Whipping It
Montclair State filmmakers wrap up two feature-length films, including a documentrary on DEVO
By Amy Wagner
When he’s not teaching, Montclair State Filmmaking Professor Tony Pemberton successfully straddles the worlds of documentary and feature filmmaking, sometimes at the same time, with this guiding conviction: “You need fiction to make facts and facts to make fiction.”
Montclair State University filmmaking professors Tony Pemberton and Roberta Friedman
Named one of “10 Directors to Watch” by Daily Variety in 2000, when his film Beyond the Ocean garnered critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival, Pemberton currently has both a documentary and a feature film in post-production. Are We Not Men—the first-ever authorized documentary about the edgy, influential New Wave-era band DEVO—is slated for completion this summer. The award-winning filmmaker is also putting the finishing touches on Buddha’s Little Finger, an adaptation of Russian author Victor Pelevin’s eponymous novel. “I’m hoping to ready them both for the big film festivals,” Pemberton says.
Band of brothers
“I first saw DEVO as a teenager in Ohio,” Pemberton recalls. He was drawn as much to their humor and cutting-edge qualities as to the fact that they had made it out of Ohio. “When I saw their debut performance on Saturday Night Live in 1979 and heard them sing ‘What’s round on the ends and high in the middle, Ohio,’ my jaw dropped. It was the first time the strange culture of subversion that my friends and I found interesting was right there in front of America.”
Pemberton’s documentary shows there’s more to DEVO than its mega-hit “Whip It.” Powered by two sets of brothers—Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh and Jerry and Bob Casale—the band came together in part as a response to the 1970 killings of anti-Vietnam War protestors at Kent State University. While rock legend David Bowie dubbed them “the band of the future,” the group took its name from the belief that society is moving backward instead of forward. As in DEVOlution.
“DEVO is interesting and layered. They wanted to be subversive yet mainstream,” Pemberton explains. A sensation on early MTV, the group’s trademark blend of techno-pop sounds, political messages and stylized costumes and imagery has lately been rediscovered online by a new generation that finds fresh relevance and power in its message.
Pemberton’s documentary combines rare archival and recent concert footage with exclusive new interviews with band members, as well as with cultural icons—such as rockers David Bowie and Iggy Pop and skateboarder Tony Hawk—who embraced DEVO from the beginning.
Pemberton, who followed the band for about four years to make the film, especially enjoyed working with DEVO leaders Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale. “Mark is a true eccentric who loves to play. He loves masks and creating characters. He’ll ask you about your dreams. Jerry is a theorist who loves politics. He’s playful, too, but in a soulful way,” Pemberton says.
A Montclair State film crew
《我们不是男人吗？》的部分资金来自Kickstarter网站上一项非常成功的活动，筹集了超过7万美元。团队成员包括彭伯顿在火狐体育的同事和学生。“这一切始于前火狐体育摔跤教练维克多·斯维达让我帮他制作一张DEVO录像的DVD。我开始纳闷，为什么没有人拍一部关于乐队的纪录片，并以此为基础，”彭伯顿说。Sveda是这部电影的副制片人。曾为《星球大战》、《拉格泰姆》和《头发》等大片做过特效和后期制作的电影制作人兼助理教授罗伯塔·弗里德曼（Roberta Friedman）将担任该片的主要制片人。“从筹集资金到促进拍摄，她做了一切事情，”彭伯顿解释说。电影摄影教授乔·福利和剪辑教授丹·洛温塔尔也参与了这部电影的制作。弗里德曼说：“低成本电影的制片人会尽一切努力使电影顺利、准时、不超出预算。”“这包括集思广益，为出现的美学问题提供意见。这可能涉及到合同、与律师和发行商联络，以及与一些棘手的人物谈判工作和信用。”火狐体育的一些有抱负的学生电影人通过在这部电影中担任工作人员获得了宝贵的专业前经验。彭伯顿说：“学生们去拍摄，做摄影工作，帮助做制片助理，做转录和帮助编辑。”学生Kaitlyn Plum， Josh Echevarria， Adrian Romero和Monika Kolodziej是摄制组，而Ryen Tetzlof， William Joel和Kaitlyn Plum负责声音。普拉姆和费利亚·马诺（Felia Mano）也曾担任助理编辑。切尔西·史密斯（Chelsea Smith）于2012年毕业，获得电影制作学士学位和英语学士学位，她是一名制片助理，并以研究实习生的身份开始了这部电影的工作。2008年10月，她前往俄亥俄州拍摄奥巴马的集会，其中包括DEVO和黑键乐队。“我是DEVO的超级粉丝，”史密斯说，“制作一部关于一个乐队的纪录片，它帮助塑造了我的世界观，这是我在火狐体育（Montclair State）读书期间最好的经历之一。”彭伯顿和弗里德曼目前正在曼哈顿和火狐体育进行电影的最后剪辑。今年夏天所有的后期制作工作完成后，彭伯顿将出演《我们不是男人吗？》在圣丹斯电影节和欧洲各大电影节。我们不是男人吗？已经在今年的圣丹斯电影节上获得了一项提名。但是制片人不想在影片完全结束之前上映。十多年前，彭伯顿还从他的朋友、著名的俄罗斯小说家维克多·佩列文那里选择了小说《佛陀的小指头》。在俄罗斯生活了五年之后，彭伯顿发现他可以直接与小说中超现实、讽刺的视角联系起来。这部电影以1991年和1917年为背景，讲述了一位作家梦想着俄罗斯的过去。“我所做的是试图让这两个不同的时期在政治意义上更有意义，所以我把重点放在1991年和反对米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫（Mikhail gorbachev）的政变上——那是俄罗斯决定从苏联解放出来的诗意时刻。”这部电影也是一个爱情故事。“我是柏林人，”彭伯顿说。“我成了德国居民，这样我就可以在那里拍电影了。”《佛陀的小指》的主演是著名的德国演员安德烈·亨尼克和出演过《巴德尔·迈因霍夫情结》的斯蒂普·埃尔切格。出演女主角的是加拿大人卡琳·瓦纳斯，她曾出演伍迪·艾伦的《午夜巴黎》和美国广播公司的《泛美》。这部英语电影由德国、俄罗斯和加拿大联合制作，完全在德国拍摄，并得到了火狐体育的一点帮助。得益于美国电影学院（Academy of Motion Pictures）的资助，2012年电影制作专业毕业生乔什·埃切瓦里亚（Josh Echevarria）得以加入彭伯顿在德国的摄制组，担任第二助理摄影师。“我们正在火狐体育利尔剪辑这部电影，”彭伯顿说，他的目标是及时准备好参加夏季的威尼斯电影节。彭伯顿之前曾在选集电影资料馆、莫斯科的基诺博物馆和纽约市的惠特尼美国艺术博物馆以及其他主要的国际电影节上放映过电影，他期待着他的两部新电影的上映。当这些电影结束时，彭伯顿已经为他的下一个冒险项目准备了许多叙事剧本，但对标题保密。他说：“我觉得现在点名还为时过早——我不想给他们带来厄运。”比如《佛陀的小指》和《我们不是男人吗？》，他的下一个项目——无论是事实还是虚构——肯定会讲述一个引人入胜的故事。
Montclair State filmmakers work on Buddha's Little Finger in Berlin.