Scribe

Gross.

But

Yeah.

Thanks for having me.

Well, it started really just by chance. One weekend I was reading an article in the New York Times and it was talking about some artists who had found a Underwood 5 typewriter, like at 5 in the morning on the streets of New York. And it was his favorite possession. And I hadn't been thinking about typewriters, but I thought Underwood typewriters So I googled. I mean, I looked up on ebay and I found a really beautiful one. It was only six bucks. And so I bought the typewriter and it, you know, they sent it out to me.

50. $50 shipping. But, you know, I set it up in my office as just an object of art in the corner, you know, something to look at. And it sat there for a while and then, you know, it would. I. I go over to it and like push the keys and they. The keys didn't work. They were all like kind of frozen shut. And I don't know, it was just calling out to me to like, fix it up for some reason. So I googled typewriter shops and I could only find this one last typewriter shop over in Berkeley. And it was just open for a few hours a day. And so I took it over there, walked in, met the family who owned the shop, and immediately, you know, I love this family and I love their passion for typewriters and how they were trying to keep them going, especially in a city, you know, in San Francisco Bay, where tech was really created. So I decided to make a short film really to help them out because they were really struggling. They were just barely holding on. So I was going to make like a little YouTube three minute thing, almost like a long ad for them. And I finished it and it came out really well. And a friend was working with Tom Hanks's wife on a, on a project and I showed her the thing and she sent it on to Tom and, and he loved it. And he said, you know, and I asked if he'd. If he'd be interviewed and he agreed. And that took about a year to get that interview lined up.

Yeah, exactly. So it was great, you know, and once I got that interview, I just thought this could be more than a short. And I just worked on it. It was something, it was a passion project, you know, labor of love for me. So I pretty much made it myself. I shot it, directed it, edited it, did most of the sound and, you know, worked on it for like five years. And like I said, it wasn't paid, nobody else paid for it, so I didn't have to finish it for somebody. So I just kept working on it until I was happy with it. And again, you know, the film really Isn't. Even though it's about typewriters. It's more about. For me, about how things disappear in life and whether you. You know, there's one story in the film that's about the past, which is about Martin Howard, one about the future, and then one about now. So it's all about how we deal with things when they disappear, Whether we're nostalgic and kind of sad or whether we're looking forward to change, you know. And that was really what the film was about to me. Even though I made it, you know, it was focused on typewriters.

It was like a project that had a number of prongs to it. So there were the famous people. I made a list of all the famous people who I had heard that were still using typewriters. And then I had the story that I was shooting, you know, which was like, the shop and the people I found through it. But as far as the celebrities go, first was Tom, and then From Tom, David McCullough was next. And Tom and David McCullough had worked. Been working on a few projects together, so that was kind of easy. And then came Sam Shepard. And then after Sam, my wife was in the supermarket one day reading a Rolling Stone article, and John Mayer was in it, and he's talking about using his typewriter. And so I was able to get through my. I did a lot of music videos. So my production company had done some of his videos, and I got in touch with him through them, and he was totally, totally up for it. And super, super great guy went up and filmed him in Montana.

Yeah, so. So the whole. The Whole project, like I said, I filmed famous people who were using typewriters. But then I hung out at the shop. I just started hanging out there and filming people who walked in the door of this typewriter shop. And one of the first people I met was Jeremy Mayer, who is a sculptor from. He's living in Oakland at the time. And he takes apart typewriters and turns them into sculptures that kind of symbolize his vision of where man is headed, how we're going to eventually become half robot, half human. So I met him, and then Jeremy was great because he introduced me to Martin Howard, who's the typewriter, you know, antique typewriter collector. And then he told me about Ed Ruscha and Mason Williams, the Royal Road Test. So Jeremy so, so helpful of helping me into this world. And so I just kind of, like I said, I followed. I hung up the shop and filmed people, and the stories just kind of gradually came together. And then as I filmed the shop over those years, you know, they really hit rock bottom as far as finances. And so they decided to put on a type in to kind of revitalize things and, you know, get some interest going. And, you know, Jeremy and I helped put that together because Jeremy, you know, he got them online as well. He introduced them to, you know, the Internet in a way. So we filmed that type in and yeah, like, Cheryl Lowery came and a bunch of interesting people in the Bay Area who were using typewriters, and it really. It lifted the shop spirits and everybody there, and they started getting business started picking up after that.

Oh, yeah. But she's great. I mean, she has so much to say about, I think, technology and analog and the. How it doesn't have to be one or the other, but it can just kind of be a marriage of everything.

