The 12th to come and last to leave. Ah, December. Looking like winter again in Bozeman. Though it seems to be confined to the Bridgers and within 5 miles of town.

Finally some truthful advertising in the outdoors. REI and BBDO of Atlanta teamed up to show the real life side of enjoying the outdoors. Weather and not just the sun. We hit a bit of that in Glacier Nat’ Park this weekend. Snowline at 5000 ft, rainforest everywhere below. Took a hike up Avalance Lake and thought about how nice it would be to have a water repellent rain coat.

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LA Times article on the REI adverts  //  LINK

Put an end to adverLIE-ing folks.

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It Might Get Loud //  tonight at the Emerson 8:45  //  an unconventional documentary featuring seminal guitarists demonstrating and discussing their techniques and sources of inspiration. Proudly sponsored by Music Villa.

November 30, 2009

The Extras are here!  The Extras are here!

That’s right all three of my features (Birddog, The Gas Café & Kicking Bird) now have extra features.  Directors commentaries, interviews, and all sorts of other stuff.  A whole new reason to buy your copies before Christmas.  If Ridley Scott can bore the crap out of us with all sorts of new versions of Blade Runner (and it’s not even a very good movie) then I can add extras!   Check them out @ http://www.angryfilmmaker.com/buy.php

Transcription Software?

I am hard at work on my second book, The Angry Filmmaker Survival Guide Part Two:  Sound Conversations With (Un)Sound People and I am wondering if anyone can help me?  I am recording conversations with a lot of friends of mine in the sound world via Skype and I am looking for any kind of software that can transcribe the conversations for me.  I am familiar with Dragon’s Naturally Speaking but that doesn’t seem to fit what I need because on all of these recordings there are two of us speaking.  Does anyone know of any software that is good for transcribing interviews?  Something that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, (free is a great price…), and could do most of the work for me.  I would appreciate any info.

While I was on the road I got to see It Might Get Loud, the documentary on the three guitar players, Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White.  I was not a big fan of any of these guys before I saw the film.  Well the film is terrific and while I still can’t say I am a big fan of Led Zepplin or U2 I can really appreciate all three of these guys.  Three different styles, but three people who love what they do and are pushing their own boundaries.  I’m sure it bombed, there were only 3 people in the theater when I saw it, so check it out on DVD.  Well worth seeing.

Time to plug my book…  I have to do this, I would much rather have you buy this then one of those books by someone who doesn’t make films, or really shitty ones.  You know who you are…

More things from the book:

1. The re-writing never stops… even in the editing room you have to re-write.

4.    Remember, it’s that show of respect that’s really important.  If your cast and crew don’t respect you, and like you, but respect is a bit more important, then they are not going to go that extra mile that is going to make you movie better.

The Angry Filmmaker Survival Guide Part One: Making The Extreme No Budget Film.  It’s full of things to help you make your film.  So why haven’t you bought it!

Go to my site, (www.angryfilmmaker.com) and buy it for a mere $16.95 + $3 S&H.

So buy it already.

Please ask your local libraries to purchase my book.

On most library websites there is a place to suggest books for purchase. Or just send an email.  Here is the information they will need:

The Angry Filmmaker Survival Guide: Making the Extreme No Budget Film
ISBN #: 1-4392-3273-3
Author: Kelley Baker
2009

When asked for the publisher direct them to my website: www.angryfilmmaker.com
(The publisher is BookSurge but I make more money if they buy from me…)

Thank you!

I would really appreciate it if people who have purchased my book could go to Amazon.com and write a review.  Please tell your friends about the book, but don’t let them buy it on Amazon, send them to my site.  I make more money that way.

On to other stuff.

Follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/thekelleybaker) or become a fan on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/The-Angryfilmmaker/88965343075?ref=ts

Don’t forget to check out my tour sponsors, Show Biz Software, (www.showbizsoftware.com), Pollard Design (www.pollarddesign.com), Zoom Creates (www.zoomcreates.com), and Cheezy Flicks (www.cheezyflicks.com ).  If you haven’t checked out their sites and their services, you better.

And I’m welcoming a new Sponsor, Film Slug, (www.filmslug.com) but more about them later…

As always, feel free to link to my site and you can subscribe to my blog.  So what are you waiting for?

