Uncropped Film: Exclusive with Young & Hamilton
D.W. Young
Can you share a pivotal moment in your artistic journey that significantly influenced your approach to filmmaking?
My experience shooting my first narrative feature film was one pivotal moment. It was a micro budget horror film titled The Happy House. Absurdly under budgeted, we made it caught between two different modes of filmmaking. On the one hand it was too big and conventionally dramatic not to require most aspects of a traditional set and crew. On the other, it couldn't possibly be pulled off with our resources without tremendous creative improvising and cutting corners. Which I generally thrive on but which can only take you so far.
These two modes came into conflict more than I anticipated and caused me much frustration. Every film finds its own method, but clearly the more experimental or low budget the project the more particular that method usually is. Since then I’ve learned better to balance these considerations. I make devising the process to suit the project far more integral. The particulars vary, but what matters is that the film and the method are more organic and joined. This has since made the shooting process far more enjoyable and productive.
Certainly Uncropped was like this, as is a narrative short I shot recently titled Dancing on the Silk Razor. The short is without dialogue or diagetic sound - it's just visuals, voiceover and music. We shot it on 35mm film (extremely parsimoniously) with me, our DP Arlene Muller, her 1st AC and our producer/actor Dan Wechsler composing one mobile unit that roamed around NYC in a single car. We never could have been so nimble or fit so much in or done it for the cost we did with a more traditional apparatus.
In the end I think all good films, no matter the scope, have this essential need to find the right method for their madness. And to bring it back to Uncropped, the two directors James worked with most closely - George Romero and Wes Anderson - both exemplify this in their quite different ways.
How do you navigate the balance between capturing authenticity in your subjects while maintaining your own artistic vision?
Authenticity is a slippery concept when it comes to people and identity. Is the persona we project publicly, and above all for a camera, any more or less authentic than our private one? There has of course been much discussion about the performative element in documentaries and how to contend with it, but I also think it’s a never ending question. As such, I usually feel it's necessary to capture both components of a subject to more honestly present them: what they want to show and what they reveal unselfconsciously. Inevitably it’s a matter of degree which depends on the individual and the context. I certainly don't believe in any hard and fast rules. And celebrities or accomplished figures who are very accustomed to public speaking are often much harder to draw out from behind their polished armor. Vice-versa people who are very nervous and unaccustomed to being on camera can easily clam up.
Either way, the best approach for me is usually a simple one: to achieve a real conversation with the subject. If you're shooting verité then spending extensive time together can accomplish a similar, deeper connection. Of course sometimes you only can only briefly speak with someone and capture one facet of them. In such cases, if that limitation is seen or understood in the film’s context it can really help frame the nature of the response.
These considerations apply mainly to documentary, but not entirely, and in many ways working with documentary subjects isn't so different from working with actors. But for documentary, if you feel the person on screen is a real person, not just some mouthpiece, then that is usually a good sign. And provides much more credibility to what they're saying and how they're saying it and how that relates to whatever sort of film we're making. And the more surprising or unexpected or challenging the better. I hate the idea of simply going to people to be told what you're looking for. Being surprised and discovering things along the way is so much more interesting and valuable.
As a director, what draws you to telling stories through film, and how does your background inform your filmmaking process?
I came to filmmaking late, almost in my mid thirties, after hitting the wall writing fiction for over a decade. I realized very quickly I was far more suited to it. Because for me, it's engaging the combined mediums that make up filmmaking that makes it so exciting and also liberating as a form.
That said, I think I'm drawn to narrative and documentary work a bit differently. For the former, since I write the script, it's a much more personal and interior and planned process. For documentary, it's more open ended and fluid and about crafting the work along the way and not closing it off prematurely. In both cases though, the essential element is that I need to have a strong sense of what the film could be. Or perhaps a better way to put it is that I need to believe there's a worthwhile film there to be made and also one that I want to make.
Considering the evolving landscape of both photography and filmmaking, how do you stay inspired and relevant in your creative pursuits?
