The Future Is Now!

Greetings from the future!
DeLorean/hoverboard courtesy: Jeff Rothenberg

On this date at precisely 4:29 p.m., time travelers Dr. Emmett Brown and Marty McFly will descend on Hill Valley, California, from the year 1985...making movie history! Let's all give them a warm welcome, shall we?

And how! This month, media and fans have been talking up a storm about the 30th anniversary of Back To The Future and the arrival of Future Day (October 21, 2015, as depicted in the second film from 1989). I couldn't be more happier... as a fantasy film geek, it's fun to see how many things from the future did or did not pan out (how about those hoverboards?!?)

Back To The Future has to be my all-time favorite movie, and the combination of the first and second films (and their clever storytelling, performances, and effects) is really what inspired my idea to pursue filmmaking (for better or worse). In any event, I've been looking for the opportunity to celebrate the occasion, and this weekend it will become reality, as Norman Rockwell Museum will be presenting a "Back in Time" family festival, assembled in "heavy" amounts by your's truly.

This Wednesday at 8 a.m. ET, you can hear me and my colleague Rich Bradway on Pittsfield, MA radio station, Star 101.7, describing how this unique event came together. Rich, our new Director of Digital Learning + Engagement, has experience with and came up with the idea for a classic car show, and I proposed enhancing it with a celebration of all things BTTF in time for the anniversary. Yes, we will have a DeLorean on display!

In addition, I managed to line up a real, honest to goodness, flying automobile that appeared in the second movie. I contacted car owner, Jeff Chabotte, from Connecticut, after seeing this great video about how he restored the character Griff's Hover BMW:

The car is actually up for auction during the huge "We're Going Back" celebration, being held on the same day as our event in Los Angeles, California. Disclosure: it doesn't really fly (and actually needs a lift getting here), so this may be your first and last chance to see the car. Pretty exciting. 

Designs on the future:
Robert U. Taylor shows me examples
of his production design for "Back To The
Future: The Ride." Photo: JC

Another connection I made is with local filmmakers who worked on the acclaimed "Back To The Future: The Ride" for Universal Studios. I had heard that film visionary Doug Trumbull (2010, Blade Runner) had put this ride film together with a crew from the Berkshires, where he is based, but I did not know until last week that the film was literally created down the road from the Museum, in one of the old paper mills. I have lined up the ride film's production assistant, Robert U. Taylor, and model maker, Dai Ban, and they will join us on Saturday as well, to talk about their experience bringing the movie series to life. They lent some great illustrations, photos, and video, that we will  be sharing.

This afternoon I also received a rare, signed print from movie poster artist, Drew Struzan, who created the iconic posters for all three movies. This was very exciting (and generous on his part), and I expect that it will be a highlight among a small display of objects (I have quite a few that I have collected over the years, including issues of the old Back To The Future fan club, which was active during the release of the second and third movies).

Great Scott, I almost forgot to mention: we will be screening the new documentary, Back in Time, which looks at the cultural impact of the film trilogy. I have previewed the film, and it's very well-done, including interviews with fellow fans, screenwriter Bob Gale, director Robert Zemeckis, executive producer/Norman Rockwell Museum trustee Steven Spielberg, and members of the cast, including Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd... "heavy" indeed! 

Well... it's all about time, and I'm running out of it, but I will share more soon... "the future" has yet to be truly written!

Related Links:

Time is on our side! Photo: Universal Pictures

"Back To The Future" official site

Norman Rockwell Museum's "Back in Time: Cruise In"

"Norman Rockwell Museum Goes “Back In Time” with Family Festival To Celebrate 30th Anniversary of “Back To The Future” (press release written by JC)

"Back To The Future II: What did it get right and wrong?" BBC News, October 20, 2015 

"Back in Time" documentary site

Taken Aback

Here we go again. I have been hearing this song on the radio by British singer Michael Kiwanuka, and only just found out that it's a NEW song:



It's getting harder and harder to tell some new music from old school... not that I'm complaining.

Link:

http://us.michaelkiwanuka.com

Retro Active

Yes, dear readers... that was yours truly decked out in a Spidey suit in yesterday's post. We took our cousin Becky out to celebrate her 21st birthday (which just so happens to fall on Halloween), and my costume for the upcoming Heroes & Villains exhibition came in handy for the occasion... don't blame me for the mess at Bombers Burritos though... that was Becky getting a little carried away with my webshooters.

