Guggenheim’s work ranges from his Oscar winning An Inconvenient Truth to working on television’s 24 and Deadwood. During the interview we do of course talk about his very entertaining film It Might Get Loud, but we also delved into some of his career choices and his past experiences with film. This is one of those interviews where it became more of a conversation instead of feeling as if you are just going down a checklist of questions to ask the whole time. The film revolves around musicians Jack White, Jimmy Page, and The Edge talking about their passion for the electric guitar while also revealing details of their past. If you are a fan of these three musicians then you’ll undoubtedly be impressed with this and if you’re not, then there’s plenty for you to admire and connect to. Here’s what he had to say about his highly enjoyable film.
So congrats on the film, I saw it about a week ago and I really enjoyed it.
Davis Guggenheim: Thank you very much, that means a lot to me.
So do you enjoy the press process and doing all these interviews?
Davis Guggenheim: (laughs) You’re the first person to ask me that. I’ve been on a three week tour doing different cities and I enjoy it when it’s a thoughtful interview. Sometimes, if you’re not careful you’re basically saying the same things over and over. Often there is a journalist who wants to know what went behind the filmmaking and that’s fun to talk about.
I’ll try to make this a good interview then.
Davis Guggenheim: No, no, no! I mean I was going to say that doing this is important for a little film. It is important for it to be written about so I don’t resent it at all.
Now I know the film premiered at the Toronto film festival in 2007, why has it taken so long to come out? Did the film not pick up distribution there?
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah we made a deal right away and we had a bunch of offers. It’s more like… it was Sony’s decision. I’m not a marketer or distributor, but they sort of say it’s perfect for this spot. So, we still had a few months of finishing with mixing and stuff. It took about six months to get out before completing it which isn’t very unusual.
How long ago did you start working on this and shooting it?
Davis Guggenheim: Well, for about a year up until that Toronto screening…
So in about 2006, is that odd for you to finally be talking about the movie when you shot it while a back?
Davis Guggenheim: (laughs) No. I mean there’s been many screenings since and this is the fun part. I show it almost every night and get different reactions, it’s a pay off to see that. There was that six month gap of just waiting though and we were just working on something else.
What were you working on?
Davis Guggenheim: I worked on a documentary about the public school system in America.
Could you talk a little more about that?
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah, we shot a lot at the [Washington] DC schools. It’s us all over the country talking about how schools are doing and why it’s such a hard problem to fix.
Was it tough getting these musicians together and especially Jack White who comes off kind of reclusive?
Davis Guggenheim: (laughs) Yeah, well I think a lot of rock stars are kind of private. It certainly helps them build a mystique, Jimmy especially since he hasn’t done any press. I think it’s all about the movie’s intention, it wasn’t looking to cover dirty details like car wrecks.
Were you ever concerned the film wouldn’t be able to appeal to non-music fans?
Davis Guggenheim: The only concern about that is marketing and distribution. You know, I mean you might just think that this is a movie for guitar heads, but the response I’m getting is that it’s really about the creative process. It could have easily been about three novelist or three filmmakers.
I think it’s easy to connect because the main theme is passion and almost anyone can understand that.
Davis Guggenheim: Definitely and I think passion is what fuels creativity. You feel these guys how they think,”am I just a guitarist or a song writer.” I mean Jimmy for a while was just a session player.
You’re obviously a fan of their work, so were you ever feeling over-excited on set that you get to hang out with these guys?
Davis Guggenheim: Absolutely, it was actually hard for me. I mean I’ve met a lot of famous politicians and actors, but it was intimidating. The more powerful and famous someone is the more pressure there is. This is a bigger element though, where they just pick up the guitar and you smile. It makes you want to move and you are pretending not to be star-trucked.
So you had to hold yourself back from geek-ing out?
Davis Guggenheim: I definitely kept thinking,”please don’t geek out now!” You know, but after a little of that you just focus on work.
Was it great though when someone asked what you are doing today you got to respond,”I’m hanging out with Jimmy Page today.”
Davis Guggenheim: That didn’t suck, so when people asked I got to say, “I’m flying to dublin to hang out with The Edge.” It was pretty cool, the amazing thing about documentaries is that they take you to these extraordinary places.
Did you ever feel pressure having to follow up An Inconvenient Truth? Since most people regard that as a brilliant film.
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah, there was a lot of pressure. It’s human nature to feel that your next film has to hold up to that standard which is nearly impossible. What happened on that film was a miracle and it was the perfect storm. For a little documentary like that to happen is extremely rare. When you get off a documentary like that you are hopeful that maybe that will happen again (laughs). Clearly the odds are against it, but I think that’s why I made a totally different film. It should be seen on a different level since it’s not about a cause or a political issue, it’s something very different.
