VV: Memories
Thank you, Mr. Dias, for the sad news of VV's death.
Some say to only remember good of the dead. As I see good in the bad and the dead, so shall I remember VV.
Hold on while I dust off VV's Obit. I know VV preferred his students to think of him as 'Vince baby', but he'll always be 'VV' to me.
Thanks for reminding me of his smiles and laughs, Rob C. Yes, there were times when the guy of the brown leather jacket and green cords would laugh to the point of crying. It was always emotional with VV. Maybe it was a sense of humour, or something else.
Memories...
The mental image I have of VV: WWI German sargent (with spiked helmet) forcing me at gunpoint into No Man's Land and certain death. I sorta forget what my dead father looks like. I'll never forget VV in the Kaiser helmet. I know VV was in the Latvian underground during WWII, but I associate his spirit with the bloodthirsty Huns. I can say that because I'm part Hun.
* I mostly remember the bad times with VV. He was my lord and master in 2nd year film school. The only good times I experienced with VV were after our group showed him our first project. A+ for the group and who edited the film? Little Billy Pocock had entered the VV whirlwind.
* Second project: I get to direct! Billy The Kid enters into a student partnership with someone who got stiffed on his first project and was scared shitless that VV was gonna railroad his ass out of school. Remember the 20 +/- slobs that would get axed every year? 'Black' Jim, as I came to call this new partner, was ten years older than me and a former street gang member from London (UK) since the tender age of 13. He said he liked me because I was insane. So we understood each other. Fellow students seemed to like our flick (if 'all style and no substance' is a compliment...), but VV took the opportunity to ridicule 'Black' Jim and I in front of our classmates in his signature heavy-handed manner. Either we cut it his way, or get a D was the unspoken understanding. A 'D' would mean 'Black' Jim was as good as history. Can you believe Jim actually let me, 'the director', make the decision? Okay, we cut it VV's way. 'Black' Jim was safe for now.
* Third Project(?): The partners had the honour to work with the purest film talent I ever met in my short career. He's from Boston and his name is Doug Westerbeke. Doug shot a docu on the Factory Theatre and the two partners in crime would cut it. Things got outta hand when we videotaped the silent film and tried to book a school video editing suite to video cut (an unprecidented York Film practice at the time). VV's creepy lab assistant, Krista, wouldn't let us video edit and VV backed her up. So, now we were the target for VV's Olympian jibes. VV referred to Doug as a 'Space Cadet' during class. 'Black' Jim or I would be brought up by name in class in a rhetorical style of VV oratory and mocked with impunity. VV had it in for 'Black' Jim, Doug and Billy Bobo. Everybody knew it. Tough shit, right? What could we do? Students remained at film school at VV's pleasure.
* I began building a case against VV and his underling. I casually brushed into Evan Cameron, then head of the film school, and mentioned I may wish to speak with him formally in a week's time regarding a faculty member. In the Evan meeting I presented my case. Two days later 'Black' Jim, Doug, 'Golden Boy' Bill Nahr (the fourth member of the band), and I were summoned to VV's faculty office. There we found VV and Krista with two cheap 1.5 litre bottles of white wine. They literally forced the booze on us (three 20 year olds and 'Black' Jim). The staff wanted to smooth things over. Thanks, Evan. Mission accomplished: taking a drink of that cheap wine meant (1) the heat was off VV, and (2) the boys got a well-earned pass into third year. True story.
What I learned from VV:
1) The archetypes of dominance and submission.
2) To never forget a slight.
3) He who hath the power rules.
4) To speak my truth.
5) To fight for myself and my partners when threatened.
I'm going to think about the old times for a minute.
VV,
You were a most worthy adversary!
Bill Pocock
Some say to only remember good of the dead. As I see good in the bad and the dead, so shall I remember VV.
Hold on while I dust off VV's Obit. I know VV preferred his students to think of him as 'Vince baby', but he'll always be 'VV' to me.
Thanks for reminding me of his smiles and laughs, Rob C. Yes, there were times when the guy of the brown leather jacket and green cords would laugh to the point of crying. It was always emotional with VV. Maybe it was a sense of humour, or something else.
Memories...
The mental image I have of VV: WWI German sargent (with spiked helmet) forcing me at gunpoint into No Man's Land and certain death. I sorta forget what my dead father looks like. I'll never forget VV in the Kaiser helmet. I know VV was in the Latvian underground during WWII, but I associate his spirit with the bloodthirsty Huns. I can say that because I'm part Hun.
