There is a documentary coming about us next year called "You Are Here". By "us" I mean that somebody is making a documentary about The Bigfellas. Nuts, isn't it?
I've developed a friendship with Rick Bowman of Backyard Green Films here in San Diego. I've composed some music score and cues for some of his projects in the last year and he's been a mensch here in town.
Earlier this year, I went with him to fill in on a film he was shooting in England and we came up with the bright idea to go to Ireland to discover the music scene, record at some studios and then meet up with Shay in his hometown of Wexford. I've been dying to get over there for years and we pulled it off, it was a great trip. Basically, it started as a romp for a few days to extend a trip and have some beers and it turned into a film idea. I've heard worse motivations for a film.
Thesis
It's Rick's film, Shay and I (and others in The Bigfellas family) are just participants. But as I understand it, the movie will really zero in on the Ireland trip, Shay and my partnership and friendship, and the making of the next Bigfellas record (we've got 14 songs, mostly tracked as of this writing in December 2023).
The other "half" of the film would really be zeroing in on making an album in a studio. It's a good peek behind the curtain for people who love music who're curious about the mechanics of making a record. The idea being that it's interesting in theory to learn about the process and if you do it with some funny and entertaining musicians on screen, so much the better.
Harder Subject
Why would strangers want to watch this indie doc about a band that relatively few people have ever heard of? That's a great question. We should probably ask Rick since he's directing.
Personally, there are a ton of nonfiction books I've loved about dubious or seemingly-unexciting subjects (e.g. "Word Freak" about hardcore Scrabble). Same goes for documentaries; am I the only one here who saw Helvetica, a feature length doc about a font. I suddenly feel like The Bigfellas are inherently more interesting than a font.
Whether a piece of art is interesting or not all just depends on how that book is written or how that film is shot and edited.
If any filmmaker had full access to The Rolling Stones and a ton of archival footage, they would have to do a phenomenally intentionally bad job to make fans not want to watch it. That's easy. But us? Rick has a tough assignment and we can't wait to see what he comes up with.
Kickstarter - For Rick
I've always avoided GoFundMe and Kickstarter for the band and have even ridiculed it. They are great tools when done right. It seems creepy when musicians who don't play run a GoFundMe for somebody to buy them a new guitar, or when somebody mounts a Kickstarter campaign to have people pay for their trip to Bali. But done right, when a band with gigs needs a little help for lodging costs to pull off an important tour, or Zach Braff crowd-sources a movie when he already has existing fans, that seems great.
That said, most of this film has already been shot at the expense of Backyard Green Films and Rick. But making something doesn't get something seen. This Kickstarter campaign is to get things ready to send to film festivals and targeted online advertising and some theater rentals in 2024. Making a film and then failing to promote it is like advancing the football to the 5-yard-line then walking off the field. That's what Rick is trying to avoid. So:
