Wolfgang Muchow sits beside a yellow submarine suspended over a backyard pool. The 33-year-old is filming a documentary about eccentric neurosurgeon Lonnie Hammargren, and he can hardly believe his luck. When he heard of the former lieutenant governor's plan to hold his own funeral, Muchow knew he had the makings of a good film. "It has everything. I just have to turn the camera on and be there."
After UNLV, Muchow went on to get a graduate degree at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Then Las Vegas — with its rich backdrops and stories such as Hammargren's — called him back. Two years ago he formed PixelVision Productions to realize his dream of being a commercial and documentary filmmaker.
"I have knowledge of this city and training from New York," Muchow says. "I'm working to put those two things together." At times his job is surreal, like when he watched Hammargren be fitted for a death mask in a Tarzan loincloth. "It beats working," he quips.
Still, Muchow has a business to run. "With filmmaking I know what to do," he says. "But when it comes to networking and drumming up new work, that's not something I'm trained in."
The work is coming, though. He's produced music videos and a series of shorts for the Runnin' Rebels. He is in talks with HBO about his documentary on Hammargren, and he recently completed filming documentaries on the Stardust Hotel and Walking Box Ranch. Muchow and partners are launching El Camino International, a branded entertainment production company to develop episodic commercials for local hotels.
Challenging the Expected
A sense of playfulness is evident in
Muchow's work. His company, PixelVision
Productions, takes its name from a
toy camcorder produced by Fisher-Price
in the 1980s. "It was great technology at
the time," he says. "It shoots on an audio
cassette, which is so bizarre, but I think
the raw and gritty image is gorgeous."
More than inspiration, technology is a central part of Muchow's job. "The digital revolution has and is continuing to change the face of this business. Something that was out of reach is now in reach for almost everybody," he says. "It's an exciting time to be a filmmaker."
Muchow, a native Las Vegan, is drawn to the city's history and characters. "People have different thoughts about what this city is. Everyone has a different idea," he says. "I'm interested in trying to distort or play with those stereotypes in my movies."
So he challenges the expected, as he did in his short film Leo Las Vegas, which screened at the CineVegas Film Festival. "I didn't have one shot of the Strip in that film even though it is about a Vegas lounge singer," Muchow says. "Every film about Vegas has a shot of the Strip, and there is more to life here than that.
"I want films to show me a part of life that I didn't know, maybe capture a spirit that will help me feel more optimistic or laugh."
He has found a wealth of such stories in Las Vegas. Hammargren is one example. Muchow offers the recently demolished Stardust, subject of his latest documentaries, as another.
"I always try to have layers in my films. On the top layer is the story of this hotel. Beneath that is the thematic layer of how historical things that are meaningful to people are being discarded," Muchow says. "I'm telling that story through the life and death of the Stardust, through the stories of the people who cared about that hotel."
Student Becomes Teacher
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Muchow credits the UNLV film department,
especially the guidance of professor Francisco
Menendez, with giving him a solid
foundation and encouraging his pursuits. "I went in there really hungry. They gave me a
camera and got me started," Muchow says.
"It was exactly what I needed at the time. It
gave me structure, and I learned a lot about
the art of telling stories."
Now Muchow is doing the same for future filmmakers. He teaches music video and documentary courses in the department. "I really enjoy that, particularly the documentary class," Muchow says. "It forces students to open their eyes to the world around them and the community, to tell stories about it."
As Muchow is talking about the work of a documentary filmmaker, Hammargren enters the backyard to say a plastic cow has slid down a fiberglass moon in a display above his home. Muchow picks up his highdefinition digital camera. "Every day is an adventure," he says, and he returns to work.
— Eric Leake
