Director's statement of《Do it Again》
By. Robert Patton-Spruill

I met Geoff fresh off making a traditional music documentary on rap pioneers Public Enemy. I had access to the group, archival materials never before seen by the public and an endorsement that landed me interviews with famous artists and collaborators. So when Geoff bought me a roast beef sandwich and said he wanted to do something on the Kinks,  the first thing I asked was about the band’s willingness to cooperate. I asked Geoff if he had access? No, he said, before explaining how impossible it would be to make this film. I found that fascinating. Imagine trying to make a traditional music documentary without having any of the tools available to make a traditional music documentary? The answer: To turn the rock doc on its head. 

I took stock what I had: A man who could tell a story with passion and who also had a reputation of getting the "goods" on a story. A reporter. I knew right away, in collaborating with Geoff Edgers, we would be able to demystify these famous musicians and see them as human beings. That would bring the audience closer.
When I asked him why I should care he said, "Because they are the only British Invasion band with all of its original members still alive, and can still play, and we need them." As he was telling me this, I decided this could work, but more as a narrative about a man on a quest to accomplish the impossible, to get the Kinks to "Do it Again".  

In a traditional narrative (and documentary too) you know what you're going to get by simply looking at the poster. We see actors we have seen before in films by directors we have seen before. The audience is immediately connected. With Geoff, we had a different battle. We needed to build a "character" whose quest would resonate with that audience. Our shared experiences did help. Though we hadn’t been friends, we had attended the same high school two decades earlier. We shared the same passion for music, art and story-telling and, in some ways, lead surprisingly similar lives. That made our collaboration natural, deep and intimate. In traditional music documentaries, filmmakers are constrained by convention and commercial breaks.  Here we were able to use new media technology to create this film, from gritty video blog style moments shot on palm sized Flip cameras to traditional interviews using RED Digital cinema shot in ultra high resolution. The editing style, rhythmic, moody and epic, is meant to dramatize the fact that this regular guy is on a not-so-regular journey.