This is the second post in a series on the creation of a video documentary on People Unlimited’s quest to immortalize the world.
In our last episode, I edited the expressions from the People Unlimited 2013 Summer Event down to 23 minutes of material that addressed immortalizing the world. I sent a link to the video, along with my notes on the clips selected, to Jim and Joe. What with vacations and so forth, it wasn’t until September 6 that we were able to meet and discuss our next steps.
For me, the meeting was exhilarating. I had a plan in mind of how I wanted to proceed and as we talked, Jim, Bernie and Joe were coming up with ideas that were a very close match to what I had envisioned. We had created a connection that had us thinking and acting as one body. Hmmmm. It was an effortless ride, where ideas popped up and were immediately understood and expanded.
One of Joe’s ideas was to treat the project like a rock and roll documentary, depicting Bernie and Jim more as rock stars than public speakers. I would shoot some interviews and backstage scenes to help put their expressions into the proper context. He cited the example of The Last Waltz, Martin Scorsese’s classic film of The Band’s final performance in 1976. I, of course, was thinking of This is Spinal Tap, Rob Reiner’s spoof on heavy metal “rockumentaries”. Okay, so we weren’t thinking exactly as one body right at that moment, but we were close.
So our plan of action was to start shooting the backstage scenes that very night (it was a Friday) and set up a time to shoot the interviews. I arrived at the People Unlimited Center early, screwed in my wide-angle lens to accommodate the confined space of the office and found myself lurking in the lobby like a freelance paparazzi , trolling for celebrities…
What I got that night probably won’t make the final cut, but I have included it here to illustrate how ideas can turn into reality in just a few hours. And the topic of discussion did find its way into the event that night. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, for your viewing enjoyment I give you this: