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Behind The Seen: AJ Schnack
Posted by Rob Ortenzi on 29-May-08 @ 01:32 PM
Independent filmmaker AJ SCHNACK has been blending his love of music and film since the early '90s by producing videos for Superchunk and later helming the glorious They Might Be Giants documentary Gigantic (A Tale Of Two Johns). This month he dives into the untapped headspace of Kurt Cobain for Kurt Cobain: About A Son. How did you get your start in editing and directing? I actually started years ago working in music videos as a producer. I had a small production company in the early '90s that did a ton of low-budget, indie-rock videos for bands like Superchunk, Tsunami and the Figgs. (This is also when I got my first subscription to AP!) I worked with a lot of really talented directors and the company grew through the decade to the point where we were doing bigger-budgeted projects. I started directing my own projects in 1997 and then in 2001, I made a documentary about the band They Might Be Giants. People's fixation with Kurt Cobain hasn't waned-even after his death. Why do you think that is and what was it about him that attracted you to this project? Well, certainly Kurt's short life and even shorter career-and the fact that he killed himself at the height of his success-left a lot of people with unresolved emotions and questions. My own interest in doing this project was to cut through much of the tabloid controversies that cloud our perception of Kurt and get back to a sense of the human being that many of us were interested in; this unlikely musician from an industrial timber town on the coast of Washington, an outsider who spoke often and openly about the societal changes that affected his generation. Describe a typical day when working on About A Son. Well, when we were editing the audio of Kurt's interview, a typical day would be me in my basement listening to hours and hours of Kurt and [interviewer/writer] Michael Azerrad talking, occasionally playing pieces for Michael and my producer/partner Shirley Moyers. When we were shooting, which came after the audio portion was mostly edited, we'd get up before dawn and our crew of 15 would move incredibly fast. We'd get to a location, shoot for an hour or two, then move to the next location, and keep going through the day, sometimes rigging a camera inside a van, sometimes setting up a time-lapse camera for a couple hours. What's up next for you in the music and film world? I'm one of those filmmakers who loves the interplay between music and film, so I'm sure that music will always play a major role in what I do, even if it's not specifically a film about music. There are other films about music and musicians that I want to do, but I think my next film might be about a different subject. What advice do you have for budding directors who want to do what you do? If you want to make non-fiction films, then by all means see as many non-fiction films as you can. There's a whole new wave of filmmakers [now] who view their filmmaking process as less based on a traditional "rule-based," almost journalistic, process, but are instead using cinematography, editing, graphics and music in ways that we used to only associate with narrative filmmaking. -Leslie Simon Kurt Cobain: About A Son comes out on DVD Feb. 19, 2008. To learn more, check out kurtcobainaboutason.com |
