New Zealand filmmaker Taiki Waititi went from HBO's "Flight of the Concords" to the next "Thor" but along the way he made the sweet indie comedy "Hunt for The Wilderpeople;" Musician Mike Hadreas aka Perfume Genius opens up about being bullied and embracing his queer identity; Big name musicians take on Youtube and the DMCA
Director Taika Waititi 'felt a bit like Herzog' while filming 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople'
Starring Sam Neill and young newcomer Julian Dennison, "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
Since then, “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” has been doing great business in its home country of New Zealand — and it hits American theaters this week.
The comedy-adventure tells the story of a juvenile delinquent sent to live with his foster aunt and uncle out in the bush. It’s written and directed by Taika Waititi, the filmmaker behind “What We Do In The Shadows” and “Boy”. He was also a writer and director on the HBO series “Flight of the Conchords,” but he’s now directing the next “Thor” movie for Marvel Studios.
"Wilderpeople" is based on the novel "Wild Pork and Watercress" by Barry Crump, but as Waititi explained when we met up with him at Sundance this year, there was one important detail he had to leave out in the film adaptation:
What happens in the book is the kid starts off quite hefty, he's quite fat, and then by the end of the book he loses all that weight because of all the time he's out in the wilderness. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to crash diet 12-year-olds.
Interview Highlights:
He didn't want to do the Christian Bale?
No, don't think he's interested in that. So we decided to get rid of that bit, but I think it works having someone who physically appears that they really couldn't look after themselves in the bush. It sort of adds to the sweetness and you're behind him. You're kinda rooting for this real fish out of water. I did this commercial with Julian and I actually wrote the script after that and once I got the rights to the film...even then I knew I wanted to use Julian, just from doing this commercial with him.
I said to someone after seeing the film that without Julian in that role there's no movie
Absolutely, 100 percent. That's the thing that struck me when I first met him. He's charming, he's funny, he's really sweet-natured and he's a good person underneath it all. I think that is exactly what that character is as well. He puts on this front with this bravado, he talks about being a gangster all the time, but underneath he's just a timid little boy.
You are a filmmaker, you also do comedy, and you're a visual artist. How do all those disciplines come together in the making of a film?
Visually, I'm always considering shots and composition quite a lot and I love putting art into films and I do a lot of the art. In another film I did, "Boy," I did a lot of the animation. Hand-drawn animations and stuff. Most of my films — if you look at the tone, apart from "Shadows," which is straight-up comedy — the tone is a mix between comedy and pathos and I really love that. I love films that make you feel something, but also deliver that payload behind jokes. Having a background of comedy and improv and making stuff with very little means...I love all of that handmade stuff.
When you made your film, "Boy," you were unable to get a legitimate US theatrical distributor. You had to raise your own, correct?
(sighs) Yep.
But that's part of the equation, right? That you come here even with this film you need to get distribution in the States. How are you able to separate that part of the equation from the actual experience. Or is it always in the back of your mind?
It's interesting, I care less about it now, but right from the beginning it's on my mind. For instance, this film has got hardly any swearing in it, I think there's probably one F-bomb, whereas my other films I didn't care at all. I was like, Say what you want, put it in, who cares? This is art. That really affects ratings and how people feel like they can position a film. I was thinking about that, keeping it entertaining and heartfelt. I often, just because I'm a New Zealander, I shy away from sentimentality and cheesiness. I feel like when that's happening in one of my stories I feel very very uncomfortable.
But there's definitely more of an element of that in this film. The heartfelt stuff and the weird, icky, lovely feeling that you get at the end of the film, which we worked hard to get. We thought Yeah, people will want to see this. We didn't want it to be a super Hollywood ending, but we also didn't want it to be a Cannes ending where everyone dies. It's entertainment. I'm becoming more aware that you have to entertain people. I think the whole landscape of filmmaking is so different at the moment — we aren't afforded a great opportunity to make personal art films that are very, very dark, because nobody sees them. And I really want people to see my films.
Your next film is the Marvel adaptation of "Thor." Do you think you're going to have the latitude and the freedom to bring some of your personality to the making of that movie?
I like to think so, check in with me in 18 months. I think so, just from working there the last few months, everyone there is smart and they know the stories they want to tell. Imagine having the pressure of fans, of what fans want. If I had to give into fans' demands, not that I have any, but the four fans that I have if I had to give into them, I would just be making the same film every time. So I totally get that whole system, but luckily with Marvel there's not a huge amount of execs, producers and stuff. It's actually a really small, tight-knit group of smart people.
Part of the story is how difficult it is to get along in the bush. Was this a difficult, physically, challenging movie to make given the locations that you were in?
Yeah, definitely. It was winter and New Zealand winters are just terrible and harsh and freezing and always wet. I felt a bit like Herzog trying to drag a crew through the mud. We really were — we were carrying big things and trudging through the mud, losing our boots in the mud and stuff for weeks and weeks. I think 80 percent of the film is all exterior in winter. It was a stupid idea, but what is great is it looks amazing. Sometimes it's worth putting yourself and your crew through that. When they see the result they're like, Oh, five weeks wasn't actually too bad for that.
Perfume Genius channels trauma from being bullied into inspiration for his music
Seattle-based musician Mike Hadreas, better known by his stage name, Perfume Genius is not afraid to express his queer identity in his music.
In his lyrics, he addresses issues that young gay men face, and he wears high heels and women’s clothing in his music videos.
When Hadreas joined us on The Frame, he talked about the challenges and bullying he faced while defining his identity, and how he's able to constantly learn from his own songs.
Interview Highlights:
The opening line of "Hood" is "You would never call me baby / If you knew me truly." What was the mood in which you were writing this song, and how specific do you want to get in terms of what you're referring to?
