It's about to get really quiet...

Red River is full of cars again, the crowds have made their drunk little ways home, and Austin seems generally subdued. The Indonesian boys have cleared out of our living room, my email inbox is forlorn, sleep is being reincorporated into my daily routine and Phil (my bike) gets to roam around town at our leisure again.

Nathan has gone to New York to clear his head for a week before post production kicks off, and it seems like we're pretty much done with shooting. We're still in talks about what the possibilities are with pickup shoots in April -- Belaire will be recording and there are still a few things to get on film.

So what happens now? I'm going to stick around town for a few weeks, editing some stuff for a friend and whatnot. Jason and I are sitting down Thursday to talk about making a short doc together, which I'm very excited about. I'll be able to finish reading the book I started three weeks ago. I'm not sure how I'll be making rent, but if worse comes to worst, I'm not really using both kidneys. I'm always down for taking photos of your band, and if anyone is interested, you can see my photography work --> HERE <--. And then you can email me (jgazdag at gmail dot com) and we can make photographic magic!

As for the blog, it's been great to have a place to keep track of this whole experience. Clearly, I've had an amazing time working on this film, and I'm sad to see it be over. I'll be traveling for the next few months (hiking!), but Nathan will probably be updating here during the editing process, so check back regularly! Also, I've just recently noticed that people have been leaving comments, so I apologize for not responding. I've tweaked the settings to notify me of comments from now on, so feel free to leave some!

Signing off, for now....

~J

T minus 3 days

Ok, look. I will probably make no sense in this entry. The past two days have been spent on my feet, living off granola bars, filming and stubbornly going to shows. There's half a dozen Indonesian boys living in our living room (but we got free wristbands in exchange!). I'm not much of a drinker, but when I get sleepy enough it's like I'm drunk. I'm not sure why, it probably has to do with brain chemicals. I'm still going to write right now, though, for two reasons. One is, I figure I should capture the insanity of this exhaustion in an effort to convey a sense of authenticity of this production experience. Two is, if I don't do it now I never will, because I'm out and about again all day tomorrow and probably won't be near a computer until this time Saturday night.

Yesterday morning we met up with {{{sunset}}} at Premium Studio. There was a bit of a hitch -- when I'd gotten in touch with them to clear us for shooting, it turned out we weren't the only film crew. Radio K from Minneapolis was recording the show, both for their broadcast and video for their website. When we first got there no one knew if there would even be room for us in the studio! Oh no! In the end, though, it was all OK. We figured things out and made things work for both crews.


{{{sunset}}} getting ready to broadcast

Here's a great video from Radio K's website:


Sunset - Loveshines II (Live on Radio K's SXSW Broadcast) from Radio K on Vimeo.

After the broadcast the boys hopped in Bill Baird's famous vegetable oil run van and followed him around until the afternoon. We met up back at the office for some footage logging and regrouping, then went down to Red River to get SXSW culture shots. Transpo is insane right now, you guys. Red River and 6th are shut down and dropping the crew off and parking and everything is madness. And here I had naive little thoughts of riding my bike around the festival all week. Silly me.

Trey Brown played a showcase show at midnight, but since I wasn't on the list and couldn't park anywhere anyway, I just dropped off gear for the boys and went over to the Hideout Theatre, which had the BEST lineup ever. JC&Co. followed by {{{sunset}}} (how bad is your day when you see {{{sunset}}} play twice in it, right?), then Mark Ashworth (!!!) who was amaaaaazing and then Brazos but I had to miss them because it was time to pick the crew up. I keep missing out on Brazos shows. This is not something I like. Seriously, though, check out Mark Ashworth. Incredible. Nathan and I talked forever today about how amazing of a song "Something We Can Hold In Our Hands" is.

Today we spent all day at 6th and Red River. The guys went out and got more culture shots, while our PA Ceci and I stood by with release forms and eyes on our gear. We set up base camp on Neches at 6th. We were there a long time so we sat down on the sidewalk next to the camerabags. We must have looked somewhat hoboesque because we made ten bucks by the end of the day.


6th street today. This is usually where cars are. Not today!


