Over the last couple of years, in a series called Unstaged, American Express has entrusted the direction of its online concert broadcasts to a handful of accomplished filmmakers, coming up with some interesting combinations: Terry Gilliam and Arcade Fire. John Legend (and the Roots) and Spike Lee. Duran Duran and David Lynch.
The latest pairing: My Morning Jacket, the acclaimed indie-rock band, and Todd Haynes, whose most recent project has been the HBO miniseries “Mildred Pierce.” They’ll work together on a concert at the Louisville Palace Theater, in My Morning Jacket’s hometown of Louisville, Ky., on May 31. (It’s the scheduled release date of the band’s new album, “Circuital,” on ATO.) The Web site is here.
Mr. Haynes, 50, has ventured depictions of rock ‘n’ roll in his work, most obviously with the 1998 film “Velvet Goldmine,” inspired by 1970s glam rock, and the 2007 film “I’m Not There,” in which a diverse range of actors — Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere — access different facets of the Bob Dylan mystique. (It was through that project that he first came into contact with Jim James, My Morning Jacket’s lead singer.)
Nate Chinen, a Times pop music writer, spoke with Mr. Haynes, who called from Portland, Ore., where he lives.
Q. When were you contacted by American Express to work on Unstaged?
A. Pretty recently. It’s really just been the last couple of weeks. We’re jumping right into it. I have some obligations throughout May, so it was tight from the start, but it just sounded like a really cool opportunity and experience for me. I’ve never done a live concert, or live television, or a live broadcast of any kind. I worked with Jim James on my film “I’m Not There” — he sang “Goin’ to Acapulco” with Calexico backing him up. We just hit it off, and it’s such a beautiful moment in that film.
Q. What’s the most important thing when you’re representing music onscreen?
A. It’s almost too general a question, because it depends on what the music is, and plays on what I’ve generally done, which is narrative dramatic films that incorporate music history and characters from the world of music. The way I sort of approach my work is that the historical and socioeconomic and cultural worlds that the music is exploring dictate the visual experience, and the way that we approach it specifically on film. When we were doing “Velvet Goldmine,” and it was about glam rock, I took to the heart the language of artifice and theatricality and indeterminate sexuality and even the extraterrestrial aspects that interweave through that whole genre. When you’re shooting concert scenes in films, we try to bring in, where appropriate, as much of a sense of live performance as possible. Once you set up those elements, you really let the live performance dictate it. Hopefully you’re working with great operators who are spontaneous and dexterous and versatile, and they can catch those moments that you can’t really ever completely plan. Then there are other places where you want the visual aspects to conduct the experience.
That gazebo scene in “I’m Not There,” when Jim James sings “Goin’ to Acupulco,” strikes a really great balance between those two things: a sense of live performance but also a thread of narrative, as Richard Gere’s character sort of leads us through the town?
It was all conceived, pardon the expression, in concert with the elements you described: the narrative elements, the musical elements, and the parts of the story or stories that make up “I’m Not There.” We’re coming to a broader view of this character’s world, the Billy character. To quote the great Greil Marcus term, the Old, Weird America that he discovers in this state of panic and crisis. And so it’s a coming-together of all these pieces of the American past and specters of American history that are tattered and in peril, and this beautifully mournful Dylan song, which also has an element of utter absurdity in the lyrics. That balance between the truly mournful and the absurd. It started with the song, I think, and that script started with specific songs dictating the moods and the narrative of the scene. Hopefully you follow that through and you make good choices. With that kind of thing, you hope for the best. In that case, we just really got it. It was just a truly moving moment that brought the entire crew together. It really affected everybody.
Jim James is an especially good choice when you’re looking to marry the mournful with the absurd? And yes, he sings that song beautifully.
It’s not a super well-known Dylan song, even from the “Basement Tapes” collection, and as it turns out it’s one of his favorites. I think you can tell, by the way he sings it.
Q. Did your familiarity with My Morning Jacket precede that experience?
A. Actually not. I didn’t really know their music well at that point. It was [the music supervisor] Randy Poster who introduced me. We were scrambling. We had the backing track, and were working on developing the backing track with Calexico, and we were trying to find a singer for it. We actually had tried another singer and it didn’t work out. Whoever we were going to get would have to record the song but also be there for the shoot, be fitted for a costume and commit to the schedule. I remember we had to kind of furiously throw it together. And sometimes that actually benefits the energy and adrenaline and the sense of necessity that drove it. I was getting to know Jim’s music at the time.
Q. How has your relationship with the band’s music developed since then?
A. I started listening around that time to their past records. I didn’t, until this job, see their concert film, “Okonokos,” which is really beautiful. It really conveys the experience of watching that band play live, and the way the players interact with each other onstage. It’s beautifully done. I’d seen them in concert, and they also performed some of their own songs and “Goin’ to Acapulco” at this Beacon Theater concert for “I’m Not There.” That was the first time I met the whole band.
Q. Do you have a favorite album of theirs?
A. I love “Z.” I love “It Still Moves.” And the first record is beautiful. “Evil Urges” has some stuff in it that’s unbelievable. It’s really daring and diverse and seems to be trying out a lot of different genres. But “Z” is such a complete experience. They’re all quite different and they keep trying new things, which I love.
