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path-of-my-childhood · 5 years

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How Miss Americana director Lana Wilson found the real Taylor Swift

By: Alissa Wilkinson for Vox Date: January 28th 2020

[Excerpt: Conversation with Lana Wilson]

At the premiere, Taylor said that you two weren’t really sure what kind of movie you were going to be making when you first got started. So how did this project end up happening?

I was introduced to Taylor by Morgan Neville, who’s a producer on the film. I went to meet her in person, and she had watched some of my work. We talked for an hour about documentaries and storytelling.

I knew and loved her albums. I would tell friends, “Oh, you should listen to her early country stuff, because it’s such great songwriting.” I don’t know much about country music, but I knew she was an extraordinary songwriter. So I admired her, and knew she’d been writing her own songs for 15 years, and all of that. But I didn’t know anything about her personal life, or what she was really like beyond her songs.

So, when first met, we had a mutual admiration for each other’s work. She appreciated that my documentaries give audiences space to come to their own conclusions. They’re about gray areas and complexity. She really responded to all of that.

We talked about doing a documentary that felt raw and intimate and complex and messy. She was coming out of an important time in her life. She’d been out of the public eye for a year, and she was coming back. She wanted to keep making work and going out into the world, but she wanted to do it in a way where she wasn’t caring as much about getting everyone’s approval and getting everyone to like her.

That was something I related to, as a creative person. It’s terrifying to put your art into the world. You always hope everyone likes it, even though you know not everyone will like it. We’re all on social media and more conscious than ever of how we measure up to other people, and if people like us or not.

And I related to her as a female artist in a male-dominated industry. There is something different about needing to be liked by the people in your industry, by the people that you work with. You’re judged based on whether you’re likable or not if you’re a woman, in a way that you’re not if you’re a man. I immediately thought this could be incredibly rich and deep, and started filming. The evolution of her political, feminist consciousness leading to this decision to speak out politically, for me, was extraordinarily powerful to witness.

A lot of the big public events in the movie are familiar to most people who pay any attention to pop culture, but this movie feels like we’re getting access to behind-the-scenes footage. A lot of people thought they knew what was going on with Swift behind the news headlines, but that’s not necessarily true.

Right. It was a challenge and a joy in the edit room to figure out how to do this. The film primarily covers about two years. But then, you have to ask, what elements of her backstory and her past do you need to know in order to have the context for the emotional journey she’s on now?

She’s had this 15-year career already, so we had an overwhelming amount of material to choose from. We ended up, in the edit room, deciding to use the archival footage as sparingly as possible; we just used what you needed to know to understand where she was coming from, and why [the decision to speak out] was so profound for her.

It seems like putting together this story would be especially hard with a subject about whom everyone has preconceptions. Everyone thinks they know who Taylor Swift is. Your other films are about people who aren’t celebrities (though they’re public figures in their own way). Did it feel like you had to do something different to find what the story would be for this one?

Well, yes and no. I do feel like my other films are about people living in extraordinary circumstances. And they’re about giving audiences the chance to intimately experience [the subjects’] lives, even though their lives could probably not be more different than the audience members. So my approach was certainly common here. I was surprised by moments [in Taylor’s life] that I thought people could relate to, especially women and girls. So those were really the focus.

But of course, it was very different in some ways than my other films, in terms of the amount of information that was publicly available about this person. And you’re right that people have all kinds of preconceptions about Taylor Swift.

I think my favorite thing about the movie is how much we get to watch Taylor just work! Documentaries about artists’ processes fascinate me, and that’s a huge part of this movie. We get to just watch her write songs. I think it may also help show some skeptics she’s the real deal as a songwriter, especially for people who assume she’s just a manufactured pop star because she’s young and pretty and successful.

No one had ever filmed with her in the studio before.

Ever?

Ever. She had occasionally used her own cellphone to film, which you see a little bit of in the film.

It was fun for me, as a creative person too, to see the process. She’s always recording voice memos, or writing notes of lyrics in her phone. You have to do this as a writer — you have to catch ideas as they come. She’s such a pro at that.

It’s fun to watch someone who’s just been such an extraordinary songwriter for 15 years, who has the craft down. I loved watching that. But no one had ever filmed with her in the studio before, so it was a process. I went in alone with a camera and planted myself in the corner. On day two, I might move around a little more. On day three, I might bring in a sound recordist. I try to make as small of a footprint as possible — just me, or me and one other person, in the room.

It was a challenge. But I think in the end, she came to enjoy having us there. It’s different, but in my past films, with sensitive filming situations, I’ve tried to just be still and radiate support. I know I’m not invisible, and I’m not going to disappear. But I can become part of the process in a silent way.

