Gone Off Deep Presents
As promised, BEYOND BLACK ROCK Director Damon Brown and Director of Photography Rob Van Alkemade were kind enough to send along updates of their trip out west for a final round of interviews with key members of the Burning Man organization.
And, as a bonus, Burning Man’s own Girl of Action, Andie Grace, also shared her thoughts on the visit. Andie has Gone Off Deep’s deepest appreciation for her tireless efforts in coordinating interviews, providing archival materials and being a solid go-to gal throughout our production.
DAMON'S UPDATE
The truth is we've now completed a shelf of films. I call it: the Compleat Burning Man, spanning from the first ancient dramas performed by masked performers in the amphitheaters - all the way up to the modern day. Plus some random shots of us wandering around San Francisco wondering how you can possibly have an intersection of two streets with numbers ... but I digress.
It was indeed a good and plenty final shoot. We found ourselves once again at a Burning Man wrap party, just as we found ourselves one year ago ... camera in hand (well, in Rob's hand) and the distinct feeling that things would be different when we got home. And they are. Now the trick is to figure out how to take hours and hours of sometimes fascinating, sometimes amazingly mundane, unique, fanciful, emotionally charged, idealistic, introspective, historical, completely Burning Man footage and distill it down to one feature length story. There's a soul that drives this group, organizers and artists alike, that is older and wiser than we may acknowledge. It may be that in looking for it, we see an image that looks more familiar than freakish - more like the everyday world has turned into the extraordinary right under our noses. Then again, we might just unleash a horror of unimaginable proportions on the unsuspecting citizens of Tokyo ... or, wait, that's another movie I dreamed about ...
And therein, lies the challenge of the next month. It would not have been possible to get this far without the aid and support of all those who also comment here, as well as all those they mention. I was pleased and enlightened to hear some of the quiet, personal stories that came out of this final round of on-camera interviews. I think they will make for a very heartfelt Third Act in this little drama. The idea here is to tell a good story, one that everyone can appreciate; burners and non-burners alike - so that we can meet in the middle ground and find out just what makes us want to do the crazy things we do - even off the Playa.
ROB'S UPDATE
Spending some quality time with freshly showered Damon was a rare treat, and sharing a quiet hotel room with him was enlightening too. It turns out that Damon hums contemplatively in his sleep. I imagine that he was probably editing in his dreams.
It was also great to see our key players again, back at the office and in their cozy homes and neighborhoods. Everyone, predictably, provided excellent interviews, being as warm and insightful as always, and our time with Larry seemed particularly intimate this time around. If anyone could live for 800 years by sheer will power it would probably be him.
I believe that every citizen of San Francisco and several from LA asked
Damon when the documentary would be finished. His answers varied from
two weeks to around four months. I pitched in on the benevolent harassment by threatening to steal his movie and sell it to the Russians. Judging from his nocturnal hums, however, I am confident that he has already cut an astonishing film in his mind, and merely needs to assemble 10,000 minutes of footage accordingly.
ANDIE'S UPDATE
This was an ideal time for a final visit to San Francisco to follow up with the Burning Man office, because the energy of the 2004 cycle has really begun to gather, and the mood is definitely high....but there is still time (well, sorta) before the event season is in full, manic swing. Still, if January used to be a "slow time", it really isn't any more, so there was still plenty of challenge trying to squeeze in interviews with everyone's busy schedules. Having visited our operation last year at the same time, this visit, in a way, brings things full-circle.
December's holidays can be such a frenetic time that we save some of our end-of-year wrap-ups (such as "Thank you" cards for our volunteers) for January, when we can more fully reflect on and express our gratitude to those who have helped the Project in the preceeding year. For that very reason, it was great seeing Damon and Rob again (for the first time since the playa) and being asked to recap 2003 gave us one more moment to reflect before the gathering momentum hurtles us toward 2004.
Thanks again to Damon, Rob and Andie for providing these updates. With all the footage now shot, post-production marches on. Next stop -- our movie.
Happy New Year, folks! It’s been a busy few months for the Gone Off Deep crew since we returned from the desert. As reported in the last post, principal photography has wrapped, but we couldn’t resist one last visit to San Francisco to ask those few “burning” questions we had left for the organizers.
In fact, Damon and Rob are out there right now, and I’ll be posting all the salacious details of their journey this weekend. But for now, here’s an update on post-production.
We’ve now logged over 200 hours of footage. Interestingly, that roughly equates to 8 days, or the duration of Black Rock City each year. Intrigued by this coincidence, I broke open all the tapes and unrolled the reels, connecting the tape end to end. It stretched exactly from Austin to Gerlach.
You should have seen Damon’s face.
We’re thrilled with the footage we’ve captured and with how well it complements our vision for the film. Our pre-production work, and willingness to let ideas evolve, has led us to a multi-layered and dramatic storyline that will resonate with both the uninitiated and longtime Burners.
The editing process is well underway, and Damon has begun assembling some powerful segments. It’s quite an experience to see it all come together.
Special Note of Thanks: We’d like to extend our appreciation to Jill Leberknight for her help in logging tapes. It’s been a monumental task and she’s been a trooper. Thanks, Jill!