Cover Story: ‘Kasting director

Chatting it up on the telephone, music video director Bryan Barber appears to be really bored.

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“Oh,” Barber says in a monotone drawl after he learns this interview will be used for a Creative Loafing cover story. “Good stuff.”</
Maybe he’s thinking, “Who gives a shit about another interview?” Or maybe he’s one of those nonchalant industry types who is busy with a ton of divergent projects and unfazed by the whole “celebrity” thing.</
“Bryan is a foreboding kind of figure,” says Herbert Eichelberger, associate professor in the communication arts division at Clark Atlanta University and Barber’s former college film instructor. “He doesn’t give you these gut-busting laughs all the time. It’s like he stands off and gives you a little space. But deep down inside, he’s mellow. Most people don’t know that — how mellow and chilled out he is. He’s a real gentle giant.”</
Eichelberger is undoubtedly on the money about his old student — he has known him for more than a decade. Barber doesn’t come off like the dude who occasionally makes wacky cameo appearances in the videos he shoots, or the guy who rocked a 21st-century mohawk before they were cool. “I consider myself a tastemaker,” he says.</
One thing’s for sure: Barber’s distinctive vision helped to define the visual persona of the Atlanta-based hip-hop supergroup OutKast. Before Barber, ‘Kast members Big Boi and Andre 3000’s videos depicted them wearing jeans and T-shirts and riding around in old Cadillacs — like every other MC on Earth. Since teaming up with Barber, you’re more likely to catch the duo sporting ostrich-feather pants and bright blazers while zipping around in Crayola-colored cars.</
But if anyone has a reason to sound excited, it’s Barber: Aug. 25 marks the release of his debut feature film, Idlewild, which stars his old friends, Antwan Andre Patton (Big Boi) and Andre Benjamin (Andre 3000). Patton stars as the main performer and manager of a 1930s-era Southern speakeasy, with Benjamin as the club’s bashful piano player. The cast includes Terrence Howard, Ving Rhames and Cicely Tyson. The movie also features Ben Vereen, Patti LaBelle and Macy Gray. The movie is a lavish period piece and a throwback to large-scale “race” musicals of the 1930s and ’40s — like Vincente Minnelli’s Cabin in the Sky, with Lena Horne and Louis Armstrong — that featured all-African-American casts.</
“I really wanted to capture the element of the ’30s in a way that hadn’t been seen before,” Barber says. “People always say, ‘African-Americans in the 1930s were beat down by the white man.’ I just wanted a movie about black people being people. We don’t always have to define our history as this racial struggle. That’s part of our history, not all of it. So many times we get lost in the struggle of the black man — to the point where it’s hard to get films financed from that era.”</
Barber points out that, although the movie stars a pair of rappers, this ain’t no Moulin Rouge-style musical, featuring contemporary music in an old-time setting.