Talk later.

Kelley

www.angryfilmmaker.com

(Den Gitarristen zum Bild kann man hier hören.)

Setelah di gala premierkan pada tanggal 15 Agustus , di Los Angeles dan New York, dan sampai sekarang sedang diputar di bioskop-bioskop di Amerika dan Eropa, film dokumenter musik (rock) dengan pendekatan yang unik  IT MIGHT GET LOUD yang dibintangi oleh tiga orang gitaris yang berkarakter dari tiga generasi yang berbeda, Jimmy Page (64),  The Edge (50)  dan Jack White (34)  akhirnya dirilis dalam format DVD dan Blue Ray pada tanggal 22 Desember yang akan datang. Ini tentu berita baik bagi kita di Indonesia, yang nampaknya tak mungkin mengharapkan film ini akan diputar di bioskop-bioskop.

Film dokumenter musik (rock) ini bisa dikatakan unik, karena dibuat berdasarkan pendekatan yang berbeda dibandingkan dengan film-film dokumenter musik (rock) yang pernah dibuat sebelumnya. Film ini tidak berbicara tentang pemujaan terhadap idola atau tentang obat bius yang biasanya dijadikan isu mengenai cerita yang berkaitan dengan musik rock, tapi film ini ingin bicara sesuatu yang lebih dalam, bersifat filosofis, mengapa ketiga orang gitaris ini memilih gitar sebagai media ekspresi mereka. Untuk mendapatkan “inti cerita” yang dimaui, maka sang sutradara memerlukan waktu kurang lebih satu tahun untuk menggali hal-hal yang dalam dari tiga orang gitaris ini.  “Saya melakukan pendekatan pribadi pada ketiganya, dan merekam pembicaraan dalam suasana yang informal dengan masing-masing dari mereka,”  kata Davis  Gugeinheim, sutradara film ini.

Ide awal pembuatan film ini muncul dari Thomas Tull, bos dari Leggendary Pictures yang juga seorang kolektor gitar, dan senang ngejam blues dengan teman-temannya pada saat segangnya. Ialah yang sangat terobsesi mengetahui mengapa ada orang yang begitu mencintai gitar.  Ia kemudian mengontak temannya  Davis Gugeinheim,  sutradara yang baru meraih penghargaan Oscar untuk film “An  Inconvenient Truth” film dokumenter tentang Al Gore mantan wakil Presiden Amerika yang  membahas tentang perubahan iklim global.  “Saya juga melakukan wawancara informal untuk menggali banyak hal dari Al Gore. Dan itulah yang kemudian menjadi bahan penggarapan film  An Inconvinience Truth.  Hal yang sama saya lakukan dalam penggarapan film ini.”

Dipertemukan di soundstage. Betukar visi dan Jamming !!!

Maka dari penggalian ini lahirlah film IT MIGHT GET LOUD, yang selama kurang lebih selama 90 menit,  kita akan di ajak untuk menelusuri tempat-tempat bersejarah dari Jimmy Page,  The Edge dan Jack White. Siapa yang awalnya mempengaruhi mereka, bagaimana mereka menemukan sound gitar mereka, dlsbnya dalam alur cerita yang terpisah, sebelum akhirnya ketiganya di bawa ke Hollywood ( di tiga hotel yang terpisah) untuk kemudian dipertemukan dalam panggung yang tak begitu yang besardi studio Warner Bross.  Mereka saling bertukar pikiran dan ngejam bareng. Semua ini tanpa arahan. Dibiarkan apa adanya, kamera on itu saja. “Saya juga tidak tahu apa yang akan terjadi” ungkap Davis. “Ya karena cara pendekatan dalam membuat film inilah, yang membuat saya mau terlibat dalam penggarapan film ini.” kata Jimmy Page.

Dan bagi anda yang tidak sabar menunggu dirilisnya DVD atau Blue Ray film ini, diinformasikan bahwa mulai tanggal 8 Desember IT MIGHT GET LOUD akan dirilis dalam format I-TUNE secara ekslusif.

