Boyd Tinsley Makes a Film

"This is a film that is not only meant to be seen, it's meant to be experienced." -Boyd Tinsley

Boyd Tinsley rocks the violin on stage with the Dave Matthews Band at the 2005 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

What is the Dave Matthews Band known for? Besides crazy music, crazy concerts and Dave's crazy dancing skills? I’d say Boyd Tinsley, their fanatic electric violin player. Watching him play on stage is like watching a victim of an exorcise. Except in a less sinister way; instead of being satanically controlled by the devil, he is feverishly controlled by his own music. Nonetheless, Tinsley is now bringing his magic to the realms of cinema.

Faces in the Mirror follows a young boy, Ben Fisher, who comes home to bury his deceased father, but on the way he is led into a dream-like revelation. At the bottom of the website’s synapse, Tinsley adds, “This is a film that is not only meant to be seen, it’s meant to be experienced. An experience of music, visuals and emotions. It’s like a dream.”

To me, it sounds like he’s hoping his audience is hella high while viewing.

The trailer is a mish-mosh of short clips from the film and don’t really give any true insight into the basic plotline of the movie, but that isn’t what is really important to Tinsley.

Faces in the Mirror is unique because the plot was developed around the movie score, rather than the usual vice-versa. Members of DMB, including Dave Matthews, Stefan Lessard and Tim Reynolds, along with Shawn Smith, Maktub and The Silent Comedy, performed the score, which was written by Tinsley.

The film was previously shown to a select group of fans at the band’s Gorge caravan last summer. Now, SnagFilms has purchased the movie (along with several other independent films) and plans to release it on various media platforms, including their own website, Hulu. Faces in the Mirror will be released either this summer or upcoming fall. It will be interesting to see how the movie plays out. Dave Matthews and his band have musically integrated themselves into American culture since their birth in 1991, and I am curious to see if Boyd could achieve the same success in this different field of art.

Wishing him the best of luck.

Click here for a sneak peak of the trailer. Click around and explore the website for more information.

And just in case you are unfamiliar with the violin virtuoso, here are some of his greatest onstage accomplishments (Hint: No. 3 is my favorite. "Everyday" is one of my ultimate summer songs).