When we set out to make a biopic on Pablo Ferro, it felt like an interesting idea to combine an animated storyline with documentary footage. And while we're at it, why not throw in a dozen celebrity interviews, add a touch of motion graphic vignettes to keep things interesting and bring it to a slow stew?
My producing partner, Jeremy Goldscheider, nodded with interest. Then he asked the hard question: "Cool, but wouldn't it be a bit of a hodgepodge?""
Being from Brazil, I wasn't overly familiar with the term -- but it didn't sound that tasty. "A hodgepodge, a mishmash, this and that but nothing at all... ", Jeremy kindly clarified. My knee-jerk reaction was to get philosophical: " Well, it depends on how it's done..."
But I did take on the debate, knowing he had a good point.
Pablo, with his pioneering quick-cut editing in 1950's TV commercials and the creation of the first multiple frame sequence in cinema with the 1968 The Thomas Crown Affair, could well be considered a montage artist. He's been regarded as an artist who makes poetry out of the cacophony of everyday images, and though the hodgepodge alert seemed relevant, I started thinking of the film as a mosaic of different influences: part animation, part documentary, part motion-graphics, part interviews.
The people we pitched it to were generally interested, yet wanted to see a "proof of concept". The reactions went something like this: "So, you have a colorful take on the Sixties with sex and drugs, you have amazing pop art, a great soundtrack and a famous unknown main character wrapped in a red scarf, but what is the story about? And who is this guy anyway?"
All right! On the stands right now you can review the picture below in FIlmmaker magazine's yearly lineup of the 25 faces to watch for!
Hmmm,
Hard to describe it in words.
The Pablo Ferro state-of-mind is
all in all,
a sensorial experience.
The way it looks,
the way it sounds,
the way it feels...
It has to do with the current experience. The way it is now.
This is a state of mind without a savings account.
Without residuals.
It's a state of mind that lives in a garage, but has a private sauna.
It's ambiguous, unpredictable.
It's the title designer who can't spell.
the funny-man who never gets the punchlines right.
the daredevil who always gets bailed by guarding angels
It's extraordinary, but then again, just your average guy...
The Pablo Ferro state-of-mind is one damn state of mind.
Never conclusive.
It won't favor happy endings,
it won't ingratiate or flatter,
Sees absolutely no difference between high art and low art
It's open to all new forms
it's a real-life fairy-tale
It could both a blessing and a curse (depending on the vantage point)
a Hall of Mirrors,
the pot of gold in the rainbow
It's the sixties
Hedonistic,
herbalistic,
Dyonisian
It's for adults, but it's childlike
wise, but excessive
free-falling, yet in control
The Pablo Ferro state-of-mind is both vintage and avant garde
It's the inspirational story wrapped in a cautionary tale.
It's
It's not the soul, but the heart (that pumps life)
It's the red scarf that touches magic,
So here we start a blog. I've been advised numerous times its importance, and now, right now, somehow... the time feels right.
The blog comes to chronicle the ups and downs of the making of the real-life fairy-tale biopic on titles designer legend, counter cultural provocateur and man-behind the red scarf, Pablo Ferro.
Pablo-who?
A latin hero,
a visionary filmmaker
a paper airplane sailing hurricane winds...
Pablo Ferro is a state of mind, and this is his story.
