A NYC Avant Garde Filmmakers Meeting

A NYC Avant Garde Filmmakers Meeting

Arguably the most talented of the musicians-turned filmmakers present on 5^th October 1995 brainstorming session at Magee’s Irish Pub was Jan Hammerschmidt, whose sprawling 6 hour epic film attempts to depict the birth and subsequent rebirths of a hero, whose journey brings him in conflict with his environment, demons, gods, and previous incarnations of himself.

The session on 5 October 1995 was notable for several interruptions to the planning progress of Jan’s film and the somewhat less vast (as nearly everything besides Der Ring des Nibelungen is) projects of the other aspiring filmmakers. The first interruption was the arrival of the waitress, who when asking for their orders captured the sexual imagination of the all-male filmmaker circle. Discussion followed as to whether Brad had a chance. Nick assured the group that he did not.

After several minutes of productive dialogue on Hank’s latest reels of abstract film, a group of mimes entered. The filmmakers immediately took note of this and wondered what this group was up to and ended up inviting them to their table for drinks. The mimes it seemed, where neophytes to the art, who, in the process of learning the craft, had formed a study group. Three of them had taken the same acting class several years ago and one was a professional dancer (ballet). Hank and Brad were particularly enthralled with the mimes and asked them to perform some of the classic mime techniques and asked leading question about film. Phone numbers were exchanged without firm plans to meet.

The mimes departure led to an hour or so of fruitful discussion on what projects could involve the use of miming. Would the mimes be willing to perform without the traditional black and white garb? Has the costume become a cliché or a trope on which new forms could be built? Jan felt that the mimes could only be used as skilled dancers and that any talk of the traditional costuming was simply abhorrent. Brad, whose films built frequently on references, disagreed. He wanted to use the mimes to re-film Pulp Fiction. He felt that he could scout locations in upstate New York. Jan refused to help him with this despite his knowledge of the area (he had shot much of his footage for the epic upstate), but Jan and Brad’s bickering was nothing new. Nick agreed to accompany Brad upstate. He wasn’t sure exactly on which project he was working, but Nick often found inspiration from the situations available to him and relied heavily on improvisation.

There was an awkward silence as Nick left for the bathroom. The topic of music came up and the group discussed plans to enlist former conservatory friends to record music for future projects. The group knew a fair number of instrumentalists, but more woodwinds[1] than anything else. This was becoming a problem as increasingly Jan was craving a larger orchestral sound (heavy on strings) and Hank had a proclivity for strange instrumental combinations. They discussed ways to minimize the stress on individual musicians (their projects rarely paid) and they returned to an ongoing topic of the lack of good composers. The group had regularly enlisted the help of Janice Meyer, until Nick had started dating her, which effectively ended her relationship with the group when the couple broke up. Jan offered to post advertisements on the bulletin boards of the New School, Juilliard, and NYU and Hank offered to make some calls to UCLA, where he went as an undergrad, to see if any composers were looking for film projects.

Overall, the meeting was a productive one and all were very saddened that it had to end with tragic death of Bo the bartender by the drunk driver, who demolished the pub.

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[1] The group met due to mutual associations in avant garde classical music scene (specifically in NY and students). Jan was studying oboe and was in a woodwind quartet with Hank, flute, and Nick, clarinet. Hank and Nick played in an orchestra with Brad, clarinet.

Author's Note

this is a writing exercise that I have done to see about ways of approaching these characters. structurally this is also an experiment.