Song of the Untouchable

Test Screening

2011-09-20T09:10:00.000-07:00

Next Monday, we will be holding a special sneak peek and test screening of Song of the Untouchable. This is a great opportunity for fans to not only see the film for the first time, but also give their feedback. Come see what editor Irvin Coffee has been working tirelessly on for months now!

When: Monday, September 26th
Where: Canyon Theater Main Library, Boulder, CO
Tickets: Free

Free parking located at the 11th and Canyon, and 11th and Arapahoe entrances.

The Singing Priest Comes to Denver

2011-09-09T14:23:00.001-07:00

Supporting character and one of Greg's Indian mentors, Father Paul Poovathingal, is currently in Denver and performing next Tuesday at the University of Colorado Denver. In concert with a carnatic violinist and mridangam percussionist, this is one performance die hard SOTU fans can't miss!

Tuesday, September 13th at 7:30pm
The King Center Recital Hall
$12 General Admission, $5 UCD students

For more information, call 303-556-279, or visit the College of Arts and Media website

Upcoming Lecture Schedule

2011-04-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

With the arrival of spring we have some exciting announcements to make for the Song of the Untouchable schedule. First and foremost we have the premiere of Greg's new composition, Song of the Untouchable, on Friday April 29th at the King Center in Denver. We hope that everyone can make it to this multi-media presentation by Greg and the Boulder Symphony Orchestra, as they perform Greg's new piece. Also, we'll be projecting imagery captured from Greg's journey over the orchestra for the entire performance. Plus, Chuck Fryberger Films will be on hand filming, marking the final piece of production for the feature documentary. You can be famous!

Also on the schedule are the following two presentations by Greg:

1) 11 am, April 13th, Gregory Walker, Enter the Untouchables

"A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the upcoming international documentary release, Song of the Untouchable. The presentation will feature footage of Gregory Walker's travels with the Chuck Fryberger Films crew - and musical performances in the picturesque Kerala region of India."
CAMLive@Starz

Starz Film Center Auraria Campus Denver

2) 11 am, April 22, Gregory Walker and Chuck Fryberger, Song of the Untouchable

"Describing the upcoming premiere of Song of the Untouchable for Video Violin and Chamber Orchestra. The technology involved will be demonstrated. The audience will be briefed on a participatory aspect of the work. Chuck Fryberger will talk about the acquisition of the video footage."

Kenneth King Center Recital Hall, Auraria Campus, Denver

Please feel free to come to either of the discussions, and we hope to see everyone at the premiere on April 29th!

Notes from India

2011-01-27T12:56:00.000-08:00

Notes from India
January 25th, 2011

Gregory Walker, our can-do protagonist for Song of the Untouchable

It’s Chuck again, back in the USA!

We are now back from several weeks of production in Kerala, India for our upcoming feature documentary Song of the Untouchable. What a great feeling to arrive at the conclusion of a production almost 2 years in the making. This was one of the most carefully planned productions we’ve worked on recently, and the planning and preparation led to a (believe it or not) on-schedule and under-budget filming trip through southern India… something most of our contacts said was an impossible dream. There were plenty of surprises and setbacks, but luckily our schedule (and our awesome crew) were agile enough to deal with India’s unpredictability. Here I’ll share a few of the frames from the video, and a few of my own thoughts about India – a place full of everything. We will finish the film over the next few months here in Colorado and then prepare for a release sometime this Fall. This will be our ‘official’ post. I’ll let Steph and Nelson chime in with a few of their own thoughts about India. They have much better travelling stories than I do anyways.

A man stands at the end of an alleyway in Kochin, India.

The production started slowly for me. Oddly enough the single biggest setback during the production had nothing to do with India, and everything to do with a blizzard on the East Coast, which delayed Steph, Nelson, and Gregory for two days as they struggled with airport closured and delayed flights. So my visit to india started out just shooting B-roll around Kochin with Moin (the driver) Raj (our fixer) and Amresh (our sound recordist). Though I would have preferred to dive into the story right away, the opportunity to quietly observe the happenings of India was a pretty nice way to ease into the film. We spent two days just shooting snippets of everyday life in India, which will help serve as a backdrop for some of Greg’s travels. I enjoy shooting b-roll and I like the process of observation a lot.

