Posted by Paul Devlin:
Here’s Part 2 of our Production Update documenting our experience with “Sundance Fever” while making BLAST! You can see Part 1 here.
Stay tuned for more of our ArtistShare Production Updates for a behind-the-scenes look at our filmmaking process. And good luck to all the filmmakers out there with Sundance deadline extensions!
Here’s another great extra from SlamNation – Beau Sia performing his hilarious poem “The Gym.” You can catch Beau live at 8:00pm on Wednesday September 29th at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. More details here. Check back here again soon for more great poetry from Beau and many more!
SlamNation DVD: http://bit.ly/5bKLun
SlamNation Trailer: http://bit.ly/a4P3BB
Posted by Paul Devlin:
The Sundance film festival is on the horizon and many filmmakers have been killing themselves trying to meet the submission deadline, THIS WEEK! Others have been granted extensions and are still killing themselves.
Be careful! The Sundance deadline has ruined many movies. Our advice in these circumstances comes from our advisor Bob Hawk, “Make the movie, not the deadline.”
We documented our experience with “Sundance Fever” while making BLAST! in a two-part Production Update. These Updates were part of our Artist Share Participant model for fundraising. Participants who helped fund the film were kept up to date on our progress through these videos, which we released regularly.
We plan to share more of these Production Updates, including Part 2 next week. So if you’re interested in the filmmaking process, visit again and see how we did it.
By the way, if you’re interested in more info on film festivals, I also wrote an article in The Independent on our experience releasing BLAST! to the festival circuit.
Posted by Paul Devlin:
This classic poem from my movie SlamNation helped Saul Williams get famous.
SlamNation is the seminal film of the slam poetry literary/performance movement. It played theatrically across the U.S. and on HBO and Starz. This performance of the poem also appeared in the PBS Special “I’ll Make Me a World.”
AND it served as an audition piece of sorts for Marc Levin’s movie Slam, which went on to win the top prizes at Sundance and Cannes. Mark was set on Bonz Malone for the lead in his movie. But Bonz was in jail at the time and Marc needed alternatives. Marc knew I was working on SlamNation and wanted to see Saul in action on screen. I showed him this piece, and sold him hard on Saul, especially since Saul was also a trained actor.
Marc started workshopping scenes with Saul and Sonja Sohn, the female lead. He asked me to edit together a demo of this rehearsal footage, my footage of Saul from SlamNation, plus some guerrilla footage they had of Saul in a prison when they brought him in as an intern on one of Marc’s documentary shoots. (Brilliant!) The demo convinced the warden at the prison in DC to provide the main location for the movie and helped the team secure funding.
The process of making Slam has been well-documented, including a book. But this part of the story has never been told. Always wanted to ask Marc about that…
We have over 150 complete poems, extras and anecdotes from SlamNation, so definitely visit often for more!
Posted by Paul Devlin:
I have had a very productive career as a freelance video editor for network sports television, and some of my most creative, satisfying and challenging work has been done in that capacity.
I started working with CBS Sports in 1997 and have had many adventures with them including the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, 6 Tour De France broadcasts and 4 Superbowls. The last Superbowl, this past February, 2010, was the most watched program in U.S. History! It was an honor to participate.
These 3 pieces are from my first Superbowl with CBS, Superbowl XXXV in 2001 – Baltimore Ravens vs New York Giants in Tampa, Florida. Jim Nantz narrates the first piece and the second is classic Dick Enberg, who has won Emmys for his writing flair. They were produced by the mad genius Al Szymanski. Al and I spent many an insane all-nighter together for both NBC and CBS.
Stop by often to see classic sports content from all sorts of high-powered, fun events, including Olympics, Tour De France, World Cup Soccer and more.
Posted by Paul Devlin:
The early ‘90s were a heyday for music videos and I worked on dozens of them at that time in various capacities – director, editor, online/conform. I was a freelance editor at the boutique post-production house, Chromavision and met many a rock star there.
This video from White Zombie, “Thunderkiss ‘65,” was directed by Juliet Cuming and off-line edited by my good friend Walter Schlomann (who also helped edit my movie Power Trip.) I did the final online/conform edit. It was a lot of fun to work on, especially getting a chance to hang out with Rob Zombie.
Over the next year or so we’ll continue posting music videos on our blog, featuring artists such as Elvis Costello, Cindy Lauper, Naughty by Nature and many more. Come back for some great music!