Portrait of an Artist
immortalizing Garett's most joyous filmmaking
I’ve been finding some strange joy in reflecting on all the trashy art from my past — things ‘Garett’ had created.
Now at the forefront of finally making the art I feel as if I’ve been meant to make my whole life, it’s been oddly rewarding to look back at all the failures I’ve been a part of. Each one offering lessons seen at the time, and many I wouldn’t learn until years later.
I’m going to share a bunch of Garett’s work. Though, I’m debating on just how deep to go. There’s a lot.
What I’m hoping to create is a highlight reel — chronicling that weirdest evolution of artistic exploration from a completely insincere person.
We’ll start with high school.
After years of making little shitty films on his own. Then becoming the lead of his high school’s in-house video production program — running their daily announcements for the last couple years before graduation — Garett would find himself compelled to make videos and share them through that platform.
He’d make these most bizarre little shorts which the administration had requested — turning their practical announcement or reminder into purest absurdity — nearly obfuscating the point entirely.
People around the school knew him. He had the reputation of being kind of cool for what he was doing. Though, he really didn’t talk to anyone but his few friends and was always surprised when he’d meet people who seemed to know a lot about him. He enjoyed the reputation.
The final video he’d made for the announcements, before the principal forced him to stop, had literally nothing to do with school. It was just some ‘spooky’ thriller-like nonsense, that blatantly ripped off like five different movies and featured a bunch of kids from the school — with the popular janitor in a cameo role, of course.
It was magnificent. He was like a school celebrity for a week.
After graduating, Garett went to film school in Vancouver, BC. It was a year-long intensive program that was one of the most fun times he’d ever have. Though, he’d leave quite frustrated about the politics of it all, and how he’d never gotten the chance there to direct one of his submitted scripts — or gotten laid.
Upon returning home, he’d direct and produce a script of his own with one of the people he’d met from film school. It was a complete disaster.
I’ll skip showing this one.
It was an attempt to make something that others would want. Something he’d barely created for himself at all.
Still, it was the first time he’d utilized the most important skills learned from film school; how movie sets actually work, the flow of it all. He’d find he loved that process too, and especially because it would feel so made to happen by his will to create.
To organize people and create something communally that wouldn’t have existed without your own personal drive — is extremely rewarding — even when the final product sucks.
He’d find gratitude in the opportunity to learn from his mistakes.
So, he’d try again, this time it would be a horror film.
His intent was to make something extremely visceral and intense, stripped down and brutal.
It was all those things, for sure, but it wasn’t good.
There were so many things throughout the production which went wrong. A director of photography that was fighting him the whole time. A child actor that would not do what he was supposed to. A music composer who wouldn’t follow direction.
These things, along with Garett’s own conceptual failures, made the final product into something tonally bizarre and uncomfortable. Not a real horror film, not an action film, some kind of shitty in-between with really horrifying situations that were not paid the proper amount of emotional respect.
I will not share this travesty either. Available by request.
Eventually, Garett would get over the disappointment of putting his all — and tons of money — into these projects with the intention of making it into film festivals and starting the career in filmmaking he so dreamed of.
He’d finally learn the lessons which were being taught from these failures.
The first of which, were about the people he’d chosen to collaborate with. The joint-creation of art takes a delicate balance of synchronistic personalities to do successfully.
He’d strip things down and make a series of lowest-budget short films. The intent — to learn and have fun. And he’d do it all himself.
That way, he could learn from his own mistakes without having any chance to blame it on another. When he’d hate a part of the final product, he could no longer just bitch about the director of photography that was needlessly arguing with him instead of their job; helping him bring the project’s vision to life.
This is the main failure he’d find with other people’s help. Creating fiction is innately personal. There are internal goals of the creator with any project. Garett was always looking for people who had good ideas to share, not egoically attached in any way to ideas having come from himself.
Other creatives he’d found seemed all about their ego, so attached to ideas they had. When they’re also the kind of people who don’t listen, read your fucking script, or look at your storyboards, then suggest changing things in ways that would fundamentally undermine the entire goal of the creation — that fucking sucks.
These lessons would come to inform the way I now support others in their own creative efforts. Truly, one of my life’s greatest passions. Having seen these people so fail to support Garett, I’ve learned how to assist best — by making myself a tool for the artists who I find myself with the opportunity of helping, offering my talents to achieve their vision.
In these new little projects, Garett would relish the opportunity to hold the fucking camera himself, not having to argue with some idiot the whole time.
Out of them all, this is my favorite:
Making these little baby-budget films would lead Garett to a rediscovery of why he loved making them to begin with.
