Corporate America Rocks
I read about this film in Indie Slate (link is above), not your most mainstream of magazines, but, it's a great story, so here it is, of course, in a nutshell.
About 20 years ago these guys in Denver tried to make some lame music video of their band. So, this film, Corporate America Rocks, is about these same guys, now sort of corporate misfits, who put the band back together and then win a Battle of the Bands. They used their old footage and tons of underused talent in Denver that is left over from their own boom times, mortgaged their houses to the hilt, whipped up tons of enthusiam for filmmaking in Denver, including half the city for some huge Battle of the Bands scene, and now they're on the road with their film. Pretty amazing, huh? There is a ton of underused film talent around here too, but it is becoming more and more utilized and the community is pretty extensive and thriving as it's easier to get a foothold here than in Hollywood. It's nice to see the opportunities spreading out... we don't need to get all our entertainment from Hollywood and all our culture from New York.
Anyway, I love this Dad/corportate wonk band concept. Probably a third of all the Palo Alto bands I know of are Dad's bands and at one time, we were planning some city-wide battle of the Dad's bands (who knew we were overlooking a great movie opportunity?) What's a Dad's band? A band of Dads, family guys, around here, executive types. In fact, the first band I ever sang with was the pentultimate Dad's band. It should be a movie in itself, business movers & shakers strumming their old favorite songs together for school fundraisers. It was quite the juxtaposition. First of all, these guys, many of whom were allowed to their echelons on the basis of their supposed management skills, certainly didn't exhibit them, seeming quite convinced they were titans of industry, kings of the housewife set AND good musicians, regardless of reality. Sometimes things go to people's heads and it would be interesting to see how this group would come across on film.
As the internet grows and the economy slows, we're getting more and more starter art. People are finding others who are interested in making art, so more and better projects are starting, particularly in film and with bands, both of which require collaboration. There are more and more sites to help people find, grow and promote creative projects.
Maybe there will always be blockbusters, and hit songs and shows that everyone will want to have seen and discuss around the watercooler. I'm hoping though that awareness of these grass-roots level art enterprises will grow and that people will have interest in smaller projects. This blog, for example, averages 40 hits a day on nothing other than word of mouth. And, despite my disinterest in Martha Stewart's wares, her concept of omnimedia, mutually promotional, symbiotic projects, is a good one. In my case, I basically promote my art and film projects on the blog, and will promote my band too, when we're ready to gig.
Artists are more frequently using the internet to promote their projects; Blair Witch Project got to a pretty visible level that way. All this reality TV also takes it down a notch, we're getting more and more used to being entertained by reality. Think about our entertainment in the 40's and 50's, we had whites playing people of color, June Cleaver doing housework in heels and pearls...very glossy, unreal stuff. But, now people can handle reality better, so projects can be very approachable from a production viewpoint. At the same time, you can do almost professional quality CG, modeling, special effects & editing with a G5, or even a G4.
As I ended college we were still coming out of a bad recession and I remember someone in one of my classes saying, you know maybe there's something good about recessions. I looked around at the economic devastation and thought she was out of her mind. But, in the economic downturns we've been through in the past 20 yrs., her comment keeps coming back to me. Things keep cycling around, there have been upturns and downs. And, it tends to be those down times where people turn to the Dad's bands, to music and art and quality of life, to taking off work, mortgaging your house and making a movie about your band.
About 20 years ago these guys in Denver tried to make some lame music video of their band. So, this film, Corporate America Rocks, is about these same guys, now sort of corporate misfits, who put the band back together and then win a Battle of the Bands. They used their old footage and tons of underused talent in Denver that is left over from their own boom times, mortgaged their houses to the hilt, whipped up tons of enthusiam for filmmaking in Denver, including half the city for some huge Battle of the Bands scene, and now they're on the road with their film. Pretty amazing, huh? There is a ton of underused film talent around here too, but it is becoming more and more utilized and the community is pretty extensive and thriving as it's easier to get a foothold here than in Hollywood. It's nice to see the opportunities spreading out... we don't need to get all our entertainment from Hollywood and all our culture from New York.
Anyway, I love this Dad/corportate wonk band concept. Probably a third of all the Palo Alto bands I know of are Dad's bands and at one time, we were planning some city-wide battle of the Dad's bands (who knew we were overlooking a great movie opportunity?) What's a Dad's band? A band of Dads, family guys, around here, executive types. In fact, the first band I ever sang with was the pentultimate Dad's band. It should be a movie in itself, business movers & shakers strumming their old favorite songs together for school fundraisers. It was quite the juxtaposition. First of all, these guys, many of whom were allowed to their echelons on the basis of their supposed management skills, certainly didn't exhibit them, seeming quite convinced they were titans of industry, kings of the housewife set AND good musicians, regardless of reality. Sometimes things go to people's heads and it would be interesting to see how this group would come across on film.
As the internet grows and the economy slows, we're getting more and more starter art. People are finding others who are interested in making art, so more and better projects are starting, particularly in film and with bands, both of which require collaboration. There are more and more sites to help people find, grow and promote creative projects.
Maybe there will always be blockbusters, and hit songs and shows that everyone will want to have seen and discuss around the watercooler. I'm hoping though that awareness of these grass-roots level art enterprises will grow and that people will have interest in smaller projects. This blog, for example, averages 40 hits a day on nothing other than word of mouth. And, despite my disinterest in Martha Stewart's wares, her concept of omnimedia, mutually promotional, symbiotic projects, is a good one. In my case, I basically promote my art and film projects on the blog, and will promote my band too, when we're ready to gig.
Artists are more frequently using the internet to promote their projects; Blair Witch Project got to a pretty visible level that way. All this reality TV also takes it down a notch, we're getting more and more used to being entertained by reality. Think about our entertainment in the 40's and 50's, we had whites playing people of color, June Cleaver doing housework in heels and pearls...very glossy, unreal stuff. But, now people can handle reality better, so projects can be very approachable from a production viewpoint. At the same time, you can do almost professional quality CG, modeling, special effects & editing with a G5, or even a G4.
As I ended college we were still coming out of a bad recession and I remember someone in one of my classes saying, you know maybe there's something good about recessions. I looked around at the economic devastation and thought she was out of her mind. But, in the economic downturns we've been through in the past 20 yrs., her comment keeps coming back to me. Things keep cycling around, there have been upturns and downs. And, it tends to be those down times where people turn to the Dad's bands, to music and art and quality of life, to taking off work, mortgaging your house and making a movie about your band.
posted by Intervision at 6:06 AM
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