Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone

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Wait 15 seconds for "Like A Rollin Stone".The first time I really HEARD this song I was I think about 16 or 17. I had this vision of a photography montage of homeless teenagers in Hollywood (I grew up in Los Angeles). I unfortunately didn't know anything about photography. If I ever got a chance to make a video of the song, I would have to find someone who could do the photography for me.

Flash ahead ten years or so, its 1997 and Im in LA County jail for some offense (I think it was for battery). In the daily newspaper that they provided the cell, I saw a review of an exhibition at the LA County Museum of Art called "Raised By Wolves" by a photographer named Jim Goldberg. The whole exhibition was photos of homeless teens living in Hollywood and San Fransisco. From the few pictures that I saw, I realized immediately that this was the kind of photography I was looking for to make "Like a Rolling Stone".

When I got out I was homeless living in an alley in Santa Monica. It just so happened that right across from the parking lot I slept in there was this guy named Andrew, who I always used to say hello to, coming in and out of his alley adjacent apartment. One day I struck up a conversation with him, and it turns out he worked on commercials and short art films. I told him the idea I had for "Like A Rolling Stone", and he said he that he could actually help me realize it.

He in fact had what was known then as a Ken Burns machine. The device Ken Burns made famous with his documentaries like "The Civil War". It created motion with still photography. It cost $10,000 at the time. It really blew my mind that just by coincidence I would be sleeping in the same alley as a guy who owned such rare equipment.

So outta of the library I got a catalog book of the exhibition, and with stickies I marked out all the pictures that went with particular lyrics of the song (I was simply amazed at how many of the pictures fit the lyrics) and gave it back to Andrew.

And outta of that he created a video of "Like A Rolling Stone", directed by Bumdog. My first credit as a director. I was so proud. I sent it out to some people thinking maybe I could get some work as a video director with it, but it came to naught.

Sometime in 2004 I realize that technology had evolved to a point that even though I was homeless, I could technically make a "movie". Digital video cameras were now fairly common, and watching a friend of mine use iMovie, to make a little homemade music video, I realized how easy it was to edit video (ironically the same technology of the "Ken Burns" camera that cost $10,000 just a few years earlier, was now given away free as a part of iMovie, as the "Ken Burns Effect"). So all I needed was access to a digital camera and a Apple computer and I could make a movie if I wanted to.

What would this movie be about? Well it would be about anything I could shoot with just using a digital camera and a Mac. I call it "Sketches of Nothing By A Complete Nobody". I was thinking it would be the first feature film by a homeless bum, but since Ive started I heard of other films done by the homeless. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE3vTUvg_XE

So this was the first piece I actually made for the film. I went to the library and got the book again (it was actually the SAME book, I notice my handwriting imprint from the stickies on some of the pages) and on a friend's scanner and Mac made a preliminary video in two days.

This is actually part 1 1/2 (for the first part see John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things"). For the piece after this see "Bumdog 4 Dummies" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSCynzs4_38 and also Bob Dylan's "Its Alright Ma (Im Only Bleeding)" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doNU1EndU8I

Keywords: Bob, bumdog, by, Dylan, goldberg, hollywood, homeless, jim, like, raised, rolling, stone, teens, wolves