Because it was fun.
It would have him start making the stupidest things ever with his friends. He’d pester his roommate and best-friend into shooting nonsense with him because he was bored.
A crescendo of these most bizarre creations would be known as Sexy Action Cooking 2 w/ Nik.
It’s still one of my favorite things Garett ever made.
The making of this stupid little video would be what inspired the web series Stone many years later. Just how much fun he’d had doing it.
And so…
Sometime later, Garett would make friends with an incredible outsider artist; Chad Ruin.
Filmmaker, sculptor, painter — he was truly an artist extraordinaire. They became fast friends, as two enigmatic and passionate creators.
He and Chad would work in an AV warehouse together for years.
They would have many ideas they’d geek out and develop in their minds.
It would eventually lead to them Kickstarter-funding a web-series pilot about two excommunicated aliens who’d come to Earth causing trouble.
Unidentified Flying Assholes
There were at least twenty different episode ideas developed. A plan was in place. Garett was more excited about this project than anything he’d ever done. It just felt like something that should exist.
Chad made suits for the aliens — Mung and Eddie — which could be worn by actors.
Unfortunately, the production was disaster after disaster. So many complications, it just felt like the whole universe was turning against this coming together.
It took years, it went way over the Kickstarter budget, and there were nights of shooting that had to be completely abandoned because of wardrobe malfunctions, but Garett would finish the first episode just to say he did.
Chad had moved on at the promise of making one of his feature-film dreams a reality, something which had them fall apart for some time, Garett was bitter as fuck. He thought this had been worth seeing-through.
Still, Chad is an incredible human, we’ve since made up. I love him. He’s always going to be a dear friend to me.
Here is that first episode — as complete as it ever got.
Apart from the narrative filmmaking. There was a brief time where Garett explored the idea of making concert films, shooting live music.
The idea had been born from a most powerfully heartfelt experience.
He’d found himself recording a co-worker’s band he hated.
They had a friend who opened for them. And his co-worker had asked if Garett could film one of her songs.
She broke his heart open.
He’d never had an experience like that shooting video. Her words and song had been so personal. They’d been so raw. Her voice and heart was beautiful, and she was singing in this cafe of people who weren’t paying attention.
It had just felt like him and her.
Garett hadn’t met her before. Hadn’t spoken to her at all beforehand. But over the course of the song, he would feel compelled to let the camera ride with the emotions he was feeling flow from her. It would have him get closer and closer. The song was so intimate — it felt justified. She was killing it.
By the end of the song he was right in her face.
There was even a moment where she’d glanced over like, ‘Well hello, what are you doing?’
Garett had smiled so big — she’d given this little smirk — he’d seen in her eyes that he had permission to stay.
He’d never shoot anything he liked more than this single-take video clip.
Later, he would go back to make another video for Megan Larson.
She’d been touched by how touched he was. He’d told them how their song had made him feel in a message days later.
That second performance they had dedicated to him, though, he wouldn’t know how to respond to that — awkward bastard — always getting in the way of good things.
He’d shot that the same way.
Most bands he’d shoot would be with multiple cameras. Not for her though.
He wanted to just ride with the feeling.
It wasn’t quite as the special to him as that first one, but a close second.
I wonder what he always felt in these and loved so much?
Finally, we reach the grand finale.
After years of not making narrative fiction. So disgruntled by the journey. The thousands upon thousands of hours poured into creating things which were seemingly not reaching anyone — Garett went full fuck it mode.
He’d decided to make his dumbest opus. A three-part web-series called Stone.
In my previous post I did the whole disclaimer for this. Explaining the failures of concept and execution, but also how it didn’t matter. This was being created for joy. In that — it exceeded beyond expectations.
It’s all a bad joke. Channeled by some fictional and mad 12-year old boy who was empowered to make all of his worst decisions. The bit at the beginning of the first episode, was shot after the rest, added in once it was realized some people thought this was attempting to be serious.
Too cheeky was the absurdity, apparently. Though, I still don’t really understand how one could not realize these were an exercise in intentional childishness. These are so stupid.
So, here they are — all three episodes.
Garett’s complete masterpiece of trash, for your viewing pleasure.
So, that’s that...
Stone’s pretty into stabbing butts — what can I say?
I’m going to post one final video to send ‘Garett’ off into the night.
The outtakes for Stone.
They’re a lot of fun but they’re very NSFW.
In truth, I’m completely horrified by the voice. It disturbs me beyond compare to hear him speak.
God, my fucking soul dies cringing.
Regardless, it’s a pretty good time.
Here’s to making whatever art calls to you — wherever you happen to be when you make it.