YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

PROFILE:
Brian Barnett’s Wylie and the Wild West – Live at the Tractor Tavern

by Adrian MacDonald

Wylie Gustafson

Local filmmaker Brian Barnett produced, directed, and edited Wylie and the Wild West – Live at the Tractor Tavern between October 2005 and October 2006, a 60-minute concert film plus 20-minute tour documentary with interviews. Wylie Gustafson, the band’s charismatic leader, is known widely as the voice behind the Yahoo.com yodel (as in, “Yaaaahooooooooo” – “my only hit,” he claims in the film).

What was the inspiration/impetus for the film?
The biggest inspiration for the film was to capture the essence of Wylie’s live show. He is such a great entertainer. Wylie is a great student and teacher of the traditional country sound. His live shows consist of his original music and usually a cover or two from the way-back roots of country and western swing. Not unlike some of the former stars of country he also peppers his shows with stories and often a blue joke or two. He also does an awesome cover of the Stones’ “Satisfaction.”

What were some of the considerations when planning the film?
We filmed the concert performance at the Tractor Tavern in Ballard and our biggest concern was if we were going to have enough lighting! We ended up using the Tractor’s stage pars and supplemented that with some Arri 650’s rigged to the ceiling and some Kino bulbs behind the stage monitors to make sure we could get enough light underneath the bands cowboy hats! We also had our gaffer, Tony Konichek, run the light board. All in all the lighting looked great, especially for a live concert shot on Panasonic DVX 100s.

What were some of the challenges in making it?
There were a few challenges to deal with for sure. Lighting, not killing anyone in the crowd with the jib, but mostly coordinating a live shoot with four DV cameras. We had no comm system other than me running to each operator and telling them when to change out tapes so we could overlap and make sure we always had at least three cameras rolling at a time. The evening of the shoot consisted of two complete live shows over 2 hours each. Synching all of the tapes with the mixed audio master in post-production also proved to be an interesting challenge. I had both shows, all four-plus hours and 40-something songs, cut before I knew what songs Wylie would ultimately choose as the final. He ended up using 16 songs for an hour-long concert movie. The 16 songs were selected out of both of the shows so I really had to cut the performances in way to make them look and feel like one seamless performance. The final movie I feel is quite tight and unless you really pay attention you’d never know it wasn’t one show.

Brian Barnett

What equipment did you use?
We used four Panasonic DVX 100 cameras and shot them with the 24p advanced setting. We had two of the cameras on sticks, one on a jib in front of the stage and one hand-held and sometimes on stick. We also had some of the best camera ops in Seattle led by the brilliant cinematographer Chris Mosio. He has filmed many bands and recording artists and his guidance and influence was a huge asset to the final project. David Wilson and Colin Kimball, two of the king-hot-shit young filmmakers in Seattle also manned cameras while I operated the wide from the back of the house. With Chris, David and Colin we could have shot on Fisher Price PXL camcorders and it still would have looked beautiful. We supplemented the Tractor’s house lights with an Arri kit and some Kinos.For editing we used an Apple G5 running Final Cut Pro.

How much did it cost and how did you fund it?
The budget was under $10k. That covered crew, some rented gear, travel out to Wylie’s ranch in Dusty, WA, a few hard drives and little bit for the editing time. The replacement hard drives, mountains of cigarettes and gallons of coffee were extra. Wylie funded the project out of his own pocket and I think he made his investment back in a month of the DVD being available on his web site.

What or who were some of your influences in terms of concert films?
My biggest influence for the film would probably be Zeppelin’s The Song Remains the Same or Neil Young’s Year of the Horse by Jim Jarmusch although I don’t think my movie resembles them at all. The Song Remains the Same since that was probably the first concert film I can remember ever seeing and Year of the Horse since Jarmusch is a huge influence on the filmmaker I hope to be.

What are your 3-5 must-see music films?
My top must-see music films would have to include Fearless Freaks the doc about the Flaming Lips, End of the Century about the Ramones and of course the most amazing concert film of all time, Stop Making Sense by the Talking Heads. Additionally there are a few films that aren’t exactly music docs or concert films but they do feature an artist or band that I really love like O’ Lucky Man by Lindsay Anderson featuring Alan Price of The Animals and True Stories with the Talking Heads (again).

How are you distributing the film?
Wylie has taken to selling the DVD of the concert and documentary on his website, wyliewebsite.com, along with selling it at all of his shows. Taking it straight to the people!

Crew box: Wylie and the Wild West
Starring/Produced by – Wylie Gustafson, Wylie and the Wild West
Director/Editor/Produced by – Brian Barnett
Director of Photography – Chris Mosio