Just when I thought there would be a dry period of stories after I graduate1, Thoth gives me a goldmine. I’ve been asked by a recent graduate to co-produce a short film she just received funding for.
This film (tentatively title Undercover) will be the largest production I’ve ever worked on. 26 page script, 8 days of production, RED camera, a budget. It’s sort of the equivalent of shooting an episode of The Office (minus Steve Carell and Jenna Fischer).
In the past it’s been hard to follow the filmmaking process when I’m working on 6 different movies, doing something different each week.
One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. The two men conclude that there’s a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images.
As the movie starts, the kids heckle the black-and-white movie, but are jolted when the movies gruesome killer butchers one of their friends on screen! Caught between the world of reality and the screen’s flickering shadows, these unsuspecting viewers confront their gruesome fate in the locked theater.
Between his tax problems and his legal battle with his wife for the custody of his daughter, these are hard times for the action movie star who finds that even Steven Seagal has pinched a role from him! In JCVD, Jean-Claude Van Damme returns to the country of his birth to seek the peace and tranquility he can no longer enjoy in the United States.
Two teenaged boys exploring an abandoned insane asylum find a naked woman tied to a bed. When it turns out that she’s not dead, the boys must decide whether to release her or give way to the dark thoughts in their minds.
The true-life story of Darby Crash, who founded the Germs and became a Los Angeles punk icon before taking his own life in 1980, provides the background for this gritty musical biopic.
The life of a young, Japanese schoolgirl is destroyed when her family is killed by a Ninja-Yakuza family. Her hand cut off, she replaces it with various machines-of-death and seeks revenge.
An epic comedy about a mine-worker named Power whose love of drums and lack of musical skill has turned him into the ridiculed “air drummer” of his small town. But when Power’s union-leader father calls a strike at the mine, Power discovers an underground subculture of air-drummers who just might hold the key to changing the world..
Soichi Negishi moved to Tokyo to chase his dream of becoming a musician playing stylish, Swedish-style pop. Instead, he finds himself leading the death metal band Detroit Metal City, or DMC, as the costumed and grotesquely made-up “demon emperor” Johannes Krauser II. Although he hates the role and the things he has to do as a member of the band, he has a definite talent for it. Adapted from the hit Japanese comic book by Kiminori Wakasugi.
As the title says, this is a list of movies about music that you’ve probably passed over or never heard of. They all have some sort of cultural relevance, either about the piece of music history they explore or the film itself.
So when you have a free weekend and are wondering what to do, here’s the answer (you can even watch number 1 right now for free). Big thanks to Patrick who helped put this list together.
1) Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987)
Possibly the only movie staring Barbie dolls. Soon after it’s release, Richard Carpenter sued the director, Todd Haynes, for failing to obtain the music licensing from either him or the Carpenters’ label, A&M Records. As a result of the lawsuit, all copies of the film were to be recalled and destroyed - as if that’s actually possible. The highly stylized film has been bootlegged and distributed via the Internet, and for your viewing pleasure, you can watch it in its entirety below.
For a little recap, I got hired as the General Manager of the on-campus TV station. The station was a mess - no consistent schedule, terrible PSAs played between films, lots of equipment that wasn’t allowed to be touched, and no online presence.
So I made the schedule consistent, with movies playing on the quarter hour and getting varied play at different hours.
I made a deal with the Film School to play old student films in between movies.
After months I finally convinced the Director of Student Affairs to restart original programming, and started recording lecturers who came to campus.
Only 6,000 students get the channel while 40,000 attend the school, so online content was a must. I started a YouTube channel and Facebook group to get things going.
I even got funding for a second channel to play documentaries and anticipated student programming.
So when I had to reapply it didn’t really cross my mind that there would be an issue. A new President and cabinet had been elected, so I interviewed with the new Chief-of-Staff.
What she would later call a thorough interview lasted about five minutes and were questions from a form that had gems such as “what’s your weakest trait?” (Giving people more credit than they deserve)
In Student Government world, once you get forwarded by the executive branch (Chief-of-Staff), the Senate Internal Affairs (IA) committee interviews you and forwards you to Senate, where Senate votes
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