Banger Films Official Blog

This is a great interview. There are a shitload of rehashed q&a sessions with nothing new and nothing learned. This is a beauty moment captured a couple years after the release of Metal a Headbanger’s Journey and just after the release of Global.

We’ve received permission from Mike Shaw to reprint the story. Thanks man!

Forget Morgan Spurlock, the hottest new documentary maker is an unassuming Canadian named Sam Dunn. Along with Scot McFadyen, he has produced the year’s most exhilarating doc – and it’s all about metal.

Following the genre from its very beginnings, and including interviews with all of the movement’s major players, Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey is an absolute necessity for annoying with even a passing interest in heavy guitars and the vigorous banging of heads, and if not – what the fuck are you doing reading this mag?

Beginning with an argument over who can truly claim to be the first metal band, and taking in pretty much everything from metal’s relationship to opera, the use of the devil’s tritone, the infamous court cases of the 80s and more than a little hero worship, it’s an epic production. But did it feel that way while making it?

“It was a long, long road,” says writer/director/presenter Sam Dunn. “It was about five-and-a-half years, from the point of conception through to completion. It took us three years to raise the funding because we were first-time filmmakers taking on a pretty ambitious project, so it took a while to wrangle the funds. Once we had the money, it was about two years for the research, writing, shooting and editing of the film.”

And you drew the short straw and ended up presenting it? “Yeah, I ended up being ‘the dude in the film’,” he laughs. “The interesting thing in this collaboration between (co-director) Scot McFadyen and I, is that I grew up listening to this sort of music, but Scot is not a metalhead. I mean, he’s a fan of music, and has worked as a music supervisor for a long time, so I think that between us we were able to have the insider and outsider perspective. Which is something we tried to balance in the film.”

Was it hard not going too far down the fanboy route? “Yes and no. That was the balance we were trying to strike,” Sam explains. “The film was a personal journey that was obviously fuelled with passion and all of those good things, and on the other hand I had to bring in the anthropological angle. I think that it really speaks of the collaborative process that Scot was always there to keep me in check if we were heading down the nerd path too hard, and steer us back on, and remind me that we don’t need to obsess about the British grindcore movement for 20 minutes. It was by virtue of that kind of collaboration that enabled us to maintain some kind of objectivity. Scot acted as the other side of my psyche.”

When watching Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, it doesn’t feel like your standard documentary. It’s bigger in scope and feel than many other films of its type – certainly rock docs. Was there a moment when the production suddenly felt bigger than planned? “It happened fairly early on in the writing process,” Dunn says, “but it took us a while to figure out that it had the potential. Originally it was going to be a much more conventional, historical documentary about heavy metal, and we were thinking of getting Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden to narrate, and it would be more of a look back.

“As we threw the idea around and talked about it, we realised we needed something that would bring people in from the outside, because we didn’t just want to make a film for metal fans.”

He continues: “If we’d done that, it would have turned into a TV project. The combination of a personal journey and the anthropological angle was something we felt would bring in more people, and we felt we had more of a story on our hands, rather than just a history.

“Our intention with the film is to convert as many people as possible,” he says, tongue-in-cheek… I think.

It’s clear from the outset of the film that Dunn is a massive Iron Maiden fan, and that getting to meet Bruce Dickinson in the process of shooting was a major thing for him, which is cool – I think we can all relate to that – but was there anyone else who made an impression?

“Well meeting Bruce Dickinson was obviously massive for me because Maiden are my all-time favourite band,” he reiterates, “but Tony Iommi was amazing. That was for a few reasons – the obvious reason is, he pretty much single-handedly created this guitar sound that became defined as the ‘heavy metal sound’ and played such a huge role. Secondly, he was just great with us – gave us plenty of his time and he was really gracious and friendly with us, which made it easy. Thirdly, that interview with Tommy came quite late in our production, right at the end, and there were a few ket interviews we felt we still needed. One was Lemmy, and one was Tony Iommi, and they both came together towards the end, and once we had Tony and were driving away from that country manor where we interviewed him, we felt like ‘Yes. We’ve got it now. We can make a film about metal, that covers all our bases.’”