Well, yeah, Jeremy, when I first filmed him, the first thing I did with him, I filmed at his studio. It was actually the first scene of him in the film. He's working on this bust of an old man. And so I filmed him and I started figuring out, you know, what he was doing. And I realized that he loved typewriters so much. You know, he loved them as much as the collectors, but he loved them in a different way because for him, he saw kind of the humanity inside the machine. And so his, his whole thing is taking that apart and finding those parts and, you know, bringing out the human being, you know, bringing out us in the typewriter. And he turns the typewriter into human figures, which, you know, a lot of them are like almost Android looking people that.

And he's been trying to. He's been trying to create this image of where he sees mankind headed. You know, where we're going to be part man, part machine. You know, we're going to change our DNA. We're going to become like, you know, this. We're going to evolve into something else so that he uses the typewriter to try to express that.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's. Yeah, Brendan, who's. I forget his last name, but he's one of the founders of Oculus. He took a big interest in Jeremy's work and he, he commissioned that piece for Mark Zuckerberg. And that's it. That's in Mark Zuckerberg's office. I guess that's really cool. But yeah, Jeremy. Jeremy's great. I mean, what I loved is the relationship between Them how? You know, Herb, who owns. Owns California Typewriter, wants to repair, you know, keep these machines going, and Jeremy wants to destroy them and turn them into something else. But they have a friendship and they really help each other. So, you know, when Herb has typewriters he can't fix, he gives them to Jeremy to take him apart. And then they'll go to the flea market together, like at Alameda, and they'll both be looking for typewriters. You know, one's looking for something he can, like, make a little money off of, and the other guy's looking for one that he could just strip down.

I know. Do you go to Alameda much?

Yeah, I. It was funny, like, the whole time making the film, I go to Alameda.

And then, you know, pick up typewriters really cheap, and they're really. They're going up in price now, which is amazing. All the people who are on the typewriter, you know, in the typewriter world, are all saying, damn, this film. It's turning. You know, the. Everybody's wanting typewriters now, and the prices are going up.

I know.

Yeah, that's how it always is. Like Martin in the story, he just wants one of those Shoals of Glidden which are, you know, that was. The Shoals of Glidden was the very first typewriter that was ever, yeah. Commercially successful typewriter that was made and he's been desperately searching for just one. And Jim Rowan, who's in the Bay Area. Yeah, he's got 12. Then Jim has more than the Smithsonian has. But you know, it's, it's funny about typewriter collectors. They don't want to get rid of their stuff, you know, even me, like, like from making this film, I have 85 typewriters now.

The process of making. I had to buy typewriters, do close ups and then I just got. I caught the bug as well. But now that I have all these, I was, I was only going to keep a few and give them away. But then I don't really want to give them away. I don't know, there's some weird thing like because they're so. Each one is so unique, you know, like somebody was saying it's not in the film but they're all like snowflakes in a certain way. Everyone is different. You know, everyone has their own, their own font and everything. It's all unique. So, you know, you won't get another one that's exactly the same.

Yeah, Martin's a great character. He what I love, he provides the Film with a lot of the humor, you know, and which I think, you know, it's nice that this film has a lot of laughs. I think in a lot of documentaries you don't expect to have laughs, but, you know, especially when it's. When it's shown in a movie theater, the audience really laughs a lot.

Great guy.

Well, yeah, well, Martin was actually. He was born in London, but he came over when he was like 6 years old. So he's got. He still has retained. He still has retained a bit of the British accent. So maybe that's British mixed in with Canada. And.

I was gonna feel. I was gonna make a little film with him this coming year because he has that twin brother.

And so we're going to. They're going to take a road trip to this twins parade, so we're just going to make a little short. He and his brother are very funny. They're great, you know, great characters.

Yeah, I didn't either.

That's a hard one. Nothing really difficult stands out in my mind. I mean, the difficult part of this was more the. The editing that was hard. The shooting wise, I mean, the opening, the Royal Road test. Because. Because since I've made this movie, I had no money, you know, I did that whole opening.

