The new music series, produced by Gunpowder & Sky and Audible “Words + Music,” will premiere on MGM+ this fall with episodes featuring Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, John Legend and Alanis Morissette. Performers are seen sharing some of their most personal songs and the stories behind them in front of a near-comprehensive screen with a small audience showing those stories.
The series will be premiered on MGM+ November 30th, recently filmed in front of a small live audience on the volume stage at Amazon MGM Studios in Culver City.
Behind the scenes during a recent shoot for the Costello episode, Gunpowder & Sky CEO Van Toffler spoke to Variety about his vision for the series. Toffler’s only concern is barely at this point, as he’s back to the old stomping MTV to produce the upcoming Video Music Awards. But “words + music” clearly has a special place in his heart.
“I wasn’t going to create a TV series when I was starting a podcast. I thought it was a great way to talk about new versions of these songs for the podcast,” Toffler said. “And technology really pushed us to do this for television because these volume stages are where we shoot so many huge movies and we can find new ways to visually represent the story.
Toffler, former president of MTV Network, points out that partners in the new show, Alex Coletti, who performed Costello’s “MTV Unplugged” more than 30 years ago, and Bill Flanagan, creator of VH1’s “Storyteller” and CMT’s “Crossroads” combine the music that precedes the actual music with a set of music.
Flanagan said: “Twenty-five years later, this technology offers the opportunity to tell stories in a three-dimensional way. That’s the main difference: the format of “storyteller” is always old when you’re sitting on a stool, telling a story and being told around the story.” Campfire’s music may have sounded like it was back then. “But the screen definitely highlights this. As Elvis said, “The show is called ‘word + music’, but it does words, music and photography. ”
As Costello began taping, Flanagan was bullish about the audiovisual history that the singer-songwriter himself brings to the show. “Elvis did his first ‘CMT Crossroads’ with Lucinda Williams,” Flanagan pointed out. “And Elvis is the second ‘VH1 Storyteller’ and “after Ray Davis did the first one” – he came to the first one. It was Ray Davis. So he is a very reliable person to look forward to when he is about to sell a new project. He has a unique way of using the screen. He happened to have 100 paintings he had done, along with the use of photographs and other footage. When he comes to the party he is a perfect collaborator. ”
On a strictly technical side, Gunpowder & Sky says that filming on Stage 15 at Culver Studios features a 26-foot ceiling and a 74-foot scenic deck, with an immersive virtual production environment with 105 motion capture cameras and a 79’x 80′ LED volume with RoE BP2 LED panels.
So it was even more epic than a podcast with the same name, providing intimate speaking (and singing) stars voices, from Pete Townsend to Mariah Carey, St. Vincent and Snoop Dogg.
Toffler said: “The great thing about this series is that, like the Words + Music podcast, it has a loose format, but ultimately customized to the vision of each artist. And first I put the tape on it. The lyrics of his song can express what you know, they all feel at the centre of our lives.
Gunpowder & Sky has spent the past decade indulging in rare and more traditional ideas. “When he left MTV about 10 years ago and started the company, Toffler said: Burnett spoke from Merule Haggard and thought it was a bank because he was drunk, and he thought it was a bank to save a child’s life.” Now, their documentary division says, “We’re currently working on Jim Morrison’s documentation and Jessica Simpson’s documentation, and Myspace. We’re always going to tell stories about music or find creative ways to highlight our stories.
Are there more seasons? “I want to tell more stories, hopefully MGM will let me do that.” His wish list is long. “I have them in my head. We talk to musicians all the time, and they’re looking for new ways to present their music.”
In the meantime, Audible and Gunpowder & Sky have “The Film Makers” (a kind of “Words + Movies”) as their upcoming podcast series in the tradition of original “Words + Music” audio-only shows.
In that series, the filmmakers “tell the story, integrate film clips and music that don’t affect them, or integrate films and films that influence them. Ron Howard will direct Bette Davis for the first time about the transition from child actor to director, Texas. It’s not on the card yet, but he hopes this will become a television production too. “I don’t know if they’ll allow me to present it visually, but you can imagine putting those films on stage like this. That’s great.”
“Words + Music” is part of Audible and Amazon MGM Studios’ agreement to develop projects inspired by Audible’s content library, led by Jackie Levine, the director of Audible’s television and film. In addition to this series, MGM+ recently acquired author Michael Connery’s “Wonderland Murder and the Secret History of Hollywood.”
Of course, it’s imminent for Toffler as the production of “Word + Music” fell. This means returning to the helm of VMA as an outside producer after nearly 30 years of major break with MTV.
He said he is currently at least twice as much of his obligations, at this point: “Even over the weekend, I wasn’t planning on taking part in production non-stop, and I was brought back to the Video Music Awards on September 7th.