It speaks volumes for the film that the makers chose to go after true metal heroes like Iommi, rather than taking the easy option of just grabbing Ozzy and letting him ramble on. Dunn agrees: “Yeah, Tony has a bit more to say. Our intention and motivation was to create a film that was smart and that gave the music the respect we felt it has always deserved. It was really just a matter of asking the right people the right questions.

“Growing up it felt like most of my metal friends were pretty articulate people, it wasn’t like they were always walking round smashing beer cans on their foreheads, which is the standard portrayal. Interviewing Tony instead of Ozzy is a sign of how we wanted to approach the film.”

This articulacy is evident throughout the documentary. Interviewees like Rob Zombie, Ronnie James Dio and Dee Snider bring up pertinent points, which is not something the average fan necessarily expects.

“Yeah, I agree. I honestly feel it was about framing it all in the right way. Most musicians, particularly in the metal world, are just used to answering pretty superficial and mundane questions like, ‘how’s the new album coming along?’, ‘how’s the tour?’, ‘tell me about your craziest moment on stage, dude.’ Those are the kinds of questions they’re used to fielding, and we were coming at them from an angle of the history of the music and the themes of the music, and what it means to people and why it is obsessed with all these bizarre things. Once we got going with the interviews, most of the artists began to open up and it was an opportunity to talk about things that they don’t usually get to talk about.”

In a world with such rabid fans, there was bound to be some complaining along the lines of ‘Boo hoo, Manowar weren’t featured enough’, and the internet is certainly testament to that, with a variety of websites and forums praising and decrying the film in equal measures for its choice of subjects. Has Dunn personally encountered any complaints?

“Ooooooooohhhh yes,” he says with a chuckle. “The great thing about making the film is that we’ve had to travel to dozens of film festivals around the world, and wherever you go, the fans that love this music and are passionate about it always have their opinions about which bands were omitted, and who we didn’t spend enough time on – but that’s what makes metal music so special; people care so much. It’s part of how they grow up and become their own person, so it has a lot of personal resonance.”

How have you answered those more critical fans?

“Our intention with creating the heavy metal family tree (check the film out, or go to www.metalhistory.com) was hopefully a way for us to at least touch on all of the different movements and the different bands. We knew we weren’t going to have interviews with everyone, but the tree was kind of a way to go ‘okay, we can tick Megadeth off the list.’”

As the film progresses, proceedings take a darker turn as Dunn investigates the world of black metal and the more questionable exercises some people practise… church burning, for example. One sections sees the director travel to Norway to chat face-to-face with some of the guys involved. It’s quite uneasy viewing in places; was Dunn intimidated at all?

“Well, to start with, I’m a huge fan of a lot of the black metal bands,” he explains, “and the bands and I communicated by email, there was a sense of camaraderie, and of trust, and that we could talk about these issues. So, it wasn’t so much a matter of being intimidated by them at all, because they’re really nice guys. It was more about being surprised, because when we wrote the treatment we expected the bands to distance themselves from those events – that’s what we were expecting to get – but we were surprised in one or two situations to find that some of the artists actually support the burning, or, if they don’t necessarily support it, there is an underlying resentment of Christianity that stretches back a long, long time. That is something that is very real in their culture, and that was often the case with some of the bands we interviewed there.

“When we came back and started editing, we were like ‘Wow. Religion is really important to these people and has had a huge influence on their society’, so we wanted to reflect that in the movie.”

Another of the more notorious scenes in the movie takes place at the Wacken festival, when the the filmmakers catch up with Norwegian metallers Mayhem. It’s not an overexaggeration to say that they were dicks. Were they really like that, or did they just turn it on when the cameras started rolling?

“They were actually pretty obnoxious,” says Dunn. “But I will say, I’ve met them in Norway and I’ve talked with other band members on different occasions, and they’re actually pretty nice guys – it’s not like they’re out to control the world. In the context of that interview, they’d just got off stage after playing to 40,000 people and they’d obviously been drinking most of the day, so I don’t think they were particularly interested in doing an interview. All of those factors combined with the fact that there were 30-40 people standing behind me watching the interview, so it was like they were still performing. As an interviewer your goal is to establish some kind of intimacy, but clearly… we failed.”

