I wanted to take a moment to give my deepest love and gratitude to all of the incredible humans that helped bring "Starman" to life.
I will start with Director Thor Freudenthal (Percy Jackson Movies, Hotel for Dogs, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Movie, Arrow, The Flash, The Expanse, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Quantico). A truly inspiring human - I’m blown away by Thor's capacity to capture story, emotion, performance, and color with not only his experience as a director, but as an illustrator as well. On and off screen, it was a true gift to be able to work with him and I know Keon Alexander felt the same... When I approached him about "Starman", I had no idea how to technically realize it and had lost many nights of sleep over it. But immediately he understood what I wanted, what it would take, and how to take it to another level.
One of the main pieces, was finding the right cinematographer. Thanks to a recommendation from the brilliant and renowned Shelley Johnson (Captain America, Percy Jackson), we were turned onto a budding talent named Michael Stampler. Aside from being one of the nicest people I have ever met, Michael has a gorgeous eye (as you can see in the video). He knows how to make everything beautiful from the right lens to the perfect glow and he is an incredible worker. He also brought in an awesome team to work with him behind the camera and on the set. Many thanks to all these guys for their professionalism and hard work. It was not an easy shoot by any means and we all really stretched. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart: David Olaoniye, Devin Colter, Kevin Campbell, and Pamela Lopez Pavell.
When I first met Michael Rosner of Eye Level Studio, I was playing a show at Perch in Los Angeles, California, having recently talked with Thor Freudenthal about my dream of a "Starman" world made of H.R. Geiger meets Salvador Dalí-esque mandala inspired landscapes. I walked into Perch and bumped straight into a display of paintings that looked like they had seeped out of my dream, and into reality.
Ros is an artist who really channels consciousness into his work and I was very inspired by him. We spoke about the project and later met over what kind of symbols, colors, and patterns would best represent the world we were looking to create in “Starman”. It was a gorgeous process full of synchronicity and inspiration. Fast forward to the day of the shoot. This was the most difficult performance experience I have ever had and I know it was challenging for Ros and his assistants Akiko Yamakawa and Linda Gabriela. We had one day to shoot and painting my entire self took 9 hours, before they moved to Keon Alexander. A 17 hour shoot day followed and on top of that I broke into hives from the paint. It was torturous and I wanted to tear my flesh off, despite being overjoyed at shooting. But Ros and his team kept everything looking beautiful and we made it out alive ;).
Thank you Ros, Linda, and Akiko for your work, which brought so much exquisite beauty and symbolism to the matrix dream world of Starman.
For a full list of credits, check the video out on YouTube.
Can't view the video in your territory? Go here to view.