That’s the funny thing about documentary — it’s kind of like a science experiment. Things change under observation. But I do wonder, since Taylor is so used to the spotlight, if it’s different in her case. Did you feel like she was more or less aware of the cameras, aware of managing her image for the cameras, than someone else might have been?

You’d have to ask her, honestly. I think my presence felt different than those of other people filming her have been in the past. I mean, this is someone who has paparazzi after her all the time. And just seeing a camera out of nowhere — it’s scary. A camera has the potential to be a destructive — and has been — a destructive force in her life. The microscope she’s been put under by the media and by the public, and it’s not just about her music. It’s about her as a person. She is without peers, in a lot of ways. She’s writing all her own songs. A totally self-created artist who’s been doing this for 15 years, at the top of her game.

But to say she has no peers is both a compliment and a quandary, because there aren’t a lot of role models to look at. She’s doing this under intense layers of public scrutiny, both about her as an artist and a person. And she’s somehow managed to maintain her humanity and her sense of humor despite all of that. That was amazing for me to see.

I think some people are going to assume she really managed this portrait of her, too. Which might be because you don’t really appear in the documentary.

Yes. I don’t put myself in my documentaries. I never have. There’s one point in the film where you hear my voice, and that was the idea of one of our editors, Lindsay Utz. I thought it was a great idea.

It’s you asking Taylor a follow-up question, right?

Yeah. She says there’s no such thing as a bitch or a slut, and then apologizes, then asks herself why she’s apologizing. You can hear me saying, “Well, we’re trained to say sorry.” It was a great thing to have in there, because it relates to something a lot of women experience. If you speak out too much or go too far, or you’re too strong or assertive, you’re like, “Oh, God. I’m so sorry. Did I offend you? Is that okay?”

Taylor really wanted a director to bring her perspective to the documentary, and working with her, I felt like I had the freedom to tell the story. So I don’t put myself in my movies, but I do feel like I chose the story I wanted to tell.

And when I showed her the film, she loved it. She was never not game for anything. She didn’t have some plan for what the documentary should be. She really wanted someone to come in, film her life, and then make a story.

There’s something very comforting about that idea, of having someone else make sense of your own journey.

I think a lot of documentary subjects agree to be in films because they’re curious about the story they’ll be told about their life. They want an outside perspective. I mean, that’s part of why I go to therapy. My therapist is telling me a novel about my life, and I learn so much from that. I think it can be similar with documentary subjects. I saw this person going through this transformational chapter in her life that was a moment of reflection and self-assessment.

That’s why I wanted to bookend the film with her looking at her childhood diary. I wanted to start it in a provocative way, where we’re situating ourselves in her inner voice.

I wanted the movie to start in a way that would signal this movie is going to be different from other pop star movies, by having us hear her, over images of her at the peak of her fame, saying, “I became the person who everyone wanted me to be.” I always knew I wanted to end the film with her walking back out to the stage, back out into the public eye. Putting her art out there — putting herself out there again — but with this new self-knowledge and self-awareness.

I think that it’s brave of her to do this documentary, because she’s not someone who needs to do this. She had the bestselling album on earth last year. But I think she wants to be able to communicate with people.

And there’s so much that I hope is comforting and inspiring and relatable for so many people in sharing this experience with them. Even though a lot of it is hard.

I think people have this idea that stars who got famous when they were young are just born with that ability, that they’re never dealing with fear or self-doubt. Miss Americana really complicates that narrative, making us clear of how much fear and need to please has been part of her life.

We’re all trying to be confident people in the world. You might be a creative person putting your work out there. Or you might need to have a difficult conversation with your family that you’ve been avoiding, which we also see Taylor do in the film. We’re all trying to find ways to be true to ourselves and be confident people, but we all inevitably have insecurities and challenges. I wanted to show all of that contradiction and complexity in this movie.

#this is a ''tiny'' bit long... but a fun read #Vox #interview #Lana Wilson #about taylor #spoilers #taylor swift #Taylor Swift: Miss Americana #sundance 2020 #lover era

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lorcleis · 7 years

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tag meme: what i’m writing

List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on. This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets, whatever.

Tagged by: the trash monarch @sagemb

Okay so like Amy I am working on ten million things at once so I’m just going to list them in the order that they’ll probably end up done.

numero uno: corinthians, corinthians: sinking, and all corinthians-related projects

I love this fucking series with all of my heart but I’ll probably end up finishing it by the time Dwayne The Rock Johnson becomes president. Here’s an excerpt from chapter 11 of Corinthians:

“You watch your language, Valentina,” Josiah said. His voice had an underlying growl to it that betrayed a hot temper. “You raise your voice to me again and I will double your punishment. You will be shoveling waste until the cows come home.”

