The Thomas Chapin Film Project
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Why a film about jazz?

5/26/2012

 
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As I traveled, on my way to New York City to start my research for the Thomas Chapin film, I made a number of stops--Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland. And a question keeps arising, not necessarily spoken out loud but implied by quizzical looks and blank faces. And mostly friends and fans who don't know much about jazz or who have no real interest in jazz.

This is what I love: Curiosity.  It's the challenge of every documentary filmmaker, and any filmmaker actually, to engage the curiosity of our viewers. 

I learned well from a career in journalism that a good writer writes a good lead and then engages the reader in every sentence, every paragraph until they have gotten through the whole stories.

It's also true with watching a film.  Viewers must be engaged, and stay engaged, or they will surf channels for something more engaging.

Back to why a jazz film.

Besides making this film about someone I know who lived an absolutely passionate life of creating music (doesn't that engage your curiosity? how he did it?), I am curious about jazz and why it is such a huge sub-culture in American music.  Do understand jazz, I have joined a number of discussion boards on LinkedIn and have kinda become a fly on the wall as these jazz enthusiasts discuss jazz and their love for it, their playing it. 

Of course, I am listening to jazz, to Thomas' jazz, and engaging my listening ear.  I am finding I can't listen to jazz like audio wallpaper, while you do the dishes and things. I mean you can, especially with "cool jazz", but I'm finding listening intently in my car really trying to HEAR the communication in the music is different.  It takes focus to hear Thomas' music.  To hear his complex compositions. To imagine his musical world inside his head, his heart and his emotions. To fully enjoy his creations, his joy noise.

As I have done with other subjects I have made films about -- opera, Filipinos in WWII, cockfighters in America, boating culture, poverty and children, war brides, and church history, to name a few of my film explorations, when I make a film, I must engage in research and enter in with curiosity and focus. 

Why jazz?  Why not. 

Let's Get the Research Going! The travel begins!

5/11/2012

 
When you start a film project, there are so many things to "launch".  A website. A social media plan. A way to formally announce the project. The fundraising.  I'll come back to these to explain my strategies and thinking on their launching.

Let's talk Research. 

Research is what you do day and night while you do everything else.  On an average day since I created this project, I have been researching the subjects of Thomas Chapin and his life, the world of jazz, the people I should talk to, and the business side of launching this film. I probably have spent almost 8  hours a day!  Some in the morning, some in the afternoon, and a lot of it at night. Some of it in "dream" time.

Research, ie education, is a steep, vertical learning curve these days.

On Tuesday, May 15, I begin my first Research Trip.  First?  Yes, this is only one of many times I will have to leave my quiet, country-living in a cottage on the island of Kauai and head into the Big Cities where this story takes place.  Mainly New York City. Where I will be meeting with some of the primary storytellers for the Thomas Chapin film.  His brother Ted.  His trio members, Mike and Mario. A high school class mate of Thomas, Arthur. John, a jazz festival promoter who brought Thomas to the big performing stages of jazz at Newport, RI and in Europe.  Jerry, who played with Thomas in Lionel Hampton's band in the 1980's. Terri, Thomas' wife and partner for 10 years before he passed; she's my sister, a central storyteller for my film, and my host in NYC. And there are a few others important storytellers who I am still setting up appointments with. 

This trip will also take me to Tuscon, Arizona, where I will meet and interview two other storytellers. Marty, who met Thomas toward the end, but saw enough to know how special a musician and person Thomas was. He advised Thomas in jazz business matters and holds, I think, a very important perspective on the timing of Thomas' passing.  Interesting!! I will also meet up with young, next generation player, Nadar Nihal, who is an American studying spirituality and music in India. He knew Thomas only by listening to his music but was inspired to play his horn at Thomas' memorial on the 10th anniversary of Thomas' passing.

Also while in AZ, my dear friend Carmella will be hosting a fundraiser in hopes of adding to my Early Birds list of donors.  (Have you thought about becoming an Early Bird?  click here.)

Won't you follow my blog, and take this trip with me.  I will be posting as I go.  I will let you in on some of my Research findings and will be posting photos.

Let's talk APPROACH. What's the approach to the story?

5/7/2012

 
How will the story be told? or approached.

This is a huge question that needs to be contemplated strongly when you start to make a film.  For me, it really is one of those questions that hovers over me and sometimes can't be answered until my research is done.  If then. 

Because in the creative process, the approach can change. And change again.  But in the end, there is only one approach that is the final approach to the film.

Research helps build your context, your understanding of the story.  Especially if you are new to the world of the story, as I am to the world of jazz.  Until I started my research, I didn't grasp how BIG this world of jazz is, how varied and how many jazz lovers, players, promoters, clubs, festivals, radio stations, bloggers, books, CDs, writers exist on this planet! 

With NIGHT BIRD SONG: THE THOMAS CHAPIN STORY, the world of the story is indeed jazz, the world that Thomas left when he passed in 1998 at age 40. Specifically avant jazz -- jazz that is experimental, that is "out", that is free, that is characterized by improvisation.  Jazz that sounds like noise to the uninitiated. For those who love or listen to avant jazz, it is the "noise of joy."  Someone else coined that term. But that's what I am learning as I begin to listen, really listen to the jazz of Thomas Chapin,  and read the writings and write ups on his extensive website:  www.thomaschapin.com

He was a rare player for his time, as he played both free and traditional jazz, both with proficiency.

Thomas was a multi-instrumentalist -- mainly sax and flute.  But he to him anything that made sound was an "instrument"--be it a rock, a rustling of the wind, a rap on a wooden table. He was a composer, and he found his voice in the alto sax and his creative ground with his Thomas Chapin Trio. As I listen to his CD's, I am researching, building my context for understanding the music he made. I am hearing the "noise of joy" the more I listen--for Thomas was full of joy and had an incredible exuberance for life and in his playing.

His world of jazz, I am learning, was both "in" a.k.a. mainstream or uptown jazz, and "out" a.k.a. the downtown scene of NYC where his stages were small clubs, such as the famous Knitting Factory where he recorded most of his 12 CDs.  He and his trio also played the big jazz stages in Europe, Canada, Japan, and the BIG one - the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island in 1994. Thomas called this breakthrough big stage performance, a milestone in his career. It was the first rung in what was going to be all uphill and into greater, wider performing stratospheres from there. Of course, it was not to be. And so his Newport performance is all the more poignant in what would have been Thomas' journey upward in the jazz world.

Back to the question of the film's approach. 

Will it be a traditional biography, straight storytelling with talking heads, sometimes with music playing in the background, with a few longer clips of Thomas and the trio playing?

Will it be a new documentary form (new for me), with no or few talking heads, with the journey of the film twisting and turning through musical landscapes that Thomas and his fellow musicians lived?

Could it be a love story?  The greatest story is love, right?  Love?  Love of a man for his music. Love of playing and performing. Love of creating. Love of fellowship among fellow players.  Love of a good woman. Love of life that ended too soon.

One day, not too long from today I hope, the approach to the film's story will be clear to me.  Stay tuned.


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    I am an EMMY-winning filmmaker. I am making my 10th documentary.  It's always quite a ride to start a film as it is to finish one. Come along and watch from behind the scenes.  More about me...

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