Robb Bindler: "We wanted to bring the shooting to all on location. We wanted to be moving very fast. We didn’t have the money to block and set up dolly moves and crane moves. We couldn't afford that equipment anyway. So it was like, 'Let’s get two cameras.' We didn’t use them all the time, but we had them there. And in today’s world of filmmaking, high def is really becoming prevalent, high def video – digital film, you know– and Addington, the character Matthew plays, we talked a lot about him being an analogue guy in a digital world and there was nothing more analogue than Super 16 millimeter film. It’s just got that texture and fuzzy warmth that just says analogue, and so we thought that would be the perfect format to follow Addington around."
Matthew McConaughey: "And we did that throughout. Like you said - I’m happy you said within the 15 minutes you thought you were in a '70s flick. We did that with the set decoration, with every color pallet and wardrobe, with every little girl and kid and old man surfing up there at the house, partying. We were like, 'Okay, no makeup, cotton, everyone can do whatever they want to do.' This is music and good times and it’s got earth tones and yellows and browns and reds and you just want to feel like there's a spring on the water. It’s all natural. So we call back to that and then you get to the house and we made it in those blues. It was a harder, colder, gray color."
It looked more industrial.
Matthew McConaughey: "Yes, so that was the feel visually to juxtapose those two."
You brought up the music a little bit, how did you decide on that?
Matthew McConaughey: "Well I've always loved music. I was like, 'Boy, the first j.k.livin production, I can't wait to be a music supervisor.' So I was in Australia shooting Fool's Gold and I got turned on to this guy, Xavier Rudd, who was an Australian musician and also a surfer, but he didn’t play traditional surfing music. We don’t play their traditional Dickey Dale music in this and we didn't want to. So got turned on to his music and a lot of his lyrics and stuff are earth-conscious, green-conscious, mother earth, mother earth, talking about swell, coming back, and everyone going to paddle out together. And then got to work with guy, Mishka, who’s with my label Just Keep Livin Records, who I found in the Caribbean who sings the same sort of songs but in a reggae beat. So he wrote a song for the film and had another song that was really apropos for it. And then when I went over the score with the composer after getting Xavier’s stuff after two days, we used different versions of Xavier’s instrumentation to give characters a theme here and there."
The music really fit the film. What was the instrument we seeing you playing for a short bit in movie?
Matthew McConaughey: "That's the didgeridoo, which is Xavier’s main instrument. That guy sits down and gets four didgeridoos, a sitar guitar on his lap, a foot on the drum here, the drum’s here, bongos and a harmonica and sings. He’s like an octopus."
Is your next film with Just Keep Livin going to be The Grackle?
Matthew McConaughey: "That will probably be the next Just Keep Livin film, yes. The Grackle is a j.k.livin production that we've been, it’s really a balls-out comedy about a bar fighter for hire, a really, really broad wild-ass comedy. We’re working on getting that together now. Hopefully, maybe be doing it in the spring, maybe not, don't know yet."
Are you starring in it?
Matthew McConaughey: "Oh I’m the Grackle, I am the Grackle. Aces high."
And you won't have any problem getting money for that one?
Matthew McConaughey: "Well we have it financed with New Line, we have a budget. It’s just a matter of getting the right director and the right script - not the right script, the right actors."
