Way Out West

Writer, director, photographer, editor, and special visual effects

Side view of T.J. looking through a movie camera on a tripod

Danny Frankel sitting behind a drum set while T.J. sets up the shot through the movie camera

T.J. framing a shot of a cactus through the camera on a tripod

Technical Specs for Alex Dupree – Texas Doesn’t Care/Fortunado (Live)

Film: 16mm
Camera: Arriflex 16BL
Lens: Angenieux 12-120mm T2.5, Zeiss Distagon 8mm T2.2
Film Stock: Kodak Vision3 250D (800′), Svema Astrum IR200 (200′)

Description for Alex Dupree – Texas Doesn’t Care/Fortunado (Live)

Documentary Short. Official selection of the 2026 New Orleans Film Festival, 2026 Yucca Valley Film Festival. Dave Easley and his pedal steel guitar go west to the Joshua Tree desert to record a quartet album of improvised jazz, with Chris Schlarb at the helm as producer.

In a single six-hour session, Dave Easley and three other musicians capture an album’s worth of new improvised music. This recording session was concurrent with and took place in the same remote studio as mixing sessions for vs. Guma, week of March 16-21, 2026.

Photographed in color and with infrared-sensitive film from Svema in Ukraine.

BTS photographs courtesy of Chris Schlarb.

Currently in festivals; video link coming soon

Additional Cast/Crew

Dave Easley – himself
Joe Cunningham – tenor saxophone
Dave Tranchina – double bass
Danny Frankel – drumset
Chris Schlarb – recording, mixing