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“Basically everything is authentic,” Barber says. “Musically, I would say — in a weird way — even though you have OutKast performing, it’s set over Bessie Smith and Duke Elllington and Jelly Roll Morton. The delivery of Andre and Big Boi is much like the delivery of Cab Calloway, so it really works in that era. If you were to travel back in time and go to a juke joint, Cab Calloway would be the rapper. You’d be dancing to Cab like he was Nelly. He had songs about chasing women, somebody getting shot and smoking reefer.”</
Idlewild also marks Barber’s first foray into productions that don’t just air on MTV, BET or Fuse. Lots of other video directors have attempted to make the leap into film; not all of those auteurs have survived the jump (see sidebar).</
Luckily, Barber’s videos have never just been about some idiot running around on a stage. His small-screen work comes across more like mini-movies, complete with complex plot twists, engrossing character development, wild action scenes and snappy dialogue — well, as much as he could squeeze into four minutes.</
“A music video is like a short sprint, where a film is like a long marathon,” Barber says. “Now that’s a clichéd definition, but the difference in the politics are a lot deeper. Anything you’re passionate about makes it that much easier to get through whatever difficult times.”</
Barber glosses over references to “difficult times” regarding the making of Idlewild, but it’s hard not to imagine the uphill struggle he undertook to get a green light for the picture. It’s no secret that Hollywood is a club that historically under-finances films with predominantly black casts and considers musicals a dead genre, making Idlewild a multi-risk move for anyone — especially a first-time director.</
Barber credits any accomplishments to a credo he learned at Clark: Find a way or make one. “That’s the motto of the film,” he says. “You really discover that motto when you try to register for college. The financial aid’s always out of order, the loans didn’t arrive, your dorm wasn’t ready ... all that stuff. Every semester, just getting through registration gives you a reason to quit.”</
And Barber isn’t the only one who remembers his tough times in college. Eichelberger says Barber used to call him and say, “Hey, Doc. I don’t know if I want to stay with this film stuff or not. You think I should get a job selling shoes?”</
The professor would reply, “Do you want to sell shoes?” He knew Barber needed a voice telling him to hang in there.</
His ability to “hang in there” paid off for Barber. While still a student, he hooked up with OutKast — his most important professional relationship. He first made contact with the rappers coincidentally: One of his neighbors just happened to be dating Benjamin. In 1994, when OutKast’s first album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, had just dropped, Benjamin was over for a visit and Barber seized the opportunity to offer the neophyte entertainer a role in a self-financed film. He accepted. The film’s financing, in the form of Barber’s financial aid refund check, however, never materialized, so the project never got off the ground. But the OutKast contact had been made. Barber then found himself filming behind-the-scenes footage for another OutKast-affiliated rap crew, the Goodie Mob. It wasn’t long before he became a permanent part of the family.</
“[OutKast] were just used to me being around,” says Barber.</
Big Boi and Andre pushed LaFace head honcho L.A. Reid to let an incredibly green Barber direct “Skew It on the Bar-B,” from the 1998 CD Aquemini. The rappers quickly became the DeNiros to his Scorsese, as Barber constantly nudged the pair toward uncharted creative territory.

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Image Gallery: ‘Kasting director
His work with OutKast led to jobs with artists such as Gerald Levert, Jagged Edge and even J.C. Chasez of ‘NSync. But, while all his videos kick ass, Barber’s collection of OutKast clips — like “Hey Ya!,” “The Way You Move” and “Roses” from 2003’s multiplatinum Speakerboxx/The Love Below — seem to feature a more stylized sheen, crisper colors, funnier tongue-in-cheek situations and cutting-edge concepts.</
“[OutKast has] always given me the opportunity to really do some work that’s not being seen on TV,” he says.</
But before videos and before he ever knew OutKast, Barber was, in his own words, a directionless kid from Compton, Calif. Eichelberger, his college professor, casually mentions that his old student and friend moved to Atlanta because “he got into some trouble,” but refuses to go into details.</
Barber’s even less enthusiastic about shedding light on his dark days. “I only give the story to guys who are in trouble and can’t change their position in life,” he explains. “I was at a place where I didn’t really have a passion. I got involved in some criminal affairs that led me to a short stint in jail, which could have been a more serious situation. But I was blessed enough to get out. I prayed for a passion about life and I was blessed to get that: filmmaking. That’s the important thing about my past — that I’ve changed it.”</
Wrapping up the phone call, Barber perks up a bit to talk about his latest venture: a record label. He’s calling his company Barb Wire Entertainment and credits his first act, Rye (part of a bigger crew known as the Wire), for giving him the idea to start pressing CDs.</
“I got a call from this dude one day and he said, ‘Yo, man, I’m a rapper out of Decatur and I want you to do my video.’ I was like, ‘How did you get my number, dude?’ He called me back a couple of weeks later and said, “Yo, man, you gonna do my video?’ I was like, ‘Man, how much money you got?’ He didn’t really have any money but thought I would like his music. And the music was dope. He didn’t have a label, so I decided to put him out myself.” (Release dates have yet to be set for Rye or the Wire.)</
Once he’s finished selling his label, Barber quickly slides into Mr. Mellow mode, but he perks up one last time when he discovers we interviewed his most favored sage, Eichelberger, in preparation for his profile.</
“Oh, so you went back and got it like that? You got the history,” he says. “Good stuff.”</
Read Curt Holman’s Video birthed the filmmaking star.