2019 in 10 pictures
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1. arch cape, oregon April 2019. celebration for my parents 50th anniversary. my sis surprised them and rented out a house - 2 doors down from where we were all staying - where a chef, sommelier, and pastry chef awaited them (and incidentally where I made The Black Sea 7 years ago). This pic is from that house.
2. yosemite np, july 2019. no words
3. brunch, august 2019. as incentive for crowdfunding campaign for my next feature film, I was able to have my friend Heather E of 30 + years come out for a brunch with notable Portland writers: Lidia Yuknavitch, Margaret Malone, Cheryl Strayed, Rene Denfeld. Chef Rachel Arenas did the cooking. It was so joyous to just be present for the conversations that ensued.
4. humboldt co may 2019. returned for the 2nd consecutive yr to run the avenue of the giants half-marathon. (however got sick and did the 10K instead) it.is always a hall of mirrors returning here, past and present intersecting with subfloors and trapdoors of my aspirations, prior relationships, hopes and dreams, etc. It was on this trip that our co-host S and M learned that despite knowing one another for many years that they both went to high school together briefly.
5. minneapolis june 2019. my maternal aunts and uncles, 8 total, assembled for my uncle Michael’s 80th. there were lots of remembrances and musings on space/time and familial joy and an abundance of board games.
6. sequoia np, august 2019. we watched the stars
7. maui, december 2019 many lessons and joys here, primary among them the simple/complicated act of turning our phones off entirely for 6 days.
8. southern california october 2019 service for my father-in-law, who lived to 93 and who was always kind, warm and usually funny. There is a low dull ache in the space he used to inhabit but I’ve been trying to fill it with the joy his memory provides.
9. central CA july 2019. margaret malone had a hell of a year. lots of professional inroads (including but not limited to quitting her day job, teaching writing full time and approaching the finish line (!) on a couple projects) and the exact inverse sensation on the personal front (including but not limited to shattering her arm on the ice in wichita KS moments prior to driving to the airport, running point on some omfg plumbing fiascos at home and the gut punch of profound loss). I am biased but know this: if you are fortunate enough to intersect with her in this lifetime be it through her writing or in the flesh you will be all the better for it.
10. nyc october 2019 went to support my webseries MICROAGGRESSIONS, which played at nyc webfest. this was an epic trip on professional and personal corridors, intersecting w/ my high school days, my film school days, my next feature film, and beyond. I cannot be more explicit at present but suffice to say that this trip was a giant rock thrown into a quiet pond and months later there are still ripples undulating outward that do not appear to be slowing down.
Scott Unrein Interview - Composer for Microaggressions
1. Tell us about your background as a composer. Were you formally trained?
Very much come from a formal training background, though not specifically for music for picture. I’ve been playing and writing music since I was a kid, starting with violin at age 8. “Classically trained” as a composer is what most would say, though I was always straining against what that training was trying to fit me into; probably more of a “misfit toy” situation than some romantic “bad boy” label though. I also worked as a DJ in the Seattle area for a while, though my sets were pretty esoteric; e.g., mashing up Steve Reich with Aphex Twin and swing music.
Until recently, most of my work has been what you’d call concert music/experimental written for groups to play, other than some fairly anonymous library music and trailer work. I’ve come to scoring a bit slower than might seem reasonable as I’ve always been a film nut; my film and music collections have always been vying over which is more extensive. I even made a few (awful) short films in high school; torturing a couple VHS decks into piecing something together. But I’m glad to be working on scoring projects now. It feels like a pretty logical outcome of my interests and abilities.
2. What specific artists or works inspire you the most?
No one really worships a single creative god anymore, right? But it’s true, the influences come from all over. It just becomes a laundry list to talk about them all, but I do remember the specialness of discovery; where someone (a film editor, a visual artist, a composer) was doing something so singular that it just knocks you on your butt. And I often found that it wasn’t music where I found the most profound inspiration for music. It was more often outside of music, while watching a movie or reading a book, attending an art exhibit and I would say, “That’s amazing, and I know how I can take that idea and run with it in music.” It’s exciting because you feel like you have a secret way of looking at music that you get to share first.