]]> http://kenwoode.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/the-rick-rubin-syndrome-or-how-to-re-animate-an-artistic-corpse-pt-1/ Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:55:12 +0000 DMc http://kenwoode.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/the-rick-rubin-syndrome-or-how-to-re-animate-an-artistic-corpse-pt-1/

I have a friend who despises Madonna, hates her with every fiber of her being. She believes that any artistic success Madge has had is due, for the most part, to attaching herself to a successful hot producer and sucking the producer’s young artistic blood, then moving on, like a horrifying Cruella DeVille-like mosquito (to mix the hell out of a metaphor). Patrick Leonard, William Orbit, Nellee Hooper, etc, in my friend’s view, most of Madonna’s success has been linked in varying degrees of success to whomever is “hot” at the moment. And to her credit (and artistic damnation), she’s been pretty great at this sonic cannibalization.

I would contend that Madonna choosing producers that make her “come alive again” artistically is quite a self-reflective and brave talent, akin to male bands picking Rick Rubin to work with. Willfully choosing someone that challenges you is no small feat, choosing to spend time with someone who will knock you off your comfortable pedestal and keep you gloriously uncomfortable.

Which is why artists pick Rick Rubin (and maybe why Madonna should herself one day): he’s a brilliant, back-to-basics producer who somehow has figured out the formula, which seems to be:

1. Have creatively bankrupt band and/or singer rent a house to record in.
2. Have said band and/or singer bring already written songs and play together in a room.
3. Mix said band and/or singer in a way that is a throwback to their original, basic sound.

Which got me thinking. Who are some artists that should be working with certain producers to really shock them into a transcendent album? I humbly submit:

Prince Produced by Jack White

There’s a great intro to the documentary “It Might Get Loud” where Jack White is inexplicable nailing shit to a board on some rural porch. One by one, he attaches two nails, some thick wire, sets an old Coke bottle to pull the wire taught, nails an old, buzzy pickup beneath the nail, plugs that into a cheap little amp, and proceeds to shred a nice little blues lick with a slide. He then looks off camera and says, just like a punk: “Who says you even need a guitar?”

It’s a great moment, and it underlines that Jack White needs to play music. He’s an goddamn artist, and he’d dig up bones if they had an unmatched tonal quality. So here’s the plan:

Give Prince a duffel-bag full of two pairs of pants, a couple of t-shirts, Chuck Taylor high tops, no make-up, and about a dozen do-rags. He and Jack White sequester themselves in a cabin in Northern Minnesota or Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (either one is great), just the two of them. They are given the following instruments and equipment:

• The Jack White assembled guitar from It Might Get Loud (or they make a new one).
• An ancient stand-up bass.
• A plinkly stand-up piano, preferably ripped-off from the local high school (‘cause those things are always wicked out-of-tune).
• A beat-up resonator guitar with a grumpy little vintage amp, like a Pignose.
• One steel drum.
• An old Slingerland jazz kit, with a piccolo snare.
• Any and all Harry Partch instruments they are able to procure.
• A cello.
• One slide.
• A reel-to-reel recorder.

Three months, a wood stove, bonfire pit, groceries, that’s it. No one gets a cell phone. White legal pads. No engineer. Two musicians, one cabin. No Prince “yes-men”. Here’s the final rule: after three months is up, the masters go to Jack. He decides what stays and goes. Prince has to give up control on the final product. He has to let go.

I GUARANTEE YOU this would yield one of Prince’s greatest albums (if he and Jack didn’t kill each other first, which is highly probable), perhaps one of the greatest albums of all time. A Love Supreme-good, Sketches of Spain-good. Hell, Sign O’The Times-good. Then, Prince does a tour where it’s just him onstage with any of the above instruments. He could use Jon Brion-type looping, but it would just be him, onstage, alone with his unmatchable talent and soul.

Just a suggestion. More wacky artistic pairings to come!

(BTW, Jack, I want a co-producer credit when this works. Even if I only fetch propane and bring you guys up S’mores.)

Sometimes you have to look out of your own world and back to a previous one.  One where you discovered things.  Where you learned what it was like to discover.  One where you felt inspired.  Such it felt like to watch “It Might Get Loud” this evening.

The movie sees three guitar virtuosos and three different figures in rock n’ roll history all sit around and talk about their lives in music.  This documentary is well executed and this tries not to be a film review.  Instead, it is interesting that this film brings the viewer to look inwards.  To a time when they first were taken by an art form.  To a time when something mattered so much that you didn’t know if anything else would matter.