What about current, more populist bands – are there any that grab Dunn’s attention?

“I’m not a huge fan of metalcore, emocore, eyelinercore, whatever,” he explains. “Metal is not supposed to be cute, and when it becomes cute, it becomes wrong. These bands begin to tread that fine line between being too commercial and staying underground.” Dunn continues: “If people are discovering Coheed and Cambria or Slipknot or Avenged Sevenfold, and are then discovering the Black Sabbaths and Iron Maidens and Slayers, then I think that’s good. Who am I to judge that? That’s how I got into the music. It’s like we say in the movie, with Van Halen and Motley Crue, before it was Morbid Angel and Creator. I mean, c’mon, you don’t start at step five. As long as that more populist music is providing a gateway into the core of metal, then that’s a good thing.”

So the more traditional idea of metal is still alive and thriving?

“Yeah, I think now’s a really exciting time for metal,” he says. “A lot of people think metal is just about nostslgia and that it dies in the 80s, and that was another myth we were trying to debunk in the film. Metal is underground, that’s where it comes from, and it’s always gonna survive.

“Right now what’s great is that loads of bands that have been toiling away in the underground for a long time are starting to get some recognition. Bands like Arch Enemy, Mastadon, Lamb of God, Children of Bodom, so many of these bands are really starting to make their way, and it’s really positive for metal because it’s not like Linkin Park where you can handpick your heavy metal boyband. These bands are the real thing, and that’s what metal fans really appreciate and they deserve it. It feels like 20 years ago, and I see parallels between what was happening then and what’s happening now.”

The exuberance with which Sam Dunn talks about his film, his band at home and his next movie idea is a reflection of his love of the music. Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey isn’t a plea to the wider world for understanding, it’s just an attempt to shine a light on a greatly misunderstood medium, and if the haters still don’t get it, then that’s just fine.

As Dunn says at the film’s close: “We’re doing just fine without you.”

This article first appeared in Burn magazine, issue 11

Once again thanks to Mike for reaching out with this story. We are also huge Team America fans.

A healthy crew of Bangers are setting up to film Iron Maiden in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Santiago, Chile.

There has been a little bit of chatter around the net but we can confirm that we will be shooting the band for a live concert dvd to be compiled using footage from both shows.

We know that the fans in South America are passionate and this compilation is sure to capture their fervor and delight in front of Maiden’s Final Frontier Tour. Recalling some of the footage from the Flight 666 film, there was definite interest in returning for something a little more in depth.

Check out some words stolen from a recent BlabberMouth blog post oh and MetalHammer ran something too …

In a recent interview with Chile’s Futuro 88.9 FM, IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris stated about the DVD upcoming shoot, “We will record two shows. We will use footage from both concerts for the DVD.

“We have amazing supporters in Chile and Argentina and we want to show more of the audiences from those parts of the world. We already filmed some footage there for the ‘Flight 666′ movie, but only one song per country was used. We will now have a chance to show much more of the crowds in Chile and Argentina.

“Wherever we go, we are always asked what the best audiences in the world are, and we always say that it is South America — Chile, Argentina and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Now we can show it.”

When asked if the setlist for the Buenos Aires and Santiago concerts will be the same as the one the band has been playing on the current “Final Frontier World Tour”, Harris said, “The setlist that we are playing is basically the same we have been playing on this tour, what you have been able to see on Internet. The sets that we will do in Chile and Argentina will be the same, but for these two special shows that will be recorded, we have prepared more songs and a bigger production. So what you will see in Chile will be a long and big show.”

Regarding how many cameras will be used to capture the performances, Harris said, “I think it will be about 10 or 12. I had always been involved in the production and direction of the concert DVDs in the past, but we are now working with a very good company, the guys who made the documentary ‘Flight 666′. They are the ones who are responsible for recording these shows, so for me at least it is a great relief.”

Steve Harris with the Banger Films Crew. Nice to see the folks behind the cameras.