Pedicabs are everywhere

After going back to the office and logging more footage, the boys called it a night. I should have too. I should have come home and snuggled under my covers and slept and slept and slept. But I'm not always sensible. Two years ago I sat at my sad little desk at my sad little job in New York and wistfully sighed as I made myself sad little SXSW schedules for shows I wouldn't get to go to. So tonight I thought, sleep be damned! I'm going to enjoy this festival since I'm finally here.

I went down to Emo's to see Yellow Fever, but they're actually playing tomorrow. Then I ran over to Antone's, filled with excitement to see Mirah play. Becuase she is amazing. Of course, this was when I realized I don't know how to read my own calendar, because she's also playing tomorrow. That made me sad. Thanks to my handy iPhone, however, I looked up the sxsw schedule and made it to the Matt & Kim show in time to rock out. For about 3 songs, which is when I starting getting sleepy. Leaving insanely moshing and crowd surfing youth behind, I wandered back to Red River and watched Peter Bjorn and John at Emo's with a lovely British lady I met, who was filming the show for their record company.

I'm pretty sure it was a good show. Things were beginning to get hazy by then - it was 1am already. I enjoyed it, though. Not as much as when I saw them in New York a couple of years ago, but then, it was still a half hour showcase show. Last year I was only at SXSW for the first weekend, and I remember missing out on Peter Moren's solo shows, which were apparently great. My friend PJ (who told me about Nathan and this film, and is the reason for my involvement in all this magic) followed him around for a couple of days. It was some sort of promotional mini documentary I think. I was all sorts of jealous. You can still watch the video here (nice cameos, B.).

Tomorrow we're interviewing bloggers at the Mohawk, which should be really interesting! Then we're doing an interview with Joe Lewis at Waterloo Records, and then more culture shots. This festival is madness, and madness = great footage.

We have three days left of production. Three. Days. We're really making them count.

Beauty Bar gets Art Disastered and I run off to the woods to wear flannel

We spent all afternoon on Red River getting some sweet steadycam shots of Cari and then Bill Baird. Then we headed over to Beauty Bar, where Dániel Perlaky was throwing his annual Art Disaster SXSW party. Nathan and Rob got all sorts of footage following Dániel around, crowd shots, and the whole festival scene.

They left as soon as they were done, but despite a long tiring day and a gnawing headache, I couldn't bring myself to leave knowing the night's lineup on the outdoor stage. At midnight Belaire played a fantastic set, setting the crowd a dancing and smiling. It's really difficult to photograph them during a show. Or rather, it's difficult to keep my camera steady enough for a good picture when my feet are so motivated and restless to daaaaance.

Following Belaire, the last set of the night was none other than Eprhyme, with Y-Love and Diwon. I absolutely had to stay to watch, since Eprhyme is better known to me as my friend Eden, who I worked with last fall at a Jewish farm/retreat center up in Falls Village, Connecticut. He was one of the first people I met, and taught me all sorts of interesting things. What a small world indeed! The boys brought some great energy, and got the crowd doing some crazy moves.

Eprhyme

Eprhyme + Y Love

Tomorrow we're shadowing Bill Baird all day, starting early in the morning with a radio show , following him to a day show and another radio broadcast, and ending with a showcase show. It's now 3:30am, which means I'll be able to get a whole 3 hours of sleep until then! Yay? It's an intense week, but also our last one.

Production is officially done on Sunday, though we may still do some pickups in April. For now, though, we're clawing our way through this last stretch, adamant to get everything and get it right. Everyone's exhausted and stressed, and it's tough to keep our focus. I seem to be opting for escapism as my solution, and have pretty much spent the past few weeks daydreaming of throwing my phone in a lake and going hiking in Oregon.You could say I'm pining for the pines... har har (it's pun city, and I'm mayor!). Knowing myself, I'll probably buy a plane ticket up there the second we wrap.

There are still at least five long days until then, though, filled with $x$w magic and wonder...

Resume transmission

I think my body has lost all sense of what a time zone is, I am exhausted beyond words, and it's been a pretty awful week in general, but all it takes is one song to supersede all of that. This is how music is so powerful.

