What Drives Us isn’t simply the title of Dave Grohl’s newest documentary about younger musicians who hit the street looking for rock and roll success.
With interviews from a who’s who of rock and roll royalty together with Ringo Starr, Flea, Lars Ulrich, The Edge, Steven Tyler, and so many extra, it’s a celebration of the bumps alongside the way in which that made these stars admire the journey as a lot as arriving at their vacation spot.
However much more than that it’s one thing that anybody, in any inventive endeavor, can relate to.
On this installment of Made in Frame, we had the chance to talk to editor Dean Gonzalez about his journey from Columbia School in Chicago to slicing movies with the Foo Fighters. We additionally spoke with producer Jim Rota, a musician and senior director at Blackmagic Design, about their DaVinci Resolve-based workflow and the way they stayed on monitor creatively from completely different areas throughout the pandemic.
Pal of a buddy
Dean spent his childhood in Chicago shoveling snow, mowing lawns, and studying the best way to play the drums.
A self-described black sheep with a love of artwork and horror motion pictures—together with a need to both develop into a special-effects make-up artist or a musician—he rejected his dad and mom’ recommendation to go to enterprise college and as an alternative went to Columbia School, the place he labored a number of jobs to place himself by college.
“I labored within the movie tools cage and was a motorcycle mechanic and a waiter,” Dean says. “After which I used to be a educating assistant, and labored serving to the modifying class. We had been the primary college within the midwest to have an Avid, in order that’s the place I grew to become very accustomed to it.”
Shortly after graduating he determined to go to LA, and for the primary six months willed himself to remain there, irrespective of how difficult it was.
“On the primary day, I didn’t know a soul there, and I simply went to a 7-11 to get an house finder. I known as a man who had a spot accessible that evening and moved right into a crappy house. A buddy who labored at Avenue Edit in Chicago helped me get an interview at their Santa Monica facility, and I took buses or rode my bike from Hollywood to get there as a result of I didn’t actually have a automotive,” Dean says.
“You at all times heard individuals say that it takes seven years to go from assisting to editing, but it surely took me three years. I did the whole lot for the editors there—walked their canine, picked up their laundry—and lower the whole lot I might. Make-up artists’ reels. Actors’ reels. I simply labored nonstop.”
That was again in 1998. Dean’s journey then led him to Sundown Edit, the place he lower music movies for bands like Aerosmith, Mars Volta, and Stereophonics, and discovered that working shortly was a crucial ability in that individual business sector.
“There was a tremendous group of editors there, and I discovered a lot. One of many issues that I grew to become identified for was the best way to get by plenty of footage quick,” he says.
“I just lately did a job for Uber the place it was a three-day shoot with dozens of setups a day and I wanted to chop a 20-minute movie in every week.”
Be taught to fly
Dean’s ardour for music and films had gelled right into a thriving profession.
“It’s like that saying ‘Should you love what you do, you’ll by no means work a day in your life,’” he says.
“I’ve had a blessed profession within the sense that I’ve gotten to work with some actually superb artists. I lower Coronary heart Like a Hand Grenade for Inexperienced Day. I acquired to go on tour with Jared Leto and 30 Seconds to Mars, and journey to 17 international locations with them. And I do know what it’s like to surrender the whole lot you recognize to comply with your desires, which is what I did after I moved to LA.”
In 2019, Dean was engaged on skateboard documentary N Males: The Untold Story when he met govt producer John Ramsay at Therapy Studios.
“I had at all times cherished their work and I had plenty of editor pals there,” he says. “And that summer season John and I talked about them repping me. I went to Chicago to work on a function known as Echo Boomers and John known as me and was like, ‘Hey, man, would you be accessible for a venture developing with Dave Grohl? However you’d have to return again to LA for it and also you’d must edit on DaVinci Resolve.”
