Boris FX presents - An Interview with Robert C. Stone, Director of “Taylor Camp”
(February 2011)
We recently caught up with Robert Stone, who just finalized “Taylor Camp”, a documentary cut with Media 100 Suite. In 1969, Howard Taylor, brother of actress Elizabeth, bailed out a band of 13 young Mainlanders jailed on Kauai for vagrancy and invited this rag-tag tribe of men, women, and children to camp on his oceanfront land. Soon, waves of hippies, surfers, and troubled Vietnam vets found their way to Taylor Camp and built a clothing-optional, pot-friendly tree house village at the end of the road on the island’s North Shore. 1970s photos and rare historic footage document a community that rejected materialism for the healing spirit of nature. The film tells the story of Taylor Camp’s eight-year existence through interviews made 30-years later with the campers, their neighbors, and the Kauai officials who finally got rid of them.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
My media career began in the third grade when I started running the film projector for my teacher in class. In high school, I joined the electronics club, ran the sound equipment for pep rallies, and announced football games. I majored in electrical engineering in college - for a semester - until a friend of mine suggested I check out the Radio/TV program. That was 1973 and Fullerton (Junior) College had a full color studio in the basement of the library. That was my start into video. I've worked with 1" and quad machines, 3/4" U-matic, Betacam, ReCam, Beta SP, DVCAM, and HDV.
Shortly out of college, I freelanced with several production companies and landed a job at Kawasaki Motors in their production department, which gave me more experience in studio production as well as location sound production and editing 16mm film.
My next major job came in 1982 when I started working for an ad agency in Los Angeles. - Needham Harper and Steers, which later merged into Needham Harper Worldwide, and then de-merged into Rubin Postaer and Associates, one of the largest independent west coast agencies. This was a major learning opportunity as the owners believed in the power of video and financed our own in-house studio and edit facility. We produced not only our own promotional materials, but also sales and promotional aids and training for our clients: American Honda Cars, Disney Channel, The California Lottery, a couple regional banks, and many others.
My media career began in the third grade when I started running the film projector for my teacher in class. In high school, I joined the electronics club, ran the sound equipment for pep rallies, and announced football games. I majored in electrical engineering in college - for a semester - until a friend of mine suggested I check out the Radio/TV program. That was 1973 and Fullerton (Junior) College had a full color studio in the basement of the library. That was my start into video. I've worked with 1" and quad machines, 3/4" U-matic, Betacam, ReCam, Beta SP, DVCAM, and HDV.
Shortly out of college, I freelanced with several production companies and landed a job at Kawasaki Motors in their production department, which gave me more experience in studio production as well as location sound production and editing 16mm film.
My next major job came in 1982 when I started working for an ad agency in Los Angeles. - Needham Harper and Steers, which later merged into Needham Harper Worldwide, and then de-merged into Rubin Postaer and Associates, one of the largest independent west coast agencies. This was a major learning opportunity as the owners believed in the power of video and financed our own in-house studio and edit facility. We produced not only our own promotional materials, but also sales and promotional aids and training for our clients: American Honda Cars, Disney Channel, The California Lottery, a couple regional banks, and many others.
In 1995, I left the agency and my hometown of L.A. to "Go West, young man" and headed off to Maui to join up with a former L.A. colleague and offer commercial production to local companies on the cable system.
What type of work do you do?
With my extensive background over the years, filming all the way from the South Pacific to Siberia, I've worked on many types of projects, and in many capacities: audio production, film editing, technical director, producer, director, cameraman, editor, and writer.
Most of my work comes from the production of Cable TV spots, but there is always work in many other areas as well: music videos, pilot TV shows, promotional videos, web videos, and one of my favorites, documentaries.
Tell us about “Taylor Camp”.
I've worked on multiple documentaries over the years, many having aired on PBS. Myown directorial debut is with "Taylor Camp", a documentary about a group of hippies that built a treehouse community on a tropical beach from 1969 to 1977. I was working with Tom Vendetti and John Wehrheim on a documentary about Bhutan and Gross National Happiness. John had taken black and white still photos in Bhutan over the years and we were working with those in the film. One day John brought over these images he had taken of Taylor Camp and we “ooh’d” and “aah’d” over them. We ended up cutting a 15 minute slide show with period music and screened it in Kauai at the Kilauea Theater that seated about 250. A thousand people showed up and we decided that a full documentary might be in order!
What type of work do you do?
With my extensive background over the years, filming all the way from the South Pacific to Siberia, I've worked on many types of projects, and in many capacities: audio production, film editing, technical director, producer, director, cameraman, editor, and writer.
Most of my work comes from the production of Cable TV spots, but there is always work in many other areas as well: music videos, pilot TV shows, promotional videos, web videos, and one of my favorites, documentaries.
Tell us about “Taylor Camp”.
