Beck × Gustaf "Close"

I got an email: “Beck’s going to call you.” Funny, since I never gave Beck my number.

As a teenager I wore out my “Loser” cassette, so the idea of co-directing with him felt unreal. Then the phone rang. Beck.

From day one he knew it would be black and white. Beck brought in references from 1970s French photography, and he was specific in the best way, the kind of clarity a filmmaker dreams about. Gustaf went from strangers to friends to family in about a day. Lydia Gammill is pure electricity on camera, and we got almost everything in one or two takes. What you can’t see is how brutally cold it was when we shot this. It was even snowing during the balloon explosion scene.

In the edit we were swimming in footage, with close to 80 some video tracks all stacked on top of each other. Beck and I kept shuffling layers until the piece practically cut itself. Pure chaos, and it landed as something fast, fun, raw, and punk.

What he left me with was: “Don’t overthink, just tune out the noise and make cool shit.” I needed that reminder.