“All Things Must Pass” is an interview-style documentary film where the story of the rise and eventual fall of the Tower Records chain of stores is told by the company owner and former employees. The significance that Tower had wasn’t just on a handful of music enthusiasts in California–the company had a much more profound impact on the music industry itself, and that story is told through this film as the now departed Russ Soloman recounts how he found his way in the business.
For me, I found the warm lighting and color choices that were used, almost as if to match the archival footage from the 60s and 70s, to also evoke feelings of warmth and emotion. I grew up in the birth place of Tower Records, Sacramento, and lived there until high school. I’m not entirely sure that people outside of Northern California feel the same tie to these stores that I did, but the scenes during the 1970s of high school students at the Watt Avenue location probably include my parents. I vividly remember going to that store with them in the 1980s and 90s. When I moved to Chico for high school, I spent my lunch breaks browsing CDs at the Tower there with my friends.
This extra wide opening shot of the first Tower Records location in Sacramento establishes a sense of place. We see the large strip mall complex that’s pretty much taken over by Tower and the large parking lot it has, which tells us that’s how busy the location could get. And even though the lot is empty, there’s this warm yellow glow from the inside that makes it feel like the lights are on and someone’s home. It feels like home.
The next shot in the opening sequence is a tighter shot of the red Tower Records sign above the front doors. The sign is pulsing slowly, just like it always did. The camera pans down to the two glass doors covering the entrance, and they’re both propped wide open. The camera begins to move closer to the entrance, and the viewer can see a neon sign that says “classical,” and rows upon rows of empty shelves.
It stops there. Instead of going into the store and seeing the size of it and the rows of empty shelves, we see a cutaway of Russ Soloman’s wallet on his dresser and hear his voice begin telling a story as a woman packs a suitcase. He’s explaining how young people used to collect music, when suddenly, we pan from the dark into the empty record store on what I think must be some kind of slider.
The camera passes through a couple of rows of empty record shelves before it finds our interview subject, Russ Solomon, in what I’d say is a pretty wide shot. He’s sitting in a chair for his interview with his entire body in the frame, inside the Watt Avenue Tower Records store between rows of empty CD shelves labeled “rock/pop.” I couldn’t dream of interviewing someone more in their element. I absolutely love this shot. The slider that they use going into this shot, for me, conveyed a sense of anticipation, and I think for those unfamiliar with the store also helped contextualize the size of the location. The lighting is a combination of natural and unnatural. The natural light coming in from the behind the blinds and the way it hits the light-colored wood, as well as the warmth coming from the sign behind him are all elements that work well here.
Another great idea I picked up on in this film was how to handle visuals when your interview subject is telling a story that took place decades ago. This documentary uses a lot of great old footage, and we should all hope to be so lucky, but another trick they used was showing the scene in modern day, and then matching the frame to a historic photo. In describing how he first got started, Soloman mentions Tower Theater (a historic landmark in Sacramento) and mentions his father had a drug store there. The filmmakers went out and shot a beautiful modern era sequence of the tower theater to show as b-roll while Soloman says all of this, and this sequence ends with this particular shot of the building:
This shot sits on the screen for a couple of seconds and then it switches to this historic one instead:
The impact of doing something like this is it transitions the viewer back in time with the storyteller, who in this case is the interview subject. It’s an interesting way to get around having a lack of old footage too, since it was far more engaging to watch than to just see one or two old photos. This way, you still got a feel for the building and setting but you also got the point that it was important in the 1940s as well.
There were a number of old stills they incorporated in creative ways, and I think it’s worth showing a couple here for inspiration because they present some better-looking options than simply filling the frame with the shot. I also just think they look cool.
You can watch “All Things Must Pass” with a University of Oregon or Multnomah County Library card on Kanopy here.
–Amanda Rhoades
what’s happen to fall of the tower?