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Interview: Matt Daniels of Thinklab
In addition to the beautiful video for Damien Jurado above (which shared best cinematography award for 2008 on Antville), Matt Daniels has done great videos for Throw Me The Statue and Birdmonster, among others. You might know Daniels better as the dude behind Thinklab. Then again, you might not. If that’s the case, you should. Which is why we’ve taken the chance to chat with him.
What is Thinklab and when did it begin?
It was down to Thinklab.com and Drunktank.com, so I registered both. After college, I spent a couple of years working for a web design company in Seattle. In ‘97, I took the summer off to travel and ride my skateboard. This is when I started doing freelance design and animation projects as Thinklab. Before long, I was living in San Diego working with folks I’d grown up reading about in skate magazines… Todd Swank, blk/mrkt, Jose Gomez. As the projects grew, I’d share them with my friends back home in Seattle.
A producer in Los Angeles found our work and we started getting projects for Universal Records and New Line Cinema. Feeling homesick, I moved back to Seattle and started an art gallery in our office next door to the Moore Theater. Shooting stills and making video art for the gallery lead to the video and photography projects I do now…
How did you get involved in film (both video and still)? Is it something you wanted to do all along and pursued, or was it something you just fell into?
It was more like falling, but in slow motion (shot on a Phantom camera). No, I was around cameras growing up, but spent my free time skateboarding, drawing and playing around with computers. It was years before I finally owned a still camera, and in 2001 my producer friend in Los Angeles talked me into applying for a photography workshop in Havana, Cuba. It was there, after meeting dozens of incredible photographers, that I realized I was hooked for life.
How did you successfully turn something that you loved doing (making videos, taking photos) into a legitimate career?
Is it legitimate? It still feels dirty. Nearly all of the Thinklab projects, the art gallery, and ad agency work I’ve done has been marketing for other people’s art. It’s tough learning to do it for yourself, but ultimately, if you’re doing what you love you’ll find a way to keep doing it.
Recently, you’ve done some music videos for Throw Me The Statue and you did one for Damien Jurado as well (which are both amazing), and there seems to be a strong narrative involved in each of them. Was that something the bands had decided ahead of time, or did you come up with the storylines?
Both artists came to me and were pretty open for whatever. I approach the music videos more like short films, and so narrative is key. For TMTS, I sent a friend of mine, Rob Dalton, a bunch of ideas. He (got really high and) wrote the script pretty much as it was shot.
Damien Jurado wanted a video about the death of his brother, Drake, and he had a vision of a final shot of a burning bed. We took this and ran with it. Mike (the D.P.) and I decided it should be set in an old pioneer town, which allowed us a more evocative palette. We shot the video from the perspective of each character, so we had a lot of narrative possibilities to play with in post. A week into editing it all came together, and the story revealed itself — I love the exploration, seeking the throughline, searching for that juxtaposition of elements that makes for an entertaining story.
In a lot of your work, especially the photos, it seems that there’s a strong emphasis put on the contrast in the piece as a way of (forgive the pun) shedding light on or creating intrigue about the individual or contents of the piece. Is that a tool you like to use for creating identity or layers within the photos/videos, or is it something simpler?
That’s deep. I try to keep the stills simple. I look for juxtapositions between the subject and the background. I try to shoot a lot and it’s usually interesting light that I’m most drawn to.
Another commonality I found in some of your work is the capturing of things floating in the air, whether it be a bird in flight, a puddle splash or a dog mid-jump. Do you like the idea of stopping one of nature’s laws, or are you more interested in the way things look when they’re weightless?
If you’re going to freeze time (with a camera), why not do it at an interesting moment? I definitely like the look of weightlessness, but it’s more about seeing things in a place where you’re not used to seeing them.
Back to the music videos, you’ve done the videos with Damien Jurado and Throw Me The Statue — and even Birdmonster I think. Are there any bands right now that you would really like to do a video with or any bands that you think you would aesthetically fit well with?
I tend to be into darker songs and stories at the moment. Maybe it’s a northwest winter thing. I recently wrote a script for an animated music video for a track called Martha Ann by David Karsten Daniels. It’s kind of an Atheist Anthem song. I’ve also been talking about a feature length collaboration with Damien, so that’s keeping me busy, but some other aesthetic matches might involve: Mogwai, The Books, The National, Bob Dylan, Noah and the Whale, Modest Mouse or Will Oldham.
Who are your biggest influences when it comes to filmmaking? Photography?
Stanley Kubrick found great stories and photographed them to perfection. PT Anderson has written and directed some amazing films. Spike Jones and Michel Gondry consistently surprise me. I think they might be the same person.
For photography, I would say I’m probably most influenced by the steady stream of amazing work on Flickr. Yossi Michaeli takes incredible fashion photos. Marco Grob takes stunningly simple portraits. My old buddy, Benjamin Krain is one of the best photojournalists around and James Natchway is insane. If you haven’t seen the documentary War Photographer, you should check it out.
I’m assuming you get to travel a bit for work, what’s the best city that you’ve gotten to visit so far? The worst?
Tokyo was amazing for it’s food, technology, and size. Havanna was both the best and the worst city I’ve been to. They have some of the best music, culture, and dancing on the planet, but be careful you don’t get stung by jellyfish, arrested and then pickpocketed. Most of this happened to me.
Being that the year just ended and all, what are either the Top 10 movies you’ve seen in the past year or so, or your Top 10 movies ever?
Here are my favorites for 2008
10. American Teen
9. Son of Rambow
8. Pineapple Express
7. Surfwise
6. Slumdog Millionaire
5. Snow Angels
4. Let The Right One In
3. Milk
2. The Diving Belle and the Butterfly
1. Ballast
I’m dying to see: Synecdoche New York, The Wrestler, Che and Happy Go Lucky .
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