Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

Yes!  Looking forward to a full report!
  

    
Elvis Mitchell gave it a big strong review in the NYT on Friday:

http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/060900groove-film-review.html

That was a bit of a relief; EM has become one of my favorite film
reviewers but I wasn't sure how he'd take it.  So far the critics on
balance seem willing to take the film on its own terms rather than try
to shoehorn it into some genre box.  
  

    
Phred, would you care to tell us a little about how you came to invest
in this film? Had you invested in previous ventures? Why did you agree
to invest money in "Groove"? What kind of return do you expect, and on
what does it ride?
  

    
Greg and Danielle were unable to get a deal in Hollywood, so they turned
to their circle of friends and raised the money that way.  I heard about it
from a friend of mine last year and eventually contacted Danielle and
got the prospectus, which was quite well organized and laid out all
the financial considerations very fairly.  They had an optimistic scenario,
of course, but did not mince any words about the possibility of making
little or no money; the investment was completely at risk.  In other words,
they had good legal help.

I really did not expect to make anything; it takes a lot of $7 tickets to
pay back a production budget of 7 or even 6 figures.  But this movie
seems to have a bit of magic behind it, and things just kept working
out right.  

The reason to invest was that I felt a fair-minded treatment of the music
scene I've been involved with for nearly a decade would be a very good
thing, no matter how widely it was seen.  And I trusted Greg and the
many others who worked on the movie to insure as much authenticity
to the spirit and the trappings of what we've been doing that it might
even serve as a bit of a historical retrospective; not that this was a
documentary, but it was a re-creation, and much more faithful to
the real thing than the typical TV or cable "real life" movie because
it wasn't Hollywood making those sets and wearing those "costumes",
it was a good sampling of those who have actually been doing all this.

And that's the final part -- many of my friends were involved in the
production, whether as actors with speaking lines (like my friend
Dmitri, whose picture holding that mirror ball on the Muni is a brilliant
encapsulation of the spirit of this scene), or extras, or those helping out
putting together the sets.  A friend of mine's own DJ mixer is the one
you see in the close-up shots in the movie, for example.  I think we may
be using that mixer for an event I'm going to tonight.  

To some degree, the notion of "Hey kids! Let's put on a show!" is the
classic show-biz cliche. But sometimes it actually works that way, and
that is why I and many others participated to the extent we could.
  

    
"Historical retrospective," so it seems. Of course, Time magazine and
Dateline NBC and 20/20 are treating the events in the movie as "what's
happening now."

Phred, what is changing the scene? How is this a historical retrospective
instead of "the latest thing"?
  

    
Well, I don't want this topic to become an interview of *me*.  But
Greg is in Santa Monica tonight for the LA area opening so let me
say just a bit to keep the ball rolling.

The electronic dance music scene has always had two commercial
components -- the club side (where house and techno music originated
and still have a strong presence), and the one-off event or "rave" side.

But there has also always been a more "underground" approach, and
that's what the movie depicts, where making money is not the object
of those putting on the event.  This "free party" component has a stronger
history in the UK, and many of the ideas developed there such as
the one-off warehouse party, map points, and so on were devised
there during the late 1980s and came over with the "third British
invasion" around 1990 that resulted in the development of Toon Town,
Rave Called Sharon and many lesser-known "raves" of the rapidly
evolving early 1990s scene in SF.

"Groove" is rooted in that experience.  On the one hand, what most
people encounter when seeking out the "rave" or electronic dance
music scene will be the commercial end -- clubs or big warehouse
events, some legal and some not nearly so, but still definitely
commercial.  So to that extent the movie is a throwback, since how
the event depicted in the movie is organized would not be what you
encounter at, say, the Cyberfest mega-rave or the 1015 Folsom club.


On the other hand, the truly underground scene is out there now, it's
just had to become even more invisible.  On Saturday night while I was
visiting SF, we called a number in the 510 exchange at 11 pm and
heard this: "Hi, this is [insert name of CEO of recently famous company],
I'm in the back of the police cruiser here and the party is shut down,
but call back at 11:45 and we'll tell you where to go."

