For the filmmakers behind The Death of Indie Rock, life imitates art. Making the film, which tells the story of a small-town rock band looking to make it big, has been a three-year long lesson in the trials of independent movie-making for the group of Queen’s graduates who wrote, directed, produced and acted in the film.
“In a lot of ways, being in an independent rock band is like making an independent film—you need a lot of support to get it out there,” said Dan Wallace, ArtSci ’07 and one of the film’s producers.
Shot over a period of about a month at the end of summer 2004, scenes were filmed at locations around Kingston such as JJ’s Restaurant, Stages, Elixir and Gusto, as well as on location in Belleville, Toronto and Montreal.
“This was the most collaborative project I’ve ever worked on,” Wallace said. “Everyone was extremely passionate, people in Kingston have been so supportive, as well as the film department here at Queen’s.”
Actor, producer and composer Doug Brown originally got involved because he could both act and play drums. A former member of bands The Laginsky Reunion, Another Setback and the Opposable Thumbs, playing an independent musician in a film wasn’t too far from truth.
“It’s similar in the sense that it’s extremely tough, and that’s what the film was showing—it’s extremely tough to make it in this industry,” Brown said. “There’s a strong thread between our [story] and reality. … Any musician or visual artist—or filmmaker, for that matter—can really empathize with the film, because you can be really talented but that doesn’t always guarantee success.”
Making a film about a rock band meant music had to be well-used within the film. In addition to music donated by Ontario indie bands such as the Tin Bangs, A Day for Kites and Shitt Hottt, Brown composed an original soundtrack for the film.
“It was great to match the visual images of the film with my own take on it, audibly. The film was extremely fast-paced and creating music to go along with those rock ’n roll montages created by [editor] Marc Griffin was a wonderful marriage of those,” he said. “A lot of it was getting in tune with the pace of the editing of the film. I watched the film on repeat for four weeks as I recorded. I was literally recording sometimes 16 to 20 hours a day.”
Griffin was the show’s editor and head producer—a role he compared to being “the manager of a rock band.”
Griffin said the quality of the film’s story, as well as the real-life effort put into making it was what made him want to be involved in the project.
“It was the passion everybody was putting into it. I grew up in a small town, and many of us making the film grew up in small towns,” he said. “[The film’s about] three guys in Belleville, which is not necessarily a supportive, artistic community, wanting to make it big and make it to the big city and get your stuff out there. It doesn’t always work out, as is the case in life—you don’t always succeed, but you have to try.”
Though the film’s characters don’t quite reach their goals, after being featured at last week’s Kingston Canadian Film Festival, the film’s team just might make it big. The Death of Indie Rock is currently courting distributors and garnering national press attention.
“Our phones have been ringing off the hook,” Brown said.
That’s pretty rock and roll. The Death of Indie Rock will be playing from March 7 to 14 at The Screening Room at 9:30 p.m.
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