Songfight! Documentary!

tonetripper · Post by **tonetripper** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 10:02 pm

Spud - awesome!!!!! You and Octothorpe are so on the hit list of interviews!!!!! Yes!!!

JoS - The soundtrack thing as Obscurity has pointed out to me in a PM is prolly gonna be a sidefight or perhaps, with JB's permission, a regular fight with the title of the movie (closer to finalizing after shooting and in the edit suite) possibly going up as a title for one of the week's titles. This would be in keeping with the theme of SF. But I wouldn't be adverse to hearing anything that would be incidental and maybe this would be a great sidefight as the ball gets rolling. Jim you are also on the hit list of potential interviewees.

Voice - Your idea is brilliant. Not one I hadn't thought of mind you, but got a little caught up in other areas to even bring that one back to life. Initially it was to follow various fighters around for a week to see what their lives were like and how they end up at SF. This was only a sketch mind you and wasn't during the same week, but great to hear the idea clarified by you. Thank you!!!! Don't think that you aren't also on the hit list if you desire.

My idea is in the new year to pitch this idea and see if I can get some financial backing to pay for the technical stuff and hopefully for some that get picked to be followed, but that is wishful thinking. I want to use atleast a high quality Beta Cam (hopefully one that does 24P) to achieve that filmic look. But all film styles are welcome. Super 8. Super 16. 35 mil. But film is costly and for the first rough cut with all the footage I can establish it'll be another pitch to find out if whoever wants to back it is serious enough to throw better money to expand the quality. And Jim my plan is to go big or go home. Not point in dicking around. Too worth it in my eyes.

Oh ya and in my Can Con idea Brad Sucks was not mentioned, but he is the reason along with the Hip Cola as to what turned me on to SF.

Cheers.

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 10:22 pm

...dream sequence... a court-room

a songfighter sits in the dock

then suddenly people start stading in the gallery, pointing fingers and shouting accusations:

"Are those even words? [bad] "

"Just when I was thinking that this fight was all above average I heard this one..."

"Hmmmm... Over compressed for sure. A collaboration? The parts don't feel each other. Sorry."

"Recipe for a song Jim will hate: 1 part fuzz guitar, 1 part distorted vocals that can't be understood. Mix poorly. Serves 4. "

(..my reviews from this week BTW..

)

...then in comes the crime solving dog!

starfinger · Post by **starfinger** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 12:16 pm

tonetripper wrote:some time with Starfinger

sorry, i've been out of the loop.
definitely count me in!

-craig

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:33 pm

if you wanna talk to me, i'm open to it, but ...

-bill

Rabid Garfunkel · Post by **Rabid Garfunkel** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:48 pm

I've got no illusions about how interesting I am, Johnny's one dull boy working nights all week and pounding out songs in a mad rush on Sundays, but if you hit the Pacific Northwest, US, I'll show up and contribute whatever you need for the cutting room floor, heh.

erik · Post by **erik** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:52 pm

tonetripper wrote:The soundtrack thing as Obscurity has pointed out to me in a PM is prolly gonna be a sidefight or perhaps, with JB's permission, a regular fight with the title of the movie (closer to finalizing after shooting and in the edit suite) possibly going up as a title for one of the week's titles. This would be in keeping with the theme of SF. But I wouldn't be adverse to hearing anything that would be incidental and maybe this would be a great sidefight as the ball gets rolling.

I think it would make for some great scenes if you had part of the movie be about scoring the movie. Like, put up some video on the web of a scene that needs music, either incidental or an actual song, and then have people sidefight (or optional challenge) that: "Make some music that would complement this scene." And then show how different people chose to attack the idea of writing music for the scene.

Post by **Spud** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 2:01 pm

and then you could do a scene about the making of THAT scene...

Mostess · Post by **Mostess** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 2:03 pm

15-16 puzzle wrote: And then show how different people chose to attack the idea of writing music for the scene.

I'll write the music for that scene.

(UPDATE: Damn you, you quicker-witted Spud!)

c hack · Post by **c hack** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 4:06 pm

tonetripper wrote:]Anyday. You and the family are on the hitlist fo sho!!!!!! So is C. Hack for that matter and Hoblit......

Happy to oblige.

MalachiConstant · Post by **MalachiConstant** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 7:18 pm

tonetripper wrote:
I also would like to open this up to someone state side who shares this vision, maybe Malachi Constant who could maybe direct state side stuff (especially in the south).

I live in Houston, but I'd be happy to drive down to Austin or wherever and do interviews, as long as I had a clear idea of the style and what questions you wanted. I've got a nice Betacam and lights and all that, so it'd look great. If there's travel expenses I could go anywhere down here.

tviyh wrote:i think it would make an awesome movie if you were able to document one week's songfight in the making.

