CYBERPUNK TV

Hello we're back in action. And we have a good story to tell. There was a lot of questions and inconvenience where to shoot our favourite band and good mates Punk TV, until onу day I payed a visit to a local Billboard magazine office and became enthralled with their passages and coridors. "One could easily film a movie here", Billboard editors and good friends of mine said. "Yeah, and I'm filming one right about now", I replied.



What I did next was a big mistake - we filed for an official permission to shoot there and got refusal, "for security reasons". It was my DIRECTOR'S VISION that was at stake hereб you see! I went in full Werner Herzog mode and decided to break into that business-centre "Nov'" (which means "virgin soil", apparently). To penetrate Nov' with our guerilla-underground-fucking-demented movie-making. Oh yes, sir.

After I made some useful inquieries about how all this works and got hold of passes which aloow enter the building not bothering security types at the gates, we did just that last Friday night, after 7 PM when all the clerks happily left home. We did shoot some beautiful and strange shots, as you can see, this place is pure cyberpunk after something in the ceiling fittings went horribly off. However after about half-an-hour (closer to 20 minutes, actually) we've been approached by security officer. The plan for that kind of situation was for all five us suddenly play dumb - what else could we do?



"What are you filming here, eh?", he said.
"Mmm, nothing, sir. Just the guys", I said.
"The guys, you say? Who are you and where are you from?"
"Why, of course, we're from M-Video". I tried not to cross helpful Billboard up and recalled sharing a smoke outside this building with some idiot stranger who worked, as he said, for company with that name.
"Well then go and film your stuff THERE", said the guard.
"Yeah but it's a lot more beautiful out HERE", I said. Besides the security cameras won't work because of this huge fucking crack in the ceiling.



Then we went off and did the remaining scenes at the shaurma cafe near Baumanskaya underground station in a lot more relaxed mode. I didn't compromise my position once again, and still captured just what I wanted & I will surely make a great play with this change of interiors. I think such stories adorn and profit any independent movie. AND now I have something to say to the young filmmakers of the world (i.e. to those who're even younger than me) - if you need to film something, don't waste your time filing stupid permissions. Just go in there and shoot yourt shit!

AS GOOD AS JUMPER CAN GET

Hey, everybody, we're not dead or anything as some might've hoped (though I'm definitely puzzled who could it be). Some of us have been on vacation and some of us landed on some pretty nice new job, but this pause has ended and we're back at it.
Today we shot dazzling Mitya Berkhin from awesome Good Jumper band - don't even let me start raving about them, otherwise it will end up like this. Shooting took place at Valera Chtak's creative laboratary at Winzavod, which was really kind of him (his ass is visible on of the pictures, and we shot him babbling about indie music too, considering he was once a member of Good Jumper and now is shit-hot popular contemporary artist). All went really beautiful and cool, as you can judge by the pictures (sorry for shit quality, I took them myself on my Xenium, cause I really wanted to share with you the buzz all 4 of us felt there).
By the way thanks for the support and all the cheering messages I keep getting from you. Your support would be even more helpful if you shared it with your friends and communities - just send everyone you know who understands English link to this blog and that's all. Let's create a solid word of mouth. And you can leave comments here as well, no one will kill you or shoot you in the leg if you do, I promise.
And here's a link to Good Jumper's MySpace page, add them, tune in and drop out.

ON AND ON

Well, it looks like we're almost halfway there with our production after this particularly busy weekend - at the Saturday we talked to Kirill Muhin and Lekha Obozny from Man Bites Dog, and then at Sunday we payed a visit to the studio where Alexei Taroutz from I Am Above On The Left creates and works (rather fittingly, Gnesin Academy of Music is right across the street, on Povarskaya street). Guys from Man Bites Dog contributed the funniest and good-humoured take yet at the Moscow indie scene, and Taroutz took a role of doubting artist, immersed in harsh self-critique and a constant search. Suddenly in the midst of all this I seemed to grasp why I'm doing it: it's the awfully prone certainty that these guys and bands did create the MOST INTERESTING music in Russia in 00's, and (sadly) nobody payed attention or gave them a credit they deserve. Why must it be like this is another story altogether, cos we take a joy in celebrating them with our movie, no matter what.

GRAEME JEFFRIES FROM THE CAKEKITCHEN

Last Friday we did some really breathtaking filming action in the studio where Dairy High are putting finishing touches on their 2nd album, and this whole thing is going under the guidance of Graeme Jeffries from influential and mighty-as-fuck New Zealand bands The Cakekitchen and (now defunct) This Kind of Punishment. Graeme said a couple of things on the camera (mostly about how this unbelievable globe-spanning collaboration happened in the first place). He also lended our movie some of his Kiwi-bred indie coolness and leather-jacket wisdom we craved so much. Be sure to check out his gig tomorrow at 16 Tons Club.

ON THE ROOF WITH SILENCE KIT

Yesterday we did the shooting with Silence Kit, on the roof of their rehearsal space on Lesnaya street in Moscow. Fortunately none of us dropped down.

ROCK ACTION

So I must say that I finally got around to fulfill an idea that was bugging me for some time now - documentary movie on Russian independent music scene. That wasn't very hard to do - as I thought to myself while sitting on my ass, waiting for some big budgets and production crews to emerge from out of nowhere. Then the death of Dima "Pilot" Polishtchuk occured, and the realization that the movie lost a particular huge character made me act fast (and a thought that at his 27 years Dima had accomplished so much got me moving too). So I've found some cineaste guy with a camera, editing skills and little concern for money, talked him into it and that was it. We even got out once already to shoot a gig which was a tribute to Dima The Pilot, but that's a theme for another post (of course I created a blog about this film shoot, to keep me more focused on it and elaborate on things that will stay on the metaphorical edeiting room's floor - metaphorical because there is no floor).
In this one I wanted to lay out some other things.
First - sorry, my dear Russian friends and readers, but I chose to blog in English. For a reason. See, I kind of foresee the fate of this movie in Russia, so I'll try to target it at the Western viewers (through this blog, the net, the festival circuit and other possible connections). At worst it will appear as some exotic knick-knack which is of some interest for Western music lovers (some slight deviation of the norm, as in Iranian punk or Heavy Metal in Baghdad or whatever - I think Russian indie rock is totally up to task). So I would emphasise of course every shade of national spirit. At best - it will show us our place on the grander scheme. Pretty scary, huh?
Second - we are total novices at filming, but we know and understand the format of music documentaries (for my part, in the space of just one week I saw three films of this kind: Heavenly Pop Hits, Anvil: The Story of Anvil and Rough Cut and Ready Dubbed). Our amateurism hopefully will lead us to some interesting twists of this formats, so I'm not particularly worried about that. But we'll try to play it like the big boys - I will not be satisfied with uploading it on Youtube, I'm into making a good product and provide an interesting viewing and story.
Third - Nauka Zvuka, which means Science of Sound IS NOT the name of the film we're trying to make. The film doesn't have a name yet (although it has a working title - 'Where's My Distortion, Dude?'). Nauka Zvuka is the name of my production micro-company: I figured the name, then Googled it, and when nothing came up, thought that it would make a jolly good brand-name - investors and big shots love it when it rhymes, haven't you heard? So here it comes, catch it - Nauka Zvuka, ssuka!
Fourth - we will proceed with our shooting in relaxed mode (approximately once a week), and so will be appearing the posts here.
And fifth - as some of you may know, I play in a band myself, so if someone is wondering will my band feature in the movie, the answer is "No". The film will definitely be from some autheur's view, but I am surely not the person who would arrange all this for the sake of promoting my band and ensure it will go down in history. I'll let someone else do it instead.