"Whiplash"...Are you rushing or dragging? - New film

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electrizer
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Re: "Whiplash"...Are you rushing or dragging? - New film

Postby electrizer » Mon Mar 02, 2015 4:07 am

Whiplash was originally planned to be a feature film but the writer/director could not get funding for it so he made this short film and submitted it to the Sundance film festival. He later got the funding and made his original film Whiplash (2014)


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Re: "Whiplash"...Are you rushing or dragging? - New film

Postby amoergosum » Mon Mar 02, 2015 9:50 am

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Juan Expósito
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Re: "Whiplash"...Are you rushing or dragging? - New film

Postby Juan Expósito » Thu Mar 26, 2015 5:26 am

From Dave Fiuczynski Facebook page:

"wow…..so I finally had the distinct displeasure of wasting 90 min of my life watching that complete garbage called "Whiplash". Now, in order to enjoy the movie and get into the drama of the story and acting I assumed that I would have to ignore most of my background as a musician and teacher, lets say the same way an astrophysicist would have to forget about science watching Star Trek or a detective watching Law and Order. But the fact is the movie sucked even after I ignored the following:
- that as a music teacher I would get fired for constantly dropping homophobic, racial and sexists remarks
- that as a music teacher I SHOULD get fired for ignoring the fact that a student showed up to a concert covered in blood (….really? and audiences ate this up!?!??)
- stupid remarks like "[as a drummer] …….you have to study the greats like Buddy Rich…."….Buddy Rich?!?! thats the first name they come up with? If this was basketball, thats like pointing out Ron Artest BEFORE you mention Bill Russel, Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson….etc
- the idiotic moment where the drum student is supposed to know exactly what tempo 215 is from memory. I've played with drummers like Jack DeJohnette (who played with Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Thelonius Monk,and many more 'greats') and if that band director tried to pull that stunt in real life, a good and normal response from any ''real'' New York drummer would be: "Shut the f%*& up, just count of off the f%*^cking tune, can we do this? what is this? a circus?"
- the sad notion that musical "greatness" supposedly manifests itself through great technical ability over musical feel. The fact that the movie kept pushing virtuosity and that it is apparently ok and normal to ice your bleeding hands after you practice and perform and (in the final scene) have your cymbals covered in blood (blood seems to be a theme in this movie, maybe they should have made a music horror flick instead). As someone who had a playing related injury (tendonitis from over practicing) and as a teacher who has the disappointing task of coaching and encouraging students to get through their own (possibly career ending) playing related injuries, I found this aspect of the movie particularly disappointing.

In the end, even after I ignore all of the above, I found the basis of the movie, namely the interaction and drama between the band director and the student not to be a very compelling relationship, to say the least. This isn't the incredibly scary and/or intense interaction between Jody Foster and Anthony Hopkins in the 'Silence of the Lambs', for example. As a matter of fact, ANY relationship between the actors in Birdman was more interesting. And to add insult to injury: why was the drum score in Birdman (a movie that had nothing to do with drums) so much more creative than the music chosen for Whiplash (which was all about drums)?

ps - did anyone notice there was very little JAZZ in Whiplash which is a movie about Big Band music!??!?"
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Cymbalfeltfetishist
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Re: "Whiplash"...Are you rushing or dragging? - New film

Postby Cymbalfeltfetishist » Thu Mar 26, 2015 8:38 am

I think they are analyzing the movie at little too much here - it's just entertainment. I mean, you can like the film or not like the film, that is perfectly fine and valid....but jeeez, it was just a story with crazy characters. I was entetained. I am a drummer and I knew that the actor wasnt really playing...but that's not the point of the movie. Who cares if he was playing or not. And as far as the band leader swearing and carrying on, I thought that was hilarious. It's was so outrageous, it was entertaining. Again, it's just a story, that's all. We all knew that Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Wnslette weren't the last two people to hit the water in real life. I loved the movie, but not because of the realism of the whole thing.

"
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langmick
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Re: "Whiplash"...Are you rushing or dragging? - New film

Postby langmick » Thu Mar 26, 2015 8:51 am

I have had difficult teachers, both music and otherwise, that were kinda assholes.

But they knew their shit, for the most part, and looking back, it was worth sucking it up and stretching. I was literally physically choked by a pissed band director...it was play acting, a little bit. I deserved it for being an idiot in a band concert, and playing a funk groove on the concert bass drum during a solo...yeah.

The jazz combo teacher was irascible, but he practiced constantly and was demanding as hell, which made everyone better.

Found this yesterday...it's apropos.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person/

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Paul Marangoni
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Re: "Whiplash"...Are you rushing or dragging? - New film

Postby Paul Marangoni » Thu Mar 26, 2015 2:31 pm

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GoAndPractice
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Re: "Whiplash"...Are you rushing or dragging? - New film

Postby GoAndPractice » Fri Mar 27, 2015 12:25 am

langmick wrote:I have had difficult teachers, both music and otherwise, that were kinda assholes.

But they knew their shit, for the most part, and looking back, it was worth sucking it up and stretching. I was literally physically choked by a pissed band director...it was play acting, a little bit. I deserved it for being an idiot in a band concert, and playing a funk groove on the concert bass drum during a solo...yeah.

The jazz combo teacher was irascible, but he practiced constantly and was demanding as hell, which made everyone better.

Found this yesterday...it's apropos.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person/



A screenshot of alec bladwin holding up second prize is my phone backdrop... I watch this scene probably once a week.
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matthughen
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Re: "Whiplash"...Are you rushing or dragging? - New film

Postby matthughen » Thu May 14, 2015 8:08 am

This looks WAAYYYY better than the film... "What are you, Bobby fuckin McFerrin?"


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electrizer
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Re: "Whiplash"...Are you rushing or dragging? - New film

Postby electrizer » Tue Jun 02, 2015 11:20 pm

The greatest musicians make it seem so simple that anyone watching simply can’t conceive of the amount of work that goes into a performance (Gladwell’s 10,000 hours doesn’t come close). And it’s important to note this doesn’t apply just to classical music. I can’t bear the faux ‘artist shrouded in his own genius’ bullshit that many classical musicians swagger around with. Any band, any soloist, any ensemble will be painfully aware of the endless quest for perfection. And the kicker is that it is unreachable - the forty hours spent rehearsing just four bars of music is done in the hope that, with a bit of luck, the wind going in the right direction, a decent instrument and acoustic, a performance might just be be ‘good enough’ during performance.


http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/jazz-drumming-movie-whiplash-is-right-training-to-become-a-musician-can-be-a-brutal-harrowing-ordeal?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=whiplash
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electrizer
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Re: "Whiplash"...Are you rushing or dragging? - New film

Postby electrizer » Mon Jun 15, 2015 1:15 am


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