How do you feel knowing that you’ve made the only entertaining film that’s being shown in high schools all the time?
Davis Guggenheim: (laughs) I didn’t know that. That says a lot about your school system that they’re playing it since some school systems banned the movie.
Why’s that?
Davis Guggenheim: A lot of school systems banned it and some tried to make it mandatory. A lot of people called it a political film and that it’s an opinion so sometimes it was banned. A lot of teachers fought for it to be shown, so that is cool that they show it.
One of the things I noticed during the credits was that you had to shoot with a different crew when you went to the UK and Ireland.
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah, sometimes your crew isn’t available and then you find out that there’s some great cinematographer in Dublin. They use different crews all the times on documentaries.
Is that difficult though having to change crews?
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah it’s different, but sometimes it works.
How long exactly was the shoot?
Davis Guggenheim: It was for about a year. The thing about documentaries is that you can shoot for a while, then stop, and then go back to shooting.
You must have shot a lot of footage and the movie was only about 97 minutes, how much footage did you have in total?
Davis Guggenheim: Oh, I have lots and lots of great stuff. That’s the thing about documentaries is the ratio of what you shoot and use. You’re trying to find the elements to connect the story and find what works. So there was a lot of great stuff of them playing music that will be on the DVD.
Can you talk about what else will be on the Blu-ray?
Davis Guggenheim: It’s not confirmed yet. There are definitely more Led Zeppelin songs, U2 songs, and Jack White songs. There’s more stories that are really fun.
Were you ever concerned losing focus on their musical lives and more so showing their personal lives?
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah, almost every single day. Sometimes you think that this could be a cool scene, but it may detract from their music.
How long did it take for them to really get relaxed and act natural while being filmed?
Davis Guggenheim: It actually took only a couple of hours. They were sitting there and I even thought to myself,”this film could really suck.” They were talking about how many strings they play with and their kids, and again I thought this was really going to suck. The thing that changed was Jimmy got asked with a question and instead he picked up his guitar and played A Whole Lot of Love. That was kind of the throw down of him saying here’s what I do and here’s one of my songs. From then on it became sort of a musical and after he threw down the other guys had to step up.
All three of them are really distinct personality wise and was it important to make sure all of them came off different?
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah, I was always more interested in their differences than their similarities. If you got three guys from the same generation they would all be talking about the same thing, it wouldn’t have been very interesting. I loved how The Edge came out in post punk which was a real opposition to what Jimmy was doing. I liked how they were different and I thought their differences would reveal something and the same goes with their similarities.
One thing that I loved was how Jack White hung out with “little” Jack White. I interpreted that as if he always carries his past with him and I’m curious who’s idea was it to do those scenes?
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah, that was pure Jack White. He thought it would be really cool if he taught himself to play guitar.
Did you just nod your head Okay?
Davis Guggenheim: (laughs) Yeah, I do a lot of nodding of the head. He just showed up on the set with someone dressed up like him and he said,”Davis, I’d like to introduce you to little Jack White.”
I thought I saw him onetime at an airport once, but I wasn’t quite sure it was him. He was wearing a red suit with a big black top hat.
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah, that sounds like him.
He seems kind of old fashion too, could you talk a little bit about his personality.
Davis Guggenheim: (sigh) Yeah…
I mean that in a good way too, I find him very interesting.
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah I’m not avoiding it, I just don’t know how to say it. You just gotta watch the movie and Jack is so unique. To him, creativity isn’t just the guitar its how he behaves, dresses, talks, and the whole aesthetic of the band.
Looking at your filmography you seem to be trying to work on different mediums with TV, feature films, and documentaries. Is that a career goal of yours?
Davis Guggenheim: I enjoy television and it’s fun to do, but it pays a lot more than documentaries. My mind and heart is in documentaries, but i’ts very hard to try and make a living off just that. I go back and forth, but working on television can be very satisfying.
Yeah and the great thing is that you’ve worked on really good shows with Dead Wood, 24, and The Shield. Were you a fan of those shows and were you excited about getting to be involved with those series?
Davis Guggenheim: Absolutely, when you’re a director the thing you want the most is to do something interesting and to tell a good story. It really doesn’t matter where it is. It could be an action drama like 24 where the writing is good and you’ve got someone like Kiefer Sutherland, that’s great. The same thing goes with The Shield. When you make a documentary about something your passionate about then that will come through too. I like to tell stories…
No matter what format.
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah, no matter what format and it can be interesting.
