Production and Development

    I considered three different show photographers and ended up hiring Ryan Mikayla. I liked her work that she’d posted on her Instagram, and she responded quickly that she’d be eager to do the shoot. I gave her a map of the path I wanted her to take and a plan detailing what I wanted the shots to look like (the lighting, distance between shots, time of day, etc). The initial plan did not have her crossing the freeway to get the shots on the street divider. I thought it would’ve been asking a bit much of someone I barely knew to do something risky like that – I’d only done it that night because I was seventeen and wasted. 

    Ryan did an excellent job, but when I reviewed the photos I realized the film was really going to need something more. The Tunnels are pretty cool looking on their own, but I thought more was needed to get the true feel of the young Austin punk scene – the colors, the smells, the dirt, and just the overall energy which, on a very real note, defined my highschool years. This is a place, a time, and a subculture that means a great deal to me. Getting teary eyed over here, but I digress. I thought it would be fun and apt to take pictures of my patch jacket. I started it when I started getting into punk music and going to local shows. I hand-made all the patches (except for the Ramones one) and sewed them on, and put every single spike and stud on all my jackets, cuffs, and collars. The Austinites really dig it. I started taking pictures and just got super into it, grabbing things in my room and shooting them against the leather, discovering little motifs as I went on. I also went through my phone camera roll and picked out photos that I or my friends had taken of shows at the Tunnels, as well as screenshots of digital posters for shows to throw in. 

    That 1966 California recording of 13th Floor Elevators’ cover of Roll Over Beethoven was a given for this. I toyed with the idea of asking one of the many little local hardcore bands I like for permission to use something by them (and it still would’ve been a fine thing to do, I feel a little guilty I didn’t do it), but after I got the idea to include photos of my jackets, I knew what song I was going to end up using. The tempo, the rough sound, and that crazy, choppy, monkey-like whooping seemed absolutely perfect to match the colorful visuals and convey the specific energy that an Austin hardcore show has. And the 13th Floor Elevators are from Austin to boot. That’s just fate. Pretty much the first Austin punk band. Can you believe they recorded that in the ‘60s? Way ahead of their time. I could go on but that’s not really the point of this blog. God I love Austin! 

    The trajectory of the project development went a little off the rails when we had a family emergency that meant we had to go to Minnesota when I got back to the states. I was given a much more generous extension than I thought I’d get, and decided to make the most of it by going to take some extra photos when I got back home. I brought a few friends with me and took pictures of the street above the Tunnels, as well as some fantastic graffiti which really helped tie the film together in the edit.