I became Patti's [Smith] messenger, basically, and the film is my... by Steven Sebring

I became Patti's [Smith] messenger, basically, and the film is my view of how I learned about Patti.

Steven Sebring

Image Embed Code

Categorized in : Views Film Messengers

I just wanted to be Patti's [Smith] messenger and get her word ou... by Steven Sebring

I just wanted to be Patti's [Smith] messenger and get her word out there.

messengers wanted

Hopefully I can inspire lots of people to learn about [Patti Smith], to read poetry or learn about William Blake or Arthur Rimbaud.

arthur inspire people

Ultimately, the film [Dream of Life] is inspirational. by Steven Sebring

Ultimately, the film [Dream of Life] is inspirational.

film life-is dream

I thought about how to film something, how to take pictures of it and how to mix it all together. And I was getting that through Patti [Smith] - because she takes pictures, performs, writes; she does so many things, and that was a big inspiration to me. It helped me realized that I'm not just a fashion photographer. I wanted to do all these other artistic things as well, and during filming my mind opened up to those possibilities.

fashion inspiration writing

I took pictures of the objects and artifacts that Patti [Smith] would show to her friends because I wanted to document them.

artifacts shows wanted

I didn't do well in high school, but I took photography, and I loved being able to capture moments. It led to more and more photography, and fashion was the angle into photography for me. It was incredible to see photographs by Irving Penn or Helmut Newton. I was really intrigued by that, and that's what led me to New York City.

fashion photography new-york

I didn't do well in high school, but I took photography, and I lo... by Steven Sebring

I didn't do well in high school, but I took photography, and I loved being able to capture moments.

able photography school

Many of my family members are teachers in the arts, and I picked up the camera years ago, in high school.

teacher art school

I like not knowing too much about somebody I'm photographing, because the process also becomes an experience for me to learn about .

too-much knowing process

I quickly realized that Patti [Smith] was somebody very special. by Steven Sebring

I quickly realized that Patti [Smith] was somebody very special.

I do remember, the first time we met [with Patti Smith], the door opening with a squeak. And then there was this very beautiful girl looking out.

girl doors beautiful

When I started photographing Patti [Smith], I knew that there wasn't a whole a lot of information out there about her. I was periodically interested in films, and so I just kept asking her if I could come around.

information film asking

I wasn't familiar with Patti [Smith ]much at all. When I was asked to photograph her, my wife said, "Oh my God, Patti Smith!" So I looked at some Robert Mapplethorpe books and I recognized those pictures.

wife photograph book

We had a hodgepodge of footage. We didn't film [in Dream of Life ]all the time - we would just film periodically, so nothing was synced and nothing was slated.

The film [Dream of Life] came together when we started editing; it was organic, it became nonlinear and it was its own animal. And I didn't want to tame it, either. I wanted it to be different. It's not your typical documentary.

editing dream animal

That was an amazing experience [making Dream of Life]. It's hard to imagine that we were editing every day for a year. And it was pretty extraordinary; it also went by super fast. But every day was an experiment.

editing dream years

Angelo Corrao was our editor [in Dream of Life], and he was just so diligent and so old-school in the way he looked at editing. He would take my far-out ideas and tame them and make sense of them.

editing dream school

A lot of times I had footage that didn't have sound [in the Dream of Life film] - either I didn't bring a sound recorder, or I forgot to turn on the sound recorder - so we would have to improvise and build those scenes.

film sound dream

I would bring Patti [Smith ] in to the editing room [working on the Dream of Life] and say, "This is a great moment for a voiceover, or a poem," and then we'd bring in some sound design.

design editing dream

[Some] times I'd have sound but no image. When Patti [Smith] was singing with her guitar, or doing something amazing with her clarinet, I'd just mess around and record the sound. So we'd use those sounds as another layer in the film [Dream of Life].

singing guitar dream