There's some kind of metaphor here. I'm just not sure exactly where.

Is India confusing? Yes. So many cultures and so many languages all existing together among a crush of humanity makes for a kind of confusion that’s difficult to describe. The above photo is basically a metaphor for everything India. I could basically dial in the amount of confusion by just selecting different types of lenses. In general – and throughout the entire production – wide lenses were full of confusion and chaos, and telephoto lenses were full of beautiful detail and refined complexity. When you first arrive in India, it’s difficult to look at the place through anything other than a wide lens. Sensory overload comes crashing into you from every direction and it’s difficult to focus on any one thing. After some time though you can start sifting through the noise and chaos and seeing some of the beautiful details that make up the bulk of the fabric of the subcontinent.

Four boats in the Kochin harbor, India.

Once Greg and the crew got their travel nightmares out of the way and arrived in India, the production could begin in earnest. Our first stop on the musical journey was in Thrissur, to visit the Chetana Music Academy, home of Father Paul, aka The Singing Priest.

Father Paul Poovathingal, The Singing Priest

Father Paul is a master of Carnatic music – the subject of Greg’s journey – and our interaction with him and the other musicians at the academy was a great way to start our journey through Indian music. Greg received some one-on-one instruction from a Carnatic violin master, and the crew was impressed with Greg’s ability to pick up some of the techniques of the style so quickly. The master delivered a memorable quote when he said that Greg – a violin master himself – could possibly be a decent Carnatic player in possibly as little as two years. We left Thrissur and arrived late in the evening to the back waters of Alleppey, and climbed aboard the eco-houseboat of Johnson Gilbert.

Johnson Gilbert

Aboard the houseboat, Greg had some time to process his initial musical interactions and begin work on his composition, which will eventually serve as the climactic final scene of the film.

Greg listens to his recordings from the academy and begins work on his new composition

Greg plays violin from the balcony of the eco-houseboat in Alleppey, India

Following our stay on the houseboat, we met up with DJ Sekhar, who has a unique perspective on music. He plays dance music in a modern disco, but he also incorporates some of the elements of the Carnatic style into his original productions. After a few hot and muggy days on the houseboat it was nice to have a cold beer and listen to Greg jam out with some modern tunes. Greg walked into the club and after a few how-do-you-do’s he plugged in his electric violin and improvised some cool duets with the DJ.

Greg Walker, after improvising alongside DJ Sekhar in Kochin, India

Our next stop was Pakshipthalam, in Wayanad.

A King of a tribal colony near Wayanad, India

Greg explored the Cave of the Birds (should be called Cave of the Bats) and then we witnessed a performance by a tribal colony of some of their traditional dances, which incorporate singing, dancing, and music. After witnessing the raw power of the performance, we wondered what could possibly top it…

Cut to…

A Teyyam performer in Nileshwar, India

Teyyam performances really set the standard for mind-blowing sensory overload. The performances start out with the ceremonial detonation of some of the loudest fireworks I’ve ever heard. They are actually closer to the sound of a stick of dynamite. The performances can last hours, and have tremendous meaning hidden in the layers and layers of symbolism. I wont try to describe everything about Teyyam, but to summarize: The Teyyam performance is commissioned by a family (and the whole event is often similar to a family reunion) who gathers to witness the ceremony. The upper half of the performer assumes the role of a god, while the lower half remains human. During the elaborate performance, the performer may speak directly to members of the family or (as with the performance we recorded) they may also use complicated methods to try to predict the future of the family. The whole festival is an explosion of sight and sound, so it was easy pickings for some great footage.

Our next meeting was with Ashok Koshy, a multi-dimensional flute player who lives outside Kochi.

