Yesterday, instead of watching the super bowl at a party, I spent most of the day helping shoot a documentary about Thornton Willis. Mike Feldman, my longtime collaborator, is the driving force behind the movie, and I was working as a producer. In this case that means I made sure nothing broke and did the dishes, as well as pitching in with camera operation from time to time. We shot him, his wife, and his son giving a slideshow of Soho’s art scene in the 1970s, complete with lots of shots of artists in their studios and shots of their work. Then we shot Thornton beginning a painting.
The canvas was huge, and he started moving around the room, mixing paint, and climbing up on a step ladder to paint the top. It was a sight to see. Thornton’s work is very minimal, and deals with fields of color and mixtures of different textures of paint. It’s fascinating to get to see him work up close.
Now that the shoot is finished I can turn back to writing the new opening for Summer’s Twilight and seeing how that concept art is moving along…