DeZ Vylenz embodies all meanings of the word ‘artist’. Part mystic, part martial arts enthusiast, part wordsmith… Vylenz is a man whose creative medium has no limits. To this director, every location, culture and state of mind is its own canvas. As the co-founder of Shadowsnake Films, Vylenz focuses his talents on the production of mixed-media creations that showcase his passion for life and art. As part of this ongoing journey, Vylenz directed the documentary The Mindscape of Alan Moore
PCZ: Your influences clearly are seated in a number of mediums, with comics being the one that introduced you to Alan Moore’s work.
DV: Basically I love all kinds of storytelling, whether that’s the guys back home on street corners clutching their balls during macho tales or eloquent literary exercises on the page. But most of all I’ve always been attracted to the combination of pictures and words, which is extremely powerful. It goes back to the first cave drawings and shadowplay theatre by campfires. Human beings are essentially visually oriented creatures, although the senses are merely the first windows to other worlds beyond.
PCZ: How do you balance your love of comics with the variety of other themes in your work?
DV: I think it was more of an issue for me back in the mid 90s when the comics medium wasn’t really recognized as a serious storytelling device. I did my university thesis in Amsterdam on the narrative in comics, film and literature and it was a great journey into the various techniques, tropes, strengths and limitations of each medium, but I like all of them. When there’s no money to do a film, you write it as a comic. When there’s no artist to work with, you do it as a book. So now I’m in the process of taking out various projects out of hibernation and pinning them down in the medium that best fits the stories. It’s only the last few years really that I fully understand the direction my writing is taking.
PCZ: Have you ever had aspirations of working more in comics, be it with a mainstream publisher or an independent title?
DV: I did start out with cartoons for the newspapers when I was 15-16, but I’m not gifted when it comes to drawing and I never had that monk like patience. So together with illustrators I produced quite a few pages that were destined to become a fully paid feuilleton, but then I left to study in Europe and the projects faded out. Then I picked it up later, but it’s hard to find dedicated artists who will have that stamina to finish page after page beyond he pre-studies phase. So yes, there are quite a few scripts in the fridge that would work better in comics than film which hopefully will get published some day.
It’s such an economical and effective medium and even if the world will be plunged into a Mad Max kind of state with no electricity, Internet or DVD players, I can see people finding comics with faded paper and treasuring them like some archaeological codex. Hopefully it will be some of the Moore titles.
PCZ: When you first approached Alan Moore with the concept of creating the film, was the inclusion of scenes adapted from ‘Watchmen’ and ‘V for Vendetta’ part of your original plans?
DV: Yes. I always loved that opening of Watchmen. It was my introduction to his work at the right time in my teens when I had the naive ambition to become a writer and filmmaker. Back in 2002 Watchmen, V for Vendetta and Hellblazer (later made by Hollywood as Constantine) were not adapted to film. None of his work was actually, except for From Hell I believe which was in production at the time. So to capture those works onto film was a great challenge and experiment. I decided that mood, atmosphere was the thing to go for, just to give a flavour of the man’s work.
PCZ: Given Mr. Moore’s well-chronicled trepidations to the film adaptation of his work, how was this originally received?
DV: He gave me complete carte blanche. Initially I asked for confirmation if certain decisions in terms of structure, themes and content were okay with him, but he really had faith in the project. So it was nice to hear from him later on that he actually enjoyed the dramatizations in the film and he was asking technical details, comparing it to German Expressionism and all that.
PCZ: Tell us a bit about your plans for the remaining films in the ‘Shamanautical / 5 Elements’ series. You have previously mentioned that additional films would include a focus on martial arts and location filming in the jungles of Suriname.
DV: Mindscape is the first part that lays down the worldview that will be present in the feature fictions. Those will be much more visceral, more dramatic and centered around martial arts, mysticism and the reality of survival. Chapter 2 will be part jungle, part urban. I’ve done most of the location scouting and am now in the last stages of the script. The country is 80% jungle, so logistics and planning are crucial. Kafka-styling concepts like “finance” and “development hell” we won’t get into here.
I can’t say too much about the story yet, the work title is Burning, but all I can say is I’m extremely hungry to shoot it and bring something to the screen that fills me with excitement if I’d watch the first cut, because it will present a mix of cultures you don’t get to see in the mainstream where films are increasingly stale, predictable and mediocre. It’s not as violent or fast paced as City of God or as tragic as Amorres Perros, in fact I don’t think it’s a good comparison, but those films definitely paved open the way for South American films.
PCZ: What do you see as the direction for these remaining films and what other mediums are you hoping to explore with them?
DV: Interesting that you ask about the other mediums, because in fact there will be a cross-over thing with part of the narrative in book form and part in feature film format, while some of the martial arts material lends itself perfectly to a more interactive medium like the video game. Particularly Part 4 is designed for it.
I am old school when it comes down to getting thought out narrative and solid storytelling as the foundation for whatever format you work in, but am by no means technophobic and would love to experiment more with some of the unexplored possibilities in video games. My ancestors also passed on their pioneer spirit, so it is in these new areas of technology that you can still break some ground. It’s frustrating to see the same ideas recycled all the time.
PCZ: Describe the journey from the original release of The Mindscape of Alan Moore in 2003 to the release of the DVD this month.
DV: Let’s say it’s been like a 100m Olympic sprinter who suddenly found himself in a 42-km marathon with the whole business of promotion, film festivals, negotiations with potential distributors and the hard reality of independent endeavors to bring out something with integrity. Then parallel to that Shadowsnake Films was founded as a production company, which meant investors had to be brought aboard, meaning more business, more paperwork and drifting away from the creative writing. All this while juggling film jobs for music gigs, videos, corporate films, workshops and whatever mercenary work you have to take as a film maker and writer. But film is not the only area I work in, so a lot of developments in my life have been going on parallel with Project Mindscape and it’s been an exponential learning curve that still continues.
