Need an Editor?
I\'ve just posted my 2010 Editor\'s Reel on my NEWSIGNAL: filmmaking blog. Plus you can continue to follow my monthly photo galleries, this month\'s entitled Lines.
Have a look and consider me for your next editing gig. . .
--D.
Don’t Vote – Wil B. & The Billionaires
The music video I directed and produced for “The Billionaires” last month. This version has not been sanitized for your protection.
To read more about the video you can read this post.
Enjoy. . .
technorati tags:don’t vote, cnn, coffee cart productions, the billionaires, music video, media culture, wil b., positive change, vote
What? Posting TWO weeks in a row? What’s this world coming to?
Yeah, yeah. . . Call it industrious boredom.
Trust me. People are going to going to google this post just to find out what one far-from-industrious-blogger is doing two weeks in a row. And then they will pinch themselves. Like I am now.
Ouch. Stop that.
So I made a music video with John McCain in it. Seriously. . .
Bob McEwen as John "Maverick" McCain
See?
When I say John McCain was in it, I mean a guy by the name of Bob played John McCain. It’s all about nuance. And really, if you take a look at the video, you’ll see just how nuanced it is. Like Marcel Proust only “Maverick-ier”.
But here’s the deal, I am gonna be a real bastard and make you jump to my new blog for the link. Don’t worry, I am not making you jump through hoops with no payoff. It’s just worth doing because I talk a bit about the video. And, I don’t sound like I am drinking.
Before you leave however, I should do some explainin’. I’ve decided at this point, not to abandon Signal>Noise entirely. It still gets hits believe it or not. Even with my industrious-ness-ness (or lack there of). NEWSIGNAL: is a chance for me to be very specific, very focused.
But I got to thinking, what happens if I decide to write a post like this? Something less focused, or talking about something un-related to filmmaking? Yeah. I’ll do that here. It’ll be neat. And keen. And swell.
God, I talk all hip-like. Just like the kids. . .
And finally, I am gonna do YOU a favor. And a favor for a dope filmmaka’ who lent his mad skilz to “Don’t Vote”. His name’s Garrett Brawith and well he did something dope with his time. Garrett directed a music video too. It’s called “Boobie Tassels and Tangerines”.
This one’s sure to get out the vote come November 4th. Click on da rappa to score da goods. . .
So for now, this signal’s here to stay and I’ll be workin’ up some fresh content in the days to come. In the meantime, you can always add the feed for the NEWSIGNAL: when I get around to hookin’ it up. . .
Peace, young ‘uns!
–D.
technorati tags:industrious boredom, newsignal:,coffee cart productions, coffeecartproductions.com, john mccain, bob mcewen, john mccain music video, the billionaires, music video, maverick, dont’ vote, signal>noise, garrett brawith, boobie tassels and tangerines
New Signal Coming Soon. . .
There are a few of you who might still be curious about what this aspiring filmmaker has been up to. Yes, due to a high lack of blogging activity, I can probably count you on one hand. Lately, lack of activity or for that matter, lack of original posts has been due to time spent to a number of pursuits, all of them valuable.
First of all, I have been spending a lot of time dedicated to my association with Unconventional Media, the producer of Need for Speed: Undercover’s filmed interstitials. I wrote in a bit of detail about that work here, and even more insight can be found on my partner’s blog.
Recently, I was approached by “The Billionaires” to direct a music video just in time for election season. In case you don’t know The Billionaires, they are a political satire group that has been around since 2000, and actively calling attention to financial and political corruption of the American democratic process. We have completed that video and are just about ready to unleash it on the world. More to come very soon. . .
In the coming days, my blog will be moving to its new home at:
It will be a more focused blog, and with any luck, I’ll be posting more stuff on it. Things more centered on work, ideas and the development of those ideas. We’ll see what happens. For those of you who do follow me, I hope you’ll drop me a comment to say hello.
Here’s to the future. . .
–D.
technorati tags:unconventional media, new signal,coffee cart productions, coffeecartproductions.com, unconventionalmedia.com, need for speed undercover, unconventional media, the billionaires, music video, new blog
In Memoriam: Paul Newman 1925-2008
“It was one of my life’s proudest achievements. More than the films, more than the awards — finding out that I was on Nixon’s Enemies List meant that I was doing something right.”
Paul Newman
What I Did With My Summer: Need For Speed Undercover
I’ve been out of circulation for a while, a good bit of my time was spent working on what will be a significant portion of the upcoming Need for Speed Undercover. I am not a gamer, and actually this is the first video game that I have ever worked on, but I have to say it was a fantastic opportunity.
Electronic Arts is just starting to reveal both the interstitial work and the game content. It’s clear from what is being shown in the latest trailer, just how close gaming and cinema are coming together. The fact that it has come so close to merging the two mediums, to have been a part of something so new, is very exciting.
