Mark Romanek Interview/Cleaning out my Closet
Hello,
This is a rather embarrassing interview that director Mark Romanek was generous enough to grant me when I was a freshman. The questions are somewhat wrongheaded and he did not really jive with my interpretations, but it was for a school paper and it was really exciting. I do not know what to do with it except put it up here.
From markromanek
Sent Tuesday, April 22, 2003 9:48 pm
To Jennifer E Lehe
Cc
Bcc
Subject Re: Artistic Process
Jennifer,
I have to keep these answers brief, as my schedule is very full.
1. How does the medium of video limit your ability to fulfill your artistic
desires? What about film?
The "medium" itself limits nothing. They (video, film) are just words,
structures to work within (or try to expand). The only limits are the
resources (time, money, personnel), your imagination, your physical and
mental stamina, and fate. This is, of course, assuming that I one has a
clear sense of the nature of ones desires.
2. Your videos convey fierce emotions from all over the spectrum, for
instance, "If You Can't Say No" is an incredibly sensual experience while
"The Perfect Drug" is intensely chilling. When you are brainstorming for
and directing a music video, how do you reconcile your personal vision with
that of the musician?
I work (or wait) until some version of a personal vision feels like it will
behoove the artist commercially and/or artistically. One has to discover a
common ground aestehtically -- something that works for everyone. I've had
many interesting ideas that make no sense for the artist at that moment in
time (or ever) either as marketing tool or as a provocative
aesthetic/narrative context to place him or her. So, these are dropped.
3. In your video for "Hurt," I notice that there is an interesting confusion
about what is more real: the identity of home footage from a time past or
the identity of the present orchestrated for the camera, neither of which
Cash seems entirely willing to accept. How did you come up with this idea
of perception and this way of, as you said on the CMT Flameworthy Special
Achievement footage, "looking back across a life"?
This video was not planned in advance. It was made quickly and intuitively.
I flew in on Thursday (with no set plan). On Friday, we shot JC in his house
and shot at the museum. We took a bunch of archival material back to LA (not
even sure if it would be used). We figured it all out in the editing room.
JC's "willingness" or "lack of willingness to accept" these realities is
just one possible interpretation of the piece.
4. How does the more human world of desire and memory in One Hour Photo
relate
to your more surreal work in videos like "Closer" and "Bedtime Story"?
It's not for me to say. This sort of thing is for critics or film theorists
to discuss if they choose. Not to sound glib, but it's truly of no interest
to me. Some might conjecture that the world of CLOSER and the world of OHP
are equally unreal.
5. It seems to me that the video for "Devil's Haircut" can be seen as a type
of City Symphony/Soviet Montage with a twist. What are your thoughts on
this reading and how does the revelation that Beck is being followed alter
this style?
It's a valid reading, but Soviet Montage did not occured to me during its
inception or creation. The revealation that he's being followed doesn't
really resonate with this reading for me. It was more of a joke really: The
paranoid was actually being followed after all.
Hope this helps,
Mark
----------
>From: Jennifer E Lehe
>To: markromanek
>Subject: Re: Artistic Process
>Date: Thu, Apr 17, 2003, 7:39 PM
>
> Mark-
> Let me start my expressing my gratitude for your time. The focus of
> my inquiry is based on a class I am currently enrolled in called Art and
> the World in which each student chooses an artist and examines his or her
> process as a way of learning something new about the world. As an aspiring
> artist, I always appreciate insight into the ideas, motivations, and
> processes of artists, but you were my 'wish list' choice, so to speak, for
> this exploration, so I am especially excited about and appreciative of this
> opportunity. Feel free to talk my ear off (or, as it were, type my eyes
> off) as much or as little as you feel comfortable and I would love to send
> you a copy of my paper when it is complete.
EDITOR'S NOTE: I was so mortified by the whole thing that I never sent him the paper.
This is a rather embarrassing interview that director Mark Romanek was generous enough to grant me when I was a freshman. The questions are somewhat wrongheaded and he did not really jive with my interpretations, but it was for a school paper and it was really exciting. I do not know what to do with it except put it up here.
From markromanek
Sent Tuesday, April 22, 2003 9:48 pm
To Jennifer E Lehe
Cc
Bcc
Subject Re: Artistic Process
Jennifer,
I have to keep these answers brief, as my schedule is very full.
1. How does the medium of video limit your ability to fulfill your artistic
desires? What about film?
The "medium" itself limits nothing. They (video, film) are just words,
structures to work within (or try to expand). The only limits are the
resources (time, money, personnel), your imagination, your physical and
mental stamina, and fate. This is, of course, assuming that I one has a
clear sense of the nature of ones desires.
2. Your videos convey fierce emotions from all over the spectrum, for
instance, "If You Can't Say No" is an incredibly sensual experience while
"The Perfect Drug" is intensely chilling. When you are brainstorming for
and directing a music video, how do you reconcile your personal vision with
that of the musician?
I work (or wait) until some version of a personal vision feels like it will
behoove the artist commercially and/or artistically. One has to discover a
common ground aestehtically -- something that works for everyone. I've had
many interesting ideas that make no sense for the artist at that moment in
time (or ever) either as marketing tool or as a provocative
aesthetic/narrative context to place him or her. So, these are dropped.
3. In your video for "Hurt," I notice that there is an interesting confusion
about what is more real: the identity of home footage from a time past or
the identity of the present orchestrated for the camera, neither of which
Cash seems entirely willing to accept. How did you come up with this idea
of perception and this way of, as you said on the CMT Flameworthy Special
Achievement footage, "looking back across a life"?
This video was not planned in advance. It was made quickly and intuitively.
I flew in on Thursday (with no set plan). On Friday, we shot JC in his house
and shot at the museum. We took a bunch of archival material back to LA (not
even sure if it would be used). We figured it all out in the editing room.
JC's "willingness" or "lack of willingness to accept" these realities is
just one possible interpretation of the piece.
4. How does the more human world of desire and memory in One Hour Photo
relate
to your more surreal work in videos like "Closer" and "Bedtime Story"?
It's not for me to say. This sort of thing is for critics or film theorists
to discuss if they choose. Not to sound glib, but it's truly of no interest
to me. Some might conjecture that the world of CLOSER and the world of OHP
are equally unreal.
5. It seems to me that the video for "Devil's Haircut" can be seen as a type
of City Symphony/Soviet Montage with a twist. What are your thoughts on
this reading and how does the revelation that Beck is being followed alter
this style?
It's a valid reading, but Soviet Montage did not occured to me during its
inception or creation. The revealation that he's being followed doesn't
really resonate with this reading for me. It was more of a joke really: The
paranoid was actually being followed after all.
Hope this helps,
Mark
----------
>From: Jennifer E Lehe
>To: markromanek
>Subject: Re: Artistic Process
>Date: Thu, Apr 17, 2003, 7:39 PM
>
> Mark-
> Let me start my expressing my gratitude for your time. The focus of
> my inquiry is based on a class I am currently enrolled in called Art and
> the World in which each student chooses an artist and examines his or her
> process as a way of learning something new about the world. As an aspiring
> artist, I always appreciate insight into the ideas, motivations, and
> processes of artists, but you were my 'wish list' choice, so to speak, for
> this exploration, so I am especially excited about and appreciative of this
> opportunity. Feel free to talk my ear off (or, as it were, type my eyes
> off) as much or as little as you feel comfortable and I would love to send
> you a copy of my paper when it is complete.
EDITOR'S NOTE: I was so mortified by the whole thing that I never sent him the paper.
posted by Jen at 4/25/2006 06:43:00 PM
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