New Firewall of Sound Trailer!

So excited to finally be able to post the new trailer for my music documentary Firewall of Sound. Enjoy!



Please leave me your comments, either on here or on our Vimeo page!

My Cucalorus 5 (in 5 words or less)

Here are my picks for this year's Cucalorus Film Festival and why they're must-see films, in five words or less.

#1: The Square. Arson, murder, adultery. Australian Fargo.
(11/12, 7:45 PM, Lumina)

#2: Big Fan. Patton Oswalt goes nuts.
(11/12, 10:45 PM, Lumina)

#3: The House of the Devil. Satanists terrify innocent '80s babysitter.
(11/13, 10:45 PM, Lumina)

#4: Americatown. America, abridged. With crazy legs.
(11/13, 4:30 PM, City Stage)

#5: Calvin Marshall. Funny, great soundtrack. Plus baseball.
(11/14, 7:15 PM or 11/15, 10:30 AM, Lumina)

For your consideration, here's all the trailers:

The Trailer Editor for In the Loop Needs a Three-Picture Deal

A lot of movies are released every year in this country, most of which range from mediocre to terrible. But not only does the new political comedy In the Loop look fantastic, the trailer itself is a beautiful cut-and-paste collage of clever references, well-timed critic blurbs, intentional ambiguity, and hey is that the Clockwork Orange music I'm listening to?



Once again, Hollywood has proven that movie trailer + soundtrack from a Kubrick film = better movie trailer. But, unlike 2012, this one might actually deliver the goods.

Thanks to Screengrab.

Firewall of Sound - Official Trailer

I was in the lab all this week, cutting together a short trailer for the upcoming feature-length version of my indie music doc Firewall of Sound. I'd prefer you visited the actual YouTube page, so you could watch it in high-quality, but I've embedded it here for your convenience:



So...what does this mean? Well, I am currently applying for a wide variety of grant money, which will go towards equipment and travel expenses for the film. I have ideas about who I would like to interview and where I would like to go, but all of that is dependent on how much money I will be receiving and who agrees to be a subject in the film. I have been immensely grateful to the people who agreed to be interviewed for the short film, and they will most certainly appear in the feature, some of whom I might contact for follow-ups in the near future. Ideally, I would like to use the feature-length to focus on topics I wasn't able to cover in the short, like bloggers who started their own record labels, the recent trend of bands doing impromptu gigs for blogs like La Blogotheque, and what it means to be a "sellout" in an industry where little to no money can be made off of traditional distribution.

As you can surmise, a lot of this is up in the air, and I hope to have more definite answers to your burning questions in the near future. For now, there's a trailer and a placeholder website, which will only exist long enough for me to modify the blog I made for the film back in '06. Until then, keep checking back and I'll keep you posted on updates.

Hall of Awesome: 5 Movies We're Looking Forward To in '09

1. Watchmen (dir. Zack Snyder)
I don't think I need to explain why this is the most hotly anticipated superhero movie since...well, The Dark Knight. The original graphic novel is one of the most fascinating books ever made, pictorial or otherwise, and while I believe that director Zack Snyder is anything but "visionary," I do believe he is good at faithfully adapting comic books, so this one seems like a pretty good fit. Plus, no big name actors to distract us from all the awesome visual effects. I also have to give Snyder credit for keeping his fans in the loop, with his comprehensive video blog and free stuff on iTunes. Release Date: March 6

2. Coraline (dir. Henry Selick)
Henry Selick is the true genius behind Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and this time, he's teaming up with fantasy writer Neil Gaiman (Stardust, Mirrormask) for this homemade tale of a young girl whisked into a parallel world where everything is the same...yet completely different. Stop-motion animation always gets me excited, and the filmmakers have been gracious enough to provide fans with a slew of footage and featurettes to whet our appetite. Release Date: February 6

3. Up (dir. Pete Docter/Bob Peterson)
As usual, Pixar has kept a tight lid on their latest creation, only recently debuting a trailer (shown below) and plot summary, which looks like it was pulled out of a Chris Van Allsburg short story. If this is half as good as WALL•E, I'll be impressed. Release Date: May 29

