One Man Band
In 1994 I rather accidentally got my first Producing credit on the premier episode of WNET’s City Arts. Until that time I had been working mostly as a cinematographer and editor on a variety of MTV promos and low budget music videos and had little experience or interest in docs. But I was keen on the then-new Hi-8 video format, and I was asked by series producer Jeff Folmsbee to do a test shoot to see how the new camcorders would perform in low light. Armed with just the camera, a wireless microphone and a Steadicam Junior, I shot graffiti artist Phil Frost as he put up a poster installation in Soho late one rainy night. I was thrilled by the immediacy and intimacy of being with a subject in that way! It was so liberated from the apparatus and crew of commercial and narrative production. Jeff was so excited by the quality and style of my footage that he hailed it as the look he had been seeking for his new show, and for the next five years I had fairly steady work on City Arts and the subsequent series Egg: The Arts Show as a producer/shooter and editor.
All of the links to clips you’ll see as you scroll down this page are samples of short format documentaries which I have produced in the same “One Man Band” mode. I have always been more of a listener than a talker, so it has been a perfect fit for me - hanging out with my subjects and interviewing them. And while I am often proud of my shooting skills, it is the way in which the personalities and enthusiasm of my subjects come across in my work that is the aspect of which I am most proud. In a 2000 article in the public telecommunications newspaper Current, Jeff said, “People shine through when they’re interviewed by Alex because he’s there.” Yeah.
CLICK AN IMAGE OR THE TEXT BELOW IT TO PLAY A CLIP
CLIPS WILL AUTO-PLAY. LONGER CLIPS WILL TAKE A MOMENT TO START STREAMING
(but you can pass the time by reading the little blurbs i wrote about each show)