BTS Breakdown – How Does Art Shape Our Lives?

Beyond making our own films and helping organizations share their stories through client collaborations, Passenger is passionate about helping artists grow and develop. Recently we had an opportunity to work with Taylor Yocum on his latest project—a 30-minute multi-subject interview focused on artists and the art they create.

Although we primarily stayed in the background for this one, we wanted to share Taylor’s finished piece and dive a little deeper into the finished product—in this case, a unique exploration of insights and stories from creatives in the Sioux Falls area. You can watch the film and get a behind-the-scenes look at things via the interview below with Taylor and (briefly) Passenger founder Joe Hubers.

So give us the background on this project—what led you to take this challenge on?
Taylor: So the what and the why of the project was hearing why artists and creatives love doing what they do. I wanted to learn more about how they came into their passions and their crafts, how they express themselves through their art, where they see their art going, and how they can connect with others through it.

It was almost selfishly an endeavor to get knowledge from others and learn how they came into what they do.

With that being the case, how did this project go from an idea to a finished piece?
Taylor: It was kind of a synthesis of two different things. In the past I had done a very small scale version of this project interviewing some friends who were artists. I’d seen them creating and performing and doing and talking to them wasn’t hard at all.  That was the seed of it all. After working on larger projects with Bobby Peacock, who is featured in this piece, I was approached by him and a team of wonderful people who wanted to give me a chance to do a bigger scale version of what I had been doing.

It was so fun and amazing to hear people communicate about things that they love, so why not take that and do it big?

What was your thought process going into this?
Taylor: It was a thin line between nervousness and adrenaline. The biggest question was HOW do we do this? I’d never taken a project of this size. Thankfully, Joe (Hubers), Bobby Peacock, and Daniel Bergenson really assisted with any questions I had. Having that kind of support made it easier in the sense that if I thought, What if I want this kind of look or aesthetic? What equipment or space or money would that require?, they had every answer I needed.

Having that transition from my first iterations of just recording a conversation with a friend and turning it into a full-scale production was phenomenal.

Can you share some about the aesthetics?
Taylor: In my early interviews, we primarily focused on finding a place we could record and just keeping it super simple. But being given the opportunity to produce this on a grander scale changed how to structure it. We wanted to facilitate a productive conversation, so the circular arrangement came from Joe having a track to move the camera around. That allowed us to keep things dynamic and moving. Then we created the set in a darker area. People really popped out and there weren’t a lot of distractions around everyone, which helped us stay focused on the conversation.

I also want to give a shoutout to Tracy Mailoux at Gator Grip and Lighting for providing the lighting and Passenger for providing camera equipment. We also had Isaac Show on the audio, Byron Banasiak serving as the second shooter, and Eric Cottle helping as a grip.

What was the biggest challenge you faced while making this piece? 
Taylor: The size of the production was no issue thanks to the help I had. I wasn’t worried about how that would turn out in the end because I trusted everyone involved. The toughest part was selecting the participants and determining who was available from the participants we were hoping to involve. Thankfully I know a lot of people in the creative community, and while there are some who might be incredibly well spoken, they might always have a light on them. Meanwhile, there were some people who maybe deserve to have a little more light shone on them and maybe won’t speak up, and I wanted to give them a chance to be heard.

A lot of it came down to individual personalities. There’s Vaney, who would give you every bit of wisdom to help your life out and he’ll say it eloquently and amazingly. Then there’s someone like Stacey who every now and then will just drop a little nugget of wisdom, and finding people between those two ends of the spectrum is what really made it incredibly productive.

Why were these questions important to you? Why did you ask what you asked?
Taylor: The questions I asked are questions I reflect on a lot of myself. What was more important to me was the conversation that came out from the questions. Something to notice is that the conversation would often develop beyond the initial question into new topics, and moments like that are really what I was trying to aim for.

What about this project surprised you or hit you in an unexpected way?
Taylor: What I never really saw coming is that, the day of, things would go flawlessly. The background work we had done, the people that we knew...everything came together wonderfully. I was not expecting that. After we wrapped and were done, I didn’t even need to take a sigh of relief because it had gone so well it just felt right and felt normal.

Taylor, what is your hope for this project?
Taylor: In the most positive terms, I hope it’s the first real stepping stone toward continuing to do things where this is the standard and the minimum requirement—a project of this size with people who are this good and this talented at what they do.

What about this project was most exciting to you?
Taylor: So this is one of the biggest things I’ve learned. The project itself is about communication, but communication between our whole team. If we hadn’t been on top of that, it could’ve easily fallen apart at any point in the process. Because communication was so crucial and everything went so well, it showed the value of good communication. I’ll take that with me in future projects. The technical stuff is important, but if you can communicate to the people on your team, they will help and take care of the things you might not know all about.

Something else I learned is that if I have my role as a director, what are different ways to communicate my needs to the team I’m working with to create something good together? Everyone was generally in high spirits, which contributed greatly to the overall success.

Is there anything else you’d like to add about this project?
Taylor: I just want to really emphasize thanking the people who helped me bring it to life. As cliche as it sounds, it wouldn’t have been possible without them. And I should mention that if anyone wants to do this again, I’ll be more than willing and ready to do that.

Joe, is there anything you want to add about Passenger’s role in this?
Joe: For us, this was a unique project because we were empowered to executive produce it through the Bush Foundation. We worked with Hazard, who covered the bootstrapping on the pre-production side. Then from there, Taylor’s vision really came through.

I also think that familiarizing people with the various kinds of artists who are working in the community without much support at times is something that needs to be seen and talked about. People need to see how hard it is to make art. I think a project like this is really important in identifying that the people in this roundtable discussion—and the people doing art in this community who aren’t in the video—are putting blood, sweat, and tears into their creative crafts.

Besides projects like these, what else do you do, Taylor?
Taylor: I’ll boldly say that I’m a creative renaissance man. If someone does something to express themselves, I would love to hear about it, learn about it, or even take it up at some point. As a child I drew, then I got into music, I have an album and other music, and I’m now making films. I’m not sure where it will go next.