A documentary about love, centred around a song about love. Good love, that is. The kind I can never really stumble upon myself. But it’s an important subject, with a lot of different meanings to it, given the many perspectives of many people. Nothing collected perspectives together better than Gary Beals making his very first documentary. Better known for making music and music videos, Gary took on this interesting new challenge of making a short documentary discussing what good love truly is. Everyone has a different idea of what it is, and this amazing doc not only shows good love, but diversity. I just had to talk to Gary about his experience of talking to people, and after quite a while, we got an opportunity to chat.
HNMAG: So, you started out in music, and recently made a film, what was it like doing something slightly different?
Gary Beals: It was an amazing experience to try, and just capture something different other than a music video. One of the reasons I was interested in doing a documentary was because my album is more than music and I wanted a chance to sit down with a diverse group of people and just chat about one of the themes that’s a part of the album.
HNMAG: And what was the experience talking with different diverse individuals?
Gary Beals: Oh my goodness, it was amazing. We had 13 different participants ranging from ages 5 to 84 and we shot the documentary in one day, so we sat down with each individual for maybe 20 minutes to 45 minutes. We had a bunch of questions that we asked about love, and it was an amazing day. To sit down with a group of people with diverse backgrounds, ages, sexuality, races, it was a day of love. I cried, I laughed, I reflected. Yeah, I just really had a chance to listen to the experience that each person talked about, and the insight on love, it was overwhelmingly beautiful.
HNMAG: Now you said you’ve made music videos. Were those more complex or easier than a documentary?
Gary Beals: I would say the process is somewhat similar. I guess because the videos aren’t as long as the documentary. But I guess it’s really sitting down and thinking of the different concepts. The different images or imagery that I want to present. With the music videos I did, I worked with one director on about 9 videos. It was pretty much the same. What I imagined for the song was the imagery I gave it for each video.
HNMAG: Speaking of music, you started out with music on Canadian Idol. What was it like being on that show?
Gary Beals: I did that like 18 years ago, and I was excited about being on Canadian Idol. Just before auditioning was when the first season of American Idol came out and I was always having a passion for singing and when American Idol came out, I was glued to the TV every week, watching each episode, pretending I was on the show. Then when I heard that Canadian Idol was coming to Canada, I got really excited. I was brought up in Nova Scotia, so I auditioned back in Halifax. A group of my friends, we got together and auditioned, it was just great going through the different phases to Top Ten, and then making it to the final end. It was overwhelming at first, because I originally sang in the church and the surrounding area where I was from. To go from singing locally to nationally, was quite the experience.
HNMAG: Do you see yourself making more films in the future or will you stick to music?
Gary Beals: I definitely want to do more documentaries, I want to do more films, I want to be in films, but I would definitely love to be in front of the camera, doing a bit of acting, and be behind the cameras as well. Different documentaries and different visuals.
HNMAG: Possibly full length documentaries?
Gary Beals: Yeah, definitely so.
HNMAG: What do you think is the most important aspect when it comes to loving somebody?
Gary Beals: That would be Good Love, like my song, Good Love. Loving them unconditionally, loving them without restriction, loving them while allowing them to be themselves. Most importantly, creating a space where that person you love and you can just be your true selves, and basking in that kind of love.
HNMAG: What are some of your favourite ways to show love to a partner?
Gary Beals: Some of my favourites are expressing it verbally, but also being affectionate, intimate, also what I’m doing for them, whether it’s cooking a nice meal for them or going to the store and buying them a gift.
HNMAG: Does having a long-term partner make experiences more different than someone you just started with?
Gary Beals: I would say so, but then if you’ve been with a partner for a long period of time, then that connection that you have with them and just building from there, and creating ways where you can keep things fresh. We’re complex people in a sense, so it can take a while to know people, but I’m an energetic person, so for me it’s all about the vibe, the synergy, and how I feel in someone’s space so I really pay attention to that.
HNMAG: Now back to the documentary, how many crew members did you have?
Gary Beals: It was just myself, Katrina who was a producer, Tamby the director, so it was actually just the three of us. Then we had someone who edited the documentary, but I actually have never met her. So, just three of us.
HNMAG: So things were done pretty quickly with minimal crew, did you estimate the possibility of it being longer?
Gary Beals: No, we had estimated that it would just be a whole day where we sit and chat with people, and we weren’t sure what the outcome was going to be because we didn’t know what people were going to say. But it actually turned out better than I thought it would. Just getting the diverse answers that we would hear from the participants but at the same time there was also similarities in what everybody spoke about.
HNMAG: And what went into financing the film?
Gary Beals: I financed it myself. My whole album has been an independent project, so these music videos I’ve been doing, I’ve just been financing them myself.
HNMAG: What kind of equipment was used?
Gary Beals: Tammy took care of all the equipment, but we had lighting, and in terms of the specific camera she used, I’m not sure.
HNMAG: How was the process of post-production? Did you get some involvement to see what the outcome was?
Gary Beals: Yeah, we shot maybe 4-5 full hours of footage, and then we brought on Grace. She presented a rough draft to us which ended up being about 20 minutes. The goal was to get the film to 7-10 minutes, but then it was really hard to narrow it down. It ended up being 14 minutes because it was hard for us to narrow it down. She would edit it then send it back, we would give our terms of what we liked and didn’t like, then she would take the edit based on our thoughts. That’s how the final piece came together.
HNMAG: So has it been released? Will it be going to any festivals?
Gary Beals: We released on the 26th of March on Youtube, it’s out and on social platforms as well. There’s a film festival that’s happening out in Nova Scotia, so we’ll be presenting it there, and there’s a few other festivals that we want to get into as well.
Like Gary said, you can see the film on YouTube. Watch it today, and see if you share some perspectives or even learn something about them.