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"Film is dead." You may have heard that one before. But it's the battle cry of digital auteur and award-winning media maverick Todd Verow. Controversial? Yes. Far from the truth? Maybe not so far as you would think. With the omnipresent STAR WARS prequels being shot on and with new video tech, the global exposure afforded by the dotcoms, the re-emergence of "arty" cinema with movements such as Dogme 95 and the current popularity of Œreality-based TV', Boston-based Verow's daring predictions at the 1999 Sundance and Slamdance Film Festivals may well be remembered as the herald of an exciting and diverse new era in filmmaking.
"I truly feel that the digital film-making revolution is as important to new emerging filmmakers as the sound and color breakthroughs were to directors of the past‹ maybe even more so," says Verow to anyone who asks‹and people are asking. Verow was recently profiled in Time magazine as well as CBS's 48 HOURS. His Bangor Films team is being referred to as a model for independent-minded digital directors dissatisfied with outmoded Hollywood outlets and opportunities. Variety recently named him a "digital director to watch."
His Bangor Films production company‹named in homage to Verow's Maine hometown (and, at first encounter, may lead to visions of Stephen King and pet cemeteries) was created in 1996 by Verow and his creative partner, producer and screenwriter Jim Dwyer after the release of Verow's highly controversial indie first feature, FRISK, starring indie film queen Parker Posey, Alexis Arquette and Boston actor Eric Sapp.
FRISK'S baptism of fire began with a world premiere in San Francisco that nearly led to rioting. Shot on 16mm with a soundtrack by members of avant music darlings Sonic Youth and Coil, and hailed by some as an eerie, unsettling metaphor for the AIDS crisis and derided by others as politically incorrect, FRISK went on to screen at Sundance, Berlin and Toronto and afterwards, a limited arthouse theatrical release. It is a far cry from what Verow and Dwyer have been up to recently.
Embracing digital video early on with festival award winning features like mid-90's LITTLE SHOTS OF HAPPINESS (shot in Boston) and SHUCKING THE CURVE, Verow has become something of a cult hero in the indie film world for his maverick approaches to low-budget, yet high quality digital filmmaking.
"For the first time ever, filmmakers can completely own and control the means of production and postproduction," says Verow on his website bangorfilms.com. "The digital medium is opening up a whole new arena of opportunity, not only for those who have no access to professional, Œaccepted' filmmaking techniques and equipment or those who simply cannot afford to shoot 35mm, but for those who shun the mainstream, who are unimpressed with budgets that are spent on special effects to the detriment of character, story and cinematic integrity."
The power and freedom of owning and controlling their own tools is self-evident in the amount of work Bangor has put out. He and Dwyer are about to complete their tenth film in the past three years‹a self-assigned goal that they dubbed "10X2000." So far this year, they've made three trips to Europe for several different major international film festivals when most American filmmakers are lucky to get market screenings in Europe. (The Berlin International Film Festival for A SUDDEN LOSS OF GRAVITY, the Locarno International Film Festival for ONCE AND FUTURE QUEEN and the d-Vision Media Festival in Vienna for a retrospective of early shorts and current digital features.)
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Verow also feels that the freedom of video liberates those whom he regards as the most important people on a movie set, the actors. "My actors play characters, but instead of a standard fictional recording of their performance, I Œdocument' them. He explains, "The size of my digital camera is so small and unobtrusive that they aren't acting for the camera as much as they are acting for each other." This technique has led many to comment on the realism that Verow is able to capture with his actors, many of whom are given writing credits as Verow employs lots of improvisation.
"Improvisation can really help a film‹it needs to be carefully employed but it is a major plus for me," Verow says. He and Dwyer usually polish a 30 to 40-page script/treatment for each feature with the rest being a culmination of Verow's direction, actor's improv and Dwyer's focus as the film shoot progresses. "At all times, (an) actor's input is essential." says Verow.
They also make the annual Underground film festival circuit with their actors en masse. Actors like Boston-based Brenda Velez and Bill Dwyer and New York performance art legend Philly, who are dubbed "Verow superstars" by New York Underground Film Festival Director, Ed Halter, in tribute to Andy Warhol's wild underground celebrity discoveries of the sixties and early seventies. They picked up the juried Silver Prize for Best Feature at the recent Chicago Underground Film Festival for ONCE AND FUTURE QUEEN.
"Video really frees you up to experiment and try new ideas, which I find is the major thing that has been lacking in independent film in the last 10 to 15 years. Independent and underground film was always thought of as groundbreaking and inspiring‹work by Cassavetes, Warhol and Paul Morrissey etc;‹but I tend to think of a lot of American indie film now as indiewood. It's like a bike with training wheels for Hollywood and what you get out of that is a lot of bad b-movies based on tried and true Hollywood cliches. And I think people are sick of that. People are really yearning for new and exciting cinema; people want to see new things done in new ways!"
Verow and Dwyer also cite the internet as a powerful new tool in the independent artists' tool kit. "We've really done our homework and utilize(d) the internet as best we can," says Dwyer, who is a member of the Creative Advisory Board for successful film site eveo.com. "We've forged ties with dotcoms who are in it with a strong sense of their own purpose and a strong sense of what they can and cannot do for filmmakers." Currently Bangor Films screens online work at ifilm.com and eveo.com. Dwyer also writes a column for Insound.com where you can actually purchase VHS copies of their films.
And what does the immediate future hold? Look for LITTLE SHOTS OF HAPPINESS at your local Hollywood Video as Verow and Dwyer recently acquired a major video distributor for the Boston based story of office life gone haywire. Verow is working constantly, probably at this very minute. He is editing together a documentary/diary of the past year about Bangor Films and the digital revolution, titled UP AGAINST A STAR. "I've put together all this footage so far and I sit back and can't believe all the things we've seen and done and all the frequent flyer miles we've got!"
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