• DECONSTRUCTING DAD •

Along with the Raymond Scott brain trust of Irwin Chusid, Jeff Winner and Gert-Jan Blom, I spent last week in Kansas City, MO at the Marr Archives at the University of Missouri Kansas City Miller Nichols Library.  This is the location of thousands of hours of Raymond Scott recordings—he recorded virtually everything  so there are rehearsal recordings, air checks, interviews, phone conversations and of course commercial releases.  Also, in the Special Collections at the Library are thousands of Raymond Scott documents, schematics for the musical inventions and personal and professional still photos.  The whole experience was fascinating!  I shot a lot of material there and am now beginning to integrate it into the rough cut of the film. 

Somewhat ironically, this idea for this film was born only after Raymond Scott died.  Before his death I never realized the depth of my feelings for my father–we hadn’t ever been all that close,  and I didn’t really spend a lot of time with him even before my parents’ divorce which happened when I was about 9 years old

But after his death in 1994,  I became determined to tell his story  in a documentary film.  He had died in obscurity and that bothered me.  I knew his accomplishments were just too important to have public awareness of them practically disappear, and throughout my life I had always felt I never really knew my father well.  In part, this film is an attempt to finally get to know the father who was always somewhere else. 

I’ve been working on it on and off since the summer of 2000, as my work schedule and other obligations allowed.  This film is very much a labor of love, and to date has been entirely self financed, with some recent help from family members.

I started shooting in DVCAM and more recently have been working in HDV.  I’ve done a fair amount of shooting already, but still have a lot more to do.  I’ll be posting on this page as I continue to move forward with plans to  finish the film by September 2008, the centennial month of my father’s birthday.  Check back for updates…