Throughout the ’80s and the earliest part of the ’90s, we were constantly searching for like-minded filmmakers. Jim and Yens were an art-damaged duo from New York City. They did some grainy and confrontational videos for Sonic Youth and Pussy Galore, and we were lucky enough to get them to do the Unconsciously Screamin’clip. Also, Jeff Richardson who lived in Kansas City, offered to do a couple of shoots for free so we ended up doing God Walks Among Us Now and later after signing with Warner Brothers, Everyone Wants To Live Forever with him. Little by little, I observed the process of lighting, shooting and editing and was gaining experience and confidence...And though I liked working and collaborating with these
guys, I was frustrated and beginning to think I should just direct the videos myself. I asked around the film community in Norman, Oklahoma to see if anyone would be interested in helping me make a music video. We had a budget of, I think, $10,000 (a bunch of money at the time) and, though I don’t remember exactly how it happened, Bradley Beesley (along with some other ambitious young film enthusiasts) offered me their time and labor. We spent the next six months shooting and developing different scenes and atmospheres that evolved into a freaked-out, space-rock collage, using sync footage of the band; pictures of religious paintings; and aerial photography that somehow fit the celestial wonderings expressed in the song Frogs from the album, Hit To Death In The Future Head. Our mutual efforts were satisfying enough that we (without actually saying as much) figured we would do it again if the opportunity arose.

After releasing Transmissions From The Satellite Heart, we convened once again to do several promotional clips for Turn It On, She Don’t Use Jelly, and a very low budget home movie for Be My Head. The success of She Don’t Use Jelly gave people the impression that Bradley and I knew what we were doing and, I believe, Bradley and I discovered some new level of “finding our niche.” Bradley, interested in creating his own movies, started to pursue his breakthrough documentaries and virtually anything or anybody might become a subject of his vision. His first artistic interview began as a cliché, but ended up being quite powerful. There was a local mental health facility which temporarily housed a schizophrenic friend of mine, and Bradley decided to take a video camera into my friend’s apartment. Their exchange was not overly interesting, but Bradley became comfortable with the place and was curious about some of the other occupants. He ended up spending several very intense hours with one very unstable and potentially violent resident. The conversation and subsequent video proved to be unpredictably revealing. What Bradley perhaps thought would be shocking or disturbing turned out to be both moving and sad. I believe the experience confirmed in him an undying empathy with those who are different, those who are misunderstood, and those who are unknowingly unique.

As we started to record Clouds Taste Metallic, Bradley brought his cameras and microphones to capture “The Flaming Lips” in the process of recording an album. Little by little, Bradley’s presence became an ordinary part of Flaming Lips’ existence. And, as more records were made, more music videos were made. We shot clips for When You Smile, Christmas At The Zoo, and Bad Days.Then, after The Soft Bulletin was
finished, we did Race For The Prize and Waitin’ For A Superman. All the time, we were trying new things—different lighting and different lenses. For example...on the Race For The Prize shoot, Bradley and his crew sat in the back of my pickup truck with two portable power generators blaring. The camera was pointed out the tailgate at my two brothers Ken running and Marty on motorcycle…and six or seven friends of my nephew’s
jogging beside them wearing yellow raincoats and holding thousand watt halogen lamps with their extension cords connected to the generators in
the truck-bed. We had found a nice sunny spot out at the lake (that I bicycle around) and simply took the crew and equipment, no permits, no
permission, and forged ahead. Bradley later confessed that it was the most dangerous shoot he’s ever done… Maybe so.. but certainly at the
time we were just doing things as always… kind of setting up and letting the experience reveal its possibilities. I realized I had become, for
better or for worse, a director and began to think of making what I call “Head-Trip Cinema.” Bradley, by this time, was a well-respected director,
experimenting with (what I like to call) “Humanistic Subjective-Experience Documentaries.”

One day, our usual working recipe was reversed. Instead of The Lips approaching Bradley about making a film to go with our music, he approached us about making some music to go with his film, Okie Noodling. We were in between records and had started pre-production on Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, and simultaneously beginning work on our first feature narrative film Christmas On Mars. Now, we were also scoring Bradley’s OkieNoodling, a film chronicling some colorful fishermen who use their bare hands to catch fish. Their primitive “stick your hand in the hole until the fish bites you” method is called noodling and dates back to the Native American Indians’ mystic connection between man and nature and is still practiced by a group of diehards, various hillbillies, bikers, dopers and firemen. Though the subject may not seem very rock’n’roll, Bradley’s curiosity and enthusiasm give the film its charmand inertia. In the beginning, I struggled to adapt “Flaming Lips”music to suit this very organic story. But, I slowly realized it was best to just surrender and let Bradley tell me what to do. All artistic ventures require a certain amount of belief. By then, I truly believed in Bradley. At one point we were creating music for these three completely different spheres of emotion, but, luckily for us, a blending of all these influences, one into the other, eventually emerged Acid Rock–meets–Country Story Telling meets Religious Space Themes. It erupted into a new sound and a new direction that we, perhaps without the challenge of Bradley’s film demands, may not ever have pursued and developed.

Jump ahead in time: Okie Noodling is complete and we are back to shooting videos (Do You Realize, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, and Fight Test); doing movie shoots for Christmas On Mars (every couple of months sets are built, actors and lights assembled); and constantly touring (with Bradley, as always, around for all three). So, it came as no surprise when eventually his “quest for the untold story” focused on The Flaming Lips. You see, he’d been gathering footage since the early ’90s and, like I said earlier, he documented almost all significant happenings in the life of theFlaming Lips. Even though we are used to collaborating with Bradley, this is most definitely his film. We never set any boundaries as far as what could or could not be examined. We simply let Mr. Beesley present our story the way he saw and continues to
see it....

Wayne-
January 2005