I was walking through Ronald Reagan Airport this afternoon (which makes about as much sense when you're trying to navigate it as Ronald Reagan himself did), from my 8th flight this week to the 9th. Almost back in Austin, I naturally had headphones on to get me from point A to B (or, well, point Q to point R at this point). I've been on an abnormally intense Decemberists kick lately, and the past couple of days have been devoted to the song "The Legionnaire's Lament." The moment it began playing, it was like I had taken a shower in a vat of espresso coffee. Despite everything, the second the chorus kicked in, someone could just as well have been injecting it in my vein. Everything else melted away for a moment -- all that existed was the music and the sudden bounce in my step (and some really cool lego fixtures under glass that were randomly in the terminal and distracted me so long I almost missed my flight).

It's SXSW week here in Austin. We're filming various aspects of it, both positive and negative. We're filming our own heroes who we've been working with for months now, too. I'm torn between excitement and cynicism. There's so much great music this week, it's absolutely overwhelming. Each moment of each day somewhere I can experience something like what I did today at the airport when I heard that certain song. Live music has a magic all its own that can't be captured outside of experiencing it. So yes, it's very exciting to have so many artists left, right, and center.

But it's still SXSW. It's not like those festivals that are all about throwing a giant musical party for days on end. It's a film festival as well as a music one, and the music week seems to be designed a lot like the film one. As far as official shows go, bands play showcases -- they get 30 minutes to show off for the industry folk who've come to town to find a new crop of kids to tap their feet to and market to the 14-30 demographic. Something in me cringes at the thought that even though I might get to see a band I adore and rarely see live, it won't be a real show. It'll be a demo.

I think the perfect example of this is how we ended up deciding not to shoot a band at the festival, who we've been wanting to work with for months. The Octopus Project puts on an amazing stage show, and they haven't played live since we started production so this was going to be a perfect opportunity. We realized, though, that their set would be short, and without most of the theatrics they usually involve. So what's the point? They're touring in Texas next month, let's just go down to Houston or something, right? Right.

Even though this is going to be a very exciting and fun week, and I'm definitely looking forward to it, I can't help but take it all with a grain of corporate salt. After months of strolling down to local venues and enjoying shows, the thought of fighting my wristbanded way in (or standing in lines) just to see a band play half a set isn't all that palatable. I'm somewhat nervous that my most enjoyable musical experience during this of all weeks will have been that moment at Ronald Reagan airport. How ironic would it be, if the most palpable music this week will have been the only one that wasn't live? Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. We'll see how the week goes before I get too cynical.

brief intermission

In a few days I'm going to be taking a break from this blog (and this project) for a couple of days to be with family.

Film, especially documentaries, become your life while you're working on them. So much time and energy goes into the work, and for months at a time it's the single thing you're focusing on. It's not that you don't consider how the world continues to turn, but that's something you can think about later when you're done, because the work takes precedence over everything else. Well, almost everything.

Sometimes you have put down your tools and go deal with things that don't wait, until shooting wraps. If you're lucky enough to be working with a crew and a staff who understand that certain personal priorities outweigh that of the work, then you're very fortunate indeed.

We're wrapping filming in a few weeks, but there are still some great shoots and SXSW until then, so keep reading, I'll be back soon...

I've worn so many hard hats this past week I'm starting to feel like a Discovery Channel special series

Yesterday morning we did an interview at Urbanspace, as part of our ongoing exploration of what all the development in Austin means for its culture.

In the afternoon we went over to the Austonian, where we met with Bob, the construction manager. He took us up six floors in one elevator, then we transferred to another one and went up to the 29th floor. The view was incredible, and the wind intense, whipping through the windowless concrete floor we were standing on.



Nathan and Rob wanted a better shot, so we climbed up three more floors on thin, wooden stepladders. It felt kind of unstable and there were no beams on either side to protect you if you were to slip and fall down several floors onto dusty concrete with nails and things sticking out. Needless to say, I didn't look down.


One of the shorter ladders


Dang

We got some nice shots but had the wrong tripod, so there were a lot of missed shots too. We got a decent amount of work done, and Bob offered to bring us back for a sunset shoot. If we're really lucky and he's comfortable enough trusting Rob, he'll probably get to go up on the crane here too and get some great footage of Congress Ave. from above.


