Richard Butchins's Blog: Angels stand corrected... - Posts Tagged "documentary"
How I ended up having sushi with Neil Gaiman
As I realise that everybody has become obsessed with celebrities and the best way to get your attention is to write about them. I am going to do just that. Today I'll tell you about meeting the "rock star" author Neil Gaiman.
I was travelling the roads from Portland Oregon to Austin Texas in a 1988 Bluebird school bus (the old yellow ones) The bus had been converted to run on vegetable oil - which was stolen from the back of diners along the route. I was filming a self professed "freak show" on the road. It was weird. At a stop in the aptly name town of Eureka in Northern California I found a greasy paperback at the back of the bus. American God's by a guy called Neil Gaiman. I looked interesting and I had a lot of time to kill, I had no idea who this Mr Gaiman was, but I really enjoyed the book. It seemed an ideal travel companion for my strange journey.
Cut to a year later and the documentary I made was finished - It was called the"Last American Freak Show" (way before American Horror Story stole the title) and I was in London. In the meantime I had investigated the mysterious author of the book American Gods. Turns out he's a graphic novel superstar. I read a couple more of his books and liked them. One day someone I knew (I forget who) was working on a TV show that Mr Gaiman was on and told me I should tweet him about my film. He might like it they said. I did. Amazingly he replied and I sent him a copy of the film and in due course he watched it and yes he liked it - a lot. This is what he said:
"It's remarkable. The first five minutes were the documentary I thought it would be. And then it becomes something much more real, and sadder and odder - for me it's, strangely, much more about America and what it does to people, and about the relationship between the observer and the observed, and about holding onto love when you don't have anything else, and about pain."
I was impressed and grateful, of course, Mr Gaiman was less busy and less famous back in 2009 when this happened, but we arranged to meet. I had an idea to make a documentary with him and he was into the idea. We had sushi - he paid. Unfortunately the TV channels were not keen on the idea and it never got made (that's not to say it never will).
That's my little story about a celebrity and I am pleased to say he is a very real and genuine person.
Please check out my debut novel here: Pavement thoughts of a serial killer
I was travelling the roads from Portland Oregon to Austin Texas in a 1988 Bluebird school bus (the old yellow ones) The bus had been converted to run on vegetable oil - which was stolen from the back of diners along the route. I was filming a self professed "freak show" on the road. It was weird. At a stop in the aptly name town of Eureka in Northern California I found a greasy paperback at the back of the bus. American God's by a guy called Neil Gaiman. I looked interesting and I had a lot of time to kill, I had no idea who this Mr Gaiman was, but I really enjoyed the book. It seemed an ideal travel companion for my strange journey.
Cut to a year later and the documentary I made was finished - It was called the"Last American Freak Show" (way before American Horror Story stole the title) and I was in London. In the meantime I had investigated the mysterious author of the book American Gods. Turns out he's a graphic novel superstar. I read a couple more of his books and liked them. One day someone I knew (I forget who) was working on a TV show that Mr Gaiman was on and told me I should tweet him about my film. He might like it they said. I did. Amazingly he replied and I sent him a copy of the film and in due course he watched it and yes he liked it - a lot. This is what he said:
"It's remarkable. The first five minutes were the documentary I thought it would be. And then it becomes something much more real, and sadder and odder - for me it's, strangely, much more about America and what it does to people, and about the relationship between the observer and the observed, and about holding onto love when you don't have anything else, and about pain."
I was impressed and grateful, of course, Mr Gaiman was less busy and less famous back in 2009 when this happened, but we arranged to meet. I had an idea to make a documentary with him and he was into the idea. We had sushi - he paid. Unfortunately the TV channels were not keen on the idea and it never got made (that's not to say it never will).
That's my little story about a celebrity and I am pleased to say he is a very real and genuine person.
Please check out my debut novel here: Pavement thoughts of a serial killer
More celebrity meetings...Radiohead and me
Well, it seems that true to form and somewhat depressing that you all read the posts about my celebrity interactions rather than extracts from my novel, but such is the way of the modern world.
When I was making my documentary the www.thelastamericanfreakshow.com I was at a loss for music to use. Now you may or may not know that if you use music in a film that is composed by someone else, or is commercially released, you have to pay a license, this can be very expensive indeed. So, what to do? I had a think and as I was living in Oxford at the time and had a passing acquaintance with various members of the band Radiohead (remember them?) and their crew. I was chatting to someone that knew Jonny the guitarist about the fact that I needed banjo playing on my film and they told me that Jonny had recently bought a banjo but that the band wouldn't let him play it with them (snobs....). Well, I happened to bump into him out and about one evening and I just asked him to watch the film and would he mind recoding some banjo for it if her had time - Oh and I couldn't pay him (I was tottally broke and had made the entire film on a credit card). He was fine about it - took the film and a while later sent me some mp3's with his banjo compositions on them. Thing was, they were terrible, really bad. He liked the film but had very little time I suppose (they went on a world tour shortly after) but I still have the recordings somewhere and as a result I had to learn the banjo and play the music myself ....cheers Jonny that was a result.
you can check out my novel here (on the blog) and here Pavement Thoughts of a serial killer
When I was making my documentary the www.thelastamericanfreakshow.com I was at a loss for music to use. Now you may or may not know that if you use music in a film that is composed by someone else, or is commercially released, you have to pay a license, this can be very expensive indeed. So, what to do? I had a think and as I was living in Oxford at the time and had a passing acquaintance with various members of the band Radiohead (remember them?) and their crew. I was chatting to someone that knew Jonny the guitarist about the fact that I needed banjo playing on my film and they told me that Jonny had recently bought a banjo but that the band wouldn't let him play it with them (snobs....). Well, I happened to bump into him out and about one evening and I just asked him to watch the film and would he mind recoding some banjo for it if her had time - Oh and I couldn't pay him (I was tottally broke and had made the entire film on a credit card). He was fine about it - took the film and a while later sent me some mp3's with his banjo compositions on them. Thing was, they were terrible, really bad. He liked the film but had very little time I suppose (they went on a world tour shortly after) but I still have the recordings somewhere and as a result I had to learn the banjo and play the music myself ....cheers Jonny that was a result.
you can check out my novel here (on the blog) and here Pavement Thoughts of a serial killer
Angels stand corrected...
I have to have a blog...the site told me, my publisher told me, my publicist told me, and even my turkish barber told me, as he was administering the finest of close shaves. So I thought I had better
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