I had the great opportunity of working with my friend and colleague Eric Mofford‘s company, Unconventional Media, Director Joseph Hodges, and Cinematographer Jeffrey Seckendorf. As Production Manager, I had the privilege of working a very talented team of film professionals and artists. This was also my very first paid gig as a ghost writer, working on dialogue for the filmed pieces. A very cool opportunity.
Unconventional Media continues looking toward our next opportunities to make a mark on New Media and gaming, but we’re also excited by the press that is coming out of this endeavor. The upcoming issue of American Cinematographer will carry a six page article and Moving Pictures Magazine has recently published this piece.
I have no doubt that when all is revealed (and believe me, those of us who worked on the filmed elements are being surprised every day by what EA is turning out) this project will be the first of what promises to be an exciting beginning to the merging entertainment mediums and technology.
Having been a part of this shift has been exciting, and I for one, can’t wait to see what can be achieved next!
technorati tags:unconventional media, entertainment,gaming, video games, need for speed, filmed interstitials, electronic arts, eric mofford, ea, joseph hodges, jeffrey seckendorf, new media, moving pictures magazine, need for speed undercover
Truthiness to the Bump?
Scientist Finds Truthiness in the ‘Colbert Bump’
by Andrea Thompson of LiveScience.com
posted: 18 April 2008 ET 
With the intense competition between the two contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, pundits have mused over whether Hillary Clinton’s appearance on “The Colbert Report” last night will give the former First Lady a so-called “Colbert bump,” a surge in popularity which the show’s host claims will accrue to any politician that appears on the show.
Stephen Colbert first coined the eponymous term on his show after John Hall won in a close election to become a representative from New York in 2006 after an appearance on the “Report.” Hall defeated incumbent Sue Kelly, who had declined to make an appearance on the show. Colbert himself commented on this after the election:
“And how did he beat Kelly? According to the American Prospect, quote, ‘Her refusal to appear on cable’s popular “The Colbert Report” may have also proved somewhat costly,'” Colbert reported, adding, “Somewhat? All what. She could’ve gotten the ‘Colbert bump,’ instead she got the ‘Colbert dump.'”
Ever since, Colbert’s fans have been touting the powers of “the bump” in blogs, claiming it has boosted support for numerous politicians.
But most of the evidence cited lacks a certain amount of scientific rigor, said James Fowler, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego, and a fan of the show.
“I saw people talking about the ‘Colbert bump’ online, but … [they] took no account of the fact that most of the candidates who agreed to go on the show were running against candidates who really didn’t have a chance of winning. They were very protected,” Fowler said.
So he decided to put Colbert’s claim to a real test.
Recently Salon.com’s Alex Koppelman wrote a fantastic commentary which laments the weekly façade American audiences are served up in the name of “Gordon Ramsay”.
It is certainly easy enough to hold any celebrity or media target responsible for the image that is peddled in their name. It’s also quite easy to point the finger at the Fox Network for cheapening and “schlockifying” Ramsay just as they have done with so many other ideas and people.
Instead, what Koppelman does is point out what is good. . . Really good about Gordon Ramsay, and the individual that represents culinary integrity, passion for craft and a belief in others.
Now only if someone would have the guts to tell this to the Fox Network and Ramsay’s producers.
–D.
In memory of Gordon Ramsay
The host of “Hell’s Kitchen” is a good chef, lost beneath his own shtick.
By Alex Koppelman
April 1, 2008 | Let’s make our purpose clear from the start: This is an elegy for the lost, under-lamented British chef Gordon Ramsay. A paean to the real Ramsay, the chef behind the facade. An ode to the Ramsay who isn’t a total dick.