The music of Led Zeppelin, U2 and the White Stripes have been instrumental to me in various times of my life.  First hearing Sort of Homecoming, cruising to school listening to Over the Hills And Far Away, and first notes of Jack White’s blues-heavy riffs all meant something to me.  They meant that I loved something.  I listened to all of these in times of personal sole-searching (that is a completely different post perhaps).  But it occurred to me tonight that I could once again be inspired.  That I once again could feel like I had discovered something.

Enough Already…So What’s The Take-Away?

You can learn a lot of things from “It Might Get Loud”.  First of all, work hard.  These three dudes cranked out a ton of content that they poured their sole over.  Second of all, innovate.  If you look at the number of times they changed their styles, learned a new skill (or created a new skill) it is astonishing.  Finally, stay true to yourself.  Watching The Edge perform in these huge venues with U2 was amazing, but then you find him still going back to his roots (the ocean) at the end of the movie where he still crawls through guitar possibilities.  He hasn’t changed, it seems.  Only his bank roll has.

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I’ve listened dutifully to the White Stripes since I caught their puzzling colour-coded act on the Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn back in 2001. Jack and Meg White’s records routinely impress me with their range of ideas in spite of the simplicity of their formula. For me, it represents songwriting stripped to the bone, with every added layer a very deliberate and interesting conscious choice on behalf of Jack, who can blow a song out of the water with the simplest tweak. It’s gratifying to see him in the trailer for “It Might Get Loud”, putting together a makeshift instrument with little more than a Coke bottle and nails.

As a musician, I’m looking forward to seeing these men delve into their approaches to creating not just music, but sounds – the very basic elements of the way a song plays in the head long before it comes out in the performance. It will be equally pleasing to see Jack White match talents with the Edge, as the two men seem to operate on opposite ends of the guitarist spectrum, with Jack’s backyard organic approach seemingly challenging the Edge’s vast array of effects pedals. Then, of course, there’s Jimmy Page, one of the only guitarists on Earth with nothing to prove, a man who is the reason most successful musicians today picked up a guitar in the first place.

I wonder what Page makes of the avenues rock and roll has taken over the last 40 years. It’s a great mix of musicians getting together, each coming from an equidistant point in the succession of their breakthroughs, to talk about why and how they still show love for what they do. Davis Guggenheim is serving as director, best known for the Oscar-winning doc “An Inconvenient Truth”. Really looking forward to this one.

I hate guitar magazines.

I hate almost everything about them. I hate the cover shots of guitarists holding their “axes” like weapons, the same stupid pose every issue. I hate shameless songs the reader can learn to play in every issue (one of which is, inevitably, a Zeppelin or Metallica song). I hate the silly reverence paid to equipment, be it the guitars themselves or the litany of effects being peddled in the advertisements. I hate that some of the guitarists that I enjoy have probably spent some of their youth learning from these rags.

Above all else, I hate that guitar magazines glorify “the guitarist as technician” over the “the guitarist as auteur.” They peddle the idea that learning how to play “Stairway to Heaven” is as simple as copying the notes, or figuring out what guitars and amplifiers Jimmy Page used. The reality, of course, is that rock and roll is as much myth and mystery as it is manpower and machines. That’s why it’s an awful experience to sit through when your local bar band plays “Stairway to Heaven” and why it’s sublime to hear it from the original source – the song doesn’t always sound the same.

Which brings me to It Might Get Loud, the 2009 documentary from An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim which inexplicably didn’t reach Halifax until this weekend (and even then only for two late-night shows). The film’s gimmick is simple: take three of the most distinctive guitarists alive – Jimmy Page, U2’s the Edge and Jack White of The White Stripes/The Raconteurs/The Dead Weather/whatever he comes up with next – and have a “summit” where they get to talk about the electric guitar with each other.

The funny thing about the movie is that the summit is almost completely underwhelming: they play some of each other’s riffs, talk about a couple of songs but, mostly, don’t have too much to say. (That said, the film-ending performance of the Band’s “The Weight” is easily a highlight.) So instead of focusing too much on the meeting itself, Guggenheim spends most of the film one-on-one with each guitarist, tracing them through their relationship with the instrument over the years.

