The Goldburg Variations. Then I stick in Glenn Gould's lilting, mad, wonderful take on the same piece. Cleary he has mastered the material, but somehow his mental funk indelibly flavored the variations. I like Gould's better.

The same could be said of film. Take Hollywood Tripe like Transformers- it is so perfect that it is inert. It means nothing. I think of Andrzej Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds, which isn't so tight, but it hits me deep and it lingers and I love it. And I get the sense that it is really important to that filmmaker's conscience. But that was made in a Polish socialist filmmaking system, where profit wasn't a motive. See Katyn if you really want to have your toes curled.

Profit and soul is an old saw. Let's move to new technology. When Les Paul plugged his guitar in for that first time, that was a quantum leap. I would say the same of Avatar.

It must be that Avatar hit a different part of my brain than any other film. For about 48 hours every time I closed my eyes, there was that blue world in my head. Maybe that is just a technological reaction, but like the first viewing of a Zoetrope, it is mind blowing. Look! It is moving! Look! Avatar is vividly deep in sheer visual power.

Music does get to that deep place. Mozart's Requiem Mass just spooks. Gamelan music from Bali haunts. The Stones singing Dead Flowers gets me every time.

The long and short of all this is that both film and music are art forms in process. They are fecund drueling beasts. Created for better or for worse. Some of it is crap and some of it is brilliant. But the process is all. Unruly, wonderful and alive. Aaron Copeland to John Ford, it's all good. The enemy of the whole shooting gallery is the crippling question, "Is it any good?" or "Will it make any money?" The best work is the work that HAS to be made no matter what.

One of film's great new opportunities is that the "means of production" are getting way more available. Like music has always been.

Interesting premise. You touched on something that hits a nerve with me. But how seriously do you take it? I actually got admitted to communications grad school on an essay about how film is in it's infant state (only a century old) and how music has been around for centuries and how film may need to find it's classical voice as music did. Not to brag, I never graduated. Somewhere along the line I lost site of this premise and got sidetracked.

Music is incredible, especially classical music, in all it's nuances, tones, instruments, dynamics - an orchestration of a multitude of musicians (artists). Imagine if film were more like that, an orchestration, a flowing of bar after bar of rhythm and dynamics, of many instruments working simultaneously in harmony. A good film is a collaboration of artists working in harmony. There's a magic there that comes together that's much greater than the individual parts.

But do we really have any films that compare to classical music? Do we have films that come out like music hits that people clamor to get? Do you watch a film with the same passion you listen to music? Perhaps a few great ones. But music has so many more. A top 40 hit list every month, while film has an all time top 100 list. We're lucky to see five or ten really good films in a year, or maybe they're just unheralded and not marketed. But something is missing in film. It's need to be more flowing and integrated as music is. Of course music tracks aren't two hours long.

We're so caught up on marketing and making what sells that we forget the art, and this is the age old art versus business model of filmmaking debate.

I can only speak from experience. But I just finished a feature doc where I interview about 60 people asking pretty mush the same five or so questions and they all take turns on each question, and I think this approaches the music flowing idea. It's far from perfection. But I had no script, just these questions I posed and in editing I try to orchestrate, which is what editors do. But the editing in this case was also the writing of the script, and I really think it works. You have to see it to understand.

Just some thoughts, and I'd love to hear feedback and criticism of any kind. You hit on something here that I think filmmakers should really give some thought to.

http://outinthestreetfilms.com

"I am glad the music changes every time I play at but I still run through my life of every time I heard it. It's both immediate and forever, static and constantly changing." Brilliantly articulated Ted! Sums up the emotional charge I get when I see one of my favourite bands from my teens in concert - but now with nearly twenty years' emotional attachment to the music! Something to strive for as a film producer too... BTW seeing Pavement in Australia this March.

Not that it means anything really other than interesting coincidence...but your musical taste is EXACTLY the same as mine. Exactly. Waits, Minutemen (Double nickles..still incredible), Elvis,Replacements...well done! Enjoy your blog, writing, and etc., tremendously.