Making a film project takes lots and lots and lots of people. From time to time, I’m going to start big up-ing the peeps who make the dream possible. Roxy is an amazing artist and we’ve been collaborating over the last few years. She is a graphic designer, photographer, painter, stunt driver and rapper! (not for real on the last two) She helped out Good Grief, (she made the poster) and also on the GWYM music video (producer, locations). She’s awesome and really should do more work!
She also took the location scout photos from the last blog post.
I’m an avid music fan and as such I’ve always been drawn to music movies. I heard a show on NPR this morning where this guy proclaimed humans need only three things 1) sex, 2) music and 3) gold. Now 1 and 3 are a given, we have to reproduce and we also need a means of exchange, but adding music as a means to our faculty is interesting. I fully adopt this thought although I would also add faith to mix to make it four things humans need. Here are the top 10 music films of all time.
1) Purple Rain
Although Prince’s dramatic acting is suspect, this film is still one of my favorites. His skill as a musician and showman make up for his lack of acting chops and the last scene of the film is classic. The scene at the lake also gets honorable mention.
2) Almost Famous
This film is the granddaddy of music films and would have been #1 if it weren’t for Prince being the star and force behind “Purple Rain”. If Led Zeppelin would have actually been in this film then it may have just beaten out “Purple Rain” notwithstanding the Oscar Win and the force of writer/director Cameron Crowe.
3) Style Wars
This film is important to me because I believe it was the first, if not just simply the best, to capture what hiphop culture is in a non cheesy way. The fact that it’s a documentary helps.
4) Krush Groove
This film is the original almost famous of Hip Hop. It covers the rise of Def Jam. It’s place in the culture is cemented given the real music artists in the film including: LLCOOLJ
5) Fela Kuti – Music is the weapon
Fela Kuti was OG! This documentary explains the myth, the legend and the man.
6) 8 Mile
8 Mile is by far the best narrative film that contains rapping. Ignore all of the raps that place outside of the club however.
7) Beat Street
Classic
Selena
Tragic story but I was quite frankly surprised at J Lo’s acting ability. Big ups!
9) Mo Better Blues
It’s Spike, Denzel and Wesley Snipes. What more needs to be said.
Never. I repeat never write a movie that takes places in the past. This is what countless screenwriters hear everyday and what I heard constantly while at USC. Most of the reasons are valid 1) they cost more, 2) harder to write 3) they are harder to produce and most importantly 4) most do not have to take place in the past. Only set a film in the past if a MAJOR plot point is heavily dependent on it. Take Back to the Future for instance. The major plot point is in the title, you cannot go back to the future if you don’t start out in the past. But once your movie is in the past you are not finished, because you still have to anchor it to an EVENT in the past. In Back to the Future Robert Zemeckis (Trojan alum shout out!) invented the clock tower lightning strike to serve as the past event. Other films use real historical events to add critique to those events or show how those events shape a character or community……….. Just more random madness to remind myself why I wrote my latest in the past!
So yesterday would have been Dilla’s 37th birthday and I know I’m late on this post but I wanted to share this doc anyway because I think it’s interesting. This doc basically argues that Dilla is an evolution of Pete Rock which is interesting because I’ve never thought of him in that light. I did my own little mini tribute to Dilla last night and listened to all the tracks I have of his in my personal collection and Pete’s influence is apparent. The Doc goes on to cover other aspect of Dilla’s life so check it out if you haven’t done so already. RIP J Dilla
Selena