I was worried that the movie would play like a guitar magazine, focusing more on the clinical than the creative. Thankfully, it’s quite the opposite. It Might Get Loud doesn’t care about how these guitar heroes built their most famous riffs and soundscapes, nor does it give undue reverence to particular pieces of equipment. Instead, it’s about mythologizing a guitarist’s work as something ephemeral, unknowable, mysterious. No matter how much the Edge talks about his pile of effects, or we hear Page talk about the house where Led Zeppelin IV was recorded, the film manages to keep things more than a little bit magical. You leave impressed, but unknowing.

Of the three stars, Jack White’s solo segments are the most compelling because there’s absolutely no way to tell if any of it is remotely true. While Jimmy Page plays elder statesman and the Edge honest broker, White shares screen-time teaching tricks to a representation of his nine-year-old self. He builds a guitar out of scrap wood and string, and then proceeds to ramble on about old records and a band he made when he worked as an upholster. I’m not convinced that any of this was real, or where that thin line between half-truths and semi-fictions was drawn. And I’m not sure I care. The mystery isn’t beside the point; it is the point. (The film even calls attention to its own game at the end, where The Edge points out how silly a couple of the film’s constructed visuals are.)

Leaving the theatre, I wasn’t compelled to head home, pick up the guitar and try to play something by one of the film’s stars. I just wanted to jam on my own. Unlike guitar magazines, It Might Get Loud doesn’t make you believe that you can be Jimmy Page, the Edge or Jack White, and it doesn’t even presume that their secrets are knowable. But it makes you believe that there is great magic in the guitar; magic worth unlocking, in whatever way one sees fit.

Foi divulgada a data de lançamento do tão esperado It Might Get Loud. O longa musical chega aos cinemas a partir de 8 de janeiro.

Pra quem não sabe, o documentário trás Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), The Edge (U2) e Jack White (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather…Chega!) falando sobre suas experiências e técnicas com esse pedacinho de madeira, cordas e cabos, que tantos idolatram.

Sim, acredite: 97 minutos de alguns dos maiores ídolos da guitarra falando sobre…guitarra!

Não tá levando fé? Então, assista ao trailer:

Tudo bem, tudo bem… Eu também não acreditei quando ouvi falar, e confesso que quase chorei quando vi, é emocionante. Agora, estamos todos torcendo para que o documentário seja exibido nos cinemas do brasil.

P.S. Pelo menos no Amazon já é possível comprar antecipadamente o DVD, que sai, oficialmente, dia 22 de Dezembro.

Indiewire and others have the full report of the Documentary Branch Screening Committee’s short list for the Best Documentary Oscar. Only one music film, Soundtrack for a Revolution, made the cut of 15 finalists. (Of these, 5 will soon be voted as Oscar nominees.)

I liked Soundtrack (especially the music) but I really liked some of the other music docs that were not nominated, including Anvil: The Story of Anvil, It Might Get Loud and Afghan Star. Anvil, in particular, has been hailed by many critics as perhaps the best film of the year so its omission in the best doc category is puzzling. (Maybe it will get a best picture nomination?) Following that film’s progress (and even having my company make an investment in its distribution) makes it all the more wrenching. As anyone who has seen the film knows, Anvil is worth rooting for.

But the doc branch mirrors the criticism of the Oscar process itself, where the most popular films get shafted for obscure releases that only the insiders dig. Check out the other docs that were ignored this year, which happen to be a list of the most popular and notable docs of the year:

The September Issue
Tyson
We Live in Public
Capitalism: A Love Story
Collapse
Crude

Maybe the doc division should consider expand to 10 Best Doc contenders too, like the Best Picture category is doing this year.

O documentário de Davis Guggenheim, It might get loud, já tem data de lançamento. O documentário, que mostra como Jimmy Page, The Edge e Jack White se apaixonaram pela guitarra deve ser lançado no dia 8 de janeiro de 2010. Segundo o site da NME, o filme mostra os guitarristas tocando juntos, contando histórias e fazendo o diabo que seja que guitarristas fodões fazem quando se reunem. Dá um confere no trailer.

