Showing posts with label letters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label letters. Show all posts
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Below is the original print out that Dylan handed to me for Jason Shiga's acceptance speech at the Eisner's in 2003. I had already thought of the speech that I was to give, and Dylan told me that Jason wasn't too attached to what he'd written. I don't think (m)any people other than Jason, Dylan, and myself have seen this speech until now. - F.C. Brandt
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Small aprt of long conversation
Dylan and I were having this seemingly endless conversation after we both saw the commentary track on that movie The Limey. I dont think either of us loved that film---we both liekd it OK---but the commentary track features Soderbergh and the screenwriter havign a heated argument about what was left in/left out. Here is a tangent that came out of Dylan and I haggling about that stuff:
I think the problem for me with critiquing other people's methods for creating art is that I don't really have a conscious method any more. I mean, I know, I do have a method but I don't ever think about it and I change it at the drop of a hat when it isn't what I feel like doing. I cut out stuff you or other people might call "the good stuff" and leave in things people call bad drawing and unrealistic writing or whatever. Like you say, doing comics is easier than film but it requires less collaboration. Stubborn people who think they have comics figured out always get mad at me.
I do collaborate with people all the time and it involves having your plans dashed and your heart broken but it can create great stuff and it makes me smarter afterwords. I sort of view each book I do as a collaborative art project where I'm kind of the Producer and the artist is the Director. The problem is that everyone is completely different, so each collaboration is totally unique.
The problem with "good stuff" is that it is totally subjective for me. I don't share taste with almost anyone I've found. Even me and you or me and Tim or me and Emily or me and Andrice or anyone...I just never feel like I agree with people on "the good stuff". Left to my own devices, I would have put out a collection of John Hankiewicz's old comics at 6x9 size or something. But I'm the producer so I listen to the person whose job it is to create the art. I have some say but only as much as the person in charge lets me. Some people want me to be in charge, and I do it only as far as I can.
I don't think I've seen any films by Catherine Breillat. Lang is one director who was famous for breaking people down. I was just reading a part in Mike Leigh interviews where it says he liked Renoir and Lang. Clouzot. I LOVE Clouzot to death but he made his wife have a nervous breakdown on film. He was a dick and he could have gotten great performances out of people without that but the art he had in mind is what he wanted. And cut them up as he wanted. I think, if I didn't like the way somebody was acting like that I'd just leave the group or try and reach a concensous. I was pretty interested in the archetypal approach that Leigh took for Happy Go Lucky, or allowed his actors to take. It sort of deals with why people are the way they are, why we become these extremes. For me, there is this yin-yang mix of control and no-control in art. I love that feeling of letting it go the way it is going and working with people but I also exercise an extreme level of control over where things go. I love how Bresson movies feel more than almost any other movie. He worked with people who were models and he was a control freak but there is this perfect sense of art I get from his movies and it is ultimately because they are his movies first and foremost.
The problem is that the writer wants to leave in everything and not allow Soderbergh to play the conventional role of director. He wants to be the director. And he should. But, when he is collaborating with somebody else in the role of director/producer they get to cut stuff out (they did talk about it though) in most Hollywood agreements. It is frustrating but it is often part of working with other people. It is an interesting situation because it is affected by the conventions of the industry and the art. Watkins makes those choices to allow people working with him to have say on what gets put to film but he will not allow the people selling the stuff to have any say. He still carries bad reviews and bad distribution resentment around like a cross nailed to his back. I mean, in a way he is right, but it is a thing where I believe that complaining about Hollywood or the film industry treats you is kind of like complaining about a Greek restaurant for serving Greek food. That is what they do, they suck. Anytime that the didn't was the result of a few individuals struggle against it, but it never changed. You don't have to be involved in it, you can make your own art. Then a lot less people will see it, but it will be the way you want. Making art isn't what our world has made it into, into making entertainments for money. It can be but that isn't art. Art doesn't entitle you to do well or get what you want out of life. Neither does making entertainment though.
I do believe in the Mike Leigh way of making art, or Watkins too, where you find like minded people and try and work with them as much as possible. It is one way around that system (sorry) but it leads to having to make compromises, they are just less odious. But when you are making a Hollywood movie about the Record Industry with big Hollywood actors, studio backing, and a Hollywood director, that is going to happen. It is something in art that burns out or transforms a lot of artists. They start doing stuff because "they have to" or getting burned out with anger about how nobody respects/understands/allows them to produce their art. I completely sympathize with those people but I also feel like, hey man, try working a day job and then doing what you want. It is actually a more human way to live, less entitlement. Just because you call yourself an artist doesn't mean you have any more rights than anyone else does, and if you engage in a shitty system, then you have all the same rights that everyone else does under that system. You can complain about it and I do feel sympathy but I also feel like telling people "that is what you get."
