Integral Options Cafe: David Lynch in Wired

Thursday, January 04, 2007

David Lynch in Wired

Wired has an interview with filmmaker David Lynch up at their site. Lynch is definitely one of my all-time favorite directors, so it's always cool to see what he's up to and what he's thinking about.

Here's the intro and beginning of the interview:

The mere mention of the name "David Lynch" conjures images of velvety shadows and extreme violence. Over the past three decades Lynch has honed a surrealist aesthetic -- characterized by nightmarish and dreamlike sequences, stark images and meticulously crafted audio -- that can only be described as "Lynchian."

Considered one of the foremost auteurs in the film industry -- and one of the most original -- Lynch is also an accomplished writer, television producer, cartoonist, graphic artist and photographer. Plus, he's a guy with a big passion for high tech.

David Lynch

In March, September and December 2006, Wired magazine's Scott Thill spoke with Lynch about his innovative website, his new film, transcendental meditation and coffee. The entire, unedited transcript of these interviews can be viewed here.

Wired: When you started DavidLynch.com, you said the internet was still "sleepy" and slow. But now with a few years under your belt, has the sleeper, to quote Dune, awakened yet?

Lynch: The sleeper hasn't awakened yet. It's weird. Obviously, the internet is huge and getting bigger, but it is divided.... And I guess MySpace is the place where people go now, but even that's divided, know what I mean?

But over here (at DavidLynch.com), we've got our thinking caps strapped on. We've got a great bunch in our membership who all really like each other and find things to talk about. And when we get new members, they really like the site and say that it's different from other sites.... It's all an experiment. I want to find things that fire me up, and see if it works for the people.

Wired: How do you feel taking your work onto the internet years ago has changed you as a filmmaker?

Lynch: Well, it's huge, because I like to conduct experiments.... And because of the internet I've learned about AfterEffects, Flash animation and discovered and fallen in love with digital video. So I just think that going onto the web was so good for me. It's just sort of starting, but it's a beautiful world.... I always like random access, and I like the idea that one thing relates to another. And this is part of the internet: It's so huge, that it is really an unbounded world. And I think that if we keep our thinking caps strapped on, we could find something beautiful out there in the ether.

Wired: Digital video seems to have made the process of filmmaking easier for budding auteurs.

Lynch: Digital video is so beautiful. It's lightweight, modern, and it's only getting better. It's put film into the La Brea Tar Pits.

Wired: So you are serious about working exclusively in DV from here on out?

Lynch: For sure.

Wired: Because of its mobility and lower overhead?

Lynch: Everything about it. In one word, film is heavy. It's gone, just gone.