Whenever you seen any of your work on TV will you watch it?
Davis Guggenheim: (laughs) That’s interesting, sometimes I don’t like to watch it. It depends on the thing and sometimes its whether or not I wanna see if my styles changed. You know, it could also remind me of a bad time so I wouldn’t want to watch it (laughs). It’s very neurotic and there’s some stuff I never want to watch again (laughs). I also get neurotic while watching this movie with an audience thinking about whether or not the audience will laugh at a joke. Maybe they’ll hate it and walk out, I’ll count how many people go to the bathroom and don’t come back meaning to me they hated the movie. I saw some guy the other night walk out during the screening and I bashed my head, but he said sorry and that he had to go somewhere.
Have you noticed that you’re movie Gossip is on TV almost everyday?
Davis Guggenheim: (laughs) Yeah, I didn’t know that. My son will tell me time to time, but that was my first movie.
I’ve only seen bits and pieces of it.
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah, it’s not one that I go back to watch.
So you’re basically saying you’re not proud of it?
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah it’s probably me… Again, that was not my favorite script and my favorite story. It was a big lesson for me, because I was sort of talked into directing that one. It was my first movie so I was also very excited, but you gotta love the story.
Would you say you feel that pressure still when being offered projects?
Davis Guggenheim: Always, the thing about being a director is when you finish a movie your out out of work. So, you gotta think what’s next and am I going to like it. Sometimes your offered things that are very lucrative and you don’t like so much. It’s a constant push and pull.
I would imagine though that An Inconvenient Truth made things easier for you to chase down a project your interested in.
Davis Guggenheim: I would say An Inconvenient Truth opens a lot of doors, but it doesn’t mean I could always walk into those doors.
See if I were you I would bring my Oscar with me to meetings so they feel obligated to let me do something.
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah, I’ll let you do that (laughs). I try to hide my Oscar, I’m proud of it, but its this complicated force in my life.
So you never stare at it to make yourself feel better?
Davis Guggenheim: No, sometimes I stare at it thinking I’ll never be that good again. Success, maybe you are too young to understand this, but success is a complicated thing. It has its wonderful parts, but its got its confusing parts.
Well, I think I can understand that partially. I haven’t experienced it, but that’s like someone saying I can’t understand Benjamin Button since I haven’t grown old.
Davis Guggenheim: That’s true, I don’t mean to be demeaning so sorry.
Oh no don’t be, I didn’t interpret it that way at all.
Davis Guggenheim: I mean, having these moments in my life where things go great and not so great… I think it’s hard for people to sympathize with people complaining about success. Its tricky and I don’t want to complain by saying,”having success has been hard”. Since success has brought me so many wonderful things, but it does have this confusing part about it. It just does.
Can you elaborate on that.
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah, it’s what we talked about earlier on how people expect a lot more from you and they’re ready to second guess you if you’re films don’t do as well. I think sometimes it’s easier to be creative when you got nothing to lose and you’re desperate. After you have some success you have a committee in your braining thinking will this be good enough. That’s not going to win you an oscar and it’s rare to win won…
You don’t think this has a chance?
Davis Guggenheim: If I was to guess… usually when documentaries get nominated there about a serious topic.
Well, Man on Wire did win last year.
Davis Guggenheim: Man on Wire is an exception, that was the best documentary of the year. If you look at films past there’s a lot of Iraqi war stuff and social justice stuff. I think my documentary is nice, but I think some people vote sometimes more so on the issue then the film.
Yeah there is a lot of flaws in most voting systems.
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah, I think anyone award is difficult and complicated. It’s hard to judge and rate things. I mean I just looked at a list of the top one hundred guitars and I thought it was ridiculous. A lot of awards are confusing, but what you really want is the satisfaction of audiences liking you’re movie and being inspired.
Yeah I think what you said about the guitar list definitely applies to a few AFI lists.
Davis Guggenheim: Yeah, its so subjective and thats silly. As a filmmaker, awards and box office can be a distraction.
One thing that I find interesting is that you seem to be you’re biggest critic.
Davis Guggenheim: Everyone is different and for me the creative process is a lot of soul searching. There are a lot of directors out there who always think what they are doing is brilliant and their ideas are great. Maybe they are, but that’s not how I do it. It’s more of constantly wrestling with whether this is good or am I on the right path. Am I working hard enough? Am I letting people down? That keeps me up at night and I have a lot anxiety from that. I’m not complaining, but that’s what it is. It’s a process and I think you see that with Jack, Jimmy, and Edge how there self questioning which leads to a lot of suffering (laughs).
It Might Get Loud is currently in limited release and expanding in the coming weeks.