Try Music Video Archives Completed

Paul Thomas Anderson's first music video "Try" by Michael Penn is a single shot video that is set inside a three quarter-mile long hallway in Los Angeles. In Michael Penn's words:

"I was having a hard time trying to figure out what to do for a video for this song, and I was talking to Paul about it and he had always expressed a desire to do it, but I really didn't think that he would do it, that he would be able to because he was cutting Boogie Nights at the time. 

We started talking about the song apparently he knew a location in Los Angeles which is the longest hallway in North America, it's 3/4 of a mile long, and we went there together and kind of looked at the location and we walked it while a walkman was playing the song and it was just about the same length to walk it as the song. 

That kind of suggested an idea and it worked out great because the video is one continuous shot so there was no editing involved so we were able to do it all in one weekend. And that's what we did. I think it took about 14 takes to accomplish."

There are a few interesting facts you may or may not have known and they can all be viewed here.

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Cigarettes And Coffee Archives Completed

There isn't a ton of information about Paul's short film Cigarettes and Coffee but whatever is known has been uploaded and archived onto our site here. The main feature of this page would probably be the only-known review written by VHS Nation about the short.

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Flashback Friday: Exclusive Melora Walters Interview

For today's installment of Flashback Friday, we have a site exclusive interview with Melora Walters that was conducted in 2000 called "Minutes With Melora" because apparently alliterations are awesome.

Minutes with Melora

After numerous TV appearances in such shows as Roseanne, The Wonder Years & Seinfeld, Melora Walters appeared in supporting roles in the feature films Dead Poet's Society, Ed Wood, Cabin Boy & Eraser. But it's her roles in Paul Thomas Anderson's films that have propelled her into the spotlight. Each of her roles have continued to increase in PTA's films culminating with her starring role in Magnolia. I spoke to Melora about her relationship with Paul, bringing her characters to life & future film projects.

C&RV: How did you first meet PTA & get involved with Hard Eight?

MW: I auditioned for Paul. You know, one of those audition things? I guess Gwyneth Paltrow wasn't going to do the part of Clementine for a while due to a scheduling conflict, so I actually auditioned for that part. I read the script & thought this was the most wonderful script that I'd ever read. Then when I met him, I thought he was amazing. 

Anyways, Gwyneth ended up doing it & in the middle of shooting there was this little part & they asked if I wanted to do it & I was like "Yeah!" I wanted to work with Samuel L. Jackson & I wanted to work with Paul & I wanted to be part of that story. 

C&RV: So, did he mention the Boogie Nights script to you during or after filming Hard Eight?

MW: No. It came up a few days before he started shooting Boogie Nights. Paul said, I want you to read the script & look at the part of Jessie St. Vincent. I said they'll never let me play that part. Paul said, "Trust me." I told him that I didn't want to read it & fall in love with it & not be able to do it. That would kill me. He said, No. Trust me." Three days later, they were dying my hair that color!

C&RV: What kind of research did you do for your character in Boogie Nights? Were you involved in the infamous porno film visits?

MW: No. I did watch the "Exhausted" documentary & that was very important, but I didn't want it to be about the way porno is now. I felt Jessie St. Vincent was just so much of a misfit among these people. She was very genuine. She didn't take drugs. She was just an actress. She got married, had babies & she was an artist. That was what it was about.

C&RV: Did you have fun doing the commentary track with Paul on the new Boogie Nights DVD?

MW: It sounded kind of crazy with my children in the background. I drove Paul home afterwards & told him that I think we should do it again. He said, no, It was fine." I told him that we should do it again because I thought I was acting like Jessie St. Vincent & the kids were talking.

C&RV: How did you become involved with Michael Penn's "Try" music video?

MW: Paul just said, "Will you come down & be in this video?"  I said sure. It was only one day of shooting & was a lot of fun.

C&RV: How flattered were you that after the success of Boogie Nights, Paul specifically wrote the part of Claudia, the center of Magnolia, for you?

MW: It was the most amazing gift in the world. I was completely flattered. It's an opportunity that you dream of.

C&RV: When you first read the Magnolia script & your part, were there any doubts that you could handle the emotional intensity of Claudia?

MW: Not really. I did get scared. I get scared every time I start something new. I told Paul that I will go in my darkest depths as long as he was there to save me if I start drowning. And he was always there.

C&RV: So, did you lean on him heavily for some of the more intense scenes? Did he provide you direction or just let you go?

MW: It guess it was a combination. He created her. It's all there. You just know this person. She's alive on the page. So, then you just follow what he's created & he kind of steers you. It was very intimate & very intense.

C&RV: What sort of research did you do for Claudia?