Ashok, the flute player

We settled into Ashok’s home for an entire day to film him and Greg and to absorb some of his creative energy. His grasp of the flute is truly magical and his playing was some of the best we heard on the trip. He and Greg had a lengthy discussion about music and philosophy and then the crew celebrated the conclusion of the production with a little champagne.

Greg and Ashok discuss music and life

The trip was a success, and over the next few weeks and months we’ll release some more material from the trip. I’m proud of the whole crew and I cant wait to start the editing process. There's some addition images on the Chuck Fryberger Films website, on the blog page. www.ChuckFryberger.com

father paul and the chetana music academy

2011-01-15T22:27:00.000-08:00

Two days of cancelled flights later, the crew and I have made it to Thrissur, Kerala on New Year's Eve. Naturally, our hotel reservation had also been axed, but Father Paul (archival image, pictured center) performed the first of many miracles, and the next night we had a place to stay. Not a moment too soon: the next days brought my solo classical violin recital, a carnatic music lesson, and an impromptu - yet very public - duet with violinist Abdul Azeez (pictured extreme right) at the Chetana International Music Festival!

bon voyage

2010-12-21T22:08:00.001-08:00

Jet-lagged. Lost my bag. Was unable to penetrate the immense language barrier and cultural gulf while communicating with locals.

And I just arrived in Newark, New Jersey.

Tomorrow, the Chuck Fryberger team and I begin the first leg of the journey, from New York's JFK International Airport to Nedumbassery Airport in Cochin, Kerala. Father Paul Poovathingal, a Christian priest and long-time friend of our Dr. David (see prelude post, from 10/10/09), has engaged me to perform a solo violin recital at the Chetana Sangeet Natya Academy in nearby Thrissur.

They say music is the universal language.

We'll see how that goes.

Preparing, prepping, pre-production.

2010-09-28T13:40:00.000-07:00

The time is right around the corner to officially pull the trigger and buy our plane tickets to India. We've been in pre-production mode now for months. Months of tossing around ideas, discussing the possibilities, and trying to determine the best way to move a film crew around India while still reserving enough time and energy to film our documentary.

The story has evolved, but it hasn't changed much. I'm personally trying to focus on the over-arching plot of Greg trying to pick up a musical style that's unfamiliar to him, because I think that's what most viewers will be able to relate most easily... the simple idea of challenge.

One small change we've made to the story is the introduction of a prop, which will help me communicate (and the audience understand) the providence of the sounds that will appear in the final scenes of the film. Greg will be using an old-school Nagra tape recorder to gather sounds as he moves through the wilds and back-waters of Kerala. I've always admired these machines, and I cant wait to get ours and put it to use... plus... how many props serve as a functional backup for the audio system on set?

The Nagra Sound Recorder

I cant wait to dig in to the various sub-textual elements of the story... concepts like fate, predestination, social ranking, nature, and wildlife.

Our schedule is about to be finalized, at least on the day-to-day basis. We have many details to fill in during the last few months of preproduction... we need to hire a local 'fixer' to help us move around efficiently. We need to hire a local sound recordist, and possibly a local lighting specialist.

The great thing is that the story is becoming quite concrete in my own mind, and that should help the production move along smoothly. Indecision is the sand in the gears of a production. Planning and high morale is the lubrication... and cash doesn't hurt either.

If you or anyone you know want to dip their pinky into the film business, we're currently seeking additional funding to support the production. Things are looking good on the business side... our TV distribution firm Ampersand has already been fielding inquiries about the documentary.

Anticipation is high to say the least.

Best,
Chuck

Enter the WAV

2010-09-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

It's pretty clear the main reason I was engaged to give a workshop at the International School in Como, Italy, this June was due to a recent acquisition: the NS Design WAV electric violin. The Italians weren't particularly impressed by my experiences with the Strad in Philadelphia - they'd just heard I could play a bunch of different styles. I walked in with the electric, and it pretty much sealed the deal.

Can't help but think the WAV might turn out to be my secret weapon through journeys to come...

(500) Days of Philadelphia

2010-09-06T13:57:00.000-07:00

DAY (500): 10 December 2009. 7:59 pm.