I think the problem for me with critiquing other people's methods for creating art is that I don't really have a conscious method any more. I mean, I know, I do have a method but I don't ever think about it and I change it at the drop of a hat when it isn't what I feel like doing. I cut out stuff you or other people might call "the good stuff" and leave in things people call bad drawing and unrealistic writing or whatever. Like you say, doing comics is easier than film but it requires less collaboration. Stubborn people who think they have comics figured out always get mad at me.
I do collaborate with people all the time and it involves having your plans dashed and your heart broken but it can create great stuff and it makes me smarter afterwords. I sort of view each book I do as a collaborative art project where I'm kind of the Producer and the artist is the Director. The problem is that everyone is completely different, so each collaboration is totally unique.
The problem with "good stuff" is that it is totally subjective for me. I don't share taste with almost anyone I've found. Even me and you or me and Tim or me and Emily or me and Andrice or anyone...I just never feel like I agree with people on "the good stuff". Left to my own devices, I would have put out a collection of John Hankiewicz's old comics at 6x9 size or something. But I'm the producer so I listen to the person whose job it is to create the art. I have some say but only as much as the person in charge lets me. Some people want me to be in charge, and I do it only as far as I can.
I don't think I've seen any films by Catherine Breillat. Lang is one director who was famous for breaking people down. I was just reading a part in Mike Leigh interviews where it says he liked Renoir and Lang. Clouzot. I LOVE Clouzot to death but he made his wife have a nervous breakdown on film. He was a dick and he could have gotten great performances out of people without that but the art he had in mind is what he wanted. And cut them up as he wanted. I think, if I didn't like the way somebody was acting like that I'd just leave the group or try and reach a concensous. I was pretty interested in the archetypal approach that Leigh took for Happy Go Lucky, or allowed his actors to take. It sort of deals with why people are the way they are, why we become these extremes. For me, there is this yin-yang mix of control and no-control in art. I love that feeling of letting it go the way it is going and working with people but I also exercise an extreme level of control over where things go. I love how Bresson movies feel more than almost any other movie. He worked with people who were models and he was a control freak but there is this perfect sense of art I get from his movies and it is ultimately because they are his movies first and foremost.
The problem is that the writer wants to leave in everything and not allow Soderbergh to play the conventional role of director. He wants to be the director. And he should. But, when he is collaborating with somebody else in the role of director/producer they get to cut stuff out (they did talk about it though) in most Hollywood agreements. It is frustrating but it is often part of working with other people. It is an interesting situation because it is affected by the conventions of the industry and the art. Watkins makes those choices to allow people working with him to have say on what gets put to film but he will not allow the people selling the stuff to have any say. He still carries bad reviews and bad distribution resentment around like a cross nailed to his back. I mean, in a way he is right, but it is a thing where I believe that complaining about Hollywood or the film industry treats you is kind of like complaining about a Greek restaurant for serving Greek food. That is what they do, they suck. Anytime that the didn't was the result of a few individuals struggle against it, but it never changed. You don't have to be involved in it, you can make your own art. Then a lot less people will see it, but it will be the way you want. Making art isn't what our world has made it into, into making entertainments for money. It can be but that isn't art. Art doesn't entitle you to do well or get what you want out of life. Neither does making entertainment though.
I do believe in the Mike Leigh way of making art, or Watkins too, where you find like minded people and try and work with them as much as possible. It is one way around that system (sorry) but it leads to having to make compromises, they are just less odious. But when you are making a Hollywood movie about the Record Industry with big Hollywood actors, studio backing, and a Hollywood director, that is going to happen. It is something in art that burns out or transforms a lot of artists. They start doing stuff because "they have to" or getting burned out with anger about how nobody respects/understands/allows them to produce their art. I completely sympathize with those people but I also feel like, hey man, try working a day job and then doing what you want. It is actually a more human way to live, less entitlement. Just because you call yourself an artist doesn't mean you have any more rights than anyone else does, and if you engage in a shitty system, then you have all the same rights that everyone else does under that system. You can complain about it and I do feel sympathy but I also feel like telling people "that is what you get."