Barton Creek towards the East


West Downtown

Today we have a production meeting (which I'll spare you the details of), and tomorrow the guys are going to shoot wit Bill Baird in his studio.

The Crane

One of my aspirations in life is to eventually become one of those people who go to bed early and wake up early. Dawn is my favorite time of day and I'm absolutely a morning person -- I'm just never awake to enjoy it. So when I had to get up at 5am yesterday for a sunrise shoot on top of the Spring condo-to-be, I saw it as a great opportunity to really savor a morning.

And what a morning! It was absolutely gorgeous, albeit frigid. The sky was smeared with clouds here and there, with a thick layer at the horizon so that when the sun began to rise through it, the glow was a bright orange perfect sphere.





The only awkward part of the morning was being the only girl in an elevator packed with construction workers. That was a first.

Nathan and Rob got some wonderful shots of the city, and Kirby - the project manager - was so gracious and open to our project that he got Rob up onto the crane later in the morning.


Rob vs. The Crane


Thus begins the climb...


Climbing... The tallest crane currently in Austin, by the way.

For the record: it takes the crane operator 22+ minutes to climb up to his perch every morning. Rob did it in 12.

You know what else Rob did? Blow my mind with the footage he shot. The whole office was talking about it yesterday after we'd logged it and watched it. I should have some screencaps soon, but I can't even... it's amazing. He got shots from every part of the crane, and at one point he climbed into a basket and was wheeled out to the far edge. Then the crane was spun around so he could shoot the whole city below. There's a point where you can see a tiny Dave below, loading gear into his tiny car.

I have to say, even though this city is full of very open and relaxed people, and we owe many thanks to Perry Lorenz and Kirby Kuntz for granting us such access to their site, at the end of the day all you need is a couple of cameras and no boundaries. Our attitude, both crew and production staff, has been to just go for it and it's really turning our material into something immensely impressive. I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's to at least give things a shot -- you never know when it may turn out to be worth it.

After watching Rob's footage, we met up with Dana Falconberry by the South Lamar Bridge. The interview turned out to flow really well and went for way longer than planned, with the guys following her down along the riverbank for the second leg of it. She even played a few songs, and then in the evening we filmed her show at Salvage Vanguard. The greek play/rave set is still intact, and the room was rapt with attention. She has such a beautiful voice and such truly lovely songs. I noticed a woman watching her sing, completely astounded, a smile of mesmerized wonder stuck on her face. I must say, I agree with her sentiment.



Today we shot some follow up stuff with James Moody, and tomorrow we have an interview with some real estate guys and then a shoot from atop the Austonian. Early to bed I go...

What day is it again?

It's been a crazy few days, and it looks like there are only more like it to come! Saturday night Gary Clark Jr. played a birthday show at Antone's with Bavu Blakes. It was both intense and fun -- those guys can rip up a stage like nobody's business.

When Gary Clark Jr. first took the stage, I looked down and saw a tall man in a suit go up to Rob. He was clearly asking him to turn his camera off, but by the time I fought my way through the crowd to where he'd been shooting, Rob was gone. I found him a minute later and took the tall man in the suit aside to see what was up. Turns out he was Gary's father and didn't know we were filming the show. We smoothed everything out and Rob went on shooting the show. It was intense for a few minutes, there but we didn't lose too much filming time luckily.







This morning we went back to the Spring condo-in-progress to get some dawn shots, so I'll be posting about that later. Rob climbed up the crane! Amazing.

Right now I'm running off to meet the guys near downtown, where we're shooting an interview with Dana Falconberry! We're also filming her show tonight at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, so there will be a lot to catch up on...

Various glowing cities

Last night {{{sunset}}} held an EP release party at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre. The space was set up for a play that's currently at the theatre, which, according to my sources is a rave/greek play, so there you go. The layout and lighting were really cool - the stage was tiered and jutted out so the audience could not only surround it on three sides, but sit on the steps so it felt a bit more connected than the usual audience | performer layout.







