Meet the Filmmakers: Heavy Metal Parking Lot

Let’s start this out right with what may be everyone’s favorite clip:

Heavy Metal Parking Lot is a highly addictive short film about heavy metal fans tailgating in the parking lot of the old Capital Centre in Landover, MD, before a Judas Priest concert in 1986. Jeff Krulik and John Heyn are the local filmmakers behind the documentary and have a flair for capturing unique stories in the DC area. Jeff hails from Bowie, MD, and John from Pikesville. I recently had the opportunity to ask Jeff a few questions about the work he and John did on the parking lot series, as well as his own work.

How did the parking lot series come about? Where did the idea come from? (I can’t watch Heavy Metal Parking Lot without having hilarious, late-80s high school flashbacks. Hell yeah.)

Jeff Krulik: Hell yeah! Well, John and I met in 1985 and we immediately hit it off; we shared many of the same sensibilities and interests, and I was duly impressed that he had been a production assistant on John Waters’ Polyester. So we started collaborating and hanging out at the public access community tv studio I was running at age 24 (Metrovision in Southern Prince George’s County–that’s another story).

John came up with the idea to use my professional TV equipment to tape heavy metal fans at the nearby Capital Centre before a concert; it seemed like a no-brainer since that scene was mighty colorful, and even though we weren’t metal fans we knew what was going on from our own concert going experiences.

We both love documentaries and weird American pop sub-culture, so it seemed like a great idea and easy enough to just show up in the parking lot before an upcoming concert, pay admission, wander around and see what we come up with. It could have been any heavy metal juggernaut band rolling through town, but we were very fortunate that we picked a bright Spring Saturday with Judas Priest–their music still holds up 22 years later!

Anyway, we spent two hours in the parking lot, and then went back to my studio to screen the tapes and I immediately came up with the title Heavy Metal Parking Lot. We had a few local DC area screenings, then shelved it in 1990, but tape trading and word of mouth has helped turn it into some sort of cultural touchstone. And we’re very grateful.

I love the quirkiness of the stories on your YouTube channel, Jeff, from “The Legend of Merv Conn” (The King of the Strolling Accordionists) to “The King of Porn” – Ralph Whittington- a retired Library of Congress curator who amassed a monumental porn collection in the home he shared with his mother outside of DC. (Ralph’s 4-inch high heel pump telephone was a nice touch.) Where do you find your stories?

Jeff Krulik: I’ve always been a big fan of weird stuff, ever since I was little. I have no idea how it started, but as a young adult my friends started to refer to me as a Nut Magnet. I always liked that title, and wear it as a badge of honor. I used to love hanging out at magazine stands, and the library periodical room, poring over the oddball selections and being particularly riveted by the classified ads in the back of Field and Stream, Popular Science, wrestling magazines and comic books. I once announced to my parents that I was going to correspond with prisoners who advertised. They flipped out, and needless to say, I didn’t. But I was just always a curious kid, and when I got a camera and could start documenting what inspired me I didn’t miss a beat. And I haven’t stopped.

The Theater Dark short is beautiful and a bit sad (and I happen to work in the now restored Tivoli Theater). It seems that you both have an interest in local culture, and capturing unique personalities and periods of time. I love it because you’re telling stories that we don’t really hear a lot of in DC. (Or at least I don’t: It’s easy to chalk the town up to its bureaucratic side.)

Jeff Krulik: I absolutely love what John did with this; and we immediately clicked over our interest in these fabulous buildings, most gone from DC, MD, VA and beyond. I also made a documentary in the mid80s called Twenty Five Cents Before Noon celebrating the same thing, but John really nailed it with just music, trailers and lovingly shot 16mm film.

What are you working on now?

Jeff Krulik: I always have tape in my camera and I’m rarin’ to go; my shelves are sagging with upcoming projects including Heavy Metal Picnic (a nostalgic look back at Md partying), Billy Luck (a chronicle of local DC livewire Chris ‘SkyPilot’ Earnshaw), Maryland’s Woodstock (charting the rise of concerts before corporations took over, focusing on the Laurel Pop Festival one month before Woodstock), and The Most Famous Stamp in the World (a tribute to my Dad, the stamp collecting of my youth, and the famous upside biplane stamp).

Plus, there’s the never-ending video flotsam and jetsam that will wind its way on to my YouTube channel on an ongoing basis.

Jeff, you mentioned that you are updating your YouTube channel frequently. With more people consuming media online, have you had to change the way you work? Is it easier to reach your audience online? Or just different?

Jeff Krulik: YouTube is sooo easy to do, but it’s incredibly hard to get traction and interest when the online universe seems to be flooded 24/7. The means to create online video is so accessible that anyone can do it. But the competition for eyeballs just keeps getting harder and harder.

I’m curious, how did the Ernest Borgnine road trip and documentary happen? The bus looks fortified – impressive!

Jeff Krulik: Working with Ernest Borgnine was one of the great experiences of my career; we completely hatched the idea in the years right before ‘reality tv’ became a ‘reality!’ Nobody knew what the hell I was talking about, when I pitched it to every network and suit I could. It was originally called ERNEST BORGNINE ON TOUR and we hoped to create a whole tv series. I actually had the Conan people ready to put Andy Richter on the bus, but that would have taken it away from me and our vision. But in hindsight, that might have been a better career move for co-producer Brendan Conway and myself. But you never know.

It started as a dare between Brendan and myself as we sat in our cubicles at Discovery Channel, but a year later we were in Milwaukee on the bus with Ernest Borgnine, driving across the Midwest. It was such a blast; he was in virtual retirement driving his enormous RV (a 40-foot bus he called The Sunbum) and we just tagged along asking him questions about his career and watching him mix it up with civilians. When the tv series idea failed, we at least had enough for an hour documentary called ERNEST BORGNINE ON THE BUS.

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Jeff has been chronicling quirk in the DC area for years. You’ve probably already seen some of Jeff and John’s work before (the parking lot sequels, Neil Diamond Parking Lot, Harry Potter Parking Lot), but if aren’t familiar with their work as individuals or partners, best catch up and support your local filmmakers.
If you can’t get enough, like me, check out:
The Official Site of Heavy Metal Parking Lot
Krulik’s YouTube Channel
JeffKrulik.com

So what say you CreativeDC? Do you have a favorite moment from HMPL?

Tagged as: dc_artists, dc_history, film, interviews, kate_barrett, video