I took pictures of the objects and artifacts that Patti [Smith] would show to her friends because I wanted to document them.
Steven SebringMany of my family members are teachers in the arts, and I picked up the camera years ago, in high school.
Steven SebringA lot of times I had footage that didn't have sound [in the Dream of Life film] - either I didn't bring a sound recorder, or I forgot to turn on the sound recorder - so we would have to improvise and build those scenes.
Steven SebringBecause the filming process was so organic and there was no script, the film [Dream of Life] was literally telling us what it wanted to be in the editing room.
Steven SebringOver time it just got more and more intense as far as the trust factor. For example, when we started editing the film [Dream of Life], I thought, man, I need to make sense of all the footage I have; I need to ground the film. And one day I was hanging out in Patti's [Smith] bedroom, which is where Patti works, and in the corner of her bedroom is this great chair, and that's when she began showing her personal things to me. The camera was there, and we realized that we were really making the movie and making sense of the footage in the movie.
Steven Sebring