When I began this project, I sat down with Justine D, who was the first person I approached with my idea. Justine asked me frankly why my interest in doing a documentary on the New York music scene had turned drastically towards MOTHERFUCKER. I replied, just as frankly: MOTHERFUCKER doesn't bore me. Most everything else does.
Since 1999, when I moved to New York, I have witnessed a comatose rock scene come to life, creating successful situations for a few artists that deserve it and for many that don't. My feelings regarding recent trends in the scene are fair and publicly understood, but there's no story there. With MOTHERFUCKER, a party I have been following since 2000, I have met personalities and moments that were real, not based upon what the crotchety critics wanted me to feel.
What I expect to find through this film is a reclamation of the underground. I attended my first MOTHERFUCKER in 3 years, this Labor Day weekend. The word debauchery was thrown around many times while I was in the room that night. This is debauchery. It confused me. Debauchery implies shame. It implies action not proud of later. Yet for many at MOTHERFUCKER - the ones that have been enjoying it since the beginning - this is the proudest time of their lives. Paris Hilton debauches. Rick Solomon debauches the sorority girls he shoots at South Padre Island. I've never felt that coming from the producers of MOTHERFUCKER. MOTHERFUCKER has class.
So, if we are to say that Paris has burned - the mainstream has owned the underground - then MOTHERFUCKER is the Phoenix rising from its ashes. Hilton, Solomon and the Girls Gone Wild have owned debauchery without consequence.
Culture has been subverted - as the mainstream imitates the seedy past of the underground - yet the underground has moved on. It's matured. Reactionaries never accomplish their goal, they point out the problem and rage against it. It is the children of their movement that enjoy the fruits of the undertaking. In the long lineage of the New York Music scene - from Studio 54, to the Mudd Club to Squeezebox - MOTHERFUCKER is that child.
PRODUCTION ELEMENTS
Visual Elements:
ORCHESTRATION v. DOCUMENTATION
We will create the MOTHERFUCKER ballet. As presented in the HYPEMEN pilot, our fast-working crew will be concentrating on a pursuit of beautiful imagery just as fairly as our need to document the story. When approaching the dilemmas evident in shooting a 10 hour party four times, this will allow us to focus on the poetry of the event, rather than the intensity of the hoards of party-goers.
INTERVIEWS
This story is about personalities. Just as much as the parties are beautiful, the myth we will create will be done through interviewing people in first hand accounts: what does MOTHERFUCKER mean to you? You will see from our list below, our story will be centered around interviews with the right people. These are the people that were there. These are the people that decide what works and what is fake. They know. Without them, this story, this idea, this music wouldn't exist. We will turn our cameras on for the first time at MOTHERFUCKER NYE's 2006. From their, our story will grow, following the magnetic personalities we find within.
THE PIXEL
Digital footage is compiled of information and placed together as pixels. If there is any nod to the past of rock documentaries, it will be in our adherence to the grittiness of live shows. We will push the footage to enhance its pixilation. We will own these tiny bites of information; they contain emotional energy.
SCOPE OF FILM:
1) To provide an objective narrative history of the modern Rock Scene in New York, through the most happening event in recent history, MOTHERFUCKER.
2) To create a sincere agenda that recognizes the faults of such a productive music scene, namely its impeccable irony, lust for fame and overwhelming hype.
3) To better understand the modern Music Industry, one that has recently morphed into a place of on-line critics, blogs and free downloading of music.
THE HISTORY
Following the legacy of unoeroticism and androgyny created by such venues and parties as Max's Kansas City, Squeezebox and at times, CBGBs - where talent has failed, MOTHERFUCKER has persisted. It's hot, it's a freakfest - there are so many stories here.
Only at MOTHERFUCKER do hipsters become more than the bored, blase assholes they act like - so, MOTHERFUCKER will stay.
- david