‘Be open to the moment you never expected': How ‘Road Diary' captured Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in full force
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is a melancholic blast.
In the hands of longtime Bruce Springsteen collaborator, director, and editor Thom Zimny, the many compelling, sometimes contrasting shades of the Boss are on full display in the Hulu documentary — the artist and the showman, the poet and the ham, and above all, a lively force grappling with death and the passage of time. Road Diary follows Springsteen and the E Street Band both in the studio and on tour, bringing people together after the pandemic.
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Zimny wanted the story of Springsteen and the band's return to the road — after a six-year break — to unfold naturally. 'I did not come in with a preconceived pitch of 'this documentary will reflect the world,'' Zimny told Gold Derby. 'I took my cues from watching Bruce. In those rehearsals, I saw him craft a setlist that dealt with looking at life and the past and loss and the present moment, being alive in the present moment as much as you can. The show itself was a guiding force in the edit.'
Capturing the scope of any Springsteen and E Street Band show is a tall order. As Springsteen says in the film's opening, he wanted to throw the biggest party he could with this tour. But in under 100 minutes, how does a filmmaker capture all the intense emotions that flow during the Boss' legendary three-hour shows? 'When I'm looking at how to bottle this experience and put it forth in a film,' Zimny said, 'I try to focus on my own personal memories, taking cues from the faces in the crowd and the connection they're having. And with Road Diary, I wanted to make it an emotional film and film it in a way that captured transitions in people's eyes, transitions while they're listening to the music.'
The film also captures Springsteen's evolution from perfectionist to an artist embracing beautiful mistakes. Let the song live how it lives, basically. 'What he said in the documentary, in the spontaneous moment to the band, was that you want to be able to fuck up during the course of the night because it's live,' Zimny said. 'That's what the people are paying for. In that, I find the philosophy that I've held onto in making films with Bruce: come fully prepared, but be open to the moment you never expected.'
For Zimny, his own perfectionism kicks in during post-production, specifically in the sound department. Communicating the thundering sound of a Springsteen show is a delicate process. 'Capturing that quality in the mix was an obsession,' Zimny said. 'You feel the bass in your heart and the drums in your stomach, like you're in the pit. Capturing that gave it the cinematic language of a narrative film. There's not a mix just laid onto a clip — every shot had detailed work on crowd sound and instrument balance. We mix to picture. It's not done casually.'
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is an immediate portrayal of where the band is today — not just how they play, but how they live. Zimny and his team show how they got there, often through archival footage that — in true Springsteen and Zimny fashion — doesn't soften the edges. 'The power of memory is that the flicker and the lack of clarity evoke a romantic feeling,' Zimny said. 'If I cleaned it up and balanced the color, took out some of the video textures, it would take away some of the soul. But each individual clip is looked at closely. How far do you go to clean it up? You've got to listen to that voice inside the edit room when you just go, 'Wow, this really takes me back.''
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