MW: I started with the script & Aimee Mann's music. I had some friends in New York who had really horrid childhoods. So, I've been around people who have been damaged. I suppose we all have been damaged in one way or another. I don't know how, but she just made sense to me. 

C&RV: Was it hard to escape the character & not take it home with you?

MW: It's funny because when I think of it, it was very cathartic & I went home happy because all my demons came out during the day. But my husband did say later, when the film was finished, that he was glad I was done, because I was starting to bring it home. I didn't think I was, so that's kinda of telling right there.

C&RV: Tell me about singing Wise Up?

MW: That was the scariest part, because I can't sing. I was absolutely terrified. I listened to the music a lot. The whole movie set was such a safe, nurturing, intimate environment. That provided a great place where you were safe to do anything. 

C&RV: How many times did you have to shoot the last scene?

MW: I can't remember how many, but we did it quite a few times.

C&RV: What's it like working with John C. Reilly?

MW: He's amazing. He's really funny. He's really sweet.

C&RV: How has Paul helped your personal development as an actor?

MW: Paul was the first one who saw how I can change into different characters & he's taken advantage of that. Because his films are so amazing, then people see that, & it's giving me wonderful opportunities.

C&RV: Why is it that virtually everyone that works with PTA devotes themselves to him for the rest of his life?  What does he have that no one else does?  

MW: I don't say genius lightly. I really think that's what he is. He really taps into something very deep when he creates these stories. Whenever somebody can do that, the people around cannot help but be touched by it. You feel it & then you're just committed to it, because it's rare. It's like Mozart. If you listen to his music, it touches something in you. Paul's films touch something very primal within you & how can you resist that?

C&RV: Paul is so vocal about his respect for actors in general and for specific actors (you included).  Does this respect ever lead to expectations that you have found difficult to live up to?  

MW: I try not to think of those things. I try to simply focus on the part I'm playing completely & make that person as true & real as I can. I can't worry about the rest or I would go crazy. Paul is always communicating with me & making constant adjustments when necessary. I would do anything for him.

C&RV: Were you disappointed over the lack of recognition you received for Claudia?

MW: No. I just think that the only thing you can do is just try to do really good work. The rest is all gravy. I was disappointed that Paul didn't win because I think in the whole film business, he is one very unique voice. I mean he doesn't make big special effects movies. Although the frogs were a special effect. [Laughs] That made me really mad that he didn't win.

C&RV: Let's talk about your upcoming films. Tell me about Desert Saints with Kiefer Sutherland?

MW: I play an undercover cop. It was really fun. I haven't seen a final cut yet. Kiefer is a bad guy & you get the sense he can kill you at a moment's notice. And you think, don't go with him, but I turn out to be worse than him! So I thought this is gonna be fun!

C&RV: What about Speaking of Sex with James Spader, Jay Mohr & Bill Murray?

MW: I finished that in July & it was so much fun. It's a big comedy farce about marriage, sex, marriage counselors, therapists & divorce lawyers. I'm married to Jay Mohr & he has a problem. In the process of trying to save my marriage, I end up sleeping with my therapist & then all hell breaks loose.

C&RV: Tell me about Rain, which is being executive produced by Martin Scorsese?

MW: I'm getting ready to do that now. It takes place in a very small town with deep, dark secrets. I will be filming this in Iowa.

C&RV: What do you think about Paul working with Adam Sandler?

MW: I think it's great. We talked about me being involved, but I don't think I'm supposed to say anything about it yet. It's top secret! [Laughs] It should be really interesting & fun.

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Exclusive: The Master Set To Shoot Very Soon

I caught up with Paul Thomas Anderson this evening at Fred Armisen's Largo show and briefly spoke about various things and we can exclusively tell you, despite everything else circulating the net (and hopefully without getting in trouble) that it sounds like The Master is set to shoot sometime next month. More details about things hopefully soon.

Semi-Unrelated Update: For those re-finding the site at its new address, finding it for the first time or for the people who have been e-mailing me questions all day: Welcome! The main site is/was in the middle of a major facelift/overhaul - we are not a new site and have been around since 1999. Everything will be in working order by the end of this month. Thank you for your patience in the meantime.)

Watch PTA's Short 'Cigarettes And Coffee'

Flashback Friday: Balsmeyer & Everett Creates 'Magnolia' Titles

Today's Flashback Friday highlights a great interview with the creative team at Big Film Design who were contracted to create Magnolia's composite clip underneath the main title presentation card. They discuss the process, ideas and working with Paul along the way.

Design director Randy Balsmeyer and his team at Balsmeyer & Everett designed and produced the opening title sequence for P.T. Anderson's enigmatic film Magnolia. Working from abstract design directions born out of Anderson's mental imagery, Balsmeyer and his team combined a blooming magnolia flower with street maps and images from the film to create a poignant and provocative sequence. The result is a dynamic explosion of contrast and color that heralds the fortuitous character intersections of the film's intricate storyline.

