I used to like you but now I hate you - my pro wrestling video

[I Love a Magician]

I do wonder about the music choice.  I wonder if it kind of puts the viewer into the POV of the angry woman.  We've got some aggro asskicking music (Is it Fugazi or something?) during the actual match and then the more Explosions in the Sky sad music stuff playing during the final scene.  At first, I thought the music may be lamenting the innocence of this poor girl, but I feel like it's really sad for the fate of the wrestlers in the artificial storyline of the match, which would suggest that we're supposed to feel for this crazy woman.
Anyway, not questioning the choice, just wondering about the intent.

the songs are:

comets on fire - "beneath the ice age"
the constantines - "nighttime/anytime (it's alright)" [they do sound a lot like fugazi]
the ponys - "everyday weapon"
neil young - "guitar solo #4" [from the dead man soundtrack]

(i apologize in advance, i can be sort of incomprehensible when talking about why i did this or that in projects)

i won't lie and say i put a ton of thought into the music or why i was using this certain song or whatever, because i was mostly looking for music that would put the viewer "in the moment" with the wrestling matches and give those sequences good momentum. the matches are kind of silly but you really do get wrapped up into what they're doing. it's pretty planned out of course but there's still plenty of real physicality and skill on display. it's kind of like watching something like the harlem globetrotters, you can sit there and say "what's the point of this, they're doing tricks with a basketball" but there's still a lot of talent on display even if it ultimately adds up to nothing (and, in the case of this little wrestling group, when there's a lack of talent it's still dudes going out and doing their best to put on a good show).

with the sadder music at the beginning and end i suppose i was sort of going from the woman's point of view. of course 95% of the audience knows that everything's fake and that it's just a show to go out and have a good time at, but these brothers have been the good guys here for the past 4 or 5 years and everyone loves them because they're hometown dudes. what usually happens is a bad guy will come out, talk shit about ohio county, say how we're all fat hicks with no jobs, then these brothers will come out and defend everyone's honor and everyone cheers. it's pretty simple but it works.

what got me was that this woman didn't care that the brother who turned on the other was talking shit about ohio county (pretty much saying what the bad guys before had said, "get a job, take a bath") but what she was so tore up about was the fact that he turned on his brother. i couldn't fit it in, but i have one thing when she was about to leave, she turned to me, still absurdly upset, and said something like, "when brothers turn on brothers, that's just not right." so say what you will about her family (and i can't comment on her one way or the other, but my dad knows her and said she's a pretty alright lady), but she obviously cares quite a bit about family, or at least the idea of it. i may have not made that clear enough in the video, which is a failing on my part if that doesn't come across.

p's right when he says it plays like a trailer, and that's also a failing on my part because i went out there mostly just to get some Cool Video and i didn't interview anyone or anything like that, and then this woman fell in my lap and gave it something of a heart. the next show is this coming saturday so i hope to get back home to shoot some more and get some interviews with people, at least with the woman and the brothers (who are probably very pleased that the turn worked so well, it wasn't just that woman who was upset). with the next one i just hope to make a more substantive video that's no so much crash and bang, even if i do just keep it in the area of "here's this event and here's what goes on." i don't know if i want to contextualize it too much.

[RegularKarate]

I should have recognized both songs, especially the Dead Man.

[Pas]

Good post ILAM. The better it gets.

Look I don't want to come off as annoying about my praise for your video but I used to be a huge wrestling fan and I can't wait to see more of this lady and these local wrestling stories. It's this weird excentricity that I can't get enough of.

I hope you can get good footage saturday

[Alexandro]

Yes, I saw this a couple of days ago but had to leave home before posting. It is as good as everyone is saying, it looks great, it feels great, it really hooked me. I don't know what you're thinking to do with it, but you get more great footage of all this and work a little on finding a center to it and you may be working on the origins of an award winning short film, or documentary, or a combination of both, kind of like Reygadas and other filmmakers are doing, maybe even an actual expressionistic feature or something. Congratulations, it's really cool.

[I Love a Magician]

thanks, Alexandro.

made myself a real simple wrestling portfolio site, not a lot of new stuff on it, but i added some pictures that aren't on my regular site. check'er out:

http://danielchasepeach.com/brothers/