Today is starting out with fantastic news as Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage has been nominated for a 2011 Juno Award under the Best Music DVD category! As many of you will remember, Banger Films took this same award last year for the work on Iron Maiden: Flight 666 which marked a new movement in band specific documentaries for the team.
The 2011 Juno nominations were announced this morning live on CTV. There will be a lot of hype around Justin and Drake who have blasted into the music spotlight this year and we wish them all the best.
This is shaping up to be a monumental year for RUSH and the people behind the film at Banger Films HQ. The world can look forward to the next wave of RUSH’s Time Machine Tour featuring the Moving Pictures album in it’s entirety. There is the Grammy Awards in April, preceded by the Juno’s in March.

We will add more to this news story as we get feedback but it is safe to say that the office is pretty excited this morning.

In the meantime, please read up on the other amazing Music DVD’s that were also nominated below.

MUSIC DVD OF THE YEAR

Shadow Shows/Rhombus Media/Arts & Crafts*Alliance
Bruce McDonald Dany M. Chiasson, Niv Fichman, Noah Segal, Amy Paquette BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE
This Movie is Broken
Broken Social Scene – DVD
This Movie is Broken

One of Canada’s pre-eminent cult fimmakers, Bruce McDonald is infamous for his comment that he’d buy “a big chunk of hash” with the money he won at the Toronto International Film Festival for his debut feature Roadkill. Anyone who’s seen one of his films knows that he wasn’t joking. Roadkill was followed by the other two films in his Road Trilogy, Hard Core Logo and Highway 61. In between executive producing and directing the television series Twitch City and directing for shows like Queer as Folk, Degrassi: The Next Generation, The Tournament and This is Wonderland, McDonald also directed the films Dance Me Outside, Picture Claire, Claire’s Hat, The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess, The Tracey Fragments, Pontypool and This Movie is Broken. His most recent film, Trigger, premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.

WEA*Warner
Christopher Mills Nick Blasko, Geoff McLean, Christopher Mills BUCK 65
The Lost Tapes
Buck 65
The Lost Tapes

Christopher Mills is best known for his video work for Modest Mouse, The Tragically Hip, The Secret Machines, and Interpol–combining live action with animation in a style he describes as, “Rumpled Country Art Doctor Antiques Lover Who Thinks Out Of The Box Yet Imagines Vast Worlds Inside It.” In addition to music videos and commercials, Christopher has created visual work for the Art Gallery of Ontario as well as for The Tragically Hip’s stadium concert tour in 2005. He created and directed, “Macroscopic,” a 47-minute experimental documentary about The Tragically Hip that was included in their 20-year retrospective, Hipeponymous, released in late 2005. Christopher has received many awards for his music video work, including a JUNO Award for 2008 Video of the Year for Blue Rodeo’s “C’mon” and Best Breakthrough Video for Modest Mouses’ “Float On” in 2004. His 2006 mixed-media commercial for Hewlett-Packard, called: Crazy Town,” was his first U.S. commercial. Christopher lives in Toronto.

Columbia*Sony
Jean Lamoureux, Julie Snyder CELINE DION
Céline-Tournée Mondiale Taking Chances Le Spectacle
Celine Dion
Céline-Tournée Mondiale Taking Chances Le Spectacle

Celine -Tournee Mondiale Taking Chances Le Spectacle is the exclusive French version filmed live in Québec. The U.S. edition features only her English language songs, performed throughout all of North America. La Tournee Mondiale Taking Chances Le Spectacle, showcases Céline’s inspiring dedication to creating a stage experience like no other. The DVD/CD offers another chance to experience the magical event, this time from a vantage point unparalleled by any ticket

Naxos
Jeremy Tusz, Tom Beghin, Martha De Francisco, Wieslaw Woszczyk TOM BEGHIN
The Virtual Haydn

