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- I remember just seeing
them all the time.

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Like, who are those guys?

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- They are an anomaly.

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- I don't feel like
they purposely have been

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trying to be mysterious, right?

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- They don't really like look a band.

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They do just look like people

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who've been let out for a day.

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- Has a rockumentary always
been like on the list,

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your tick list, of
things you wanted to do?

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And then how did you know that like Sparks

12
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was the group that you
wanted to push forward with?

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- Not really.

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I think it's sort of like
the other films I've done,

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I don't really have a list
of things I want to do.

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It's more like things start

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to come around by osmosis in a way.

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With a narrative film,

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it's usually something
I've been thinking about

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for a long time.

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In this case, it wasn't something

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that I necessarily thought
about that I should do it

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but I started to say out loud

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that somebody should do it.

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Because I started feel as a Sparks fan,

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having been obsessed with them for decades

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and especially in the last 20 years

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just really impressed by the fact

29
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that they managed to kind
of keep forging forward

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and doing albums that were as inventive

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and ambitious as anything....

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What I mean is,

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I don't want to even say
the word golden period,

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because I think what the
film almost proved is

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that the golden period is still going.

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The stuff now is as
good as the stuff then.

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That was what I kind of
felt as a Sparks fan.

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And then I found myself
in company sort of saying

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somebody should do a
documentary about Sparks.

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Sparks are the greatest,
most influential band

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to not have a documentary about them.

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And so I kept saying it out loud

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and I guess like the Candyman,

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once you say it five
times, you got to do it.

45
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And it was at a Spark's gig in 2017,

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I was in the balcony with Phil Lord.

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And again, I said my spiel about

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somebody's got to make a
documentary about Sparks.

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And Phil said, "You
should make that movie."

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So I was like, "Oh yes, I will."

51
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And then I pitched it to
Ron and Russell that night.

52
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So as soon as I said it out loud to them,

53
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then it was like, without any idea of

54
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how I would finance the movie

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(laughs)

56
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or make it, it was just
like like a vocal contract.

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But a promise that I had made to sparks

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that I would make good on.

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And now three and a half
years later here we are

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- Ron and Russell, whoever
wants to field this.

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So there are certain things
that you guys don't talk

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about in the movie.

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You don't address, you know

64
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and maybe you did talk
about them in interviews

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but how you started playing instruments or

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if you've ever considered packing it in

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or if you guys get in fights,

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you know what I mean?

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And then you even mentioned
at a point in the movie,

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we were worried we gave
away too much, you know?

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How did you sort of know
where to draw your boundaries

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or how much of yourselves
you wanted to show?

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- Well, I think we...

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in a certain way we had some discussions

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with Edgar at the beginning

76
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and because I think something
that is part of the...

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I don't know if it's appeal
or part of the appeal

78
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but it's a factor with
fans at least of sparks

79
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is that even though they want to know,

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they claim to want to know more.

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I think part of the
thing of not knowing more

82
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is maybe kind of alluring too.

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Not knowing every little
nook and cranny of our lives.

84
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And so, we had some discussions
early on with Edgar,

85
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like, Ooh is this going to
be giving away too much?

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Or if you do give away too much

87
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does it kind of lessen

88
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what people who do know
the band might think

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about the band that there
goes the facade or whatever

90
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and Edgar convinced us that no,

91
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that wasn't going to be the case ever.

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And then Edgar did his thing of

93
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choosing what he felt
were the most important

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elements to use in the film,

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obviously, which was a huge decision

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because there was so much footage shot.

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And so what he did choose to keep

98
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and what he chose not to
keep in the final edit,

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you know it it's seem to,

100
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it does tell the entire story

101
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in a way that I think we're
all really happy with.

102
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And so it's a fine line

103
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between kind of telling
the story in a complete way

104
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but also not giving
away certain things too,

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that may still remain in the background.

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And plus we told lots
of, we gave away lots

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of secrets at the very end of the film

108
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and stuff about our seahorse
rehabilitation center

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that we have and things like that.

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So we gave away a lot of the hot items.

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- They're all really good.

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And I believed all of them.

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- Good. Well, you should

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- You took something valuable
out of the documentary

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- Don't reveal the shocking end twist

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it'll be worthy of the crying game.

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Don't reveal that.

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- Right, right, right.

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- So Ron, the movie that you
and Russell wrote "Annette"

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is opening in Cannes,
and I'm kind of wondering

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if you learned, did working
on this project make you learn

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anything for Annette ?

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Do you know what I mean?

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Like, did you go like,
oh, what if we did this?

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Or we should pitch it
this way or whatever?

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- Well, I mean,

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actually we had we'd been
working on it previous

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to actually having Edgar
working on the documentary.

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So, you know, it was kind
of two separate experiences.

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I mean, we had had a couple

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of previous film projects,

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one possibility with Jack Tati

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and we'd worked on that for,
you know, a bit with him.

134
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And then another movie
musical that we had written

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based on a Japanese Manga
called "My psychic girl"

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that Tim Burton had been involved in.

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So, you know, I think we
learned something about that.

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We felt more comfortable
doing narrative film musicals

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than actually doing soundtracks for people

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as just one thing.

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but we didn't learn enough to, to kind of

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say maybe after two failures,

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maybe we should just pack it in on that

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and just do our albums and, you know,

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you know, we feel like we
have some kind of flare

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for incorporating vocal. I
mean, not just in pop music

147
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but just incorporating
vocals into a narrative.

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Even if the narrative is over two hours

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it might not be to everybody's tastes,

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but you know, it is kind of
a method that we've kind of

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it feels really natural to us.

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- Maybe what you've learned
is all this backend stuff.

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Like you're going to be like a really aces

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at a zoom junket now, like
you're going to know it backwards

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and forwards.

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- That I think, yeah, that's true.

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- After today, we've we got it down.

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- Yeah.

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- When we started the documentary

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Annette was kind of like happening,

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but not like definitely
definitely happening.

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And I feel like actually
by the time we finished,

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I was actually then shooting my movie

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during that "Annette" started filming.

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And then when I finished editing my movie

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literally the last bit
of filming that we did.

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And the last time I saw
Ron and Russel in person

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was on the set of Annette

169
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Because as soon as like I
knew Annette was happening

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I was like, we have to go to Brussels.

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We have to shoot on the set of Annette

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because it's the happy ending

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of the B-Plot so we have to be there.

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So there was that,

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So weirdly it's funny now
that like in the summer,

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like both films,

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it's kind of like kismet
that they're coming out

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back to back and you know,
it's perfect in a way.

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And I can say that I've seen
Annette and it is amazing.

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- What is more glamorous rock
and roll life or movie life?

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Because I know neither one
are really that glamorous.

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- We'll let you know,
after the Cannes premiere

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after July 6th, we'll
answer your question.

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(laughing)