Morgan Neville, the Academy Award winning director behind such films as 20 Feet From Stardom, Best of Enemies and numerous music related works detailing the lives of among others Johnny Cash, Brian Wilson and Keith Richards, joins Headliner to discuss the making of his new film Piece By Piece, which tells the life story of pop icon Pharrell Williams through the medium of Lego animation.
Made over the course of five years, Piece By Piece is a genre-defying project the brings together elements of biopic and traditional documentary filmmaking and merges them with a bold and vivid aesthetic to create a music film unlike any other. Through interviews with Williams himself, as well as stars such as Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake and more, it tells the story of Williams life and career to date.
For Neville, whose vast and varied career has involved numerous acclaimed music-themed projects, Piece By Piece provided a novel opportunity to take a format with which he is supremely well-versed and approach it from an entirely new angle.
Here, he joins Headliner for an insightful discussion on how the project came together, the technical challenges it posed, and working with Williams to bring the artist’s distinct vision to life…
Hi Morgan. How are you and whereabouts are you joining us from?
I'm good, I'm in London. Just last night we had the closing night gala screening at the London Film Festival and there were 2,200 people there. It was the biggest screening I've had in my entire life.
How was the evening?
When you're working on a film for five years and you're lost in the jungle of making it, nights like last night make it feel worth it. You're like, ‘Oh, this is why we did it’. To get all those people together and to have that shared experience of cinema on a big screen. The emotion that came out of the crowd was everything I was hoping for.
How have people been responding to the film? It's such a unique and imaginative take on the music documentary format
It's been great but it's not really a music documentary. The biggest revelation is that people are bringing their 10-year-olds who have no idea who Pharrell Williams is. They might know Happy but it connects with them in a way that I didn't realize it would. I think the film is about how you hang on to your uniqueness and how that becomes a source of strength. It asks a lot of questions, and a lot of people come out saying they're inspired, and that makes me very happy.
What was it that first drew you to making music films?
I mean, it's kind of crazy, but I feel like everything I do I've been into since I was 12 [laughs]. My dad was a big music nut, and we had a jukebox in our house, and I played in bands for forever. I just love music. I read tons of music books, and I'll watch every music documentary, so I've always loved what music can do. I love the connection between music and film. Music is such a great way of conveying emotion in a way that you can't articulate, and film speaks the same kind of emotional language. It creates an empathetic bond that is kind of mysterious.