Yeah, it actually has. It looks, looks. Looks like it's a higher budget than it is. But yeah, that was a hard one to pull off, you know, and I. I had to use different cameras and we actually threw the typewriter out the window. It just missed destroying the camera.

getting was like, that was not the way to shoot it, like professionally, you know, I mean, we would have been shut down by the safety, you know, safety guidelines. Somebody had seen us shooting that. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I tried to. I tried to read, you know, because the film opens with the Royal Road Test, which is something that Ed Ruscha and Mason Williams did. It was one of their first art books back in the 60s, where they threw a typewriter out of the window of a moving car going 90 miles an hour. And then they went back and re. Photographed it as like a crime scene and created an art piece from it. So I really wanted to get it right, so I. I searched up. They. They had a specific car, like a. A Buick. And I found that same car in the same year. And I bought the car and, you know, I just. I tried to make it as. As perfect as I could, you know, because that's the only part of the film that's a recreation. You know, in recreation. Some people in documentaries don't like recreations. But I tried to make it so it didn't really stand out. So it looked like you were really. Felt you were kind of there, you know. But back to your question about what was difficult, it wasn't the shooting, it's more the editing. Because since I edited this myself, I. It was so hard for it to come together. And I. I would go out and film things not knowing where they would go, but I would create, like, index cards with that scene. And I. My office was just. All the walls were covered with these index cards. Cards. And I would just sit there and try to figure, make connections like, oh, this scene could go into this one. And. And it was just that, you know, it took years to actually put that together. And, you know, there's times you think you're really stuck and where's this film going? Then all at once you look at one card that's on one wall and one and the other and you say, oh, yeah, of course, if I put that there, then this, you know, it's like putting together a huge jigsaw puzzle with like 5,000 pieces or something. You know, you think you're missing a piece and all at once you find that one piece and it works.

Yeah, there were two. There's one big story that became a big chunk of the film I had to take out, which was, you know, Herb, who owns the shop, used to. He was the repairman on the UC Berkeley campus back in the 60s. And so he repaired all the typewriters. And that's when Theodore Kaczynski was there, who later became the Unabomber. And Kaczynski was in the engineering department there. And so Herb would repair those typewriters and. And I held the whole angle in this film about technology and where we're going. And. And so there's the whole story of, you know, Kaczynski, you know, he was brilliant and he. But then he became mad and he went to. Became a madman. Went to Montana with a typewriter and typed that manifesto. And then he killed all the people, you know, sending them bombs and stuff. So I had that whole angle and then how. And the FBI had come to Herb shop looking at typewriters and matching font faces and stuff. And then I found an amazing typewriter collector in LA named Steve Soboroff, who collects typewriters of famous people. He's got like John Lennon's typewriter and Ernest Hemingway and all these famous typewriters. Yeah, he has the greatest typewriter collection around.

So Steve Soborough, he. No, he didn't. I didn't. I actually. We filmed him, but it got cut out. But he actually owns the Unabomber's typewriter. So I had this whole thing about the future and people trying to stop technology from moving forward and about Herb, and it was a nice backstory because Herb Story, he also, when he was at Berkeley, you know, during the day, he had a. He had a tie and a nice white shirt on, and he would repair these typewriters for the campus. But in the evening he would go and repair the typewriters of the Black Panthers. So he had this kind of life where he was caught between his button down job and then his, you know, like, believing in a certain cause. And it was very interesting story, but it was. It was about 30 minutes long, and it was too long. I had to cut it out.

Yeah, exactly. Maybe I should make it maybe someday a little one off short or something.

Then I had one other great story about this guy, Douglas Phillips, who's an artist in San Francisco who's really into the craft of letter writing. And he makes these beautiful letters that he types and then he collects. He takes stamps, like old, you know, very valuable stamps. And he actually puts those on his letters because he believes that you shouldn't save stamps in a book, that a stamp was meant to be on a letter. So he sees it as he's sending those stamps on their journey they were always supposed to be on.

Beautiful little story. But it didn't. It didn't fit.

I think it's just like, like vinyl or, or like people who are now discovering, you know, film, like 35 millimeter film and shooting. I think it's just a reaction. One thing is a reaction to another. So, you know, a lot of people are kind of just tired of social networking, the Internet and stuff. And it's a way to withdraw from that, you know, to sit down and type and just be away from all that. So, you know, I don't know, it's like, I think people are fighting, you know, like, especially kids. You know, kids are now huge customers of the typewriter shop, so they're dragging their parents in and asking them for a typewriter. And I think it's. Kids have grown up touching glass. They've, you know, iPhones and iPads, and that's, that's their interaction. And they find it now so cool to actually push down on a key and see a letter created by their own hand. And so I think it's just, you know, just like vinyl. I mean, although vinyl, some people say, you know, the sound is warmer on records than it is on digital. And, you know, like, some people say I'm going to write better on a typewriter than on a computer because I'm going to think about what I'm going to say before I say it. So I think, you know, John Mayer says later in the film that we don't have to get rid of one good thing to just because we embrace something else. It's like, you know, you can live in between. It's like write a book on a typewriter and promote it on Twitter. You know, you can use the spectrum. You don't have to just be one or the other.