3. How did you come to be involved in the webseries Microaggresssions? What was the workflow like on the project?
I met Brian and the rest of the Great Notion Collective at their mini festival a few years ago. I enjoyed the first night so much that I ended up going the whole weekend and saw Brian’s film The Black Sea. Brian and I kept up a correspondence afterward and we started talking about Sister/Brother as a future project together. He let me know that he was working on a web series as a way to keep creating in-between larger projects.
We had occasional email conversations about what the music should be like and I read the script over several times before and during production; making notes as I went. As they moved into production and the beginnings of post, Brian would send me clips and rough cuts of episodes. Once all the episodes were locked, Brian and I sat down together and did a complete spotting session of all the episodes to put together all the cue details. For me, that’s where I really started to understand what was needed, so it was a pretty straightforward process of just getting it done. At that point, I had the lovely privilege of also getting to work with our editor Evonne Moritz and see everything start to come together.
4. What are some of your upcoming projects?
I’ve got a couple albums happening in the near future; down the sky they sing released on redbirdsong workshop is being recorded right now and will hopefully come out this fall. I’m also working with the crazy talented pianist R. Andrew Lee on another album, bird-drawn in the sky of light on Irritable Hedgehog which we are lining up studio time to record in the coming months. We are also working together on a large-scale live performance piece that will hopefully see a premiere this time next year in Portland.
My next few scoring projects are in active production (and pre-prod), but I can’t talk about them just yet. Hopefully soon. And of course, I’m excited to see SISTER/BROTHER head into production this next year so that I can tackle that score!
5. Your top 3 favorite films?
Only three? Yikes, man. Not fair.
Magnolia (1999) by Paul Thomas Anderson
(music by Jon Brion and Aimee Mann)
This one may unequivocally be in my top 3. Despite having two fistfuls of story to keep track of, there’s not a second out of place and you are quickly and deeply imbedded in the ecstasy and agony of every tendril. It revels in a self-aware and hyperreal playground of coincidence and the unexplainable, that beautifully elevates these otherwise seemingly ordinary and sometimes pathetic lives. I love how so many of these actors are playing against type and knocking it out of the park. Jon Brion’s score and the accompanying songs by Aimee Mann gorgeously embrace the fantastical and melodramatic opera that it is.
Talk to Her (2002) by Pedro Almodovar
(music by Alberto Iglesias)
It doesn’t always have to be so, but I love film where the music almost exists as another character in the story and this is definitely the case in Almodovar’s truly elegant meditation on loss and loneliness. Even more than that, the music almost exists as a geography of its own; not specifically of “Spanish-ness” but as a land of internal upheaval. It’s very much like the scores to Annihilation (2018) and Elevator to the Gallows (1958) in that way (see how I’m getting more movies in?). Some of the cues are really long (8-10 minutes) and just embed themselves into your consciousness. Almodovar is so great at completely melding together character, visuals, and music and does so in such a heart-rending way with this film.
Out of Sight (1998) by Steven Soderbergh
(music by David Holmes)
I adore heist movies and crime dramas and I love Elmore Leonard’s characters. It’s a masterpiece of casting; I can’t think of a single role that’s wasted on anyone and some roles are the best of their careers. It made me like actors that I didn’t think were very good before. The score and soundtrack is a complete groove machine and does its job without getting in the way.
note: was fantastic working with Scott. His instincts were all spot on, and he was able to anticipate the needs of the project. Example: I was adamant that there be no score in episode 5, wanting the sole driver to be the dialogue and performances. Scott talked me into just seeing what it looked/felt like if he added a slight bit underneath Evelyn’s dialogue at the end of the episode. His argument was that there was a flow to the score, all building to the end of the series in episode 6 and it would make less sense as a cohesive whole without the bridge in episode 5. He was right. It worked.