“That analogy doesn’t make any sense!” She shouted. Her hair flew everywhere. “We don’t even have cows!”

An excerpt from Corinthians: Sinking:

They tell the new guy about the regular, but he still fumbles through his first interaction with him, all thumbs at the cash register and stutters when he speaks.

“Lilies, right?” Jack asks. He fidgets with the ends of his apron.

“Lilies.” Dimitri nods and glances at something on his phone. He couldn’t pay less attention to Jack if he tried.

The metal tip of Jack’s prosthetic leg taps against the tile of the florist shop as he reaches into the back for the ever-present bundle of lilies reserved for their ever-present Sunday customer.

Dimitri glances down at Jack’s leg, but knows better than to ask about someone else’s war wounds. Jack notices his glance and bites his lip.

“Strigoi attack,” Jack says. He places the lilies on the counter gingerly. “They like whole limbs now, I guess.”

Dimitri grunts and Jack is suddenly away of how imposing his frame is in the tiny store. He hands Jack a set of bills and takes the lilies, leaving without another word.

An excerpt from Monarchists:

“You? You’re in class with them?” Sasha pointed towards the trio, who had moved on from braiding Norah’s hair to reading a book Loren had brought with studious sincerity.

“Astounding, I know,” Kailani said dryly. “But they can’t go it on their own. They might make up water, fire, and air, but they still need earth. Rumor has it, they’re searching for a spirit user as well, but none have turned up in this generation yet.”

As Sasha watched them from afar, Norah lifted her head from the book and made eye contact with him. She had an unscrupulous glance, but her face was so mesmerizingly beautiful it was like staring at the sun. Norah smiled, slow and cat-like. Sasha blinked, looking away in embarrassment.

“Don’t get too attached,” Kailani said, looking at Sasha’s expression. “The last one in their little group died in the spring semester. Brigitte was a bitch, but she didn’t deserve to be pulled apart by Strigoi like a rack of baby-back ribs.”

“And you?” Sasha asked.

“What about me?” Kailani answered.

“Do you think you’ll go the same way?” Sasha turned away from Norah’s group sitting on the grass, but could still feel her gaze on him.

“I like to think that I’ll go out in a more spectacular fashion. Maybe sparklers will be involved.” There was a twinkle in Kailani’s eye.

numero dos: paradise

This is half a short film and half a podcast. I have 10 million ideas running around in my head for Paradise and originally wanted to make it a mockumentary short film, but I think I can do it as a podcast as a proof of concept thing, then make that into a short film when I have the resources.

The town of Paradise is shaken by the murder of the town sweetheart, Kitty Westerfield. When an opportunistic journalism student catches wind of the conspiracies surrounding her death, she begins an investigation that might reveal more than she bargained for.

The Paradise cheer squad set up a memorial for her by her locker. It's decorated with pictures from her Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. Her favorite flower is a light pink rose and Laura has made sure her locker is full of them. It smells up the entire hallway; people can barely stand it. It's as if Kitty Westerfield is haunting everyone from beyond the grave.

numero tres: wardlaw gardens

This has been in my back pocket for years and years. I sort of want to start shooting scenes from it, but I’m afraid it will fall flat, you know? My original concept was a four-book series, but I’m thinking it might better suit a TV show.

It was the quiet moments right after midnight when he could finally breathe. Bruise preferred a solitary life, which was something most people never understood. So he came here, to the roof. To the only place where he could think.

He narrowed his eyes as the light flickered again, this time in another window. Someone at Wardlaw was a restless as he was.

The world held its breath.

Bruise stood, shaking the darkness of the night off of him. His cigarette was gone and Monet had disappeared, taking the lighter with him. He made a note to buy another pack from the corner store when they were let off for weekends.

“Goodnight,” Bruise said, half to the world around him and half to the light in the distance, ever-flickering.

He began walking back towards the edge of the fire escape, but turned around to take one last look at the distant outline of Wardlaw Gardens.

The manor home was stately and vast, only the main house visible from the roof of Dumfries’s east wing. All lights were off save for one on the top floor at the far end. The curtains shifted to reveal a figure that Bruise could barely make out through the darkness. He could have sworn she put a finger over her lips.

Quiet.

The bell tower in the village chimed lightly, echoing across the surrounding mountainside and breaking Bruise out of his reverie. He descended the fire escape and entered the east wing of Dumfries through a crack in the back door. It was one o’clock in the morning.