Yeah, I agree. I think all good art is done within limitations. So it's like if you were to paint and somebody, you know, and they give you a canvas that's maybe, you know, 11 inches by 11 inches or something, and they say, you know, you can only use these three colors and you can only use 18 brush strokes. That's all you can do. You know, you're going to be really creative working those parameters, whereas if somebody says here, just make a painting, you'll be lost because you won't know where to begin. So I think it's. It's nice to have things that. Although I don't know if that relates to what you're saying about the typewriter, but, but. But to have, you know, have a set of parameters or. Or to make things a little bit more difficult for you, because when they are difficult, then you'll. Then your creativity will blossom and it totally relates.

I think when things get too easy in life, then we slough off and then we aren't razor sharp with our ideas. You know what I mean? It's like, I think things are better when they require some effort.

He's got. Yeah, for him, he has a typewriter set up with a piece of paper in it.

And so he'll just, you know, it's Sitting there and it's always on. You don't have to go up to it. And, you know, like, if you want to, if you have an idea, right, and you're just on your iPad or iPhone, you still got to go over, you know, turn it on, open up, you're going to open Twitter, you know. Exactly. All this stuff is going to stop you from. You've got an idea. Whereas if the typewriter is there, you just go over and you start typing and it's. And it sits there and then, you know, you can just continue on. And I think even like McCullough, when he writes, he writes and it's got mistakes and everything, but then he takes those pages out of the typewriter, takes a pencil and sits and crosses things out and hooks this sentence to that one, and then he goes back and does a second draft, you know, and that's. That kind of. It's almost like you're carving something, you know, like it's a handcrafted thing.

Well, for instance, you know, like, you know, if your handwriting is bad, you know, people can definitely read your type. Written one's better. But you know, what's interesting about a type, you know, like a typewriter compared to type, like, let's say a computer, when you print something out, when you type it, the ink is actually stamped into the paper, right? It's actually ink stamped into the paper. And it will last for thousands of years if you keep it out of the sunlight. Whereas if you print something on your, you know, laser printer or whatever or inkjet printer, that's on top of it, and that will fade after a few years, you know, so there's a permanence to a typewritten page, which is great, but. But again, yeah, you can pick up a pencil and it's the same kind of thing, you know, a typewriter, you know, it's just an. It's another. You know, I think pencils or pens or typewriters, they're all of the analog world, whereas, you know, they're all of the same kind of family where, you know, and I'm sure back, like when people were handwriting stuff and the typewriter came in, everybody was having the same discussion. They were saying, like, oh, those are so impersonal you know, you got to write it by hand, you know.

There is something to be said.

Exactly.

So in a way that, you know, the computer superseded the typewriter. So you know, maybe in, you know, 200 years there'll be some chip in your brain, you'll say, that's going to supersede the computer. You know, you don't need it anymore. Just plug this chip in your head and any, any idea you have will be recorded perfectly. And then we'll be saying, God, don't. It was so nice to have a computer.

Yeah, I mean I, I have like, you know, five Macs and I like, I was in the room when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. You know, I've always been super into high tech and stuff, but, but I, I love typewriters and I love, you know, the beauty of them. And, and, and I, I, I use them all the time. I, I have this one that I used for writing letters and I actually write letters to friends and put, you know, I copied what Douglas Phillips did, which is I went on ebay and I found a bunch of stamps, you know, that are non use. So I have a whole bunch of old stamps. I, you know, and you put enough of those on and then you get up to the postage and send it off. I like that.

They're all different. I mean on one hand you have Tom Hanks, you know, who uses, he's got a lot of them and he uses them every day to write letters to people. And you got John Mayer who's writing all of his lyrics on them. And then you have people who are, you know, I've met at the typewriter conventions and stuff, you know, that I filmed. You just have a whole bunch of Unique people. I mean, like, Cheryl Lowry's into them. I don't think a typewriter user can be so defined, you know, as like, you know, I guess you could say that guy's a vinyl guy. Or I mean, you know, you could say, like, you know, the typical thing is like, it's going to be like a hipster, you know, like with a beard and, you know, something? I don't know, but I don't think that. I don't really think that works. I think I find through this film, I've met so many different people who've come to them for so many different reasons. It's funny. And I met one day I was filming in this guy, this huge guy who's at like, Twitter and Snapchat. He's like one of the head guys over there. You know, he was coming over and getting a typewriter. So, you know that you got tech people who are buying him just because they, they feel burnt out by, you know, tech sometimes and they need to take a break. They need to take a digital sabbath or whatever.