Jeremy Tusz is a Montréal-based recording engineer, editor, and video producer specializing in classical music. He splits his time between CD/SACD/BluRay Audio album production, and promotional and educational video production for musicians and record labels. The Virtual Haydn (Playing the Room) is his first full-length documentary on a screenplay by Robert J. Litz. Jeremy works with artists and groups such as Lara St. John, Jens Lindemann, Alain Lefèvre, Angèle Dubeau, Kent Nagano and l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, The National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Les Violons du Roi, l’Ensemble Caprice, and The Knights. His work can be heard on recordings for labels such as Analekta, Ancalagon, Azica, Marquis Classics, Naxos, Sony Classical, Virgin Classics, and XXI. He has credits on 10 JUNO Award-nominated recordings (three wins), a MIDEM-nominated recording, an Echo Klassik-winning recording, and many ADISQ-nominated and winning recordings. Jeremy has a background in violin and viola performance and is a graduate of the McGill University Schulich School of Music Masters of Music in Sound Recording program (2006).

Alliance
Scot McFadyen, Sam Dunn, Pegi Cecconi, Noah Segal, Shelley Nott, John Virant RUSH
Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage

Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage

Rush is one of rock’s most influential bands, ranking third for most gold and platinum albums behind The Beatles and Rolling Stones.  But despite having legions of devoted fans and being revered by generations of musicians, they have been ignored by critics and continually overlooked by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Featuring never-before-seen archival footage and interviews with some of today’s most respected rock artists, Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage explores the 40-year career and phenomenon behind what could be the world’s biggest cult band.

Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage looking for the 'Double' with a Grammy and a Juno

From everyone at Banger Films headquarters, we want to wish you a safe and happy new year.

2010 was the busiest in Banger Films’ history with well over 150 separate interviews throughout Europe and North America. The production team has grown larger than ever before with a storm of activity as they piece together what will be the biggest effort in the company’s incredible history.

In 2011, Metal Evolution will premiere. An 11 part mini series based on some of the most popular metal and heavy rock genres featured in the first movie, Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey. Some episodes are wrapping up while others are starting to get pieced together in preparation for editing.

There’s been some confusion regarding Canadian screenings however, no worries, as Much More Music will be premiering the series for Canadian audiences while VH1 Classic will air the series for US viewers.

In the meantime there is an amazing little website out there that does a great job at featuring a killer interactive map of many of the Metal and Rock genres. Check out MapofMetal.com created by Patrick Galbraith of http://www.venusfir.com.au/. This site is very well done so head over and have a look. Thanks Patrick for the link back in the credits! Again check it out here;

Map of Metal

Incredible work from down under.

Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage

The Rush documentary took everyone by surprise taking the Fans Choice award at Tribeca and recharging Rush’s ‘approval rating’ beyond anyones expectations. The Banger team couldn’t be happier now that the film is up for a Grammy award! Rush has been nominated on 7 other occasions without bringing home the hardware. We feel this is the year. There is a strong Doors documentary on the bill which may just nip it from the ‘Hosers’ but we will keep our outlook positive.

Thanks to you the Rush doc was the 2nd best selling music DVD of 2010. Only Beyonce could dethrone the 3 kids from Canada from the top spot.

So thank you again and hope to hear from you all in 2011!

Keep Raging !!!

Ya! Crazy! The film affectionately referred to as The Rush Doc has been noticed by the Grammy committee and may just take home one of the biggest awards in the business. Today the Grammy Nominees found out who they were with a list of 109  unique music categories. Beyond the Lighted Stage was nominated in the very last category covering Best Long Form Music Video.

The complete list of nominees can be found on the main Grammy Awards page here http://www.grammy.com/nominees. Rush is in deep and will need to find a few crotchety old Rush fans in the juror list to overcome documentaries covering Blur, The Doors, Arif Mardin, and The White Stripes.

This is an incredible validation of what Banger Films has been able to bring to the big screen considering Geddy and Neil pretty much laughed them out of the room when they first broached the subject. The rest is history of course. What came out the other end was an endearing expose of probably the ‘worlds biggest cult band’. Okay, that phrase has been beaten to death hasn’t it?

For the hell of it, why don’t you check out the Tribeca interview which took place a couple days before Sam and Scott were handed a cheque for $25,000. Nice peeps. Oh by the way it appears that this version has been edited and thus the butchery of the word ‘Canada’ by the host was removed.

Congrats to all the crew at Banger Films HQ.