"Director Paul Anderson and editor Dylan Tichenor were incredibly secretive about the film. We never got to see the whole thing -- only the first reel and numerous scene clips -- so the project was quite mysterious. We knew only that the film was about the intersections of people's lives. The creative thrust for the title sequence came from Paul. 

The veins in flower petals had always reminded him of street maps, and he wanted to tap into that idea to communicate the notion of the characters' lives crossing and connecting, almost tangentially. He also wanted the opening to include a montage of images from every scene from the film so the viewer would subliminally recognize each scene when it played. 

He couldn't really define what he wanted much more tightly than that, so it was a question of us trying to see things as he saw them -- all in a six-and-a-half second graphical sequence. We came up with three ideas and showed video tests to Paul and Dylan. We had no way of knowing if we were on the right track, but one of our tests was exactly what Paul wanted. It would have been just as easy to completely miss the mark, but what I saw in my mind turned out to be the same thing Paul was seeing.

"We thought we were going to have to shoot original time-lapse photography of a blooming magnolia flower, but our research revealed that magnolias bloom only once a year, and we had just missed that year's bloom. We opted to use stock photography instead. After coming up with three or four passable clips, we found one that was outstanding. We had it scanned, skipped out a number of frames to get it to bloom in the allotted time, and brought it into Photoshop to do the paint work. 

We removed a number of branches that crossed in front of the petals and added all the veins in the flower."

"The street maps were scanned from a poster-sized version of the Thomas Guide to Los Angeles and combined with satellite photos of the corresponding geography. We turned them into 10K-20K textures in Photoshop and used After Effects to edit them into the order we wanted. As the sequence progresses, the map layer evolves from the street map to the satellite photo. We constructed the final layer of the sequence out of single frames from every scene in the film. 

Our original plan was to use high resolution film scans to preserve the image quality, but time got short and we realized it would be much more expedient to work off videotape. Everyone was nervous about it, but we ran a film-out test with a few dozen digitized frames from the dailies and were pleased with the results. In terms of the balance between the film frames and the other two layers, we didn't tweak the color of each frame individually; it was more a question of selecting the right frame to complement what was happening in the other two layers. 

We did quite a few passes like that, and subject matter made a big difference; for example, one particular iteration had a film frame with a big sign in it. Having the text from the sign showing up underneath the 'magnolia' title was very distracting. It was a one-frame blip, but it brought the whole sequence to its knees. In other iterations we had light-colored frames that washed everything in the frame out. We focused on the overall composition -- a balance of light and dark and considering the interplay of tonal values rather than colors. We wanted a feeling of randomness, so if we had too much repetition, the whole sequence would stall.

"The title sequence remained in three layers until the end, allowing us to manipulate any part until we were satisfied. As we developed each layer, we checked it against the other two. We'd look at a portion, and think for example, 'The picture looks good but the flower's overpowering it, so let's bring the flower down.' It was always a question of balance, which amounted to a great deal of fussing over six seconds of image. 

When we got the sequence to the point where we were happy with the total composition, we brought it together in After Effects and added the solarizing effect on a secondary pass. Gray Miller was the principal hands-on guy for the After Effects work, and he certainly deserves the lion's share of credit for making it work. 

In retrospect, there was some trepidation on our part going in because the project was so loosely defined. I was concerned that we could go around in circles for months, but it turned out to be one of the most straightforward, streamlined projects I've been involved with -- none of those horrendous dead-ends that you sometimes run into. In spite of our initial concerns, everything came together beautifully."

Paul Thomas Anderson's Unseen Short Film 'Flagpole Special'

You may or may not have heard of the 1998 short film called Flagpole Special which was written and directed by PTA starring John C. Reilly and the late Chris Penn. It was only screened once and suffered from technical errors throughout.

There isn't much known about it aside from it was the overall beginnings of what would become the Frank Mackey character played by Tom Cruise. I have created a page with all available information including the only printed review of the film that is known to exist. Click here to view the page.

Boogie Nights Opening Steadicam Map

While we wait for The Playlist to tell everyone what's happening next with The Master, I thought I would highlight this illustration from Empire Magazine which gives a mini graphical play-by-play of the nearly 3 minute continuous shot that opens Boogie Nights.

Paul Thomas Anderson Multimedia Archives

The multimedia content that is set to be featured in the archives on the main website is currently uploading to our flickr account. Content includes, but is not limited to hundreds of Oscar Ads, premiere photos, promotional items and foreign artwork. In the meantime of coding the actual website, you can click the name of the film you wish to see an advanced look at what is coming: Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love.