The new season of Fox’s reality show “Hell’s Kitchen,” starring Ramsay, kicks off Tuesday night. It’s a show that seems deliberately designed to waste Ramsay’s considerable talents both as a chef and as a television personality by having him send inexperienced, talentless cooks through a particularly dull meat grinder. Ramsay and Fox give these poor saps simple kitchen tasks that are obviously way above their skill level, presumably in the hope they’ll fail. And then, joy of joys, Ramsay gets to turn insincerely red-faced and yell. Last season, the producers brought on a particularly tragic character — a fat, slightly dumb man who, nice as he seemed, was clearly not going to survive — who didn’t make it through the first episode before breaking down in tears. It was a good moment for no one. (That man would later be hospitalized, the second hospitalization in two seasons.) The victims — er, contestants — in “Hell’s Kitchen” are just cannon fodder for Ramsay’s temper tantrums, proof that American television sure does know how to destroy everything good and pure.*
Yes, Gordon Ramsay: good and pure. Because the sad thing is that it never had to be this way. Ramsay — the real Ramsay — is no hack. His restaurants worldwide have earned him a combined 12 Michelin stars. (That may not sound like many, but three stars is the highest rating possible, and earning even one is an honor. Lucifer will be burning winged pigs on a bitter night before most of Food Network’s chefs become capable of earning just one star.) Ramsay was a respected chef in Britain well before his introduction to American audiences. He trained under the infamous Marco Pierre White as well as the revered French chefs Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon, and now has more than a dozen restaurants in his portfolio. There is no sugarcoating him: Ramsay was always, long before Fox twisted his personality beyond all recognition, an asshole. But his screaming used to serve a purpose. It used to be a small part of what he did in the kitchen — at least, the parts we saw on television — and it was done for a reason. For motivation, for teaching, for a good old-fashioned kick in the ass when one of his cooks needed it. On British television, that’s mostly still how Ramsay operates. Ramsay is, when he wants to be, a wonderful teacher, someone who is capable of making even the most complicated of techniques instantly comprehensible, even to an inexperienced home cook. But that’s just how the British get to experience him. Perhaps it’s a symbol of how others see the States, and even the low esteem we have for ourselves: The intelligent, nuanced Ramsay goes to the British (who’ve managed to retain an air of sophistication even though so much of their humor is based on a theory that ugly men in dresses are never not funny), but the blowhard Ramsay gets fed to the stupid Americans — we’re given a caricature, a man almost purely evil, who’s cruel just because he can be.
Here in the States, only BBC America shows us a glimpse of the other Ramsay. On “Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares,” the chef has a week to rescue a failing restaurant with hardly a prayer of survival. And if the businesses do make it, all credit goes to Ramsay, who shows occasional flashes of the familiar prick but is also warm, comforting and even helpful. Do not miss the episode in which Ramsay saves a restaurant dubbed Momma Cherri’s Soul Food Shack. The owner and employees of the shack actually seem to like Ramsay, and with good reason — with a little know-how, he turns a restaurant that’s failing but good at heart into a thriving establishment. At one point, owner Charita Jones starts to cry when she realizes she won’t lose her business thanks to Ramsay. I dare you to watch that scene and not tear up. (The episode airs next on April 17 at 6 p.m. EDT.)
By contrast, there’s Fox’s version of the show, “Kitchen Nightmares.” Here, Ramsay pretends to turn poor slobs who couldn’t run a child’s lemonade stand into the next great restaurateurs — all in that same week. It would be a whole lot more entertaining if the people being rescued were actually sympathetic and we could be convinced to root for the doomed restaurants. But then, that’s not the point — why learn something when you can settle for shock value and bargain-basement cheap drama?
Which only makes me long for more episodes of another Ramsay series BBC America carries, “The F Word.” It’s Ramsay’s reinvention: Short clips of Ramsay behaving like a decent human being. We’re introduced to his kids (they’re adorable). He teaches Britons accustomed to reheating crap for their friends and loved ones how to cook. He raises animals — turkeys, pigs, lambs — in his backyard so his children will understand where their dinner comes from, and so he can serve the best possible food to his customers. He makes nice with celebrities. He brings ordinary people to work at one of his restaurants and doesn’t treat them like filth. And he even manages to cook well, to remind us that there’s a reason beyond the temper that the man was famous in the first place.
On YouTube, there’s a video — an excerpt from “The F Word” — of Ramsay cooking a truly beautiful rib-eye steak. It’s food porn at its obscene best. In close-up, we see a soft pat of butter melting on top of a perfectly seared steak that’s been crowned with rosemary. Ramsay gently bastes the steak with even more melted butter from the pan in which the steak’s cooking; the molten fat and beef juices run in sensual little rivulets down the steak. Then Ramsay takes out the steak, looks at us and says, “Just leaaave it to rest.” Suddenly I’m as melted as the butter. (My writing a little too Penthouse Forum for you? Don’t get me started on this video of Ramsay cooking breakfast. Sure, I’m straight, but then I wonder — what would I be willing to do to have Gordon Ramsay serve me those scrambled eggs in bed one morning?) And yet, there’s a hard pit of despair at the bottom of my stomach. Somewhere, I fear, American television executives are watching this same clip and thinking to themselves, “Well, he’s good, but can he make a life-size replica of Eleanor Roosevelt out of an inedible cake? And would it kill him to say ‘E.V.O.O.’ a couple times an episode? Maybe I can sell this anyway, assuming he can pretend he’s really, really angry and potentially violent…”
But Fox seems not to have bothered to check out Ramsay’s British shows in order to see how entertaining he can be. The premiere of the latest season of “Hell’s Kitchen” is unwatchable from early on, when a disembodied voice that would make Vincent Price turn over in his grave announces, “Only three have ever survived the trials of ‘Hell’s Kitchen.’ Now, we are reawakening the beast. And the dark lord reigns again.” And to think — Ramsay acts as if it’s his contestants’ food that’s gag-inducing.
