It’s been some nine years since I started this site as a student of Ohio University. It’s been a weird nine years, not just personally, but throughout the Internet, which has changed a lot since 1991, when I first set foot on it.

I’ve enjoyed updating Director File, but I must now focus on my professional life. If you enjoy reading Director File, or have in the past, please consider a charitable donation.

Cheers,
Kevin

Among the updates to Director File, I’ve rewritten the Chris Cunningham bio and added pictures of Rubber Johnny promotional material. Don’t forget to check out this comedic and disturbing picture of Chris in a wheelchair (taken by Anton Corbijn).

I regret to inform you that Director File is shutting its doors. Not literally — the site will still be live — but there will be no more updates come January. I have a few more things to post before then, but after that, if you’re lookin’ for me, you can find me at Videoville, antville, or some of the other places on the web.

Take a gander at Director File’s picks for the Ten Best Music Videos of 2007.

Premiering this January at the Sundance Film Festival, Downloading Nancy is the debut feature of Swedish director Johan Renck (see his Director File Q&A). Based on a true story, Nancy tells the tale of an unhappy wife (played by Maria Bello) who hires a man she meets over the Internet (Jason Patric) to kill her, but things get complicated when the two unexpectedly form a relationship.

In anticipation of the film, whose trailer is here, production designer Lauri Faggioni, who has worked several times with Renck, was kind enough to answer a few questions.

When and how long was production?

We started shooting in January of this year in Regina, Canada. We were there about 2 months. It was unbelievably cold. The day I arrived it was -45 degrees. That was the actual temperature. The warmest it got was around -15. Everything was so cold and white. The landscape was barren and we were in this tiny town. People looked at us like we were giraffes walking in the snow. We were all out of our element. It was such a crazy time when I think about it now. We all went a little insane in our own different ways. But now after being away from it for a while it is one of my fondest memories. We were all living in this tiny white town in this building that was for business men. These little corporate apartments. We all had our own little places and every night we took turns cooking and entertaining each other in our apartments. Then we’d go to some bar and get loaded and walk around the empty town at night in the snow. It was so cold your hair would freeze grey when you walked outside. We all looked how we’d look when we are 80.

Was this a big departure for you, working on such a dark film?

This is not the kind of project I would normally do. I’ve worked with Johan for a couple of years now and have grown quite close to him and his crew. They are some of the best people I know. When he told me about the project he said “I want you to read the script, but call me right afterwards to talk about it. Don’t talk to anyone else.” He knew this was going to be something different for me. This story isn’t about cotton clouds and velvet ponies. It was hard to get through the script, sometimes I could only read 4 pages at a time and then I’d have to step away. It’s a hard story to hear and knowing it was a true story made it that much harder. When I finished reading it I called the producers and said, no, no way can I do this. Johan called me and we talked about it. He knew it was a hard tale to tell. We talked about Nancy, about who she was and he told me how he wanted to tell her story. I listened to him and I knew what he had in his heart going into this. It was full of compassion for Nancy and the lost.

Then he said, “I want to tell this story in pastels.” Pastels. That was the joke after I signed on. I said, “You had me at pastels.” Something about telling this dark story in pastels hooked me in. I agreed to it and headed to Canada. The whole flight over all I could think was, “Pastels, pastels, pastels.”

This week Come to Daddy turns ten. To celebrate I have written a new essay about television, technology, and our place inside of both. I was unable to uncover any lost artifacts pertaining to Come to Daddy, but I did find this divx copy of the video.

I don’t know about you, but I love this video. Come to Daddy is the reason I began this website back in 1998. (Here’s what it looked like in its earliest stage.) It’s still one of my favorite videos ever, and still gives me the chills watching it.

UPDATE: As I sometimes do, I’ve adjusted the final paragraph of the rewrite. I’m done, though. No more rewrites. :)

To wit: Recently French anti-AIDS organization Sidaction commissioned this, an ad directed by Dimitri Daniloff at Marcassin. It’s essentially one giant rip-off of Chris Cunningham’s installation piece flex. The only difference is that it takes place in an hourglass.

UPDATE: I received a note from Marcassin saying that the idea for the ad originated from ad agency Leo Burnett Paris.

UPDATE: Is this a rip-off? There is an interesting debate happening right now about what deserves that title, particularly over how the newest Sony Bravia ad is related to this piece by kozyndan. What are your thoughts?