The Foo Fighters’ Studio 606 in Van Nuys was bustling when Dean arrived to start out work on What Drives Us in January 2020. Along with the movie, the band was ending up their tenth album and on the point of embark on “The Van Tour” to mark their twenty fifth anniversary in assist of its launch, scheduled for April 2020.
Grohl was additionally govt producing the Paramount+ documentary collection From Cradle to Stage, based mostly on his mom’s guide by which she wrote concerning the mothers of well-known music stars like Geddy Lee, Pharrell Williams, and Brandi Carlile.
As a result of the studio was quick on area with so many tasks working, Dave graciously turned his workplace into an edit suite for Dean.
Make it proper
Co-producer Jim Rota arrange an end-to-end Blackmagic Design workflow.
The crew shot on an Ursa Mini Professional 4.6K, a Pocket Cinema Digicam 4K, and a Pocket Cinema Digicam 6K all in raw, and edited in uncooked in DaVinci Resolve 16, which meant they by no means needed to look ahead to transcodes to start out working. Visible results work was carried out in Fusion, and coloration grading in Resolve, as properly.
“The fellows from Blackmagic had been actually supportive and had been, like, ‘no matter you want,’” Dean says.
Though Dean discovered the best way to edit on Avid, which he used by a lot of his profession, in recent times he’s labored on many of the main NLEs together with Ultimate Reduce Professional, Adobe Premiere Professional, and DaVinci Resolve.
Within the case of this venture, Dean says, “All of it labored flawlessly. I used to be simply sitting there modifying in 4 and 6K and it was completely fluid.”
What Drives Us is made up of interviews Dave has with the varied rock stars about their lives on the street, intercut with tons (and much) of archival video and stills. Body.io, which has a direct integration with Resolve, was pivotal to the method of sourcing and getting approval on the archival elements.
Dean is the type of editor who likes to leap onto YouTube to search out his personal archival footage as a result of he has a transparent thought of simply what he’s on the lookout for.
However getting clearances is one other story.
Working intently with affiliate producer Xilonen Oreshnick, he’d ship her cuts in Body.io. She, in flip, was capable of shortly reply, both with a go-ahead or with feedback and options for alternate options.
“Because the lower developed, we had two variations uploaded—one for clearances with the metadata and timecode of the footage, and one to point out the producers,” Dean says.
“It actually helped the clearance license crew to be autonomous in post-production.”
Concrete and gold
So, when confronted with hours of interview gold and a treasure trove of archival materials offered by the artists, the place do you even start?
It’s the place Dean’s superpowers of blasting by footage actually mattered.
“I began with the interviews. That’s particularly vital in a venture like this,” Dean says.
“How will you ask for footage that’s higher than what I acquired? Brian Johnson from AC/DC, Annie Clark [St. Vincent], Kira Roessler from Black Flag, Ben Harper. Dave Lombardo from Slayer? Certainly one of my favourite bands ever. And Flea was so heartfelt and emotional. So beginning with the interview footage was the bread and butter.”
Dean and assistant Brandon Balin, who has labored extensively with Blackmagic on different tasks, stated that the muse to this movie was group.
“Brandon’s a technical wizard and had already been breaking issues down for me so I used to be capable of are available in and get began listening to those superb interviews,” Dean says.
“I pulled selects for every particular person, like, each good thing that every particular person says. After which I broke the movie into completely different reels or acts, like ‘That is my first musical expertise,’ or ‘That is my first American tour.’ Or there’s a ‘Nonetheless Touring’ part the place Exene Cervenka and Lars Ulrich and The Edge speak about how they’re nonetheless going out on the street. And I’d pull the nice bits from every particular person’s interview to start out constructing the story.”
For the primary couple of months, Dave was capable of simply pop into Dean’s room to take a look at cuts.
“He would come into the room, and we’d discuss concerning the lower. He principally would inform me that issues had been wanting superb, and he actually simply let me do my factor. It was at all times such a pleasure and a deal with,” Dean says.
Instances like these
The Van Tour, scheduled to start in Spring 2020, was driving the deadline for the movie.