4. 9 (dir. Shane Acker)
Animator Shane Acker created a surreal little short back in 2005 called 9, in which a little human-ish creature (kinda like those felt things in LittleBigPlanet) has to defeat a robot bug thing and save the souls of his lost friends...or something. Anyway, it caught the attention of Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Night Watch) who produced a feature-length version, keeping Shane Acker as the director and hiring an all-star cast (including Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly and Jennifer Connelly) to do voicework. We'll see if the intimate little short film can blossom into a multi-million dollar blockbuster, but if the trailer is any indication, it should be quite interesting to watch. Release Date: September 9

5. Duplicity (dir. Tony Gilroy)
Tony Gilroy took everyone by surprise when he suddenly went from "guy who wrote all the Bourne screenplays" to "guy who wrote and directed the Oscar nominated Michael Clayton." Now, he's back with a slightly more comical look at corporate corruption, as Julia Roberts and Clive Owen play ex-spies who decide to double-cross their respective employers (played by Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti) and collect $20 million. Looks like Ocean's Eleven meets The Bourne Identity, and with Gilroy at the helm, I wouldn't want it any other way. Release Date: March 20

"2012" Trailer Actually Kinda Awesome

Let's face it: Roland Emmerich hasn't really had a hit film in a while. He experienced mainstream success with Stargate and Independence Day, hit a snag with the box-office bomb (but still fun to watch) Godzilla, rebounded with The Patriot, then returned to disaster movies with The Day After Tomorrow. (He also did 10,000 B.C., but we don't really need to mention that, do we?) Anyway, his new one 2012 looks a bit too much like The Day After The Day After Tomorrow, but I'm willing to give it a shot, mainly because of its badass teaser trailer:



I'm sure you're wondering, "Devin, what makes this trailer so badass? Freaked-out monk gets devoured by giant tidal wave, that's it. Not sure what all the fuss is about." Really? Well, let me point you over to this:



So, really, I could change the title of this post to just read "Song from 'Shining' Trailer Kinda Awesome," but figured including the "2012" trailer would make it more topical.

Cucalorus Watch '08: The Aftermath

Well, Cucalorus 14 is said and done. Thanks to the recent political sea change, the mood at this year's festival was decidedly chipper and optimistic. As a result, politically charged documentaries like Crawford and Secrecy were skipped in favor of more lighthearted fare, such as Good Dick, a comedy about a young video store employee who becomes obsessed with the girl who stops by and rents nothing but porn, and We Are Wizards, a documentary delving into the wide span of Harry Potter fandom.



The eccentric characters of Chicago were represented in a pair of documentaries, one of whom was present for this year's festivities. Vincent: A Life in Color, directed with an experienced eye by first-time filmmaker Jennifer Burns, follows Vincent P. Falk, who takes breaks during his programming job to dress up in flamboyant suits and dance on the bridges of the Windy City for the benefit of passing tour boats. Burns premiered the film at Cucalorus, and brought Vincent (as well as her editor, Christine Gilliland) with her. Vincent proved to be a fascinating figure, both on film and at the festival. He and Burns frequented many of the films my friends and I did, including Wesley Willis's Joyrides, a doc about a similarly eccentric Chicago figure, albeit with a somewhat more tragic story. Willis achieved modest success for his mathematically-precise artwork, but it was his disjointed and offbeat music (which has appeared in Super Size Me and Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law) that made him a star of the underground rock scene. Directors Chris Bagley and Kim Shively spent equal time focusing on Willis's art and his music, as well as the strange circumstances that turned this sometimes-homeless, borderline-schizophrenic into a household name, until his death in 2003 due to leukemia.

Who's watching Apple?

I'm sure I don't need to remind anybody that the Watchmen trailer just came out and it is, indeed, quite badass. One thing I did notice is that on Apple's page for the HD versions of the trailer, there's a rather amusing error in the cast list: "Laurie Juspeczyk" and "Jon Osterman" are character names, not actor names. Oh, well.

I apologize for not posting as frequently as I used to. A lot of different things have been happening in the last few weeks, and unlike most other bloggers, I don't like writing about my personal life, mainly on the basis that it would probably bore most people to tears. I will say that I have finished a short screenplay I co-wrote with my friend, Stephen Ruiz, and hopefully we might be working on getting it shot before the year is out. We'll see...

