words//shaun oppedisano

If you hadn’t heard of Danny Perez until recently, you’re probably not alone.  Although this visionary filmmaker has been producing music videos and live visuals for acts like Black Dice, Animal Collective, and Panda Bear for many years, he has done a pretty good job of keeping out of the public eye.  With concrete news of his highly anticipated Animal Collective visual album ODDSAC and its Sundance premiere finally surfacing, the director’s name is beginning to pop up all over the place.  Danny was kind enough to speak to us in what may very well be his first public interview in years.

It’s hard to find any interviews with you online.  Is the elusiveness a choice or is the internet world just ignorant?

It’s been an active choice online and when I do shows with people [Black Dice and Panda Bear], I try to be humble.  Perhaps it’s worked against me, but times will change.

If you search your name up, all you get is a ton of articles about a boxer with your name.  Maybe you should embrace this and claim to be a boxer-turned-filmmaker.

There’s a lot of Danny Perez’s out there.  There’s one that’s a Sasquatch specialist.  I made a bad short film in college about all the Danny’s with a snake and mylar.

Where did you grow up and what was that experience like?

Northern Virginia, just around DC.  I went to an all-guys Catholic high school, which was the worst.  But getting involved in the punk and hardcore scene in DC at the time gave me a certain amount of confident defiance.  With a fiery Latin adolescent temper, I had a lot of fun with the bullies in the hallways.  At that same school they had a TV station and that’s where I got my feet real wet.  But my contributions to the shows during homeroom were also the instigators for a lot of abuse.  Vicious hilarious cycle.  But I did get to do a lot and so that was good.

I read that you met Eric and Aaron [Black Dice] and Dave [Animal Collective] while you were in college.  Do you think you’d be doing anything different in terms of filmmaking if you weren’t around those types of people early on?

I don’t know.  From all these people the most important thing I feel like I’ve gleaned is a real hard work ethic and a constant insistence on moving forward or out of your comfort zone.  That’s what the music does and that’s what I like to do with my various videos across that spectrum.  I am certainly grateful for the time I’ve spent with them over the years and they’ve all been super supportive and given me lots of work, so I imagine not.  As in I wouldn’t have as many outlets as I do for work if it wasn’t for these gigs.

What sort of advice do you have for film school kids?

To just make as much as you can despite your teachers’ or facility’s laziness.  It’s just as important to learn what you don’t like.  Happy accidents can be great and vision-changing.  Have fun.  Don’t stress.  I got caught up in so many expectations and standards in film school that the stress just killed and tainted the whole experience.  Don’t let this stress you out.

What is the process like designing visual projections for Black Dice or Panda Bear?  Do you start with specific songs to develop a visual concept or do you typically just conceive your images based on the songs as a whole?

I usually start with the song, break it down to a loop or rhythm that I like and try to make my own rhythm visually and build it off from there.  Then layers and colors come in and it becomes a matter of how these layers can interact with the beat or song.  It’s kind’ve simple but maybe my sense of rhythm or where things go or evolve has become mutated over the years.

Let’s talk a bit about that Animal Collective visual album.  You made it into Sundance!  How does that feel?

It feels good and weird.  But weird is good too.

It sounds like you’ve been working on this for a few years now.  Is it frustrating to work on a project in spurts over a longer period of time?

Well, I had a lot of other work and tours with Black Dice that broke it up sufficiently, and the band’s schedule only allowed them to work on audio stuff for so much early on.

But ultimately, I think it was successful in its design.  It was meant to be almost a collage with a strained schizophrenic structure that could go back and forth from video to audio.  I didn’t want to edit something that had been scripted and storyboarded out completely ’cause I feel like the editing is such a major component, and a lot of unintentional moments can be sculpted into these random collisions where the tone is something totally different.

So you directed and edited it, right?

Designed, directed, edited.  Yes.

It must feel good to finally have it completed though.

Not completely done, but hopefully I process this feeling before the lights go down in a theater.  I really like ODDSAC and this next stage will be just as new to me as everyone else so it will be exciting.

I’ve read that there are parts of it where the guys from the band act in the film.  Was it a similar process to directing them in the “Who Could Win a Rabbit” video?

Not too different really.  Based on that video and other stuff I had done with them, I had an idea of what their strengths were and who was willing to do what, etc.  This time, Josh the Deakin is heavily featured in a good performance in it and he’s real good.

Were any of the scenes things that you have been working on with the projected visuals before?

Yeah.  A nice way the work has evolved–there are things that started off as Panda Bear visuals, and sometimes I would incorporate some clips from ODDSAC at some Panda Bear shows just to try them out on some big screens and see how they would be with loud sound.

Are there any particularly funny stories from the production of this film?

A little girl kept eating so many cookies and sweets (our fault for supplying them) that she puked all over herself that night and the next day came in a totally different shirt, killing any continuity.  That wasn’t the only thing that killed that scene, but ultimately it didn’t matter as she’s become an abstraction and smile at this point.

Why “ODDSAC”?

When you see it, it’ll make sense.  If not, 65% back.

Do you think you’re gonna have to hide from TMZ and The National Inquirer after the film comes out?

Hell no, that would be undesirable.  But i do have huge LIPS for the Papparazzios.

So you’ve got some music videos, a feature visual album, and Sundance under your belt.  What comes next?

Doing some shows with Panda Bear around Europe in the next year which I’m psyched about cause it’ll be a lot of new stuff.  Going to screen ODDSAC as much as I can in a variety of venues.  Then I have a long format video that I’m gonna need some significant video for.  So I’m crossing my fingers and gritting my teeth.