Joined by Estevan Munoz for an hour plus catch up session, we go into topics surrounding the creative process. Portland versus Philadelphia and how an artist evolves from their home base.
One of my first contributors with THRU Media, he was only 19 and searching for a portal to Portland. The time he spent helping build that foundation for the publication was mutual and it reinforced the direction he continued to go. I always thought he had the spark and I continue to see it.
Several years ago, we almost started a new series of videos inspired by Between Two Ferns, but the idea was that I’m couch surfing and interviewing artists at their home, preferably squeezed into a space not hospitable to an interview.
As of posting this, the world is being instructed to stay six feet apart from everyone. That makes this particularly nice to watch right now.
We produced this start to finish in one night, over beers, giving an authentic touch to the skittish editing. We did it with just two cameras and one lamp.
Estevan and Nicholas Munoz are a talented pair of dudes. They both still live and work in Portland. Nicholas is a comedian. Este wanted to be a filmmaker, but now he’s all in as a rapper, going by Chaz Matador. This however suits his other interests: Writing and Comedy. I met him because he was interested in writing for THRU Media. He joined up as an early “staff” writer and helped produce our Indiegogo video.
Watching this now, I think we discovered a good concept, but it was just the context of the moment. It was easy to perform, because back then, I was actually housing insecure, living the starving dirtbag artist lifestyle while posing as this sophisticated media guy. It could have been funny, each time finding a new way to crash at my guests’ house — like the only reason I’m doing this is to find a new couch to crash on.
A short documentary follows two artists installing a mural at The Portland Mercado.
Watch World Wide Wall (2016)
World Wide Wall is the title we used for this 2016 documentary for television. It was suggested by Producer Kathleen Dolan, the individual responsible for culling this whole project together, under our brand THRU Media.
We have a billboard sized mural that brings together two continents and two artists, Pablo Solares and Rachel Oleson. Obviously it’s a play on world wide web, but it is also a wall that brings down cultural divisions — not unlike the internet.
Nobody made a dime on this, by the way. We spent nothing also. It was put into regular rotation on Portland public access network Signal, and has been available on YouTube for free. We did not have the budget available to market this as a film, therefore we didn’t take the time to perfect it.
I do have some considerations toward editing this again, tightening it up by a few minutes, basically just getting my editing chops back, so that I can bravely take on another documentary. My credit for this is Editor.
I was fortunate enough to be given a well-prepared batch of video from Videography Forrest Brennan. He is kind of the genius behind this. Kate and I showed enthusiasm, and without much experience, I’d say we punched above our weight class. Forrest was already a journalist by education and videographer by trade, but he also did a great job. He has a good intuition.
The reason I became editor however is that Forrest was too busy to edit and I wasn’t happy with his first cut. It was only roughly six minutes and I felt he did a disservice to his own narrative. I still think he was trying to save time because he had already volunteered a tremendous amount of time and value. So I took a chance on my own edit. It became my full-time job for longer than I expected. Worth it.
Because I was so engrossed in the process and did not take time to accept reviews from colleagues before publishing, I can see finally that my cuts need some work. Nonetheless, I am proud of it. We are all proud of it.
