widescreen jamie stuart
Top Idiot with a Tripod Above Man with a Movie Camera ‘The first time I watched Man with a Movie Camera, I felt as if I'd seen it already. So much of what's in it has been filtered through filmmaking...
The making of Man in a Blizzard was an important step in raising Stuart’s profile as previously his films had proven to be somewhat niche...
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is drawn into icy memories of winters past. There is no glossy Hollywood sheen here, just carefully selected images that create a sense of time and place. This brand of direction doesn’t just happen, it takes tact and an appreciation for the audience’s need for space and stillness. In discussing Stuart’s work, which was shot in a blizzard in 2010, Ebert drew distinct parallels with Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera, a silent film from 1929. Even going so far as to re-name it, (Stuart’s original title was Idiot with a Tripod), and suggest that it acted as something of a homage. When asked about how Vertov’s piece had influenced his work Stuart replied: ‘The first time I watched Man with a Movie Camera, I felt as if I'd seen it already. So much of what's in it has been filtered through filmmaking - editing patterns, etc. - that my primary response was how impressive it was to have been made when it was. But I don't know that it had any revelatory influence on me because it was already part of my vocabulary. I had a similar reaction the first time I saw Koyaanisqatsi.’ Stuart further comments: ‘When I was shooting the film, Movie Camera was not on my mind at all - I was just trying to get something, anything. When I got back home after shooting it, before I edited anything, I emailed a friend and said: "I'm the idiot who just went outside to shoot in the snow." So, ultimately, the title, Idiot with a Tripod, sprung from that. It was Roger Ebert, of course, who really ran with the Movie Camera reference. When he uploaded my original Quicktime to YouTube, he called it Man in a Blizzard. I actually think Movie Camera had a bigger influence on a short I did a couple of months earlier called, NYFF48.’ Stuart’s understanding of classic film is deeply evident when watching Man in a Blizzard and when asked about his favourite
filmmakers Stuart lists a formidable range of revered names within the industry: ‘My favourite film maker is easily Stanley Kubrick. After him, I'd say Francis Ford Coppola, the Coens, Bergman, Fellini, Spielberg. A major influence on my work has been the '90s music videos of people like David Fincher, Mark Romanek, Spike Jonze and others. When I was first starting out doing web filmmaking, knowing my pieces would be in the 3-5 minute range, having a strong knowledge of how they put together their videos, which were the same length, was a huge help. I'm very much interested in natural and practical light.’ Stuart cites Kubrick’s longterm DP John Alcott as another important influence on his work and further states: ‘Harris Savides was a great help to me as I was starting out, and he often gave me his opinions of my work, and vice-versa. When I was doing press interviews for Idiot, he joked to me whether I was name-dropping him at all. I told him no, but that I had an old manual Nikon lens on my camera during a press shoot, so he was there in spirit. He liked that.’ The making of Man in a Blizzard was an important step in raising Stuart’s profile as previously his films had proven to be somewhat niche: ‘Most of my work at the time focused on indie film. I was best known for making these bizarre short films that would feature film-makers like Werner Herzog or George Clooney or Steven Soderbergh or Clint Eastwood, whom I had access to via press opportunities, and then I'd improvise narratives around that. Sometimes I even starred in the shorts myself. So I was wellknown within a certain clique, but there wasn't any general interest in my work outside of that.’ When Ebert tipped off the world about Stuart’s work, however, his film was watched over a million times online and garnered international interest. He has since worked with companies such as CNN, MCN and Filmmaker Magazine. Stuart credits the universally accessible theme as a reason for the film’s popularity although its for-
When asked what his favourite moment of the piece is, Stuart’s response betrays the bitter truth about film-making: the parts the makers are most attached to always end up on the cutting room floor. 'I wasn't that cold -- I was bundled, had a hat, gloves and scarf. The one stupid thing I did was to forget my snow boots and wore my Adidas, which, along with my pants, were soaked by the time I got in.' Below Jamie's appearance on ITV Daybreak January 3rd, 2011
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mat and timing also had a part to play: ‘When I shot the blizzard, I figured it might be something that could get a few more views, since the subject was more universal -- but, obviously, I didn't expect it to be as big as it wound up. Also, at the time, this was right in the middle of the DSLR craze, and websites like Vimeo, for instance, were filled with cameramen posting non-verbal mood films. I'd posted several, myself, as tests of new lenses and so on. When Idiot blew up, that was the mainstream apex of that type of film.’ As a viewer, Man in a Blizzard is gentle and moving, inviting its audience to observe quietly and contemplate man’s struggle against nature. For Stuart, however, the film has much more specific connotations: ‘The emotions I feel when I see it are based more around what it did for my career, as opposed to anything specifically on screen. I recently screened a 70-minute retrospective of my work at Lincoln Center, and by far, Idiot got the most applause. I don't know whether people really like it the best or whether it's because it's so well-known. Personally, in terms of actual quality, I consider it pretty much midrange for what I've done.’ Amusingly, Stuart’s friends are not always as bewitched by his talents as his audiences are: ‘In the middle of the hype around it
back in '10/'11’ he relays ‘a friend wrote to congratulate me - but he said that he thought this particular short was nothing out of the ordinary and was something I could've done in my sleep. You never know what's going to hit.’ When asked what his favourite moment of the piece is, Stuart’s response betrays the bitter truth about film-making: the parts the makers are most attached to always end up on the cutting room floor: ‘I don't know if I have a favourite moment in the film itself. I think my favourite moments are things nobody ever saw. For instance, during the cross-cut climax, one of the situations is a bunch of people trying to help a stuck car get free. Although it's just a handful of quick cuts in the finished short, in reality, I was shooting them for something like 6 minutes straight. So while all of these people were being good Samaritans and trying to get this car going, I was the jerk that just stood there filming it. When it was finally over, as one of the people walked past me, I said something like, "That was great!" He ignored me and kept walking.’ Stuart may have annoyed one or two of his fellow townsfolk but ultimately it got him the attention of one of the most influential film critics in the world. As the tagline from The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010) taught us, you don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies. [tbp]
watch Idiot with a Tripod (Man in a Blizzard) here » tinyurl.com/2cw9n8p Spring 2013
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