Out of the 89 films that qualified the Acadamy have narrowed it down to these 15 before narrowing it down further to five for the nominations in 2010.

The Beaches of Agnes – Directed by Agnes Varda
Burma VJ – Directed by Anders Ostergaard
The Cove – Directed by Louie Psihoyos
Every Little Step - Directed by James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo
Facing Ali – Directed by Pete McCormack
Food, Inc. – Directed by Robert Kenner
Garbage Dreams – Directed by Mai Iskander
Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders – Directed by Mark N. Hopkins
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers – Directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
Mugabe and the White African – Directed by Andrew Thompson and Lucy Bailey
Sergio – Directed by Greg Barker
Soundtrack for a Revolution - Directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman
Under Our Skin – Directed by Andy Abrahams Wilson
Valentino The Last Emperor - Directed by Matt Tyrnauer
Which Way Home – Directed by Rebecca Cammisa

There are a few notable omissions – Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, James Toback’s Tyson and Davis Guggenheim’s It Might Get Loud.

Out of the ones that made it my favourite is The Cove. Go see that one if you haven’t already.

What do you think of the 15 picked? Which other great documentaries of this year have been missed?

por que ninguém pensou nisso antes? Jimmy Page, The Edge e Jack White em um documentário sobre música e guitarras…

Sonntagabend. Wunderbärchen lässt das Wochenende ausklingen. Nach sportlichen Aktivitäten am Samstagabend mit der Wii-Konsole und viel gutem Wein, hats heute nachgedoppelt mit einem Intensivtraining beim “Realsport”! Die (nichtvorhandene!) Schnitzeljagd läuft demnach hochtourig! Der Sonnabend soll deshalb mit einem richtigen Schnitzel gekrönt werden! Aber nicht vergessen: It Might Get Loud. Wer das Wunderbärchen heute, kurz vor dem neuen Wochenstart noch treffen möchte, solls doch im Kino versuchen. Die Aufmerksamkeit auf sich zu lenken, wird wahrscheinlich ein sehr schwieriges Unterfangen, da die heutigen Leinwandhelden das Wunderbärchen total in den Bann ziehen werden.

Der geplante Wochenendausklang soll den Samstagabend in seiner gesamten Stimmung übertreffen, was dem Wunderbärchen bestimmt leicht fallen wird, hat es doch endlich genug geschlafen. Fit wie ein Pommfritt? >Oder fällt es gleich vom Fleisch??!

If you’re in New York for Halloween, here are some events where you’ll find originally hip people doing originally hip things. In other words, this ain’t your Williamsburg Halloween party. Oh, and did we mention they’re all cheaper than a pair of pants from American Apparel?

Justin Bond at Joe’s Pub – “Justin Bond is Scary, Mary!! A Halloween extravaganza!”
From the website: “Tonight we celebrate Persephone-Queen of the Underworld, a fair young thing who went out one day to pick some flowers and ended up the sex slave of SATAN!” Expect fabulousness.

The Renaldo the Ensemble at The Living Room – CD Release party and concert (photo)
The self-described absurdist collective  celebrates the release of their new album Why Are You? (It’s great, by the way.) The Renaldo takes the stage around 11 p.m., but if you get there early, you can enjoy performances by members of the Uke Salon. Never heard of the cult-like Uke Salon? Check out my “Uke Odyssey” podcast, here.

World/Inferno Friendship Society at the Grand Ballroom, Manhattan Center (with O’Death)
The Bowery takes a huge liability and fire code risk by presenting the annual World/Inferno Hallowmas show. What’s the danger, you ask? Read for yourself: last year I followed the band and their maniacal fans through the Halloween parade and into the Hallowmas ritual concert in Brooklyn. I still haven’t recovered from the mayhem. Word to the wise: do not wear glasses to this event.

The Lily’s Revenge at the HERE Arts Center
A five-hour epic musical extravaganza with a distinct downtown vibe. Playwright Taylor Mac performs, along with 40-plus New York artists. OH note: I sat in on one of the rehearsals. The show is terrific! Hilarious, wacky, smart, poignant. If you don’t see it on Halloween, see it before it closes on November 22. (And look for my article about it in the November issue of the Brooklyn Rail.)

