"Far" an eclectic series of eight films, each set to and inspired by one of the eight tracks on Filligar's third full-length album "Near or Far" is a joint effort by Filligar and eight directors from across the country, including Alice Mathias '07, the older sister of three members of Filligar, who also served as producer of the series. The first video premiered on Tuesday, and the band will continue to release the remaining videos at a rate of one per week.
The first video is set to "One of the Regulars" and was directed by Alice Mathias, who is currently a graduate student at the University of Southern California Film School. Shot in Chicago, Ill., the video is a whimsical narrative that features band members as corporate executive-types as it follows two people traveling across the city in an impressive elephant costume. According to Alice Mathias, viewers can expect more unexplained, out of place elements in future videos.
"We would totally not have anticipated some of the stuff that came out of it a lot of it's really wild," Alice Mathias said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
According to Pete Mathias, these elements bring variety and color to the series.
"I was personally very surprised, interested, excited with all the different interpretations of the songs," he said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "There's ... the president of the United States kicking around at a local hangout in one scene. In another one, there's a child being chased by giant beasts in a forest. There's absolutely all kinds of stuff, but they're all very cool."
"Far" was conceived almost a year ago in Los Angeles, Calif., when Alice Mathias introduced Filligar to a group of her friends at USC. According to Alice Mathias, the objective of the group was to work on a truly collaborative project.
This led many of the collaborators to take on more than one role in the project. The cooperative effort also manifests itself in the presence of several recurring props and images and intersecting plot points. According to Andy Landen, who directed the video for "Lot Six," extension cords serve as one motif in the series. In Landen's film, Johnny Mathias plugs in extension cords that lead to where the rest of Filligar is performing. The cords also make a brief appearance in Alice Mathias' film.
Pete Mathias said that the concept of collaboration also made the project easier to finance, allowing for the reuse of some props and costumes.
The ability to reuse resources was an important consideration in the production of "Far," as the project had no official sponsors and was funded out of Filligar's pocket. Alice Mathias, however, said the group was lucky to receive help and donations from local businesses. In Chicago, an empty law firm let them use their location for a shoot; a Chicago-based bar in Los Angeles gave them a generous rate for renting out the bar for filming; and a camera store in Los Angeles gave them sizable discounts on a Bolex camera, 16mm film and other equipment. Many of the costumes used in the videos were donated or made by the group and Marian Mathias '11, sister of Alice, Pete, Teddy and Johnny Mathias.
Despite the low budget, the directors of the films didn't feel like they were prevented from carrying out their visions.
"It was a great opportunity for all the directors just to do something that had no limitations," director Pete Mignin, a graduate student at DePaul University in Chicago, said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
The directors even had free reign over their choice of location: the series sprawls across the country, with videos filmed in Los Angeles, Chicago, Hanover, N.H., and Michigan. In addition, one video was filmed in Canada.
Megnin filmed his video for "Hounds" slated as the series' third release at and around Dartmouth's campus during Summer 2009. The film stars Filligar and Daniella Sloane '10 and also features other Dartmouth students as extras in the video's culminating scene.
Further enabling the directors' creative freedom, the band allowed each director to select the track used in teach film and did not dictate or even suggest the content for each video.
"That was the greatest thing about it it was complete, free creative reign," Landen said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "They just said come up with an idea and pick a song, so I put it on my iPod and listened to the album on repeat."
While Filligar is used to performing live, the band said acting was an entirely different feat especially when your bandmates are primed and ready to deliver an appropriate dose of criticism.
"It was kind of funny because the four of us can be very critical of each other's acting, so Teddy I know a couple times called me out for overacting," Pete Mathias recalled, adding that none of the band members has much acting experience. "I think we all have different acting personalities, so it was pretty funny for us to be in that kind of a scenario."
The directors, however, were excited to have the band members act in their films, even with their lack of training.
"Basically, you just have to watch all these videos and you'll see how willing these guys were because there are so many crazy things they're doing," Landen said. "And they were helping carry lights and equipment, and they're just so involved with it. It's awesome."
The films are being released through Filligar's official web site, Facebook, MySpace and an iPhone application developed specifically with the project in mind. The two months of films build up to the release of Filligar's new, as of yet unnamed full-length album. Although the relationship between "Far" and the new album isn't explicitly defined, Pete Mathias said the project represents "a model for the way that we see ourselves operating."
"It [represents] us moving forward as people who like to work with other like-minded and talented artists," Pete Mathias said.
Landen similarly saw the project as representative of the band as a whole.
"This kind of thing is like a metaphor for the band in that they're just a truly independent band," he said. "They're making things happen for themselves and they like to collaborate."
According to Filligar and those involved in the creation of "Far," the overarching goal of the project was to develop relationships among different creative forces and to work together to pursue their common aim.
"All these filmmakers, costume designers, set designers and everyone are the same way they're trying to get their start in whatever field they're interested in," Teddy Mathias said. "We all have the same goal in working together."