* * * * *
* Also from the “American Television Knowing How To Destroy Everything Good And True” I HIGHLY recommend watching BBC’s hugely successful, hugely funny Top Gear. American TV is about to bung that up next.
** Fox apparently has plans to shaft adapt Simon Pegg’s Spaced. Yes, the British series named by Empire magazine as number 10 of the 50 Greatest Shows of All Time. . . the show created by Shaun of the Dead’s creative team of Pegg and Edgar Wright which featured “Shaun’s” Nick Frost is to be Americanized. Beyond that, it’s Fox’s imminent wisdom that Pegg and Wright should be kept out of it entirely. Oh. McG is behind it. That explains it.
*** Does anybody remember the American version of Coupling? Yeah, lasted 9 episodes. 3.2 stars on the IMDB. Probably a good thing it died as quickly as it did. Do yourself a favor and catch the funny original on BBC America.
—I should say that I am aware of the success of shows like The Office, or even the heritage of “American” classics such as All in the Family and Three’s Company. But shows like that strike me as the exceptions to the rule, each of them imbued with a certain magic, chemistry, or dare I say it, originality which set it apart from its predecessor. I hear creative people in this business ask the question “Have we run out of ideas?” I don’t think we have. Worse yet, I think it is sheer laziness.
But that is just one man’s opinion. . .
technorati tags:gordon ramsay, entertainment, chefs, hell’s kitchen, ramsay’s kitchen nightmares, television, kitchen nightmares, Fox TV, arnold koppelman, commentary, salon.com, food, cooking, reality TV, American adaptations of British television, media, false personas, american television audiences, culinary integrity, passion for craft, the f-word, top gear, top gear usa, spaced, simon pegg, edgar wright, coupling, celebrity chefs
Jules Dassin: 1911-2008
For me one of the most powerful directors of the Noir genre, and also one of the most unsung of all of Hollywood’s directors was Jules Dassin. We lost him Monday at the age of 96.
technorati tags:jules dassin, entertainment,movies, brute force, film noir, film, noir genre, the canterville ghost, the naked city, brute force, thieves’ highway, topkapi, rififi, films of social conscience, HUAC, house un-american activities committee, filmakers, blacklisted filmmakers, criterion collection, Issa Club, story, character, night and the city
Assignment: 15 Film Quotes – Updated with Answers
via Darkneuro, etc.
Pick 15 favorite movies…
Go to IMDB and find a quote for each movie…
Post the representative quotes (NO google, no searches. Please. Takes away the love)…
Fill in the film title once it’s guessed. (In my case, I am hotlinking the films once they are answered properly.)
For my participant’s benefit, I’ve taken a couple of extra steps. A) I’ve kept them to a single speaker, and avoided dialogues entirely, and B) I have tried to make them fairly quotable and not simple random lines.
Note that a couple of these come from movies that have been re-made. Indicate which version for extra credit. . .
Good Luck!
4. “He said war was too important to be left to the generals. When he said that, 50 years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.”
5. “Bob, I want all my Garmonbozia.”
9. “Friends, you shall drip rubies. You’ll soon drip precious rubies. . .”
Two Music Videos by The Mars Volta
I’m sharing two videos by The Mars Volta. They’re often categorized as Progressive Rock, but I will admit to having a love/hate relationship with the term and the genre. So it isn’t often that I will lump a band I like into that genre, despite the fact that I do like some notable bands from the genre.
The first video posted above is The Widow from the band’s second album Frances the Mute. It’s worth posting here for it’s Jodorowski-flavored feel, and the music is first rate. Not everyone will “get” The Volta, but these guys are honestly some of the best out there making music today. It’s challenging music, and I don’t even guarantee that folks who come to like them, will do so right off the bat. But for many, the band’s music will be a revelation.
The video from Televators, off the album De-loused in the Comatorium is a fascinating watch. Definitely on the memorable, if not hypnotic side. Comatorium is the band’s first album and features appearances by The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea and John Frusciante. A landmark first album.
Both of the videos struck me as not only musically interesting, but cinematically so, as well. If you like what you see here, I suggest taking a click over to The Volta’s homepage at Jaamoo.com where you can find some of their live performances.
technorati tags:music videos, entertainment,the mars volta, progressive rock, alejandro jodorowski, the widow, televators, deloused in the comatorium, the red hot chili peppers, flea, john frusciante, video, youtube, jaamoo.com
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