Learn more about Scott at his site. - BP
rediscovering BOB
Last November we were driving from Portland to San Francisco for Thanksgiving 2018. Crossing into the California boundary, after the Welcome sign but before the fruit inspection squad, the opening line of a song dropped into my brain from out of nowhere: Ted have you heard about California?
It ate at me right away, those words, the way things do when you’re scanning decades and zones of your life for tiny hidden objects and you get lost in the pockets between did that happen and did I dream that. And who is Ted? All I knew for sure is the line was from somewhere in the past. I tried to google it but we were high in the pass and had weak coverage and my phone was being annoying. More words started to come back to me, through the fog in my head: Finally cracked along the fault. And all those trendy people there. Pizza never was the same. Holy shit, what was this? Hours later, when we finally got in to San Francisco and the kids were at last asleep I found it. Took several tries because I couldn’t remember the band’s name, only Athens GA, or Atlanta GA 1991 or 1992 and a few of the above lyrics.. And then finally I got one return, on their bandcamp page: Bob. The song, “California”, available on their Peel Sessions EP. Memory gates opened:
I was a DJ at the University of Georgia in Athens a million years back. WUOG 90.5, 1991 and 1992 and played the Peel Sessions EP frequently on my shift (which was 12 AM to 3 AM every other week, I think). I used to have a homemade cassette tape mix I made around that time, which I’m convinced could still be laying around somewhere in my parent’s attic unless it didn’t survive one of my purges, which had songs by other fellow Atlanta/Athens bands at that time, among them The Daisy Group, The Jody Grind, Thornyhold, 5-8, Roosevelt, possibly a Balrog song, provided it was recorded directly off the radio, and others. Long ago. Depending on the dates I lived either in Oglethorpe House dorm or a condo at the edge of town called Eaglewood. In both places I was alienated from pretty much everyone and quite certain I did not belong there but completely unclear on how to find my way out. I can’t think of a zone in my life where I was more miserable than Athens GA early 90’s (and to be sure there are several competitors) but that radio shift was for certain a patch of dry land, where I could catch my breath.
Back in the present, I re-listened to the EP just to hear “California” but when “Pope Is” played - the song that precedes it on side b (here called side Cheese Whiz) - I was ahead of every single lyric. I suddenly knew at the cellular level I had to use one or hopefully both of them in Microaggressions which was just starting post-production. I found Bob on FB (they are alive and well and still playing) and sent them a message. (note: I was sooo nervous to ask and of course wanted to appear like a legit filmmaker and naturally it wasn’t until minutes after I sent the email that I realized my site for The Black Sea was down - due to what I’d later learn was some expired wordpress plugin beyond my agency - and I became consumed by blind panic at what would only be interpreted by them as my pulsing and obvious fraudulence.) The next day I heard back from Rich Hudson: they were down to let me use songs. It was a bit of a mix and match scenario since we were editing all the episodes back to back and had a couple songs already in play from other bands. We ended up using “Pope Is” at close of episode 2, just as Leah gets on elevator and the doors close and “California” at close of episode 5 just as Evelyn opens her eyes and somewhat provocatively looks across the table at Jim, the shared manager of Mbaekwe and Leah. For a period “California” moved to the end of episode 6, which closes the series but it ended up being a better fit for the vibe and flow of episode 5.
I am so thrilled to have these songs in Microaggressions, not only for the magnitude of their sheer force and talent and how they enhance the vibe of the narrative in a kickass manner but also because it draws a tiny gossamer line from the me at 19 (confused, depressed, unsure) to the me at 47 (marginally less so x3), somehow uniting these disparate zones and boundaries of time and memory.
Big thanks to Bob!
to hear “Pope Is” watch episode 2 of Microaggressions on Amazon Prime or here
to hear “California” watch episode 5 of Microaggressions on Amazon Prime or here
and
check out the Peel Sessions EP below or Bob’s whole oeuvre on bandcamp and lend them your support.
lyrics to “California” by Bob
a few words on Microaggressions
My latest project is a 6 part web-series called Microaggressions. We’re having a screening here in Portland and then releasing the project online in mid-July. Also hoping to play a festival or two. I am thrilled and very proud of all the great work by my collaborators on this project: amazing actors, compelling score, strong images, ace editing. (Additionally, it’s been 4 years since The Black Sea came out so there is a component of quivering joy just to have a project completed).
