Steven Sebring: Sometimes my fashion pictures can look a little bit li...

I shot [Dream of Life] all on 16-millimeter, and I just wanted to learn about Patti [Smith].

Steven Sebring

shots dream wanted

The only self-consciousness in the film [Dream of Life] is anyone's natural shyness.

Steven Sebring

consciousness self dream

I think those moments in Patti's [Smith] bedroom really helped the film [Dream of Life] out, and those moments existed because of the trust between us. There isn't any real self-consciousness in the film because we all like each other.

Steven Sebring

real dream thinking

Over 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

editing dream men

We were just hanging out and getting to learn about each other. But I think trust was a really big thing. Patti [Smith] is a good friend, somebody I can talk to.

Steven Sebring

good-friend bigs thinking

We just grew to trust each other [with Patti Smith] more and more over the years. Most of the time I didn't even have a movie camera.

Steven Sebring

grew cameras years

I came up with more money, took all the footage, got a great editor and made this film [Dream of Life]. But I really didn't go into it with the intention of making a movie.

Steven Sebring

editors film dream

It took 12 years to put this film [Dream of Life] together, but it was not until toward the end of those 12 years that I looked at Patti [Smith] and said, "Maybe we should do something with this footage."

Steven Sebring

together dream years

At the beginning I didn't even really think about making a movie [Dream of Life]. I was just thinking of documenting somebody.

Steven Sebring

dream thinking

She let me in during her tour, in London. Her band members - especially Lenny Kaye - were shocked at the fact that I was filming Patti [Smith].

Steven Sebring

london band facts

[Through the making of Dream of Life] I learned about being patient, perseverance, having a dream, a goal. I learned that I can accomplish something despite not knowing anything about it when I begin.

Steven Sebring

perseverance knowing dream

Patti [Smith] was my experiment, to be honest. And the film is what we got out of it. At the end of the day, I learned a lot about how to make a film.

Steven Sebring

honest the-end-of-the-day film

I never went to film school, so I just sort of learned on my own.

Steven Sebring

film-school film school

For me, moving from photography to film was very easy.

Steven Sebring

film photography moving

Fashion has also been a great outlet, and I'd like to do more fashion photography in the future. I also photograph a lot of artists.

Steven Sebring

fashion photography artist

Fashion's been really good to me. It financed Patti Smith: Dream of Life.

Steven Sebring

fashion dream

For me to see the film [Dream of Life] on a big screen - it's pretty extraordinary.

Steven Sebring

film bigs dream

I remember when we were at Sundance, we were in Robert Redford's screening room, and I had never seen the film look so beautiful or sound so great. It was really big and really powerful, and I had a sense of accomplishment in finishing a project like this.

Steven Sebring

accomplishment powerful beautiful

I was making a film [Dream of Life] about Patti [Smith], but I was taking pictures, too.

Steven Sebring

taking-pictures film dream

I just wanted to be Patti's [Smith] messenger and get her word out there.

Steven Sebring

messengers wanted

Sometimes my fashion pictures can look a little bit like documentary style pictures. So having a camera in my hand was normal.