I tell ya, squeezing into a skin-tight Spider-Man costume sure does get you motivated to hit the gym... not that I was a slouch before, but I've been hitting the treadmill even harder this week to do "Justice" to the "Marvels" pictured in Alex Ross' illustrations. As always, music helps keep me going... here is a sample of what I'm listening to:



JD McPherson sounds like someone you might discover in some old vinyl record collection from the 1950s. In fact, he's a modern artist (and former art teacher) from the southern United States, who started as a punk rocker and then turned towards more rockabilly and roots style music... I have probably mentioned before that I love that kind of stuff, and his album Signs & Signifiers is pretty tasty. It's something you might imagine being played during the "Enchantment Under The Sea Dance" in the movie Back To The Future, and funny enough, someone else thought so too in this YouTube mash-up! 

Another cool retro sound is from the UK band Django Django. What we have here is a bit of 80s electro fused with 60s garage rock/psychedelic. It's all quite interesting... their song "Default" sounds like robots channeling Donovan... or something. Me like:



It's funny how the freshest stuff also sounds retro to me... at least this time it's not classic soul. Anyway, a nod to the past as we look forward... it's going to be a busy week ahead, with the exhibition, election, and a quick trip back to my hometown! I've got the new Shins to accompany that drive...

Band Websites: 

www.jdmcpherson.com

www.djangodjango.co.uk

Silence is Golden

Ok, I know I was talking last week about how much I loved Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, and wouldn't it be great if the film won an Oscar for its refreshing escape from modern-day insanity... well, Sarah and I finally got to see The Artist today, and I think that film might be hard to beat. It goes back to roughly the same time as Allen's film, but also employs a very creative method to tell the story of the rise and fall of a silent movie star− with no words.

It's true: about 90% of the black and white film is without any spoken dialogue, relying instead on the occasional movie card (just like the silent movies) and a beautiful score by composer Ludovic Bource. The rest is up to great storytelling and actors, who show a lot of passion and conviction here. The two leads− Jean Dujardin as silent film star George Valentin; and Bérénice Bejo as actress Peppy Miller, who successfully transitions to the talking movie era− are incredibly charming, and showed a really nice chemistry that we understood perfectly. Valentin also has a pet dog who really should get an Oscar as well for best performance by an animal− he brought to mind the lovable Asta from the old Thin Man movies from the 1930s. I have seen a couple silent films from Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and Fritz Lang's amazing Metropolis (still impressive to this day!), so there was a lot that I felt successfully paid tribute to that bygone era.



However, there are those who have criticized the film for that very reason. An article in yesterday's Atlantic  argues that the film doesn't deserve the Best Picture Oscar because the writer feels that it's winning would endorse the idea of recreating the past instead of "striving for originality and present relevance." I'm not sure I agree with this writer. The movie feels quite relevant to me in this age where, as The Daily Beast's Tina Brown points out, "the arrival of the Internet has turned lives and careers upside down with the same seismic irreversibility as the arrival of the talkies. Everyone has to reinvent now or die."

I spent a week with colleagues discussing the changing face of marketing: social media, online presence, QR codes, etc. Things are moving real fast− some beneficial, others seeming to call out for a little more analysis and thought. I see some people getting pretty burnt out trying to keep up with "the machine"... and taking things in? I know from my own occasionally distracted experience that this information overload is not necessarily making us more efficient workers. But like George Valentin, you don't keep up with the times and you may find yourself silenced for good.

I certainly consider myself progressive, but the past can serve to ground us. As a music lover, I have to agree with Dave Grohl's speech at the Grammy Awards where he criticized the use of computers to make things perfect. I think he was dead-on in indirectly calling out the use of Auto-Tune and other software that is making some modern music sound quite soulless. The same goes for film− there are many movies that I find unwatchable, with their over-reliance on CGI to the point that nothing looks real on the screen. I guess my point is that technology should be used to help and expand our lives, not rob it of its beauty.

Sarah remarked to me after seeing the film that she thought there was some color in there... surely Peppy's coat at one point, or the streets...  no, I don't think there was. The film was made pretty old school, right down to the aspect ratio, with some modern flourishes that helped the film's theme... it stood out, like many of the modern-day "retro soul" singers do, because it had depth. On the other hand, some critics have argued that The Artist's story was slight and predictable, and that even Midnight in Paris was nothing new... well, both of these films sparked my imagination, and made me want to go back and learn about the silent movie era, or 1920s Paris... they just felt good, celebrated a love of the movies/art, and were meaningful in the way that they both made me stop and consider the way things are moving...

So here's to the past and future− hoping to find the best of both worlds, in order to enhance our daily lives and create beautiful work.



Related Links:


"Why The Artist Should Win The Best Picture Oscar," The Guardian, February 7, 2012

"Oscars: Cinematography nominees discuss film versus digital," Los Angeles Times,
February 19, 2012

"'Plug In Better': A Manifesto," The Atlantic, February 14, 2012