Interview: Spike Lee Talks Tech, Nokia Productions, and Citizen Paps

Legendary filmmaker Spike Lee, deemed the first customer to purchase an iPhone last year (later donating the phone to a charity auction; no, he didn’t wait in line for a 3G), has taken the reins on Nokia’s community film project dubbed Nokia Productions. We chatted on the phone last week with the Oscar-nominated director about the project, the future of film, and why he’s not always a fan of cell phone videos.

Laptop: How did you come up with the idea for this collaborative project that revolves around cell phones?
Spike Lee: Well, [Nokia] approached me. They called me out of the blue, asked me if I’d be interested in being partners in this innovative thing. First of all, I was elated that they called me. I’ve always been a fan of how innovative Nokia’s been, and I like this whole deal of the collaborative effort among the community, of coming together and doing a short film piece. So I was in from the very beginning.

How much did you help in plotting out the theme?
SL: We all worked together, but they asked me to come up with something, and thinking about it, I just thought of humanity. Break it down in three acts—birth, life, and death. The challenge was to make it broad and specific at the same time. But I came up with many other ideas, and that won out.

How’s the clip selection going? How are they looking?
SL: It’s picking up. To be honest, it started kind of slow, but I’m very encouraged by the stuff I’ve gotten from the second act. I definitely see people have stepped up their game. And I think—and I really think we’re the ones to blame for this—there was perception that in order to participate you had to have a Nokia product, which was never the case. Somehow, that got out there, and so it took a while to get rid of that.

Is there a difference in how you’re examining these entries versus looking at professional work from an aspiring or amateur filmmaker?
SL: Not really. Either something’s good, or something gravitates to you, sticks to you, or it doesn’t. When I’m being sent stuff, I don’t know [about] the person—the stuff that says, “I’m a film student” or “I’m a young filmmaker”—you don’t know anything except their work, which gives you a little bit of a cue of where you think they might be in their development. But also, another thing we have to try to get over is the fact that we don’t not want people to think that you have to be this aspiring or budding filmmaker to participate. I’ve always been of the strong belief that everybody has creativity in them; it just has to be nurtured. Anybody can take a snapshot or do the stuff that we need to get the materials to come up with this final piece at the end.

With the availability of affordable, high-quality, high-def gadgets—digital cameras, camcorders, cell phones that shoot video—are we being inundated by quantity over quality?
SL: Well, that’s always gonna happen. Once the technological breakthroughs happened, it really brought a democracy to access, to the goods. People of my era went to film school because you want to get access to the equipment. It definitely wasn’t to get into green filming. You want to get access to the equipment, and a lot of people today, they look at the price of film schools and—I could buy a camera and an editing system for tuition. So people are going that route, and I’ve always said there’s no one way to do anything. You don’t have to go to film school to be a filmmaker.

You wrote in your blog on the Nokia Productions site, “I’m convinced that in less than 5 years we will buy a ticket to see a Feature Film in a theatre that was shot on a Mobile Device (Cell Phone).” What do you mean by that?
SL: I just think that the technology is here, and there’s gonna be some brilliant kid who doesn’t have access to a whole lot of money, but has a great idea, has a vision. And he’s gonna make a great film that’s gonna get distribution that was shot on a mobile device. It’s gonna happen.

Cell phone videos are playing a big role in general—in politics and elections, even—often more in the form of scandals. How do you feel about cell phones in that sense?
SL: I don’t like it. Especially when I’m trying to urinate in the Yankee Stadium in the men’s room. People whip out their mobile devices. It’s not fun.

What about these well-known clips that people get—for example, Conrad Burns falling asleep or George Allen’s racial comment—that can really influence elections?
SL: You’re in the public. You have to be on your toes. It’s not just the paparazzi, it’s anybody—Joe Blo, or Joann Blo, is gonna pull out their mobile device and that’s gonna be all over YouTube and MySpace. You can’t sleep. You’ve got to be on it, or someone’s gonna catch you napping [laughs]. There are gonna be ramifications.

What do you think about YouTube?
SL: I think it’s great, but you don’t feel great if something’s not favorable on you, being shown to millions of people all around the world. And you might think you’re doing something in private, like the whole thing with Shaq [O'Neal]—he was at a club in New York, rapping, and he had something to say about Kobe [Bryant]. I think that if he knew that someone was gonna have a camera on him and post that, he might not have said the things he said about Kobe. And there were the days of saying, “I didn’t say that.” Well you can’t say that no more, because they got your ass [laughs].

I’m not saying it’s total evil, but if it’s used, it can be invasive. The number-one example I use is when I tried to go to the men’s room at the Yankees game at Yankee stadium.

So would you consider going through this collaboration process with Nokia Productions again?
SL: Oh yeah, it’s exciting and I just can’t wait till we start to put together all this stuff for the final product.

What mobile gadgets do you carry around?
SL: My iPod. I got ‘em all.

Do you have a favorite?
SL: I like the classic. Music is part of my daily life and I’ve gotta have it.

Are you a smart phone user?
SL: Yes, you gotta have that, but—that’s the thing: I’m 51, my daughter’s 13. My son, 11. They are so much more technically proficient with these electronic goods. I’m a dinosaur. They’ve never seen a vinyl record, they’ve never seen how you put a needle on a record. To turn on the TV, the DVD player—I gotta get them to turn it on. But it’s second nature with this new generation.

Have you given some cell phone video shooting a try?
SL: Not yet—I mean, family stuff, just stuff for the kids. They love it. They like to get Daddy sleeping, too—mouth open, drooling.

So they’re turning into little paparazzi themselves?
SL: Well, I hope not [laughs]. They’re not publishing stuff; this is just in-house.

And for work, do you have a laptop you lug around?
SL: Yeah, I have an Apple [MacBook] laptop. Most of it comes down to viewing my work on the DVD apparatus and managing all my music for my iPod.

I’m sure you have all the equipment in terms of video cameras and such.
SL: I don’t really own a video camera. I have a brother who’s great and he’s the videographer for my family and also for all my films, so he does everything. I don’t have to do it. He takes care of it.

So you must be learning a lot being involved with Nokia.
SL: Oh yes, I’ve really stepped up my game as far as trying [new technology] goes. But I’ve got some more woodshedding to do.

Any prospective tech purchases?
SL: I’ve gotta break down and get a Blu-ray DVD player soon. But I hear that 2.0 is coming out, so I’m just waiting.