A good half dozen other bands played, and the place was pretty packed. There were a lot of familiar faces, and it took me a while to realize why that was strange -- I'm just not used to seeing them here yet. So I guess I must be acclimating and really living here, which is nice. It's incredibly thrilling to be in the middle of a completely foreign place, having adventures and whatnot. It's also a bit scary sometimes, being a tiny you in a big, new place.


As a part of the EP release festivities, the band brought a cake to commemorate YouTube's birthday.

This morning we filmed a conversation between Catarina Sigerfoos and Carolyn Schwarz, of SIMS and HAAM. Both institutions do great things for local musicians, and the two of them go way back so there was good energy.

Then, finally, 3:45 rolled around and it was hard hat time! We met up with Perry Lorenz, one of the most powerful developers in town, under the Spring building. The structure is pretty intimidating from that angle, especially when Dave keeps cracking jokes about plummeting in the elevator with the counterweight following.



To be fair, I joined in, but only because Nathan is supposedly more scared of heights than I am. He didn't seem fazed at all once we were in the elevator, actually, and Dave was the only one who seemed uncomfortable - though that may have had to do with the awkwardness of the hard hat vs. headphones situation.



Perry was joined by Kirby Kuntz, whose company is building the Spring Towers. We climbed into a construction elevator (passing the counterweight on our way up) and went up to the 41st floor.




Which is very high up. And unfinished. A few corners were still missing windows, everything was concrete, and interestingly enough the giant "41" that marks the floor, and that I see on my way home from the office all the time, is no more fancy than what you used to make school projects with.

Outside on what will soon be a balcony, Perry talked to us about developing in Austin.



He's proud that this high rise is going up while so many people are feeling the effects of the recession, and while he's a pretty liberal guy and values local music and arts, he thinks that the cultural changes surrounding the building of condos like the Spring are inevitable. He's the most powerful developer in town for a reason.


This is 2 stories below the top of the building, which is 494 ft. tall -- 6 feet short of being required to abide by airplane flightpath safety regulations.

After the interview Perry showed us around the top of the building. We looked around the future penthouse while speaking with him and Kirby Kuntz some more. The giant red crane that looms over downtown was suddenly very close. Perry told us that the man who operates it gets up there at 6:30 in the morning and is up there all day, and then asked what would be the first question one would pose... "how does he pee?" of course. He pointed to a black tube running down the side of the crane.



I still have my doubts. (Also, are there ever any lady crane operators?)







Once a week a guy climbs to the top of the elevator pulleys to grease them -- we lucked out, because apparently that day is Monday!


Right??!

It started to rain and was getting late, so we packed up our things and headed back down. We're going to try and go back to get some nice shots of the city when it's not all cloudy and the light's better.

Finally, since I'm going nuts with the photo posting anyway, I leave you with my favorite:


This is where the elevators will go.

Talking to a lot of people

Thursday we had our second interview with James Moody (owner of the Mohawk, Transmission Entertainment). This time around he was joined by Graham Williams (also Transmission Entertainment). It's been about two months since we last met, so there was a lot to discuss about the Live Music Task Force and everything else in town.


I couldn't get a photo during the interview since I was filming with one of the cameras.

Revisiting someone we've spoken with before gave us a more linear sense, I think, of how the story we're following has progressed in the past two months. There was a specific place in time and events that took place that we now followed up on, and a progression between the "then" and the "now."

The next day we spoke with Paul Oveisi, owner of Momos on 6th street and chair of the Live Music Task Force. It's so interesting to me how many different things people have their hand in. For a town that seems very relaxed and mellow, there are a lot of people here who do what seems like an immense amount of work all at once. Paul not only chairs the Task Force, owns Momos and is there most nights, he's managed bands and is involved with the music scene very actively. Maybe because everything here is so chill that it's possible to do all these things at once -- less stress and less crunch time opens up more space for involvement.

Tonight we're filming the {{{sunset}}} show at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre. Tomorrow we have an interview with reps from SIMS and HAAM in the morning, and in the afternoon we're interviewing Perry Lorenz, a very influential developer in town. He's taking us up to the Spring condo, which is still under construction (we get to wear hard hats and everything!), giving us an interview up there and maybe even letting us get some nice shots of the city during magic hour. I predict beautiful pictures tomorrow....