As it gets easier to make movies it also only gets harder to get people to watch them. And as independent movies make ever less money it's also only getting ever harder to find a way to fund them. So contending with this quandary is one of the great challenges of the moment. Because so much of filmmaking does fundamentally require substantial money. Even on a relatively small scale. I don't only want to watch films shot on iPhones. Not that they aren’t legitimate. And as of right now, as an almost exclusively corporate product, I don't see adequate artistic freedom in television, which is where most funding is being allocated now.
Hopefully new opportunities and models present themselves in due time. Until then, I'm personally ever more enthusiastic about work that combines mediums and pushes out the boundaries of what a film is or how it's watched and where. Work that isn't totally beholden to the crumbling distribution models of the past for its success.
Lastly, it seems to me that knowing how to make things on a very small budget is - for documentaries at least - ever more valuable. Because you can potentially still make something that has a chance of getting to a wider audience without compromise in a way that is far harder with narrative films.
James Hamilton
As an artist, what legacy do you hope to leave behind with your photography and how do you feel about the creatives today who take inspiration from your photos. How could they elevate beyond admiration?
I have always felt extremely fortunate in my career. I knew from childhood that I would be involved in some sort of visual medium but I almost accidentally fell into making photos. Most of my early inspirations were from films and paintings and my interest in photography was mostly about the way it portrayed history. When I was twenty and finally picked up a camera I realized that it was the best way to record my own history and that eventually led me to journalism. Whatever I am leaving behind is what I was allowed to pursue which was a very personal kind of photojournalism. I was the staff photographer for five very different publications, all in NYC, and I worked with wonderful writers and editors. I processed and owned all my photos and as a journalist I was always able to present and share my own point of view within that work. I have photographed for 58 years, making pictures for myself and for the stories handed to me. An enormous amount of work appeared on the printed page and if it inspired anyone to seek and find the opportunities and adventures such as I had then that’s my legacy.
In what ways would you describe the process of becoming comfortable with the creation of your art? The act of taking photographs of everyday people requires a certain level of vulnerability. Was this ever a challenge for you?
Except in war zones I have always been comfortable making photos and whether I photographed strangers on the street or well known people in rooms it has just been a matter of either finding pictures or setting them up. Since I always had a camera in my hand I would make photos in the street on the way to covering stories or making portraits. I carried the same attitude and point of view everywhere and while I usually caught rather than engaged on the street I very much had to engage when I made portraits. In the street I was very quick and, in a day, I would make many photos. With portrait subjects I usually took more time in conversation than making pictures. I made all of it fun and it all came easily to me.
Can you share a pivotal moment in your artistic journey that significantly influenced your approach to photography?
After I bought my first camera I knew that I wanted to be a photographer but I had no idea if I would be good enough to make a living and I had to find a way into photography as a career. I had made many photos on the streets of NYC but I thought that I should venture out so I spent what turned out to be five months hitchhiking around the states in the summer and autumn of 1969. When I returned to the city I built a darkroom in my kitchen and began processing the enormous amount of film. I made some prints and summoned the nerve to show them to a photographer that I had long admired but never met - W. Eugene Smith. I didn’t know how to contact him but I knew where his studio was. He let me in and I pulled out the photos from my trip. He lingered over them for a long time and said that anyone who could make those pictures should be telling stories with photographs. I walked out deciding to become a photojournalist.
How do you navigate the balance between capturing authenticity in your subjects while maintaining your own artistic vision?
Authenticity ends up being subjective. If I am making random photos of people in the street my choices and viewpoint determine everything spontaneously. But in making formal portraits it becomes more difficult to balance whether the end picture is more about the subject or me and my idea of the subject. My favorite photos of people wherever and however I find them, are the ones that reveal both my point of view and, in some way, the subjects themselves.
Considering the evolving landscape of both photography and filmmaking, how do you stay inspired and relevant in your creative pursuits?
Since I rarely work for anyone anymore I have to inspire myself, which has never been difficult. I carry a camera everywhere and I love making photographs for myself.