Some call the hour after midnight the witching hour.

numero quatro: stygian

Uh, I just really love PJO/HP crossovers??

numero cinque: other shit i found in my google drive

So there was a thing called The Other Few about an aged child saviour of a fantasy realm that portalled to different places and was framed for murder:

“’Hmm?’ All you have to say to that is ‘hmm?’” Walden was becoming increasingly exasperated.

“Time moves more slowly in the Other Realm,” Isa said. “Hollis and I were taken in the late 1800s, but didn’t come back until recently.”

“No thanks to you,” Hollis said.

“Will you ever let that go?” Isa asked.

“They exiled me into the 1980s,” Hollis said. “It was awful.”

“Okay, so you’re time travelers,” Walden said.

“No,” Hollis and Isa said in unison.

“So you’re aliens,” Walden replied.

“No.”

“Alright,” Walden threw his hands into the air. “I give up.”

Isa sighed. “Hollis and I were soldiers. We were chosen when we were children by people from the Other Realm to help carry out a prophecy, but because we lived in the Other Realm so long there were… side effects.”

“Like your friend here’s translucent skin and my immortality,” Hollis said.

“You get to live forever?” Walden asked.

Hollis leveled a blank stare at him. “Yeah, it’s a hoot.”

Something called Mortuaria that only had a character list???:

NARRATOR

The one who narrates.

CECIL PAIL

A calm child of fourteen years. He is very reserved and considers his words carefully before he says them. Ebenezer’s nephew.

EBENEZER CAIRO

The eccentric owner of the funeral home in town. He may be silly at times, but his beliefs are very firm and he is often closed-minded about the most ridiculous things.

CARTER LANG

The funeral home assistant to Ebenezer. He preps all of the bodies for burial. Carter bears the burden of most of the work and does it with grace and a touch of sarcasm.

CONSTANCE BAUDELAIRE

The eldest sister in the Baudelaire coven. She has had to play mother after their father died and their mother succumbed to the darkness. She is strong-willed and always ready for an argument. Constance helps protect the reapers within the funeral home.

MAGDALENA BAUDELAIRE

The middle child of the Baudelaire coven. Maggie is the soft side to everything and a social butterfly, often complimenting Constance’s rougher side.

CARYS AND IVA BAUDELAIRE

The youngest girls in the Baudelaire coven and twins. Carys is handy with potions magic but cannot seem to perform spells on her own. Iva has a wealth of power but rejects the notion of witches.

RHYS IRONS

A well-dressed demon with a Queen’s English accent. He is often dressed in fine suits and pines after Constance.

AMARINTHE KAR

The nephilim librarian and caretaker of the Historic Lindley house. Cecil’s tutor. She’s a spitfire of a woman that gets along better with the elder residents of the town than people her own age.

ADELAIDE AND BRAM PAIL

Cecil’s parents. Seafaring treasure hunters that were lost at sea after searching for the pirate ship Perroux.

THE VERY IMPORTANT MEN

Two men that send Cecil to live with his uncle, claiming to be from the government. There is something inhuman about their very dark hair and very nice suits.

TAXI DRIVER

The man who is hired by the Very Important Men to take Cecil to Ebenezer’s house.

Hell, the precursor to Paradise and definitely a short film that will win me an Oscar:

A prom queen goes missing in the small town of Hell, prompting questions about the mysterious crack in the earth that lay just outside of the city limits.

BETTI (V.O.)

Did you ever stop to think--

UP FROM BLACK

CUT TO: MAIN ROAD

Betti is riding her bike. We see the town sign.

INTERCUT: BEHIND THE HIGH SCHOOL

Betti and Theo are sharing a joint.

BETTI (cont’d)

--that our town is pretty weird?

CUT TO: AN OPEN FIELD

Betti wakes up next to the crack. Aerial shot of the crack.

THEO

Nah. It’s the suburbs.

CUT TO: VARIOUS

Kellianne Hamilton smiles widely at a bake sale. Children play in a playground. Teenagers laugh encouragingly.

Desperate grabs inside of a coat closet. The wicked glint of blood being licked off of teeth. Someone knocks someone else out with the blunt end of a knife handle.

THEO

How bad can it be?

And an amazing script for a movie called Grace Under Pressure about a girl who was cheated on by the lead singer in the band she manages, he’s kicked out, she has to babysit her sister’s genius non-binary kid for the summer, the lead singer winds up dead, and the entire band rally’s around stealing the lead singer’s ashes and sprinkling them all over America on a road trip.

I tage: @objectiveheartmuscle @gigi256 @doubtthestarsarefire and @alyssiamking

#tag meme #my writing #mine #goddamn there's a lot in here but is discovered some fuckin GEMS in my google drive

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