The origin of the project was due to me being desperate to direct again but being realistic about the funding timeline for my next feature and knowing I should aim at something shorter until the feature money rolled in. I considered making a short film but because I wanted to tell it from multiple viewpoints it became more tenable to split it up and make each viewpoint an episode, even though I didn’t know what it was going to be yet. I had been thinking of locations I could get as this faint idea was gelling and somewhere along the way the concept of a dispute - filtered through the deliberate (read: slow as hell) process and language of city government - felt right. I wrote the script and applied for a project grant from the Regional Arts + Culture Council and was fortunate to receive one, though the amount I was awarded was half of what I requested and needed to make the project. We’ll just have to do more with less I sighed, which is a defining conceit of all sorts of governments (and film projects), even when it defies logic, reason or practicality.
Two of the actors I had worked with before (Todd Tschida, Michael Draper), one I had in mind when I wrote the piece, not that she knew I was writing it for her (Kate Gray) and two were new to me (Pisay Pao, Chike Nwankwo). I know all directors say this but this is a special group of performers, whose collective talents not only enliven what I had in mind but transcend it. I feel extremely fortunate to have these 5 on this show.
I probably will keep saying things about this project in the days to come (b/c there’s also lots to say about the bad-ass crew, the score by Scott Unrein, the images by Scott Ballard and team, the editing by Evonne Moritz, the song selections and how I made them etc) but for now I’ll say:
We’re playing at the 5th Avenue Cinema on 7/13 8 pm. Free popcorn. You should come.
uncollected thoughts on directing
NOTE: this was originally posted on 9.14.18 at bags of wind
was on set again directing this past week for 5 straight days for my upcoming web-series Micgroaggressions, about 5 individuals and how they intersect with a City mediation one Saturday morning (more to say about that in the coming weeks) and learned and/or was reminded about multiple things that I am going to put here for my future self:
- just ignore that pulsing imposter alarm that keeps going off in your head throughout the shoot.
- get good sleep where possible
- if you think you got it move on. don't do another one just because or for safety. corollary: ask the actor/s if they want another one and give it if so.
- let the PA or someone other than you handle the particulars of craft and lunch
- your relationship w/ 1st AD is key to days going well.
- every day is a sort of marathon w/ ambitions, difficulties, highs/lows, varying energies, occasional heartbreak - don't get snagged by any of it. move on to next setup.
- while it's good to be flexible and in-the-moment about what to shoot, it's better to have an ordered set of shots in your head that you can speak to and deviate from.
- you will be asked an endless river of questions so don't let yourself feel annoyed when they keep coming.
- don't be afraid to say I don't know or I haven't thought about it.
- if low/no $ you may be tempted to have no hair/makeup person and ask actors to do their own. don't do this.
- though your head may be elsewhere, pondering specific details, missed opportunities, happy accidents, shortcomings, budget etc, remember that you are working with people so come up for air and talk to them. in some ways genuine conversation at lunch can be just as important as the screenplay
- the importance of deeply trusting your cinematographer cannot be overstated.
- something will go wrong.
- something will go very wrong.
- If something going wrong is an actor dropping out 4 days before you're supposed to shoot w/ actor, don't panic, just recast.
- If something going very wrong is replacement actor dropping out at 1:36 AM the night before you're supposed to shoot w/ replacement actor, don't panic, just rewrite scene for 3 people and make it a scene for 2 people even if it means you're late to set. Then when you remember 1 of those people is not an actor per se and not honed at new lines on the fly and how you were counting on 2 other actors in the scene to bolster him don't panic. Adjust shot/s w/ DP, get wild lines where needed. Maybe it's a happy accident b/c you didn't location scout this location in the first place and you'll realize that the space wouldn't work great w/ 3 people in scene anyway.
- always have a scripty.
