The James Franco Art Film Debuted!

Here it is! Proof that I had the immense privilege of working with James Franco!!

Many thanks to reporter Luzzei Tsuji, who not only featured me in the Santa Clarita Local Artist Spotlight, but, in the course of her research for my story, also unearthed all the details of the Franco art film that I hadn’t been able to find until now.

To recap, I got the call to head out to Universal Studios — the Bates Motel, precisely — back in February this year. I knew it was to be an art film, I got to meet James Franco and play my solo rendition of the shower-scene theme for him and did my thing when they were ready for me.. in the Shower… of the Bates Motel… where the original Psycho was shot by Hitchcock… !!

Now, there is finally news on the results of that awesome experience! The “Hitchcock-Inspired Exhibit” — titled Psycho Nacirema — was shown at the London Pace Gallery June 6 through July 27, and

“…all but recreat[ed] the eerie Bates Motel from the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock thriller Psycho, complete with a blood-spattered bathroom.

Franco collaborated with Scottish artist Douglas Gordon, whose own 1993 work, “24 Hour Psycho,” projected a slowed-down version of the Hitchcock classic lasting an entire day. The show consists of five faux hotel rooms, four of which have been drenched in gruesome red paint and outfitted with neon signs and ghostly images of a wig-clad Franco playing the part of victim Marion Crane.

As attendees sign an oversized guest book and move through the macabre setting, projections of Franco acting out scenes from the film appear on the walls, most of which are scrawled with “Psycho” over and over…”

So… where did I end up fitting in the mix? My video was playing on one of the walls of the doomed bathroom with my solo rendition of the Shower Scene theme!

On Newness you can view this 3-minute video detailing Franco’s project. At about the 1:15 mark, look on the back wall of the shot and you’ll catch a glimpse of my fiddle in the video playing against the wall! Also — get this — the music playing in the background of the video is my playing of the Shower Scene theme (in slow motion, though)!
Read Elle’s article, Inside James Franco’s Hitchcock-Inspired London Exhibit, “Psycho Nacirema,” and find this mention of my small part in the action:

…you enter the notorious bathroom where you’ll find a shower red-paint doused curtain printed with Franco’s screaming image. A projection shows a violinist playing Bernard Herrmann’s screechy score from the film.

And here is the article by Viktoria Knoblauh reviewing her visit to Franco’s Bates Motel experience, the original source of two of the photographs featured below.

Enjoy these few photos I snagged from the internet!