And at 2 am we were outside listening to DJs play on a quickly set
up sound system, watching the moon go down over the Bay while
cars sped down 880 not far away.  Later we got an awesome sunrise
with a great view of the City and Mount Tam.  So it's still happening.

But I must say, this isn't for everyone.  You have to really really
like the music and not mind the vicissitudes of the "temporary autonomous
zone" (to borrow the old phrase that used to motivate discussions of how
this was all organized and what it meant culturally).

I'll shut up now :)
  

    
I hope not, phred!

Cutting in to say that Ebert and Roeper gave "Groove" two thumbs down
last Sunday. They agreed that the film had no interesting characters,
had a conventional structure, music wasn't interesting, etc. 
  

    
That's sad to hear, but perhaps not surprising.  I don't think the movie
will have much appeal above the age of 35, probably.
  

    

Well I'm eager to see it. Still waiting for it to be released up here in
sticks, though.
  

    
I'll be looking for it in Chicago....  I've never paid much attention to
Ebert's critique's.....  he seems to like round and sterile films IMHO.
  

    
Huh. I'm 57 and I loved it.
  

    
I think the music, which they're not used to hearing and thought was
repetitive and same-sounding, and the level-headed attitude towards drugs,
which they obviously don't use and don't condone, turned them both off. This
is why I think the Ebert show desperately needs new blood.
  

    

There was a blurb in the Chronicle about the mini disco balls given out at
the premiere and how there is a big demand for them...

It's getting lots of ink.  How are the numbers?
  

    
Don't know.  But I got one of the disco balls at Sundance!
  

    

I want one!!

I also tried to get the flashing light bracelet that Greg's girlfriend
told me about but they have been sold out.  She said that they were trying
to get those also, with the word "Groove" flashing.  Did she succeed?
  

    
More appearances and new reviews from Jason at groovethemovie.com:

I just found out that three cast members from GROOVE--Vincent
Riverside (Anthony), Denny Kirkwood (Colin), and Steve Van Wormer
(Ernie)--will be featured on a live webcast of the Dr.Drew.com show (of
Loveline fame). The show streams in Real or Windows Media Player
format starting at 7:30pm west coast time TONIGHT (Thursday 6/15) and
can be found at:

http://www.drdrew.com/show/showevent.html?eventid=119

You can also read recent reviews of GROOVE from the New York Times and
Newsweek on groovethemovie.com at:

http://www.groovethemovie.com/reviews.html
  

    
I'm finally back in town!  Very sorry I've dropped off the earth, but
this past week has been intense.  I vow to catch up on what's happened
and start answering questions.  Frako and Linda, I'm willing to keep
going beyong this week if you like, just to make up for the lost time.
  

    

We'd love to have you as long as you would like to stick around.  Can't
wait to hear the stories...
  

    
Yeah, me too. Greg, you went to the Seattle Film Festival with "Groovem,"
then it premiered here, then LA, then ....?
  

    
The GROOVE soundtrack is available in stores starting tomorrow, June
20th from Kinetic Records.  For specific info, including a track list,
go to:

http://www.groovethemovie.com/musicSOUNDTRACK.html

You can read a review of the WishFM mix CD at:

http://www.groovethemovie.com/EWsntkREV.html

There are more articles from various publications, including an
article in San Francisco Magazine by Greg Harrison:

http://www.groovethemovie.com/FILMcoverage.html
  

    

Thanks for the info, frako.
  

    

I just want to say that when my niece and I saw the movie we both thought
the scene at Sutros (?) with the Volkswagen guys was so sweet.
  

    
Sutros? What is that, lolly?

I noticed a tiny interview with Greg in the current Advocate asking
about his use of gay characters in the film.
  

    

And I noticed that both Greg and Danielle have an upcoming class at The
Learning Annex about how to market independent films!
  

    
Is it a good thing to organize a film as if it were an Internet
startup?