Yeah, she's great, Sylvia. She's a great poet and she's a fixture at so many San Francisco events and things. She comes and sets up her typewriter and does poetry on demand, and people come up to her and tell her something about themselves and she writes them a personal poem. And she's great. I love that whole section of the film with her. It's gets into the kind of mystery of, you know, who, who's operating the typewriter? Is the typewriter pulling the strings? You know, is the typewriter making the author do the work or is it the. Are you. When you operate, doing it, it's like, where do the ideas come from? And that's kind of another theme in the film about creativity and where, where, where, where ideas come from.

Yeah, exactly.

I know in the film we asked Tom Hanks that and he picked his favorite was a Smith Corona silent typewriter, which he likes because it's kind of like, you know, just, it feels, it's easy to push the keys and stuff. I've collected Olympia typewriters that I really like because they're, they're almost like Rolex watches. They're the finest made typewriter. They last forever. And it was funny because after, originally when I filmed John Mayer, he had a brother typewriter. But then he met Tom Hanks not too long after I filmed him. And then Tom said to him, oh, you can't have that brother. You got to get a. Let me send you a good typewriter. So he sent him an Olympia and, and then John got totally hooked on Olympias and so now he's, I think he's got, he must have 10 or 12 Olympias, I'm guessing, but he's totally into those. But my favorite typewriter is in, is an Erica 10 and it has this really beautiful font. And, and actually just the shape of the typewriter is so beautiful. Like the curves on it. It's almost like a, not a Ferrari, but I mean it's just got beauty. You know, this, some of these typewriters were designed as well as cars were designed. I mean the look, the look of them, the curves.

I really like this. Yeah, I like this, this Erica 10. It's really beautiful.

But then I like, I've been collecting, you know, Olympias as well and I like them for the fonts. You know, I try to find ones that have, you know, script font or, or, or the certain fonts that have caps, you know, like, you know, large and small. I think we were talking about that earlier pre air.

Uh huh. Oh yeah. Adlers are beautiful. Yeah, yeah, they're great. But yeah, I'll probably keep, you know, go to Alameda Flea market. That's, that's been a great place to find them.

Yeah, yeah.

Is there one that I don't. Oh yeah, you know.

I. I used to, I used to like. I like these Everest typewriters. These red Everest that were made. They stopped making them in the early 60s. And they're so beautiful though. It's like, it has this like curves of like a Ferrari, like a 1950s or 60s Ferrari. It's really beautiful. Very rare to find them. And they're great. I really like those typewriters a lot. And I like Voss. Voss, they're great. You know, and Olympias and like I said, my Eric I really like. And I have a few old ones, you know, from hanging out with Martin Howard and following him around. I got some really old typewriter. I have the first Smith typewriter and Oliver typewriter. I got all these really, you know, late, like 1890s typewriters too, hanging out, which don't work, you know.

Yeah, he's funny. He's a great guy.

Well, you know, The Smith Corona 50s ones, like Tom Hanks favorite, which is the Smith Corona Silent is a great one. They come in, you know, you can get them in light blue or brown or green or pink. Those are really, really nice typewriters. And Olympias are a little harder. They're more precision. But I think the Smith Corona is a good, good starting one. Royals are great too. You know, a Royal or Smith Corona are the.

Oh yeah, that's great. That's what Hemingway used to use at Royal.

Oh yeah, exactly. Those are great.

Yeah, well, yeah, that typewriter is. I forgot that one. I love the Hermes 3000. That's the one that Sam Shepard uses in the film.

Yeah, that was replaced by the one that Sam Shepard uses. Sam Shepard uses a 1960s version that was like a late 50s one. But, yeah, you know, people are learning the art of typewriter repair. And I think, you know, Ken over at California Typewriter, that's his hope, is that he'll find somebody who will want to walk in an apprentice under him so he can teach them what he knows so that, you know, there are people who still can repair these, because once the guys who know how to fix them are gone, you know, it's going to be kind of tough, you

Exactly.

Yeah. I mean, a great way to do it is you buy one on ebay, you know, that maybe needs a little bit of love. Send it to California Typewriter and let them fix it up. Put a new ribbon on it, tune it up for you, and there you go.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, thanks for having me. Great talking to you guys.

That sounds great. Just line it up and I'll bring my camera down and we'll start production. Perfect.

Sounds great. Yeah.

All right, well, bye, you guys. Nice talking to you.