Right on, it'd be like an episode of Junkyard Wars, only with music instead of welding.

tonetripper wrote: I want to use atleast a high quality Beta Cam (hopefully one that does 24P) to achieve that filmic look.

There's software you can buy that will help you get that look without using a 24P camera. There's also an easy way to do it that looks good as long as there isn't too much quick motion, we use it every week on our show and it definately makes it look more film-like without costing any extra.

[boring part] In Final Cut Pro you put the same video on two layers, call them "bottom" and "top" . You deinterlace both layers, one of them with odd lines, the other with even lines. Then you set the top layer to 50% opacity. Ta-da! Now render for many hours and you have a decent film-look. [/boring part]

But anyway, I'd definitely be happy to contribute. Now I just need to finish up the SF Live DVDs...

Post by jb » Thu Dec 16, 2004 7:24 pm

MalachiConstant wrote:
tviyh wrote:i think it would make an awesome movie if you were able to document one week's songfight in the making.
Right on, it'd be like an episode of Junkyard Wars, only with music instead of welding.

"Meanwhile, JB is.... watching G4, playing Psi-Ops, and hitting on me. It's beginning to look grim for the JB team, Jay. How's it going in Tampa?"

"Well Sally, seems Hoblit got spritzed with some spooge and had to go to the emergency room for an AIDS test and stitches. Apparently he hit himself on the HEAD trying to, unsuccessfully, dodge the money shot. Ah ha ha ha, that Hoblit. *shakes head* Now let's check in with our Seattle team, who's been following Glenn Case's progress this week. How's it going out there team?"

"Glenn was done on Monday. We've been sitting around watching G4 and playing Psi-Ops for the last five days."

jack · Post by **jack** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 7:34 pm

where's that mojo cat, the one who's all into splicing tape and stuff?

Poor June · Post by **Poor June** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:09 pm

i'd offer to be in this... but usually my life is pretty dull...

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:27 pm

There could even be a part about the life of an - imaginary - brooklyn-based songfighter, and how he suffers each fight he can't participate in, and then, just before total despair sets in, he gets in two sleepless nights to eek out another somewhat weird, obtuse song which draws votes from opposite ends of the spectrum, thereby displaying the bipolar nature of songfight and its inhabitants. or not. I mean, lots of ideas here...

Ever see Spellbound? That's a cool format. All these inspired musicians starting out (some not even inspired, actually), a bunch drop out. A bunch oversleep. A couple keep regular habits, and others are so all over the map. Out of which only a few produce gems. And in the end, of course, there can be only one! Except the voting is questioned. Jack refutes his own win. The first songfight recount occurs. Glenn wins again. Masses bow down. Octothorpe plays the film's opening reception. Hoblit, knowing that Joan Rivers is on holiday, comments on the guest's wardrobe and Narbotic makes a surprise appearance, except no one knows who he is, so the credit is pulled.

jack · Post by **jack** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 9:07 pm

and we all join in for the big chest-slappin conga-line finale of octothorpe's "on my block". and EVERYONE gets a solo.

Tony Asbestos · Post by **Tony Asbestos** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 9:44 pm

I can neither confirm nor deny my participatiion in this event.

tonetripper · Post by **tonetripper** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 11:15 am

MalachiConstant wrote:[boring part] In Final Cut Pro you put the same video on two layers, call them "bottom" and "top" . You deinterlace both layers, one of them with odd lines, the other with even lines. Then you set the top layer to 50% opacity. Ta-da! Now render for many hours and you have a decent film-look. [/boring part]

But anyway, I'd definitely be happy to contribute. Now I just need to finish up the SF Live DVDs...

Cool! Wasn't totally aware of that, but did make me realize that Antarajuat was made with a digi beta and then they did the transfer to 35 and it had awesome results. Good on ya. Sound guy. Don't totally know.

So great!!! Obviously some input..... nice.

We'll have to see what and who gets covered, but there are many options and I think the larger the surface of people the better. So my take is that what I would like to do is to get crews in different places to cover the multitudes of people with a list of standard questions to a list of answers that may marry into a larger understanding of the big guy vs the little guy concept. This means Canada, UK, America, and down under (where all the criminals are

) The creativity and the personality would be more the reason to go into each fighter and to try to find out the answers that might tie things togehter. One idea that would be cool is to keep the answers to some questions to one word responses so that a really cool cut of people answering the same question differently might give a strange feeling of community. And the coming together of this idea such as in an SF Live (which I've never been to). But a year would be the right amount of time to get as many people into it so that the final cut could be slick and everyone could get a piece of the airtime. That means you Bill and PJ.

I would like to shoot everybody for this thing (with a camera that is). The more shots means more to cut with.