Oh, you know. [laughs] I wrote most of that album when I was in a new relationship and had fallen in love and stuff, but that comes with its own weird set of insecurities coming to light. I know what it's like to be depressed and alone, as awful as that is [laughs].
I understand what's going on, but to be depressed with someone else that was new? That song's about how I could feel the love from my boyfriend, but I felt like he still didn't fully know me. And if he did, he would feel differently.
How much of that idea of who you are is formed by other people as opposed to your own self?
Oh god, too much. [laughs] It depends on when you learn that you're different, if you are, and I learned that pretty quick. Then you become pretty self-aware, I started becoming more aware of how I was holding myself, what I sounded like when I talked — I could get made fun of, beat up, whatever. Essentially, all the things I write about are all the things I was made fun of for in high school. People think it's badass when I wear heels on stage, but they didn't think that in middle school.
What happened when people were bullying you?
All kinds of things happened — slammed against a Pepsi machine, I remember that vividly. But it was not as physical; I got a letter signed from the heterosexual population of my high school once, telling me that if I didn't stop "sucking d**k," that they wouldn't treat me like a human being. [laughs] That was a pretty clear letter, and just weird stuff like that?
What does the school do when you show them a letter like that or say that you're getting harassed?
They don't do anything, and I realized really quickly that I could get out of class if I printed these letters out and showed them to the police or the teacher or whatever, but as far as anything serious beyond looking the other way when I don't come to school, nothing really happened.
I think, like a lot of people, adolescence is hard and you're trying to figure out who you are as a person. But as you're trying to figure those things out and become your true self, is there a parallel development in becoming your true self as an artist?
I think so. I didn't go to college, I don't have a degree, so my music, if I want it to sustain me, I need to make money. A lot of people are not going to purchase music from a dude wearing heels and stuff like that when he's singing, so I do think about those things. In the beginning of writing, I start thinking, Maybe I should try to write something that will be on "Grey's Anatomy." [laughs]
Some sort of ballad over the end titles?
Yeah, I mean, I just think about it. But I always end up making something really not commercial, and strange, and even more alienating to basic people. [laughs]
Alienating to basic people — that could be the title of your next album. [laughs] I want to play another song, this one's from your last album and it's called "Queen." There's a confidence, a pride, and a self-awareness in this song that's really remarkable. It's basically telling other people, "This is who I am, and if you don't like it, get out of the way."
Yeah. It's a projection too, but the more I sing it, the more I keep some of it for my actual self as opposed to me on stage.
Meaning you can actually learn from your own songs?
Yeah! My music is like that for me. I try to make songs that are difficult for me to sing or hard to do live, or maybe the lyrics still make me uncomfortable, but eventually it all becomes second nature. Then it becomes more for other people.
Perfume Genius will be performing at The Broad museum this Saturday for an event titled “Nonobjective: Summer Happenings.”
Influential musicians band together against YouTube over lax DMCA rules
Do you regularly use YouTube to listen to music? Well, some very big-name artists are urging Congress to change the rules when it comes to music posted to the social video site.
Some 200 musicians including U2, Taylor Swift, Vince Staples, and Paul McCartney signed an open letter to Congress about The Digital Millennium Copyright Act — or DMCA for short. It’s a law that was passed 18 years ago — a lifetime in internet years — that governs, in part, what happens to copyrighted material when it’s shared online.
Musicians and record labels believe that YouTube, Google’s video sharing platform, isn’t paying a fair share to artists for the music YouTube users listen to for free. With streaming royalties more important than ever what with physical sales of CDs plummeting, YouTube is seen as a threat to the music industry.
Robert Levine writes about media and technology and is a contributor to Billboard. He joined us to explain the issue with the DMCA and how the various music sites differ.
Interview Highlights
If I'm a musician and I see a song of mine on YouTube and it's not authorized. It's been posted without my permission. What does something called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act give me in terms of my rights to go to YouTube and say, take this off of your site?
It depends. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, strictly speaking as a statute, basically says that online companies, whether that's an ISP [internet service provider] or a digital locker or a site like YouTube, they have immunity from liability from something that a user posts. If a copyright owner wants it taken down, the copyright owner has to file what's called a DMCA take-down notice. But over the years, YouTube has gotten a little better for rights holders and a lot more complicated. If you're a major label or a big rights holder, you can use what's called Content ID. They do some filtering and they give you the choice to monetize it. If you're not a major rights holder. You may not be able to use Content ID so you may have to file individual DMCA takedown notices for every incidence of your music. Not each song or each album. Each time that it's posted.
Right now, we have major artists like Taylor Swift and U2 asking congress to essentially amend the DMCA. They say in a letter that it "threatens the continued viability of songwriters and record artists to survive." What are they asking and what are some possible solutions to make sure that everyone is fairly compensated and that YouTube can continue to be a site where you can find music?
Well, first of all, I think it's important to mention that most of the different entities in the music business rarely agree on anything. Half the time they're fighting each other so the fact that so many people agree on this gives you a sense of how important this is for the music business. The DMCA gives YouTube a huge negotiating advantage. Now that's what's at issue here. If you look at the intent of the law, it was not to give some companies an advantage over others. I think Congress would have to be incredibly careful about adjusting the law in away that gets you what you want -- more equitable negotiations -- without destroying YouTube as a place for the creativity of individuals. Should I have the rights to post pictures of my cat or a video of my friends on YouTube? Sure. Should they have the right to have all the music ever recorded for whatever price they want? Probably not. Separating those is going to be very complicated. And I have to say, although I think it's an important project, I have a hard time imagining such a deadlocked Congress making much progress on it anytime soon.