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they really supported me, was a good one and would have received much better publicity than the kind of thing they wanted.
MacDonald:
I think that's the first film of yours I saw.
Mekas:
There are some parts I like very much; I like the whole thing, really. They seized the original right after the screening. They were planning to hire their own editor to reedit the film their way. They also took all the outtakes, but decided finally not to do anything with it. All my prints are from the work print.
MacDonald:
Was the greenish tone of the black-and-white imagery caused by printing black-and-white footage on color stock?
Mekas:
That particular tint was my choice.
MacDonald:
You used some interesting music by Storm De Hirsch and others.
Mekas:
The section with Lucia Dlugoszewski is unique. I think she's an exceptional composer and performer.
MacDonald: Walden
is the film of yours I've seen most often. When I first saw it, I was conscious primarily of the diaristic aspects. But, more recently I've been just as aware of the changing film stocks and the different tintings of the black-and-white footage. It now seems simultaneously an exploration of your personal environment
and
of film materials.
Mekas:
Those are all controlled accidents. Some of the stock was used because it was available when I ran out of film. When I was filming the part now entitled "A Visit to Brakhages," I ran out of film, and Stan found some outdated Kodachrome under his bed. It was a very different texture than the surrounding material. Sometimes I ran out of color, so I used black and white. I had no plan to explore film stocks. But once you have all those different stocks, then you begin to structure with color; you pay attention to their qualities. The aspect you notice had also to do with my whole approach to film laboratories. You know how paranoid and careful some filmmakers are about labs. Usually the filmmaker tries to supervise the lab work closely, checking one print and another, refusing prints, switching labs. . . . I don't do that. I consider that whatever happens at the lab is what I want. I don't indicate that they should make this part lighter and that darker. I do my work in the camera, and all I ask from the lab is to make a straight, what's known as "one light" print, with no special timing, no anything. Usually I get results that I like. I have never rejected a print. If something goes really wrong, then of course I indicate on the next print that it should be corrected. I think that I have complete control over my materials; I don't leave anything for the labs to do or undo.
MacDonald:
You must have had a tremendous amount of diary footage by the time you made
Walden
. How did you come to make that particular film?