This new video from FilmmakerIQ explains the history behind movie trailers. The video puts the evolution of the trailer in the context of the history of how we have watched movies through the years.
The video explains how the concept of promotions on movie theater screens began in 1913 and how film serials contributed to movie marketing. Alfred Hitchock and Stanley Kubrick added their own innovations to the movie trailer too. Check it out.
What is your favorite movie trailer? Leave your two cents in the comments.
The arrest and conviction of former boxer Ruben “Hurricane” Carter inspired one of Bob Dylan’s great protest songs and an award-winning performance by Denzel Washington.
Ruben “Hurricane” Carter, who had been suffering from prostate cancer, passed away on April 20, 2014 at the age of 76. Carter, who was born on May 6, 1937 in New Jersey, was a former boxer who was accused of murder in 1966.
Carter spent 19 years in prison in New Jersey before a court reversed his conviction in 1985 and set him free. His story inspired a great Bob Dylan song and a movie starring Denzel Washington. While both the song and the movie took some liberties with Carter’s story, they both captured truths about the criminal justice system.
Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane”
Carter’s case became a rallying cry for the Civil Rights Movement. Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy wrote a song about the wrongful conviction. And then Dylan released “Hurricane” as a single in November 1975.
Dylan played what many fans consider his last great protest song during almost every performance of the 1975 Rolling Thunder tour. “Hurricane” went on to become a top 40 hit, despite its length and level of detail in telling a story.
Denzel Washington’s Hurricane
Ruben Carter’s life appeared in a major film too. In 1999, Denzel Washington portrayed Carter in the movie Hurricane, which was directed by Norman Jewison.
Washington gave a wonderful performance as Carter, winning a Golden Globe and earning a nomination for the Best Actor Academy Award. In this scene near the end of the film, Denzel Washington as Carter makes a final plea to the court.
The Real Story
The movie and the song took some dramatic license with the facts of Carter’s life. For example, many noted that Dylan’s song overstated Carter’s ranking in the boxing world (“He could-a been/ The champion of the world”).
Ultimately, the federal judge who reversed Carter’s conviction noted the unjust role of race in the case. And, like all folk songs, the message of Dylan’s song became important on its own. Although the singer tells a story about one man, the song told the truth about wider problems in the criminal justice system.
For Record Store Day, Bruce Springsteen has released a four-song EP called American Beauty. Two of the songs — “American Beauty” and “Hurry Up Sundown” — were extra tracks not used on his most recent album, High Hopes (2014). Another song, “Mary Mary,” was recorded at the time of Magic (2007), while “Hey Blue Eyes” was left over from the Working on a Dream (2009) recordings.
You may listen to the rocking “Hurry Up Sundown” over at NPR. The title track is “American Beauty.” The softer “Hey Blue Eyes” is a song which Tom Morello reportedly plans to cover.
American Beauty, on sale in vinyl form in record stores today, will be available for people without turntables on April 22. Meanwhile, Blogness on the Edge of Town reports on other Record Store Day releases, including a reissue of Billy Joel’s song “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” recorded by Ronnie Spector and the E Street Band.
What do you think of the “new” Springsteen tracks? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Neil Young is releasing A Letter Home, an album of cover songs from artists like Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, and Gordon Lightfoot. For Record Store Day, Young’s album in vinyl form is already available for order from Third Man Records. The independent record label was founded by musician-singer-songwriter Jack White, who helps out on Young’s new album.
Rolling Stone reports that the songs on the new album are: 1. “Changes” (Phil Ochs); 2. “Girl From The North Country” (Bob Dylan); 3. “Needle of Death” (Bert Jansch); 4. “Early Morning Rain” (Gordon Lightfoot); 5. “Crazy” (Willie Nelson); 6. “Reason To Believe” (Tim Hardin); 7. “On The Road Again” (Willie Nelson); 8. “If You Could Only Read My Mind” (Gordon Lightfoot); 9. “Since I Met You Baby” (Ivory Joe Hunter); 10. “My Hometown” (Bruce Springsteen); 11. “I Wonder If I Care As Much” (Everly Brothers).
Young has played several of these songs in concert, but many of them have yet to appear live. One of the songs I am most excited about is Young’s interpretation of “Changes,” by the great Phil Ochs. The classic song is one that Young has performed live, and below is his performance of the song at Farm Aid in 2013 in Saratoga Springs, New York. The video starts at the point Young starts playing the song, but you can back it up a little if you want to hear him talk more about Ochs and then get angry at the audience for trying to rush him.
Which Neil Young cover do you most want to hear? Leave your two cents in the comments.
One of my favorite episodes of the U.S. series The Office is the season four episode entitled “The Dinner Party.” In the show, Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) and Jan Levinson (Melora Hardin) invite some guests from the Dunder Mifflin office for dinner, and the tension in their relationship plays out to make the most awkward party since the Donners.
In the episode, Jim notes to the camera, “Michael and Jan seem to be playing their own separate game, and it’s called ‘let’s see how uncomfortable we can make our guests.’ And they’re both winning.” One of the most uncomfortable moments comes from a wonderful song, “That One Night,” by The Hunted.
The Hunted
The Hunted is the fictional band led by Hunter Raymond, the young man who had worked as Jan’s assistant. As Jan plays the CD on the stereo in “The Dinner Party” episode, the awkwardness ramps up when we realize that Hunter is apparently singing about losing his virginity to Jan (“You took me by the hand/ And made me a man.”).
Below is the cringe-worthy clip of when Jan first plays the song.
The song appears again at the end of the episode when Jim reveals to Pam that he stole the CD, a sweet gesture to make Pam laugh. Jim’s act is also a sympathetic theft so that Michael no longer has to hear the song. Jim plays the CD in their car as the song then plays over an epilogue showing the dinner guests after the party.
Who Created “That One Night”?
Unfortunately, there is no real album by The Hunted, but the song works perfectly in the episode of The Office. When a comedy uses an original song for comic effect, it is a challenge for the song to sound believably real while being funny too. “That One Night” hits it out of the park on all counts.
Who are the geniuses behind “That One Night”? In the series, actor Nicholas D’Agosto (born April 17, 1980) portrayed Hunter Raymond. D’Agosto appeared in two episodes during the third season, his voice appeared in another episode, and his image graced the CD cover for “That One Night” in “The Dinner Party” episode.
The actual singer on “That One Night,” though, is Todd Fancey, a singer-songwriter who is the guitarist for The New Pornographers. Fancey also wrote the catchy music for “That One Night,” while writing and producing team Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg wrote the lyrics.
The Lyrics?
There are no “official” lyrics for the song posted on the web. So, there seems to be a disagreement about the words Fancey sings.
Some say that part of the chorus says “so raw, so right,” while others claim he sings “so wrong, so right.” Another source claims the words are “so rock the ride all night all right.”
I have always thought the disputed words were “so wrong,” not “so raw.” That interpretation makes the most sense, but I understand how one may also hear it as “so raw.”
While we never got a tour or a full album from The Hunted, we loved the band’s music for that one night. Oh yeah.
Update and Alternate Version of “That One Night”
In April 2017, Rolling Stone featured an interesting oral history about the episode. One of the revealing facts was that Fancey also put together a more polished longer version of “That One Night” with alternate lyrics. While it is interesting to hear, one can see why The Office went with the version they did. Below is the alternate version.
What is your favorite episode of The Office? If you also love “The Dinner Party,” check out these deleted scenes. Leave your two cents in the comments.
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, on sale in vinyl form in record stores today, will be available for people without turntables on April 22. Meanwhile, 
