Brent Green.
October 15, 2009
After watching Brent Green’s “Hadacol Christmas” in class the other day, I decided to seek out more of his work. One of my favorite elements of the film was the music. It was very dynamic, and added to the tension and release of the film. I was pleased when I found out that this is typical of Green’s style. Most of his films have similar soundtracks. I began wondering if he also wrote the music to go along with his films.
While surfing YouTube for more of his work, I found a video titled “Brent Green performs his film ‘Carlin’ live”. I thought that maybe it would be him reading the narration over a projection of the film, and decided to check it out. I was correct, but additionally, it showed Green and a full band performing the soundtrack to “Carlin.” I find this very, very cool. Being able to “perform” a flim is a concept that not many people would think of. It really begins to cross the lines of genres and really shows off the artist as a jack of all trades. This performance of “Carlin” mixes film, music, spoken word, and performance art all into one very exciting piece. It opens up a whole new world (not to mention audience) for someone who is nominally a flimmaker. He could go on “tour” with his films and play them at rock clubs.
Bleow you can find the performance of “Carlin,” as well as the original flim.
Hey Mike,
I found your take on Brent Green’s performance very intriguing. I have to say, I love his voice and think it is so cool that he can combine his art with the musical performance of the voice-over. It reminded me of ‘Flight of the Concords’ for some reason, probably because they crossed over from one type of performance to another. I know it is incredibly different since the emotional responses of Green’s work are not exactly parallel to the laughter evoked by the New Zealand musical duo, but they resemble his movement from film to music in the reverse order. At least, this is how they started. Their first shows were designed around the songs that they already had – I’m not so sure about the second season regarding which came first. Do you know which came first for Brent Green, by any chance? I mean, did he make his film and then decide on music for it or did it happen simultaneously? They flow so well together that I would vote for the latter, I think.
Anyway, despite all my rambling, I like this entry =)