The Philadelphia Orchestra's on the TV. You never get to see live broadcasts of the legendary ensemble where I live in Louisville, Colorado. I watch the audience find their velvet seats along the stage, already full of musicians, in Philadelphia's magnificent Verizon Hall.

There's a knock at my dressing room door and I turn away from the TV monitor. I give my bow one last swipe of rosin. I tuck a 300 year-old Stradivarius under my arm. I breathe.

For the past year and a half, I've known this day would come.

I'll never be able to go back to what I was. Now I go foward with a different confidence, one I hope will take me from this place I never thought I'd reach, to distant dreams I have yet to imagine.

A new work in a great space, SOTU rolls on!

2010-06-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

Recently, the SOTU team has been looking at a lot of spaces, and considering the impact of the space on the work presented within.

Our first day of production on the film was in and around Mackey Auditorium in Boulder, CO. Truly a great way to kick off the movie, especially the concert itself, with about 2000 audience members packing the space to capacity for a performance of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Mackey was a great space for the work, being one of the biggest and best concert venues in Colorado. It's hard to think of a space that would be too big for such a monumental work of music, but the union of space, sound, and audience was just right on that evening.

St. John's Cathedral in Denver

Recently, we had the chance to attend the world premiere of Greg Walker's work titled Uneasy Sits The King, which is a reference to a passage in the great Choral work Carmina Burana, in which a king sits high... too high... and fears ruin. The work was presented at St. John's Cathederal in Denver in association with the Niwot Timberline Symphony Orchestra and the Colorado Choral Sociey. Greg's work was presented along with a powerful recital of Carmina Burana, which has been used as the epic climax music in so many films that it has become a cliche' of Hollywood movies. St John's is an awesome space although not well suited to music requiring precise timing or clarity of instruments. Due to the length of the hall, the reverberation (which is well suited to choral performances) made some of the instruments less clear than they usually sound in a more conventional concert hall.

Shortly after that performance, we had the chance to meet up with the folks responsible for helping us present Song of The Untouchable at the King Center on the CU Denver campus. We discussed how to best present the film, and how to get everything on the stage in a fashion that suits the concept of the piece, and still allows enough room for a full 65-piece orchestra. The concert, which is also the finale of the film, is almost a year away but still there are some technical challenges we need to start working on right away. Coordinating a concert with video projection and a simultaneous film shoot is a daunting challenge.

Currently, we're organizing the pre-production for our trip to India. It's a complicated process but we're slowly getting a grip on the trip!

Cheers,

Chuck

Off and rolling

2010-01-24T13:39:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was the first day of production on Song of the Untouchable. What a great feeling to break the champagne bottle over the bow of a concept we've been discussing for months. The production team spent a long day at Macky Auditorium documenting the concert from the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra. It was a terrific performance and we came away from the day with enough great footage to form the introduction of the film. I've taken a preliminary look at the footage and I think we're definitely on track. Here are a few frames of video from the shoot:

Performing the opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony

Violinist Gregory Walker

Gregory Walker rehearsing in the basement workshop

Getting dressed for the performance

India - Calm and Spacious

2009-12-23T02:20:00.000-08:00

It's 3:34 am and I'm awake and thinking about landscape.

I recently edited a video that was shot in a hurried fashion over three weeks in Nepal. The footage (though there is a lot of it) is claustrophobic and never lets the viewer out of the frenetic pace of what must have been a busy, production-oriented trip.

As in the great film Baraka, which has been a huge influence on my approach to working with non-narrative storytelling as well as landscape, I hope to find the time during production on Song of The Untouchable to step back and find ways to portray India in many different ways. I think the frenetic, confusing, crowded part will be easy enough... but finding moments that go beyond the shakey and confusing path of a video camera through India will be the real finesse.

