Returned home to Los Angeles after a five-day location scout/test shoot in Washington State. We flew up to Seattle on Tuesday (flying out of the Burbank airport, which would be ground zero for the big news story a day later) and got settled in with our 14 cases of camera equipment. Having previously been self-contained to my carry-on bag and single camera case, this was a new logistical puzzle to contemplate on nearly every move.
On Wednesday, we all loaded into a couple of vehicles and drove south to Olympia, where we wandered the downtown streets, shot a bit of test footage and generally tried to get our bearings. First days often seem like this, it takes time just to get yourself into the proper rhythm. Also, for me, figuring out the proper coffee schedule was key - too much in the AM and I'd crash by 3, too little and I'd crash by 11. But once the systems were coordinated, we were off, and we were officially rolling film. It wasn't until later the following day that I realized that this was a moment to celebrate.
That night, our small crew drove on to Aberdeen, where we landed around 10:30. Wyatt and I decided to head out and grab something to drink at The Pourhouse, a local watering hole that Michael Azerrad wrote about in his initial Rolling Stone article on Nirvana, and later in Come As You Are. We got there at ten minutes past 11 and found the joint closed, lights off, doors locked - this in spite of the fact that we had seen the light on just minutes before from our hotel. We joked that they saw us coming and would jump out from behind the bar moments later to say, "Are they gone?" We drove on, in search of another location, ending up at the Parkway, where the proprietress promptly turned us away, thinking that our out-of-state licenses were the tip off that we were actually underage and hoping to "pop" her (her words, meaning bust her, not, well, you know). Despite Wyatt's protestations that it seemed un-American to not serve a man a drink, we were out on the streets. However, the third time proved the charm and we toasted our day over pool tables and selections from the digital jukebox (which I had never seen before and was totally scared/excited by - you can actually download songs you want to play in the bar. Crazy.)
Thursday morning, we got up and met our friends from the local Chamber of Commerce/EDC, the same folks who so kindly showed me around in July. One of my favorite moments of the day was when we went to the Aberdeen Library, where Kurt would sometime spend afternoons during a particularly nomadic and somewhat chaotic time in his late teenage years. I explained to the head librarian that we wanted our shots in the library to be very composed, very still, peaceful, to contrast with the events in Kurt's life at that time. And she smiled and thanked me for noticing that "this is a place where anyone can come. We don't ask their name, their living situation, their position in life. They can just come in here and read and know that they won't be bothered."
Friday, Wyatt and I got up long before sunrise so that we could test a time-lapse shot early in the morning. This was a day in which I completely mismanaged my coffee schedule, but somehow we soldiered on. By mid-day, we'd met a number of people who knew Kurt well and we were just honored by their support for this project, based I think both on Michael Azerrad's involvement, as well as the core idea - that this would be a film in which you would only hear Kurt speaking, no one would be speaking for him, no one would be explaining his value or his influence. Just Kurt and Michael, sitting in a kitchen, or a living room or on the phone, talking to one another.
At the end of the day, we hooked up with Charles Peterson again and shot some tests mixing our filmed motion 35mm footage with his still 35mm photographs of folks that we recruited on Capitol Hill. I'm really excited to get to see this footage and begin to play with how these two formats will mix together.
Frankly, I'm excited for all of it. Seeing the footage we shot, planning for the main shoot late next month, working with the composers, the graphic designers, everyone. In the midst of it now, it truly feels that it has already started.
You're so good to us librarians, AJ. It's always great to see libraries represented in the movies!
Sounds like a nice way to start shooting. Good luck with all of it, and we're looking forward to the festival circuit!
Michael
Posted by: Michael C. | September 26, 2005 at 05:07 AM
Sounds like everything's going great! I can't wait to see what you put together.
Posted by: Joe Swanberg | September 26, 2005 at 08:54 AM