“STILL BILL is an intimate portrait of soul legend Bill Withers, best known for his classics “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Lean On Me,” “Lovely Day,” “Grandma’s Hands,” and “Just the Two of Us.” With his soulful delivery and warm, heartfelt sincerity, Withers has written the songs that have – and always will – resonate deeply within the fabric of our times.”
Hope everyone continues to enjoy their new gifts and holiday time off this upcoming new year’s. For me it’s back to the non-stop Tribe editing grind as we find a way to finish the film for next week’s rough screening. And speaking of “Find a Way”…
(And no, I didn’t sign up for any back-end points, DVD residuals or anything like that when I edited the film. I just sincerely believe that we made something that is truly worthy of your time. Watch it!)
Beautiful Losers
Starring Starring Thomas Campbell, Shepard Fairey, Jo Jackson, Chris Johanson, Margaret Kilgallen, Harmony Korine, Geoff McFetridge, Barry McGee, Mike Mills, Stephen Powers, Ed Templeton, with Cheryl Dunn, Clare Rojas, Aaron Rose and Deanna Templeton
Directed by Aaron Rose
Co-directed by Joshua Leonard
Produced by Rich Lim, Jon Barlow, Chris Green, Noah Khoshbin
Executive Producers Ravi Ann and Jared Moshe
Cinematography by Tobin Yelland
Edited by Lenny Mesina
Original score by Money Mark
Graphic design by Keith Scharwath
My Academy of Art brethren once again making music videos as a team, this time hitting the Vegas strip with Academy Award winning rappers Three 6 Mafia featuring electro maestro Tiësto, crooner Sean Kingston and the chart topping Flo Rida in the party starting clip “Feel It”. Beautifully shot in Sin City by Jessica Young with additional camera work by Kenny Stoff and Sami Ansari, and of course masterfully directed and extremely well edited by a double dipping Rich Newey for Terrero Films. Gotta give it up to a job well done by the old crew!
Beautiful Losers celebrates the spirit behind one of the most influential cultural movements of a generation. In the early 1990’s a loose-knit group of likeminded outsiders found common ground at a little NYC storefront gallery. Rooted in the DIY (do-it-yourself) subcultures of skateboarding, surf, punk, hip hop & graffiti, they made art that reflected the lifestyles they led. Developing their craft with almost no influence from the “establishment” art world, this group, and the subcultures they sprang from, have now become a movement that has been transforming pop culture. Starring a selection of artists who are considered leaders within this culture, Beautiful Losers focuses on the telling of personal stories…speaking to themes of what happens when the outside becomes “in” as it explores the creative ethos connecting these artists and today’s youth.
Over the course of the past five years, Spike Jonze has brought together his (un)usual crew of frequent collaborators, friends old and new, and a kid named Sonny in bringing the Wild Things to life. Meet some of them here from VBS.tv’s Art Talk series:
Production designer and Spike’s right hand man, K.K. Barrett (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Lost in Translation).
In his designs for “Wild Thing” creatures such as Carol, above, Sonny Gerasimonwicz was told to show personalities rather than copy Maurice Sendak’s style. (via the LA Times)
Music video veteran and one of my editing heroes, film editor Eric Zumbrunnen (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation). Click photo below to view Eric’s segment on VBS.tv.
And finally costume designer Casey Storm (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Zodiac). Click photo below to view Casey’s segment on VBS.tv.
Where the Wild Things Are related to more content:
Today I’ll be chumping out a few friends who’s hard work is currently hitting your home entertainment picture tubes as well as the internets.
First up is fellow film editor Avi Youabian and the new ABC hit series he’s one of the editors on, Flash Forward. I’ve seen Avi come up through the ranks of (the now defunct) Brass Knuckles Editorial as an intern in the early 2000’s, where I quickly bestowed the nickname “Aviwood” upon him knowing full well that he’d someday be working in the Hollywood studio system based on his tenacity, hustle, and of course his excitable fast talking style. He then went on to edit the Oscar winning short film West Bank Story in 2005 and a couple of Cold Case and 90210 episodes later he’s on to another hit. Catch up on what you may have missed before his episode of Flash Forward (titled “Black Swan”) premieres two Thursdays from now on October 15th!
Watch Flash Forward Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC or full episodes online at ABC.com.
I figure today is as good a day as any to let you know where my head, heart, and hard work will be for the rest of the year: cutting the documentary on one of my favorite musical groups of all time, A Tribe Called Quest. Following the hip hop history of New Yorkers Q-Tip, Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, the film is directed by the multi-talented Michael Rapaport, produced by State Street and Rival Pictures, and edited by yours truly. As we’re just starting to scratch the surface of the hundreds upon hundreds of hours of footage over at E.M.P./Project Lab’s plush post production facility, I know these next few months will be challenging as all hell. But I can’t help but be jazzed to be a part of this project knowing that we’ll end up with an emotional and entertaining film about one of hip hop’s most influential groups. With dream project #2 a go and before the battle truly begins, it’s time for some “Electric Relaxation”.
Last night I was fortunate enough to take a peek into our future with a screening of Transcendent Man, a brilliant documentary about the genius inventor with an eye for immortality, Ray Kurzweil. Inventor of numerous important inventions including the flatbed scanner, the Kurzweil Reading Machine (which allows blind people to understand written text by having a computer read it to them aloud), the Kurzweil K250 (the electronic keyboard capable of imitating a number of instruments which musicians daily), the K-NFB Reader (which is a pocket sized version of the Reading Machine that collects text through digital camera images), and many more useful tools, Mr. Kurzweil’s latest ideas might also be his worst as his theory of Singularity (exponential growth, radical life expansion, and how we will transcend our biology) is explored in the film. As our technology rapidly advances day by day, Transcendent Man is sure to be an important film today and beyond.
Congratulations on a fascinating feature and major accomplishment to director Barry Ptolemy, my editing heroes Meg Decker and Doobie White, super producers Joe Disanto and John Ramsay, and finishing artist Wren Waters, as well as the entire Therapy crew.
Mr. Kurzweil was also in attendance for an extremely informative Q&A covering biotechnology, the inner workings of the human brain, artificial intelligence, facebook(!), and to take this photo with me of course!
In what was an editorial first for me (a cut playing in a theater that wasn’t actually a film, that is), I had the pleasure of editing the theatrical teaser for Nintendo’s upcoming game The Legendary Starfy with the always impressive Motion Theory crew. And if you went to the movies to see Pixar’sUp, there’s a good chance you know what I’m talking about as our spot played before the film. Directed by Motion Theorists Mathew Cullen and Chris “The Fresh Prince of Previz” Leone, the commercial carries the Speilberg-ian wonder of a kid’s awe as a boy’s grandpa recites an ominous “fish story”. The follow up spot, which is the actual launch for the game, is much more action packed and includes a fisherman (the gramps as a young man perhaps?) in the middle of a Starfy vs. giant squid melee featuring the eye-popping visual effects which have become synonymous with the name Motion Theory. Check out both spots here:
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