One thing I've noticed is that lately, and due partly to the fact that the camera I'm using is such high resolution, I've been discarding the rule of thirds in favor of composing my shots in a combination of thirds and fifths. I've been trying to place large structural components of the composition according to the rule of thirds, but I'll almost always have something important - or even the very subject of the shot - placed according to fifths. Here's a couple frames from the Wyoming segment of the film I'm working on now:

I overheard an interview with a wonderful film director yesterday, and he called his visual style 'clutter'... which he basically described as the secondary or tertiary layers of subject matter in a shot. I'm starting to understand what he is talking about, as clutter is not only a theme in the shooting I'm doing now, but is quite possibly a requisite component to any shoot in India.

Happy Holidays.

Chuck

a hundred-ninety minutes in warsaw

2009-12-01T08:52:00.000-08:00

Ewa's voice crackles over the black, Soviet era loudspeaker: "The problem was een the solo violeen. We have to do eet again." The cellist to my left does another one of his little hyena whistles and the orchestra begins to kvetch in Polski. They're losing their patience and we're almost out of time. I glance down at the black page of notes on the stand, then back up at the stereo pair of mics positioned in front of my forehead, but there's nothing more to see. There's nothing more to think. Either my body knows this music or it doesn't.

It was 1:26 pm on October 29th, and I was in Warsaw recording a violin concerto written by my father, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Walker, with Ian Hobson and the magnificent Sinfonia Varsovia. I grasped the Strad, not like a $4,500,000 antique, but like the surgical, double-edged tool of musical illumination/personal confession it is. I had four minutes left to will it into a successful take of the insectile passage work.

In a sense, while I'd never experienced that particular kind of pressure before, it seems a microcosm of my life in music thus far, as well as the transformation I hope Chuck can capture with Leo's guidance in the future: Neurotic. Revelatory. Blurred.

Some Guidance from Leo Eaton

2009-11-02T07:32:00.000-08:00

Leo Eaton

Last week I watched a series called The Story of India which profiles the journey of Michael Wood as he travels around the subcontinent looking for clues of India's past and present. This documentary was one of the best pieces of programming I've ever seen, and I immediately saw a few connections with Song of The Untouchable. As I scoured the credits of The Story of India - trying to decode some information on how the production worked - I came across the name Leo Eaton, who served as the lone executive producer. Though his boots were likely not on the ground during filming, no doubt Leo was guiding the ship.

After a brief introductory email, I called Leo this morning and he generously gave me about half an hour of his time discussing Song of the Untouchable and how we might make it a creative success as well as a financial one. Leo impressed on me how important it is to develop the journey as not just a series of points on a map, but a transformative journey within our main character.

Leo told me that "India will change him, the question for you as a filmmaker is whether you can capture that transformation or not."

Agreed. Emotional buy-in is going to be hard to achieve if all we're doing is connecting the dots on the map and lecturing about music.

Leo's blog is a well-written dialogue about his life as a documentary filmmaker, and has several interesting posts about the industry, society, and the recollections of a well-regarded professional who has been doing his thing since he was a teenager.

On Wednesday I'm off to Switzerland for the last international filming trip for my upcoming climbing film. I'm looking forward to seeing my friends and enjoying the crisp fall air in Switzerland, Austria, and Italy.

Cheers,
Chuck

stradivarius

2009-10-24T11:25:00.000-07:00

Inspiration does come from the darndest places. As a creative musician, the object is to make sound that has never been made, no matter how many others share the same inspirations.

Rist's Elixir surely must have come from nature, the same sounds and trees and sticks we all spend our lives tripping over. If only there were a way for Chuck and I to transpose this immersive experience and bottle the beauty of Kerala in a musical performance.

Even within relatively muted and contained colors of the classical music world, there is the occasional shocker: last week, the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation in Chicago awarded me the loan of a 1718 Stradivarius violin.

On Monday, I fly to Warsaw with it to record with the Sinfonia Varsovia. In the meantime, I've been spending time with this legendary antique, getting to know it, learning how to mold its moods even as the damned thing seems to be bending me to its ancient will.

How many ways there are to impale oneself on beauty.

