Dunbar filmmaker Patrick Stark is on the cusp of overcoming his fear of singing in public and shooting the climax of his documentary.
Stark said he is poised to sing with U2 onstage at Rogers Arena May 15, the second show on the band’s Vancouver-launched iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE tour. The Hollywood North professional is more accustomed to working behind the camera; he got his training as an assistant director on the X-Files. Since 2009, he has invested nearly $500,000 on One Life No Regrets, a documentary about conquering fear that includes interviews with U2 producers Steve Lillywhite and Daniel Lanois. The title is inspired by U2’s 1991 ballad “One,” the song he hopes to sing with the band.
Stark appealed to the band’s management, resorted to social media and hung posters with the film’s title around the Pacific Coliseum, where the band spent several weeks in top-secret tour production rehearsals.
Then, on May 9, cinematographer Jon Joffin posted on Stark’s Facebook wall: “Patrick I’m in Chambar and Bono and the band just walked in!!!!!” Stark hurried to the restaurant and eventually approached the band’s table.
He said he introduced himself to Bono and explained, “I’m a guinea pig in my own film, facing fear.” He further told the singer how he wants the final scene to be on stage, singing in a packed venue with the biggest band in the world.
“I thought, OK, I’ve done it now,” Stark told the Courier. “Then, half a second later, Bono said, ‘Sure... what are you doing Friday night?’ I said I have two tickets to your show.”
The Irish band, who formed in 1976, has brought smiles to more local faces than just Stark’s. At its last Coliseum rehearsal on May 8, U2 hosted hundreds of Special Olympians, volunteers and relatives. Special Olympics B.C. vice president Christina Hadley said the charity was asked to refrain from commenting, and referred questions to the band’s publicist, who hadn’t responded by press time. U2’s entourage wants the production to be a surprise when the world tour launches May 14 at Rogers Arena.
A teaser video on U2.com indicates a lightbulb figures in the opening of the two-set, no-opening act event. A Montreal company is supplying the latest in LED technology. SACO Technologies executive vice-president Jonathan Labbee told the Courier that U2 was its first customer back in 1997 for the giant LED PopMart tour screen. Labbee delayed a May 11 interview until after the first show, so as not to give away hints.
The band has been using a mobile recording unit to lay tracks for the follow-up to its 13th studio album, Songs of Innocence, given away to all Apple iTunes users last September. But a Point Grey man said there may also be a new video in the works.
Aedis Realty broker Jason Upton was contacted by a Los Angeles production company hoping to use rooms at his 90-year-old house near the University of B.C. Endowment Lands.
“It was made out to be something really low key, something really small, something really basic,” Upton said. “The way they negotiated for the use of the space, because the space is used for filming from time-to-time, it seemed as they were on a budget.”
When the production team showed up April 16, he said one of the producers took him aside and told him the client was U2.
Upton said a red carpet was rolled out on the wood floor of the main floor’s classic dining room, where a small stage had been built for a film production last year. The white ceiling was painted red for the April 17-18 shoot with U2 (later repainted white). Upton said he spotted drummer Larry Mullen Jr. inside and heard unfamiliar songs.
“They had tables set up here, there was catering, lots of people, they had lunch here, all the trucks filled the driveway,” he said. “I don’t know if it was a video as much as it might have been some kind of promotional piece. They didn’t clearly want to tell me too much.”