I'm also still not opposed to the idea of people with little DV cams or any other medium to shoot whatever mundane, exciting, bash yourself with a hammer kind of shit that would go down with the lives of all of you. Pieces of a larger puzzle that just keeps growing right before our very eyes. So once I can garner the right interest here I'll proceed with other areas to make this thing fly.

Malachi rules!

jack · Post by **jack** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 11:37 am

i hate to be the naysayer but i think one point to consider is that the final result needs to be something compelling and coherant in order to hold the viewers interest. as much as i think it would be nice to include as many people in this project as possible, i'm not sure thats really the best approach.

if i'm watching a movie, or TV show, with a large ensemble cast, it can be difficult to follow the storylines of many different people given a small time span. if there are 50 people featured, it just won't have the impact of say 4-5 people with interesting stories. i don't want to be mentally keeping track of who's who while the movie is going on. i realize that including as many people as possible might be the popular, democratic way to go but i'm not sure it's the right way to go.

i think whoever tackles and ultimately directs this project needs to make some tough choices on who to feature, and i also think we all need to be realistic and tell ourselves maybe we aren't the most interesting folks here. i know i'm not. it doesn't mean that other folks can't have cameos here and there, or be featured in live footage, but the storyline shouldn't devolve into 25 different storys to tell or i'll get bored pretty quick.

i still think it's a cool idea. the ideal way to do this is find a producer type with some depth to their pockets. but it still needs one singular vision, not a consortium of ideas. and that singular vision should not be afraid to make some tough editing calls.

Denyer · Post by **Denyer** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 11:38 am

I've been too lazy to read exactly what this is about, but I could get my ass kicked by a bunch of big black guys if that will be interesting.

Leaf · Post by **Leaf** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 11:54 am

Denyer wrote:I've been too lazy to read exactly what this is about, but I could get my ass kicked by a bunch of big black guys if that will be interesting.

change the word "kicked" to "filled" and you got a deal.

tonetripper · Post by **tonetripper** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 1:24 pm

jack shite wrote:i still think it's a cool idea. the ideal way to do this is find a producer type with some depth to their pockets. but it still needs one singular vision, not a consortium of ideas. and that singular vision should not be afraid to make some tough editing calls.

You are very right about this. I think something that would be primary to the evolution of this (and believe me that this thread was more concocted by me to get some brainstorming happening) is to find out the history which would probably include interviews with Narbotic, JB, and Spud. This I think is fundamental to the process. From here is where I think things can start to flourish.

The people involved, may or may not be interesting, but I still think the notion of having snippits of dialogue from any number of fighters is worth seeing. But you are right, I agree with you, there will be certain people I would, personally, like to cover more than others, but being somewhat new to the site in many respects does put me at a disadvantage cuz I don't really know in depth everyone who has contributed in large amounts to the brilliant concept of Songfight and what that means to the world at large. My first interview, from my perspective, would be JB. If this coincides with his world. Four or Five fighters would be better than a bunch, but if the four or five chosen don't work out completely that narrows down the story development whereas if there was 10 or 12 fighters covered then there would be more options to cut with. The editing room is where a lot of decisions would be made. My feeling is that this could develop into a co-pro with the various countries represented. This is what I would work on. One in England. One in America (maybe two to four) to cover various places). One in Aussieland. Me in Canada and possibly northern states. This is ofcourse concluding that there is interest in the initial stage. New Year Jack me boy. New Year.

Great to hear the enthusiasm. Especially about the crime fighting dog.

Leaf · Post by **Leaf** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 1:36 pm

This will be a fantastic project if it gets all the funding... Tone, this could be like a dream come true for you man! Combining all your loves... I disagree that this would "ruin" sf by the way, simply cause I know tons of musicians who know all about it, around, yet I think it takes a special kind of person, with partiular, special resources to pariticpate once, let alone week after week like some people!!

..If you film a ton of people you'll have a ton of options, and everyone has just gotta keep there egos in check (mine's already there dude, but thanks for the token shout out!!) when you (me) wind up on the cutting room floor... the story should not suffer for the egos. PLUS...that extra footage can be used for the DVD bonus features!!!! ...or, if you end up going all out, there could be another little portion of the artist's page where people could link to additional footage, or unseen footage of that artist... so everyone wins. People who fall in love with the new cult film classic of 2006ish will start to explore every aspect of the site... the occasional newbies will crop up, drop a tune and flame war or two and move on... while some incredibly entertaining soul will join up and knock all our socks off.... still seems like a total win win win. Plus, added bonus, you can crash at people's homes and blow the budget your assigned on beer and debauchary... at least, you can do that in B.C...... I suppose I shouldn't speak for everyone else eh?