Juliet Landau

Exclusive Interview: JULIET LANDAU’S NEW SHORT DOCUMENTARY READY TO ’TAKE FLIGHT’ AND MORE

The actress talks about her new Gary Oldman documentary, promo interviews with genre actors and posing for Kat Von D

When we last spoke with actress/filmmaker/comic book author Juliet Landau, she had finished co-directing (with cinematographer Deverill Weekes) HERO, a music video for the band Godhead in which she also appears, and had written a two-parter centering on her BUFFY and ANGEL character Drusilla for IDW’s ANGEL comic book series. Before Landau did these, she directed a 25-minute documentary, TAKE FLIGHT, about actor/filmmaker Gary Oldman directing a music video, photographed entirely with Nokia cell phones, for the Jewish hip-hop band Chutzpah. However, TAKE FLIGHT is only becoming available to the public now, at Landau’s site julietlandaustakeflight.com.

In this exclusive interview with iF Magazine, Landau explains why it took so long for TAKE FLIGHT to soar onto the Net.

JULIET LANDAU: TAKE FLIGHT, which started as a behind-the-scenes “making-of,” had developed into a short doc, so it was necessary to obtain film releases from everyone. The hardest part was tracking down all of the girls who dance in the video. It took some diligence, but was accomplished. I also had to clear all of the music rights. I used classical music for Gary’s internal creative world and then the music of the band Chutzpah when he’s shooting the music video. It represents the outside world. Each piece of classical music had to be cleared in two areas: the master recording rights and the sync licensing. It became quite a protracted negotiation with some of the pieces. The Vaughn Williams estate originally quoted four times the budget of the entire movie for “The Lark Ascending,” which is the beautiful music I use at the culmination of the film. Some of the music was licensed from Universal. Many impassioned letters later, the rights were all acquired. I redid the titles. My friend William Haefeli is a cartoonist for the New Yorker; he did all of the hand-lettering for the titles/credits, as well as the logo. I made a sorry sketch of what I had in mind and he drew it perfectly.

This was in the midst of working on many other projects. I [costarred in the feature film] MONSTER MUTT, co-directed the HERO music video and co-wrote the two Drusilla issues of the ANGEL comic book, which was a considerable amount of work. I was very involved in the art as well. I think I sent [illustrator] Franco Urru 1200 labeled reference images and [posed for] the bonus photo gallery that runs inside of each comic. I did [voice acting in] the animated GREEN LANTERN: FIRST FLIGHT film; I began writing an original comic film; I sang with Jason C. Miller at a concert of his. I also did a photo shoot with Kat Von D. She is an amazing photographer. I recorded two poems by Ella Wheeler Wilcox for a multi-media show Jude Rawlins is doing in Berlin. I recorded them at the 24 mixing stage with two-time Emmy winner Pembroke Andrews, who produced and did the sound on TAKE FLIGHT. I read Michael Levine’s book GUERILLA PR and drafted press releases and began putting together the TAKE FLIGHT promo campaign. So I guess that is why it took a bit [of time] … [smiles]

iF: How many pieces of music are involved in TAKE FLIGHT?

LANDAU: I have four pieces of classical music, and the “Red Rover” song – the Chutzpah piece is called “Red Rover.” I went through an extensive process of trying to find the right music, especially for what I felt would represent Gary’s internal creative world. I put up tons of music against the footage. Three out of the four pieces that I chose ended up having birds in the title serendipitously. It wasn’t that I went after that. So it was “The Lark Ascending,” “The Swan” and “The Thieving Magpie.” I thought that was interesting, considering TAKE FLIGHT and all.

iF: Is Chutzpah happy with the film?

LANDAU: They love the film!

iF: You’ve been shooting some promotional videos to accompany TAKE FLIGHT. Can you talk about those?

LANDAU: I decided to put together a viral campaign to time out with the release, so we launched the first one on February 25 and then one approximately every other day. Since the film [TAKE FLIGHT] is about Gary’s creative process, I decided to ask other artists I admire about their creative process – Michael Rosenbaum [SMALLVILLE], Sam Anderson [LOST, ANGEL], Amy Acker [ANGEL, ALIAS, DOLLHOUSE, HAPPY TOWN, Christian Kane [LEVERAGE, ANGEL], David J [bassist for Love and Rockets and Bauhaus], Armin Shimerman [DEEP SPACE 9, BUFFY], Harry Groener [BUFFY], Dawn Didawick [THE AMATEURS], Andrea Romano [voice director for Warners Animation], Adam Busch [BUFFY, co-director of DRONES, member of Common Rotation], Kitty Swink [DEEP SPACE 9] and [tattoo artist/photographer] Kat Von D – and also how they would market a film about Gary Oldman, Jewish hip-hop and cell phones. We’re getting some very funny answers to those questions. The interviews have turned into this mini-project that I love doing. The people are fascinating. It was new for me to be the interviewer as opposed to the interviewee. It’s a totally different experience. They’ll be on YouTube at the Miss Juliet Productions channel.

iF: Tell me more about the photo shoot with Kat Von D …

LANDAU: She photographed me as Ophelia [the character from HAMLET] and she had this beautiful set built, and we did the drowning at the end of the shoot underwater. They turned out really romantic and beautiful. The images look like paintings.

iF: What’s Gary Oldman’s feeling about the final cut of TAKE FLIGHT?

LANDAU: He loves it. He’s really excited about it, because it shows him in a different light. It’s a very playful and light and free and childlike side of him. It captures his incredible sense of humor. Many people associate him with some of the dark, tortured roles he’s played, the villains. So he’s really excited that this is out.