The unique plan was to have a ten-minute model to play on the reside exhibits. And since Dean was specializing in the ten-minute model, the longer model wasn’t prepared.
After which COVID occurred.
The tour was initially postponed till autumn 2020, then canceled altogether. Dave took his household to Hawaii, and the studio emptied out. Dean—who had truly been dwelling and dealing again in Chicago for a number of years—discovered himself alone at 607.
There’s nothing good a few world pandemic. However there are methods to take the detours which might be handed to us and use them to find alternatives we’d not have in any other case had.
On this case, Dean was given the posh of time. With laborious deadlines now not a difficulty, he was capable of take the time he needed to make the film one of the best it could possibly be.
He was additionally capable of focus, with out the distractions that come from having individuals you may’t consider you’re working with speaking exterior your suite or when it’s Taylor Hawkins’ birthday and naturally you need to assist him rejoice.
For 3 months, Dean was on his personal. “It was a novel expertise as a result of I additionally wish to play cuts actually loud and simply pay attention and actually craft it. I had the time to consider the way it was enjoying out and to maneuver sections round. With out the time, I do know it wouldn’t have been pretty much as good,” he says.
After having been away from his spouse and canine for months, Dean went again to Chicago and labored from house. With the producers in LA and Dave nonetheless in Hawaii, it didn’t matter the place he was.
“Particularly throughout these instances, Body.io was important and so extraordinarily useful to the method,” he says. “All people was capable of chime in with their feedback although they had been distant.”
As restrictions eased, Dave finally went again house to LA, and Dean moved again to LA completely. With numerous security precautions—day by day testing and correct distancing—they had been ready to return to in-person classes on the finish for ending.
“We went to DaVinci Resolve Studio and Michael Smollin did the colour grading, and we did the temp combine at 607 with [sound editor] Brandon Kim,” Dean says.
Better of you
What Drives Us is, at its coronary heart, a love letter to the instances that bands spend collectively, in uncomfortably shut quarters, and the way that evokes and nourishes them creatively.
Dave has been famously vocal about placing within the work to get good at one thing.
“After I take into consideration children watching a TV present like American Idol or The Voice, then they assume, ‘Oh, OK, that’s the way you develop into a musician. You stand in line for eight f-ing hours with 800 individuals at a conference middle and you then sing your coronary heart out for somebody after which they let you know it’s not f-ing adequate.’ It’s destroying the following technology of musicians!”
“Musicians ought to go to a yard sale and purchase an outdated f-ing drum set and get of their storage and simply suck. And get their pals to return in they usually’ll suck, too. After which they’ll f-ing begin enjoying they usually’ll have one of the best time they’ve ever had of their lives after which swiftly they’ll develop into Nirvana. As a result of that’s precisely what occurred with Nirvana. Only a bunch of fellows that had some shitty outdated devices they usually acquired collectively and began enjoying some noisy-ass shit, they usually grew to become the most important band on this planet.”
For Dean, it was about dwelling in his crappy LA house and getting three tacos as a splurge on Del Taco Tuesdays or 49-cent mustard canine at Wienerschnitzel.
“Most people I knew who moved to LA got here proper again to Chicago,” he says. “However I didn’t care if I needed to reside on a greenback day. I used to be going to stay it out.”
He and Dave talked rather a lot about what they needed to realize with this film. “It began out as simply this one factor of getting out on the street in a van, but it surely organically grew to become greater than that. It grew to become an inspirational story, to encourage the following technology of bands,” Dean says.
“I actually hook up with the tales these musicians informed, toughing it out but in addition loving what you’re doing. I really feel so honored to have been ready to do that movie, as a result of there was a part of me that needed to be a musician, however what I get to do now’s one of the best of each worlds,” Dean says.
After we created this weblog, we hoped to coach and encourage our readers. So in that spirit, we hope that Dean’s story evokes the following technology of filmmakers.