Rasa Theory
From one of the last e-mails I got from him, after a long phone conversation about perceived audiences vs. making art:
Sometimes he seemed to know everything.
I wish I had transcripts of all the phone conversations.
On Jul 9, 2011, at 10:10 AM, dylan williams wrote:
This is that Indian theory I was talking bout:
Rasa Theory
Sometimes he seemed to know everything.
I wish I had transcripts of all the phone conversations.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Depiction of a man's butt in my face
Dylan sent this in an email, it's a good example of him being able to turn a stinky situation into something better. - ZS
Seed and Sprout
I knew of Dylan longer than I knew Dylan and over the past 3 years Dylan quickly became one of my closest friends, ever. The following emails represent the seed and sprouting of our friendship (as well as the same for my friendships with Zak Sally, Chris Cilla, and Tim Goodyear). Instead of running photos of Dylan (of which I don't have many) I've decided to run photos I think Dylan would've liked (I'll be forever impressed that one of the postcards Dylan made to promote Sparkplug was a photograph of a statue). – Jason T. Miles
From: Chris Cilla
Date: Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 12:25 PM
Subject: Re: short trunk town
To: JASON T MILES
Hello Jason,
I internet-chatted with Dylan Williams and he said you could sell yer stuff at his table(Sparkplug), he is already selling Dead Ringer, so it makes sense. I will be tabling there & at the Pony Club table, depending on what is going on.
OK I'll see you then!
bye,
Chris C.
From: JASON T MILES
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 11:16:03 PM
Subject: Hi
To: Dylan Williams
Dylan,
I just thought I'd email you. I've been emailing with Chris Cilla about Stumptown and Chris sez you're cool with me trying to sell my stuff at your table. I appreciate this very much. Also, I've been emailing with zak sally and he sez you've been representing La Mano at shows and that you have copies of Dead Ringer (again, much appreciated). I don't know if you have other people going in on the table with you...? Is there a flat rate? If so please let me know and I can paypal you the money. Or is the cost determined by space? If it's determined by space I guess you should know that I'll have 2 standard sized zines and 1 quarter sized zine. If space is tight I can easily remove the quarter sized zine. I'm down for working the booth or spotting folks for breaks etc. the only thing I have to do time commitment-wise is represent Fantagraphics (my day job) on a panel about submitting work to publishers.
Alright... I think that's it, I'm excited about coming down for the show. I think I'll be driving down from Seattle the morning of Friday the 25th.
Hopefully we can get to know each other better. I first met you a long time ago at the Danger Room in Olympia, and then we met again on the beach in San Diego 4 or 5 years ago - we were both shitfaced and we were drinking a bottle of Maker's Mark whisky together - at one point you were having a hard time standing and you were trying to keep yourself upright and you sort of fell into me and almost pulled my pants down – it was pretty funny. I think it was later that night I drove drunk up the coast and pulled off into a parking lot to pass out. The next morning when I came to, the parking lot had been taped off with that yellow police tape and there were two cops "guarding" the entry/exit of the parking lot. I was pretty scared because I couldn't remember how I got there and I was worried I'd hurt someone. I started up my truck and drove to the exit, rolled my window down and asked the cops which way it was to San Diego and they told me "that way" and I drove off! I was pretty lucky. Anyway, miraculously, I don't drink anymore.
... I didn't know this was going to turn into story time! I hope you don't mind.
Thanks again,
Jason T. Miles.
From: dylan williams
Date: Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 10:57 AM
Subject: Marker's Make
To: JASON T MILES
Oy! I'm looking forward to having you squat at our tables. There should be plenty of room. I'll work up a schedule depending on who shows up but I'd, of course, love your help with sales or whatever. Hopefully I'll run into you at the Friday party.
Now, as for this whole drinking 5 years ago thing... I quit shortly after that too. I kind of remember your story, so I think we talked about it after that but to be honest, I was completely blacked out well before I was sinking into the sand. That was the first time Tim Goodyear and I hung out too. Ah memories. Anyway, I loved your story about that night though, since I can only reconstruct it from various recording devices and the memories of other drunken idiots. In short, NO MORE DRINKING for me.
I also like the idea of meeting you at the "Danger Room." Sadly I'm old and have alzheimer's or something.
Looking forward to this show for some reason,
Dylan
Some emails I got from Dylan in 2004
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