I've worked on multiple documentaries over the years, many having aired on PBS. Myown directorial debut is with "Taylor Camp", a documentary about a group of hippies that built a treehouse community on a tropical beach from 1969 to 1977. I was working with Tom Vendetti and John Wehrheim on a documentary about Bhutan and Gross National Happiness. John had taken black and white still photos in Bhutan over the years and we were working with those in the film. One day John brought over these images he had taken of Taylor Camp and we “ooh’d” and “aah’d” over them. We ended up cutting a 15 minute slide show with period music and screened it in Kauai at the Kilauea Theater that seated about 250. A thousand people showed up and we decided that a full documentary might be in order!
We spent the next 5 years locating and interviewing the Taylor Campers, collecting and scanning their photo albums, filming aerials and re-enactments, editing and re-editing, and just in the last year have finally finalized the film. We are currently in negotiations for distribution. At first we thought it was a hippie film, and then a boomer film, but as it turns out, even youngsters are interested in that special time period, and as people come floating out of the screenings, we are realizing that "Taylor Camp" is a very special feel-good film. Folks are looking to escape, even for an hour or two, and "Taylor Camp" is a portal back in time to the 1970s.
What do you like best about Media 100 Suite?
I love Media 100 Suite’s ease-of-use and ergonomic design. Using Media 100 Suite is like sitting in a luxury car. When you are in a luxury car, you naturally reach for the door handle or the window button, and there it is, right where you expect it to be. Likewise, Media 100 Suite is set up logically so that you find what you need easily.
I use Media 100 Suite for everything - capture, layout, edit, and final composition. Media 100 Suite makes it simple to capture footage, assemble a timeline, record or import voiceover and music, and put it all together and output to tape or other media formats.
I also value Media 100 Suite’s rock-solid stability. I have cut a 6-1/2 hour documentary with Media 100 Suite. It never drops a frame.
Which Media 100 Suite features do you find particularly useful?
The batch export feature comes in real handy, especially on commercials when I need multiple outputs - maybe an export by reference for some Squeeze work, MPEG-4 for YouTube, or HDV out to upload to the cable system. Even if I don't export them all at the same time, having the presets saves me a lot of time - just click and go!
I have a client that rough cuts his own projects and I'll place his cut piece on one of the composite tracks, set the opacity to 50%, and capture and edit the master footage on the A/B tracks to match his rough cut.
I also appreciate the Boris XML Transfer tool that is included with Media 100 Suite. It makes going to After Effects for graphic treatments and layering a breeze.
Any final thoughts you would like to share?
One thing I've learned about being in Hawaii and having your own business is that you are your own tech person. You learn to backup and you learn to troubleshoot not only the computer, but the operating system, software, hardware, decks, and cables. Fortunately, with that attitude and capability, I am my own problem-solver. But on those occasions when I do need outside help, Media 100 has always been there. They're always cheerful and helpful. I'm thankful that Boris stepped in and very grateful that they have kept up with new media formats and codecs.
Who knows what the future holds? But the good news is that I know Media 100 will be there as a company, they'll be on top of the technology, and I know I don't need to go anywhere else.
What do you like best about Media 100 Suite?
I love Media 100 Suite’s ease-of-use and ergonomic design. Using Media 100 Suite is like sitting in a luxury car. When you are in a luxury car, you naturally reach for the door handle or the window button, and there it is, right where you expect it to be. Likewise, Media 100 Suite is set up logically so that you find what you need easily.
I use Media 100 Suite for everything - capture, layout, edit, and final composition. Media 100 Suite makes it simple to capture footage, assemble a timeline, record or import voiceover and music, and put it all together and output to tape or other media formats.
I also value Media 100 Suite’s rock-solid stability. I have cut a 6-1/2 hour documentary with Media 100 Suite. It never drops a frame.
Which Media 100 Suite features do you find particularly useful?
The batch export feature comes in real handy, especially on commercials when I need multiple outputs - maybe an export by reference for some Squeeze work, MPEG-4 for YouTube, or HDV out to upload to the cable system. Even if I don't export them all at the same time, having the presets saves me a lot of time - just click and go!
I have a client that rough cuts his own projects and I'll place his cut piece on one of the composite tracks, set the opacity to 50%, and capture and edit the master footage on the A/B tracks to match his rough cut.
I also appreciate the Boris XML Transfer tool that is included with Media 100 Suite. It makes going to After Effects for graphic treatments and layering a breeze.
Any final thoughts you would like to share?
One thing I've learned about being in Hawaii and having your own business is that you are your own tech person. You learn to backup and you learn to troubleshoot not only the computer, but the operating system, software, hardware, decks, and cables. Fortunately, with that attitude and capability, I am my own problem-solver. But on those occasions when I do need outside help, Media 100 has always been there. They're always cheerful and helpful. I'm thankful that Boris stepped in and very grateful that they have kept up with new media formats and codecs.
Who knows what the future holds? But the good news is that I know Media 100 will be there as a company, they'll be on top of the technology, and I know I don't need to go anywhere else.