Disney Repackages Existing Documentary Footage, Slaps Some Sigur Rós on It, Hopes Nobody Notices

So...I thought the idea behind Walt Disney Pictures' new nature documentary division was that they would be making new nature documentaries, not just taking existing footage from the hit BBC miniseries Planet Earth and editing it down to a feature-length film. Videogum said it best when they hypothesized that it was a shot-for-shot remake, with Vince Vaughn as a polar bear. What truly baffles me is the release date. Does it seriously take Disney so long to edit the show down to 90 minutes that they have to push the release all the way to Spring 2009?

Oh, and the Sigur Rós soundtrack only makes me wish Disney were releasing Heima in theaters instead of this.

"David" Trailer Now Online!

The trailer for my short film debut, David, is now on YouTube! Please enjoy:



The official website for the movie isn't up yet, but it should be by the end of this week. Thanks to everyone who worked on this project! I look forward to sending it to various festivals this summer!!

Gondry's Sweded Be Kind Trailer

In a stroke of inspiration, Michel Gondry decides to remake the trailer for his own movie, Be Kind, Rewind, this time with himself in all the roles. Pretty funny stuff.



Click here for the original trailer.

There Will Be Blood New Trailer

There's been a trailer circulating YouTube for P.T. Anderson's new movie for quite some time, but here's the new, more official-looking trailer that just debuted:



If I wasn't already excited about this movie, I am now. Daniel Day-Lewis looks positively villainous, Paul Dano (of Little Miss Sunshine fame) seems poised to be the next big thing, and an original score by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood? Holy crap!

There Will Be Blood gets unleashed on the unsuspecting masses 11/21.

Be Kind, Rewind Trailer!!

Thanks to Film Ick for the scoop. You can now download the trailer to Michel Gondry's latest flick, Be Kind, Rewind, in which two hapless video store clerks (Jack Black and Mos Def) are forced to stage their own versions of popular movies after Black mistakenly erases all of their videos. The film also features Danny Glover, Mia Farrow, Melonie Diaz, and Sigourney Weaver, not to mention some hilarious send-ups of movies like Driving Miss Daisy, Ghostbusters, RoboCop, and tons more.


How may we be of service? From left to right: Diaz, Black, Def.

Darjeeling Limited trailer!

Wes Anderson is one of the few American filmmakers who can seriously be considered an auteur (others include Fincher, Jonze, Russell, Tarantino, the Coens, and the other Anderson, P.T.), so whenever a new movie of his is announced, it's big news, at least in my book. Well, here's the trailer for his latest endeavor, The Darjeeling Limited, which promises heartfelt comedy, beautiful scenery, and awesome music. Oh, and Owen Wilson. Pretty much everything you've come to expect from Mr. Anderson. Did I mention it was shot in India?

Human Giant Trailer

There is finally a reason to watch MTV again...

See more at thehumangiant.com or just watch the show this Thursday. If you can't wait, you can download the series premiere for free on iTunes!

300 Parody Trailer (PG Version)

After seeing 300 last week, half of my brain wanted to like it because it was incredible visually and had some of the most impressive set designs and fight sequences ever filmed. The other half of my brain wanted to laugh so hard at the terribly forced overacting, the ridiculous plot devices (I'm glad they waited 'till the last minute to reveal the giant hole that Persian messenger was about to be kicked into. If they had shown it in an earlier scene, people might've started saying "I wonder what that's for?"), and the totally unneccessary heavy metal soundtrack. Seriously, it felt like I was watching some YouTube "fan trailer" for the film when that crappy guitar riff started up.

Anyway, I'm thankful someone heard my cries for justice and created this hilarious "PG version" of the 300 trailer. I'll be shouting "This...is CAKE TOWN!" for many months to come, I can guarantee you.

Bee Movie Teaser

Even if the resulting film is total crap, the trailers are some of the funniest, most original ever made. And they don't even have anything to do with the movie.

Here's the second (and newest) teaser, featuring Jerry Seinfeld, Eddie Izzard, and Steven Spielberg:


For you late-comers, here's the first trailer, featuring Seinfeld and Chris Rock.

New Chris Rock Trailer

Chris Rock will be making his return to the big screen with his new film I Think I Love My Wife, directed by himself and featuring a script he collaborated on with comedian extraordinaire Louis C.K., loosely based on the French film Chloe in the Afternoon. If the trailer is any indication, it looks very promising, if not a tad reminiscent of the films of Spike Lee.