It Might Get Loud at Cinema Village 12th Street
For a (slightly) more subdued evening, see Jack White, The Edge, and Jimmy Page in a documentary about the electric guitar. On 10/31, the film starts at 10:55 p.m.

Essa é a cena inicial do filme: Jack White num ambiente bucólico munido de uma par de pregos, uma garrafa de vidro, um pedaço de madeira, fio metálico e um amplificador improvisa um instrumento e dali tira um som e lança: “quem disse que você precisa comprar uma guitarra?”

No documentário “A Todo Volume” Davis Guggenheim explora as raízes musicais, o início da carreira, as predileções e estilos pessoais dos guitarristas do Led Zepelin, U2 e White Stripes e promove um encontro entre os músicos, com a proposta de falar de guitarras elétricas.

O veterano Jimmy Page chama de “guitarra intervention” o fato de antigos proprietários terem deixado uma guitarra na casa para onde sua família mudou quando jovem. Ainda sem muito conhecimento teórico, Jimmy chegou a se apresentar em um programa de tv fazendo skiffle ( melodias simples e rápidas, popular na década de 50, parecido com rockabilly), e quando o apresentador pergunta se ele pretende ser um astro do rock quando crescer, Jimmy responde que quer ser biólogo. Em outro momento fala da necessidade de “Stairway to Heaven” de uma guitarra de dois braços , uma só para o solo.

The Edge aparece como o mais nerd no que diz respeito a processadores elétricos e o aparato de hardware envolvido. Aos 14 anos fez uma guitarra do zero, do talhar a madeira ao jogo de ímã “Não era a melhor guitarra do mundo, mas funcionava”. O guitarrista volta ao prédio de ciências da escola onde se reunia com os outros integrantes do U2, e fala da composição de “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”.

Jack White coloca um vinil de blues, apenas voz e palmas, e certifica a atitude rock’n roll daquela que classifica como sua “canção preferida”: “um homem contra o mundo”. Jack improvisa, para fazer música é necessário conflito e paixão, como o blues, é o mais artesanal dos três guitarristas. Aparece fazendo solo com os dedos sangrandos numa apresentação do Raconteurs.

O documentário, muito bem executado e editado, permea a história pessoal e cenas do encontro dos três tocando juntos e trocando experiências.  Dá vontade de ficar por ali curtindo por no mínimo mais duas horas.

Want to know what’s starting at the movies this week? Look no further.

Michael Jackson’s This Is It (G)

Only in cinemas for two weeks, this movie takes us behind the scenes of the rehearsals of what would have been Michael Jackson’s final concert, if not for his untimely death. I’m not the greatest Jackson fan, but I can’t deny that there’s a certain curiosity.

The Box (TBA)

Donnie Darko is one of my all time favourite movies. So this new offering from Richard Kelly has got me excited. Cameron Diaz stars in this film that poses the dilema: you are given a box with a button. If you press the button, you will be given 1 million dollars. But someone, somewhere that you don’t know will die. What would you do?

Prime Mover (M)

I don’t know much about this film. It’s an Australian movie with Ben Mendelsohn. Here’s the description:

A diesel charged romance about ambition, pressure, responsibility and the love shared by a man, a woman and his truck.

It Might Get Loud (TBA)

For the hard core guitarists out there, here’s a doco featuring The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Heath Ledger’s final film. This looks visually spectacular.

What are you looking forward to? If you’ve seen any of these movies, is there anything significant in them for Pop Culture Christ?

Broadway Cinema

It Might Get Loud might possibly be the best documentary film I’ve seen in a long time. Not because it professed some profound message or was filled with particularly beautiful imagery, but because it’s subject is so very simple and frankly, so very, very cool.  The premise is totally straight forward; three different musicians and three very different approaches to making music with the one instrument that epitomizes cool, the electric guitar. The musicians profiled are Jack white from The White Stripes / The Raconteurs / The Dead Weather, The Edge of U2, and the Jimmy Page of the mighty Led Zeppelin.