There are times though I wish I’d become a chef, your work is there instantly and you move on to the next thing. People like it or spit it back on their plates if you screwed up.
PCZ: How did you approach revisiting the original film from the aspect of releasing it as a DVD and what ‘bonus features’ did you see as an absolute must for inclusion?
DV: The film obviously is a more intense experience when it’s projected in 35mm with Dolby Surround, but it’s also very dense. A lot of information to digest. So for multiple viewings the DVD format is a natural choice. As for the extras, I spent another 6 months putting those together. In essence as a filmmaker you have to step back and produce whatever you would prefer to see on a disc yourself. Audiences are much more film literate now and curious about collaborations, the creative process etcetera. But particularly the artists that worked with Alan Moore are all of serious creative caliber, so a lot of time went into making them comprehensive and engaging. It was almost like doing a second feature.
Half the time bonus features are just disappointingly rushed once you’ve bought a DVD and you wonder why you bothered. I wanted the whole package to be a nice little timeless document about the creative process, the Idea and spirituality in general. I used to be an avid vinyl record collector and trader, so I always loved elaborately designed album covers with liner notes, lyrics and all that. I guess this was unconsciously a digital version and with a killer designer like John Coulthart you can’t go wrong.
PCZ: Do you still communicate with Alan Moore?
DV: I’m still in touch, for example last year I had the honour to attend his wedding with Melinda Gebbie, which was worth a film in itself. This year we also did a signing together at Orbital Comics in London for the UK DVD release and have been talking on and off on the phone, but he’s a very dedicated writer so as with most busy people I’m always respectful of his time. He’s writing some serious magnum opus now called Jerusalem, I think he said it was around 1,500 pages. And here I thought me toiling away on a 90-page film script was something.
PCZ: What are your thoughts on yours being the only film to date that has had both his endorsement and support?
DV: It’s not something you think about once you finish a project, you just move on to the next mission. But it is a wonderfully inspiring thing to have his blessing and appreciation for your work, I guess a bit like an apprentice who gets encouragement to sharpen one’s craft to higher levels. At least you know you must be doing something right on that spontaneous and crazy path of creativity.
When I meet him, we just talk on the same level man to man or professionally when it involves work. But it’s when you attend a signing event or reading and you notice that he fills up thousands of seats or causes lines and traffic jams around the block, only then I’m reminded that I was lucky to work with a highly respected living legend and that it’s not something to be taken for granted.
In any case I can’t show up at his place with a badly written CGI driven film in my pocket. He’s very generous with advice, so it is a very constructive thing.
PCZ: With next year’s adaptation of Watchmen garnering so much attention, do you feel that the time has finally come for a faithful film version of Mr. Moore’s work?
DV: I don’t know how faithful one can truly be with an adaptation, different media often require a different approach. But respect to the integrity of the story is the least one would expect, because any dedicated author and particularly Alan Moore, writes with a specific effect in mind for a specific medium. You can’t take just the aesthetic aspects of a tragedy like Macbeth and change it to a hokey comedy for example. Or let’s just say I don’t see the point. Film is too expensive a medium to waste resources on whims and navel gazing. There are some occasional gems, but in general a lot of popular culture is so incestuous, recycling the same sources and calling it homage or retro. Lazy. For those in their teens it seems new and refreshing, but I’m seriously bored.
It’s too early to judge Watchmen, and I appreciate that Zack Snyder mentioned The Mindscape as reference for the Rorschach voice and mood, but three long films like Lord of the Rings, or a 6 part TV version would have been a better format to cover the scope. So I’m worried that it might be more of a visual exercise with CGI replicating the comic book panels and design. I remember a British journalist said to me last year that most comic book fans wanted EXACT adaptations of their favourite works and now they were getting it. However, I do believe there is still an audience out there that is more demanding than that.
But let’s see, with film being such a difficult and elusive medium, I always respect any feature film effort by a director, because it absorbs such a big chunk of your life. It’s like an engineering project really. Often the true human element of the story becomes a second priority.
I haven’t read the book, but have to say that Tom Tykwer did an incredible job on Perfume: Story of a Murderer. Stanley Kubrick considered this unfilmable, but the film really pulls off the whole olfactory experience within an audio-visual medium.
Same with No Country for Old Men. The Coen Brothers did a fantastic job too, but with something like Blood Meridian it’s much more difficult as it’s not plot driven but all about the apocalyptic language. A great novel doesn’t equal a great film necessarily.
PCZ: Are their any other artists whose work you would like to someday adapt or include in your films?
DV: There are too many untold stories lingering in my own brain or out there with talented writers to focus on adaptations, but in this business you can’t exclude anything. So if I had to choose, it would have to be maybe a new writer that surprised me or the challenge to adapt work by William Burroughs, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jerome Charyn or do a complete film with old Black Sabbath music, because those first six albums are serious aural assaults on the imagination when I play them on vinyl.
Music can be incredibly inspiring and I can imagine that working with somebody like Amon Tobin or Little Axe from scratch can lead you to some unexpected areas of cinema.
And that’s what it’s all about, fresh and surprising new directions, but I don’t see something new with that innovating blow of Electric Ladyland or Bitches Brew coming out soon when there is so much emphasis on recycling existing templates and works.
PCZ: Thank you for your time.
DV: Likewise, was a pleasure.
We’d like to thank Mr. Vylenz for taking the time to talk with us about his work both with Alan Moore and his upcoming projects with Shadowsnake Films. The Mindscape of Alan Moore hits stores on September 30.
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