Inspiration from the Swiss

2009-10-16T01:04:00.000-07:00

I'm here in Helsinki, Finland working on my next action sports video, and yesterday it was too cold to film (big surprise) so I had a tourist day downtown. In addition to all the normal stuff like coffee and gift shopping I was able to make time to check out a new exhibit at the contemporary art museum called Elixir by Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist. The subject matter of the exhibit was much different from Song of the Untouchable, but the presentation and the use of technology and space to create a comfortable, immersive environment was really awe inspiring.

At the last performance of Greg's that I attended - a multimedia work titled 'Searching for the Perfect Planet' - there was extensive use of projected images and sound, and Greg also has mentioned his interest in creating a multimedia work from some of the footage in Song of the Untouchable. Truly, when an artist gets the combination correct of all the varius elements, it really creates something special.

At Elixir, the visitor is enveloped in a large space, with colorful images surrounding them on all sides including the ceiling. Objects such as tree branches and clear plastic objects are suspended in the beam of the projectors offering strange silhouettes and reflections. Comfortable carpet and long pillows invite the visitor to lay down and enjoy the sights and sounds.

Though there was no clear narrative to the program, I wound up spending about 45 minutes enjoying the exhibit... about as long as a film.

Cheers,

Chuck

Developing a style - starting from scratch

2009-10-11T13:03:00.000-07:00

In addition to directing Song of the Untouchable, I'll also be serving as the Director of Photography for the film. One of the reasons Greg decided to bring me on board is that he felt a sneaky suspicion that if the subject matter was handled wrong it could turn into an un-watchably boring nightmare of a travelogue. My approach will not be entirely different from the way I handle my action sports material, in terms of my choice of subject matter and visual elements. Landscape will play a big part in Song of the Untouchable, since the Kerala region is a beautiful place and it would just be wrong to ignore that. Transportation is another element... I'm always looking for ways to show transportation. Character and lifestyle is another important element I like to pay attention to, so as Greg moves through the landscape with his violin on unique forms of transportation (a houseboat as been discussed for some of the travels) that means I'm right at home.

As I write this I'm in Helsinki working on a action sports film. My friend Nalle lives here... in a unique urban landscape, using interesting forms of transportation, and living a very unique lifestyle. As I work on documenting him and his recent athletic achievements my thoughts are also progressing to the long-term goal of developing a unique visual style for Song of the Untouchable. I'll try to keep the blog updated as I make progress, but for now, here's a frame from the shoot yesterday.

Nalle Hukkataival takes a longboard to his training session. Still frame from video clip.

Cheers, Chuck

prelude

2009-10-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

It was a deceptively gentile scene: three men sitting around a plate of cold pizza, the Colorado foothills floating over the busy highway in the distance beyond us like a mirage. Dr. David Claman, world traveller and latter-day Sex Pistol, was showing two of us a historical lineage of Indian musicians on his laptop. Our director, Chuck Fryberger, sat quietly, envisioning ways he could make this landscape of South India explode across a movie screen. And I was just shaking my head; how would I ever catch up with these guys, in the course of a project that requires me to take my old French violin and learn the music of gurus half a world away?

What have I gotten myself into?

What is Song of the Untouchable?

2009-10-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

Song of the Untouchable is an adventure film profiling the journey of Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra Concertmaster Gregory Walker. Greg is preparing to embark on a musical journey through Kerala in southern India, where he will collaborate with local musicians, and absorb the sights, sounds, and culture of one of the most fascinating regions in the world.

There is no doubt Greg will undergo personal transformations and experience a way of life altogether different from what he has known. With the end goal of incorporating this new-found knowledge into his musical repertoire, Greg will return for the creation of a new composition, Song of the Untouchable, that will debut in Denver in April 2011. Full, worldwide release of the film is scheduled for summer 2011.

Follow along with this blog to stay up to date on the production, and watch as the story unfolds....

The Team:

Writer: Gregory Walker
Director/Cinematographer: Chuck Fryberger
Executive Producer: Matt Francis
Producer: Stephanie Marvez
Second Camera: Nelson Carayannis