What I liked best about the film and the filmmakers’ chosen subjects are the fact that they all play amplified rock music but in entirely unique ways. The film opens with a short segment of Jack White building a crude stringed instrument from some nails, a board, some wires, a coke bottle and a simple guitar amp and proceeding to play a very good and very dirty blues guitar riff from a single string. This display stands in direct contrast to later in the film when we’re introduced to The Edge playing his guitar out of an amp rack with enough computer equipment to power a space shuttle. And acting as godfather, historian and innovator throughout the film is the legendary Jimmy Page who even takes a minute to walk us through what I would describe as an entire warehouse filled with guitars he’s collected over the years, a staggering sight, I might add.

Aside from getting to see and hear great guitar players do what they do best, we’re also treated to brief histories of each musician’s introduction to and subsequent love affair with their chosen instruments as well as the bands that brought them their fame.  Those stories alone are worth the price of admission but what tipped the scales for me from this being a good film to this being a genuinely great time at the movies, was seeing these artists play their guitars and discuss their paths all together in the same room at the same time. There’s something special about watching human beings passionately doing their best with what they’ve got and these three do just that.

article by Josh Obanion

AULAS DE GUITARRA

Led Zeppelin. U2. White Stripes. Influências: blues, pioneiros do rock. Teoria, dicas práticas, segredos, efeitos. Jam sessions.  Tratar com os senhores Jimmy Page, The Edge e Jack White, nas sessões da Mostra de Cinema de São Paulo que exibem o documentário A Todo Volume (It Might Get Loud, 12 anos ). Ou a partir de 6 de novembro, nos demais cinemas.

• Não é todo dia que a gente pode ver e ouvir o Led tocando “Stairway to Heaven” na tela do cinema! Mesmo que essa clássica balada seja superexposta, e aversão seja do filme “The Song Remains the Same”, vale! Muito!
• Também tem um trecho de Page no The Yardbirds, com “Heart Full of Soul”.
• No filme, The Edge mostra parte de seus segredos: os efeitos que dão aquele som maravilhoso à sua guitarra, ou melhor, à sua coleção de guitarras.
• O guitarrista do U2 praticamente disseca, canal a canal, a intro de “Where the Streets Have No Name”
• Jimmy Page volta a Headlye Grande, mansão onde foi gravada a maior parte do sensacional quarto disco do Led Zeppelin. Mostra como John Bonham tirou aquele sonzão de bateria em “Where the Levee Breaks”.
• No doc, Page, The Edge e Jack tocam juntos algumas músicas, como “I Will Follow”, do U2, “In My Time of Dying”, do Led, e “The Weight”, do guitarrista Robbie Robertson.
• Que pena! Faltou “Seven Nation Army”, maior hit do White Stripes!
• Vem aí um filme sobre os White Stripes. Under Great White Northern Lights. Estreou no festival de Toronto, em setembro de 2009.
• Na madrugada deste domingo pra segunda, o U2be transmite pro globo inteiro o show da turnê 360º, do U2, claro, no Rose Bowl, em Pasadena, CA.

• Site da Sony Classics dos EUA sobre It Might Get Loud.Com trailer e links.
• Site de It Might Get Loud, com o mesmo trailer, fotos, bios, entrevistas.
• Página da Sony Pictures no Brasil sobre o filme.
• Dá para ver A Todo Volume no site The Auteurs, mediante inscrição.
• The Dead Weather, nova banda de Jack White.
• Página da Mostra sobre o filme, com trailer e horários das sessões.

In allen den Wirren der politischen Verhandlungen um den Koalitionsvertrag, zwischen Nicht-Schattenhaushalt und mehr Pflegeversicherung, zwischen dem Warten auf die versprochenen Steuersenkungen und den Personalien – hab ich mir gedacht, ich lenke mich ab und gehe ins Kino.

Weil RocknRoll mehr ist als Exzess, weil Kreativität nicht mal für Jimmy Page vom Himmel geflogen kommt, weil Jack White einfach crazy-wunderbar ist, deswegen also der Tip an die Welt: “It might get loud” will und soll gesehen werden. Vielleicht schon etwas spät von meiner Seite, und wo hat sich der Film so lange versteckt? Aber er läuft noch allerorten ab und an, deswegen hier der Trailer:

Und vielleicht bewegt Musik doch mehr als Politik? Zumindest herrschte nach dem Film andächtiges Schweigen und alle saßen für eine kleine Ewigkeit wie erstarrt in ihren Sitzen, als das Licht schon lange an war.