Steve Taylor: The US alternative rocker with a film project

Saturday 1st October 1994

In November Christendom's most radical alternative rocker STEVE TAYLOR will be commencing a British tour with Guardian. In anticipation of this event, a video 'Squint: Movies From The Sound Track', directed by as well as starring Steve Taylor, has just been released. The making of the video was no ordinary pop promo story. Steve took the budget offered by Warner Bros for the video and instead of settling for a standard Hollywood shoot, spent the cash on equipment and air tickets. Then, with a small film crew, Steve set off for Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal, India and Turkey. The footage he came back with makes for (to quote the publicity blurb) "one of the most ambitious film shoots ever undertaken by a rock artist." During his sojourn around the world, Steve kept a diary. These are extracts from it.



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I still have lousy vision. Maybe that's why we're shooting these videos in such exotic locales - perfect vision isn't half as important as looking at the right thing. Each time we get to a new location, I have a little conference with Ben, my director of photography and co-producer. We look around at this place we've never seen before and then try to make sure when it's time to roll film that we're looking at the right thing.

But there's always those first few minutes of silence, when we first get out of whatever vehicle we've been travelling in and just look around, trying to take it all in. It's 3am and after driving all night, we've just pulled up to what is easily the most amazing panorama I've ever seen in all God's creation - the "Cotton Castle" of Pamukkale, Turkey. It's a shimmering white cascade of limestone-laden hot springs, glistening in the moonlight, almost as if Carlsbad Caverns had been turned inside out and painted white. We won't be filming until dawn, which is good, because right now we are awestruck.

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him." (1 Corinthians 2:9)

I'm feeling very...I can't think of a better word than "blessed". I've felt that way a lot this year. I start thinking of all the potential disasters that could have happened thus far on the trip, from monsoons to malaria, from equipment being confiscated to film being ruined by X-rays, from all the stupid stuff we've done on location trying to get a more dramatic shot - and virtually nothing has gone wrong. No van wrecks, no food poisoning, no falling off cliffs.

I think of the scores of people back home who are praying for us. I think of the insignificance of our little music video expedition compared with the wonder of creation and how despite all I've seen and heard, my mind can't even conceive what God has prepared for those who love him. I think how good it is to have someone to thank when things go right. CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.
 
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