* I mostly remember the bad times with VV. He was my lord and master in 2nd year film school. The only good times I experienced with VV were after our group showed him our first project. A+ for the group and who edited the film? Little Billy Pocock had entered the VV whirlwind.
* Second project: I get to direct! Billy The Kid enters into a student partnership with someone who got stiffed on his first project and was scared shitless that VV was gonna railroad his ass out of school. Remember the 20 +/- slobs that would get axed every year? 'Black' Jim, as I came to call this new partner, was ten years older than me and a former street gang member from London (UK) since the tender age of 13. He said he liked me because I was insane. So we understood each other. Fellow students seemed to like our flick (if 'all style and no substance' is a compliment...), but VV took the opportunity to ridicule 'Black' Jim and I in front of our classmates in his signature heavy-handed manner. Either we cut it his way, or get a D was the unspoken understanding. A 'D' would mean 'Black' Jim was as good as history. Can you believe Jim actually let me, 'the director', make the decision? Okay, we cut it VV's way. 'Black' Jim was safe for now.
* Third Project(?): The partners had the honour to work with the purest film talent I ever met in my short career. He's from Boston and his name is Doug Westerbeke. Doug shot a docu on the Factory Theatre and the two partners in crime would cut it. Things got outta hand when we videotaped the silent film and tried to book a school video editing suite to video cut (an unprecidented York Film practice at the time). VV's creepy lab assistant, Krista, wouldn't let us video edit and VV backed her up. So, now we were the target for VV's Olympian jibes. VV referred to Doug as a 'Space Cadet' during class. 'Black' Jim or I would be brought up by name in class in a rhetorical style of VV oratory and mocked with impunity. VV had it in for 'Black' Jim, Doug and Billy Bobo. Everybody knew it. Tough shit, right? What could we do? Students remained at film school at VV's pleasure.
* I began building a case against VV and his underling. I casually brushed into Evan Cameron, then head of the film school, and mentioned I may wish to speak with him formally in a week's time regarding a faculty member. In the Evan meeting I presented my case. Two days later 'Black' Jim, Doug, 'Golden Boy' Bill Nahr (the fourth member of the band), and I were summoned to VV's faculty office. There we found VV and Krista with two cheap 1.5 litre bottles of white wine. They literally forced the booze on us (three 20 year olds and 'Black' Jim). The staff wanted to smooth things over. Thanks, Evan. Mission accomplished: taking a drink of that cheap wine meant (1) the heat was off VV, and (2) the boys got a well-earned pass into third year. True story.
What I learned from VV:
1) The archetypes of dominance and submission.
2) To never forget a slight.
3) He who hath the power rules.
4) To speak my truth.
5) To fight for myself and my partners when threatened.
I'm going to think about the old times for a minute.
VV,
You were a most worthy adversary!
Bill Pocock
posted by Bill Pocock at 4:46:00 p.m.
4 Comments:
Billy:
I promised myself that I would not comment in ANY blog but the demise of "Doo-ble V" is a reason to celebrate, and the one time I feel the need to break the rule, and the silence. I have to contribute my opinion in order to divert any Johnny-come-latelys who seek to lionise him in flowery eulogies. Nay, I strive to vilify him
No longer will he terrorize hapless second year students and drive the sheer love of filmmaking out of them forever. His ruthless paring down of class size ranks right up there with the atrocities of those commited by the ones he fought in The Big One.
It's true that one should not speak ill of the dead but for the life of me I cannot remember one thing about his class that was good. Ding dong, the warlock is dead!
Derek
Hey Mr. Bill,
Must have been a strange passing of another "power figure" - in this case a negative figure (as opposed to the gleaming light of truth and honesty that was Mr. Foster). He was the yin to Mr. Foster's yang (or is it the reverse?).
Don't mean to be flip. I remember vividly your battles with Mr. Vid of Hammy Hamster fame. Maybe, for better or worse, he's a part of you (consoling (yet manly) hand on shoulder as we stare across the smoking ruins of our youth)...Rob struggles to come up with something meaningful to say, instead clears throat and wanders away...
"you guys"
Passed on? A year ago? Who knew? Nobody tells me anything.
I'll confine myself to remarking that the word 'focus' should only be pronounced 'foh-koos' by Sven Nykvist, who wasn't available in the late 80's at York. Still, we coped.
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