Depp Collective

[TRE]

The simple fact is that, once you have the eye for design and narrative as a visual and auditory experience, you will likely seek to realize your own visions and explore your own territories to tell the stories for others.

Its a great tradition to master the art of storyteller and there are no 2 storytellers who are alike. Many a performer has learned to challenge the critique and direction of their 'would be storytellers' but seldom is it that they take the task to themselves to spend hours in the art of mastering all the skills associated with the actual production and decision process which lead to a complete vision... Thank God for us that John is just such an artist who is less likely to be satisfied with the status quo or even his own previous visions.

Film-makers are a very special breed of archivist, illusionist, visionary, anthropological relativist and machiavellian wizard of sorts .... some of them are the would be champions of the fantastical world of graphic novel as evolutionary comic book revenge... others... well they are painstaking loyalists to the schools of ritualistic human sacrifice performed in homage to the struggle and survival of Humanity's humor.

This Discussion page is specifically to explore the musical, visceral, and literal terms by which our John has chosen to forward both his vision and his level of mastery....

John is quickly becoming known in many circles for having the videographer's knack... His work is often complex and high quality and we hope you will take the time to check this list out:

SONG YEAR ARTIST
"I Put a Spell on You" 2010 Shane Macgowan and Friends
"God's Gonna Cut You Down" 2006 Johnny Cash
"Joey" 1996 Concrete Blonde
"Playback 1995 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
"That Woman's Got Me Drinking" 1994 Shane McGowan
"Into the Great Wide Open" 1991 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
"It's a Shame About Ray" Unknown The Lemmonheads

I personally have only ever seen John on television doing interviews such as Inside the Actor's Studio... and of course i do remember watching an episode of 21 Jump Street and thinking that it was the new Mod Squad which makes me think that Giovanni and John have had a good laugh or two over the years...

Here is a list of his Television Appearances.... Which of these stories/programs have you seen?

48 Hours Mystery 2010
SpongeBob SquarePants 2009
This American Life 2008
Doraemon 2007
King of the Hill 2004
4Pop 2003
20/20: Johnny Depp, The Ultimate Outsider 2003
Bravo Profiles: Johnny Depp 2003
Inside the Actor's Studio 2002
The Fast Show 2000
The Vicar of Dibley 1999
21 Jump Street 1987-1990
Hotel 1987
Slow Burn 1986
Lady Blue 1985

[TRE]

Music videos might be a dime a dozen and 'rock bands' also for that matter but nothing inspires quite like music.... unless you are of course prone to the stuff that 'Love and Anthrax' are made of according to Gang of 4 and master guitarist Andy Gill. Ok, Ok, I will cut to the chase and not wax on when it comes to creative detailing.

Thus its clear that we are in for some inspired careering adventures by the looks of the video directed by John last fall for and up and coming band called BabyBird. Their sound is definitely an Americana dirge leaning towards blue ballads and by the looks of the characters cast in the following video, that John is working from the sort of director's style which allows him quite a bit of range in staffing and stylistic approach to deliver what he wants from the entire scene and set as crew and community.

As far as I can gather his biggest challenges are the technical aspects of capturing particular images that impact the viewer's response. Its interesting that he has not cast himself in any of these bit parts but obviously came prepared. Im certain that John is very unconcerned with his own presence associated with the production of the video. Is a great start to approach in this manner because it frees up the director to take narrative voice on from a huge number of angles and internal perspectives. Ambiguity is the soul of creative insinuation for the author and the audience.

The song is called 'Unlovable' and is not necessarily as striking as the song of Babybird used for the 'making of video' production called "Like Them" however there does ring true some lyrical value of how complex the ideas in the song are to actually try and follow through on. A professional does wonder at the cost of this production in general if we were not to include the edit time... Maybe $3000 give or take a thousand all costuming and editing perfection aside.


An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

this video is based on the short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce.

First published in 1891 in Bierce's short story collection Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, the story centers on Peyton Farquhar, a southern planter who is about to be hanged by the Union Army for attempting to destroy the railroad bridge at Owl Creek. As Farquhar stands on the bridge with a noose around his neck, Bierce leads the reader to believe that the rope breaks and that Farquhar falls into the water below, only to escape to his farm, where he is reunited with his wife. ''An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" has been lauded as an example of technical brilliance and innovative narration as well as for its examination of such themes as the nature of time and the complexities of human cognition.



Bierce and the World of Deep Satirical Wisdom

the video is classically rendering a 'classic' story... whew... the ironies are now blaringly apparent after having read the text. Thanks for posting it in its entirety because it further gives me pause to consider the choices and details given that the story was about an American bridge but filmed on a british one while the name Farquhar is certainly Scottish/British but represents an American and his deeds of betrayal... The whole thing stinks of Hitchthingy again and I love it even though I am not a raving Hitchthingy fan.

Regardless, the delivery of the story in words still rivals its counterpart in film... 'Most' concepts with bands and music videos but also I think that what inspires the song has a lot to do with how the song lends itself... some ideas and themes are universal and others are basically what I consider very visceral... in this case I am willing to bet that the idea of this concept was hatched with band and Depp as an ongoing dialogue of how to project their image and style.

It says a lot about him that he chose Bierce... there is a lot more to the author than the short story though... Maybe the point is that the concept of 'Unlovable' has some real teeth for getting to the heart of the matter when it comes to exploring the more complex characters in this world of 2 dimensional literacy.

check out these links: www.biercephile.com/death.cfm

devil's dictionary: pinicola.ca/devildic.pdf

compendium: bierce.thefreelibrary.com/