You Asked For It

Lately, we've been getting e-mails asking who is on our soundtrack. We're so happy that people are into the tunes. One of our goals, was to follow suit with what Hughes did and put music that WE liked into the film from artists not many have heard of. We're very proud to give you the list. Now get out there, download on itunes or heck, even buy a CD...and tell em we sent you :)

“How We Exit - Gentleman Reg

“The Sun Is Coming Up And My Plane’s Coming Down” - Young Galaxy

“Glory” - The Acorn

“Rabbit In A Snare” - The Paper Cranes

“Don’t Talk Down” - The Stills

"Trouble On The Patio" 
- The Waking Eyes


"Immaculate Heart" - American Analog Set 


"Not Moving At All" - Major Maker

"What Your Baby’s Been Doing?" - The Small Sins

“The Silence” - Cancel Winter

“Drugs” - Memory Bank

“Going, Going, Gone” - Stars

“Cool Kids Keep” - American Analog Set

“I Need A Friend” - The Small Sins
 
 


“What Princes Feel” - The Small Sins

“We’re In A Thunderstorm” - Gentleman Reg

“Being Here” - The Stills

“Number 12” - Memory Bank

"Last Goodbye" - Major Maker

“We Will Break Our Own Hearts” - The Small Sins

“Let Me Be Your Ferris Bueller” - The Carnations

You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried

I.love.books.

Let me tell you why. They're an entirely different medium for sharing an experience or perspective. The written word has so much more impact and a lot less "rules". This is why it's so hard to effectively adapt a well loved/read novel to the screen.

Essentially, in a book, people just talk. This is obviously most true in books that are a collection of essays or interviews or a biography. You can't achieve the same effect in a film, dramatic or documentary. People/distributors just won't sit through/buy a film that is entirely composed of "talking heads", believe me - we tried. Our first cut of the film was just one seamless conversation glued together by all of our interview snippets. On paper, when it was transcribed, it did. On film, it didn't - which is one of the reasons we ended up in the film going after the impossible interview with Hughes.

The other thing about writing a book composed of essays or interviews, is that you have much more access to the people you'd like to include. They don't have to appear on camera and/or they can just send in their stuff through e-mail.

This is why I was SO excited to see the book version of the film we wished we could make. It's called YOU COULDN'T IGNORE ME IF YOU TRIED.

We have absolutely no affiliation with this book other than trying to achieve the goal of imprinting Hughes is the conscience of the world.

Check it out!

Hughes Collage

For those that have seen our film, you may not have noticed our out-of-the box technique of how we dissolved to our amazing still photography used throughout the film. Usually, jpegs of photos are brought into the editing software and then camera moves are added similar to what almost every computer slideshow program can do. Abandoning photoshop, we decided to physically mount a collage of all the photography we were able to get out hands on and license. Our goal was to create a piece that would harken back to both a yearbook, a high school locker/hallway cork board and the kind of paraphernalia that is often left when somebody passes away. We used tape, paperclips, sticky tack etc. On an extreme close-up you can see the tiny details that you wouldn't normally see if it was done using a computer. We then took a photograph of the entire wall, that we then scan across in the documentary when using a specific still during an interview. A lot of work went into it, and it's subtle, but we're very proud of the effect. Here is a close up shot of part of the wall taken with my iphone. We hope ya like it.

Amazing Review

From Exclaim Magazine Don’t You Forget About Me Directed by Matt Austin Sadowski By Vish Khanna Even without its sad epilogue, Don't You Forget About Me is a poignant testament to the power of the late, beloved writer/director John Hughes, the man who not only launched the notion of a serious '80s teen movie, but gave the concept weight and heart, offering a cinematic blueprint that few seem able to follow. A quartet of young Canadian filmmakers are responsible for this alluring documentary delving into Hughes, with insights about him and his process from many of the actors and associates that helped shape the iconography of classics like Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Some Kind of Wonderful, among others. The film is also framed as a quest to find Hughes, who abandoned Hollywood completely in the '90s, living as a recluse in some Illinois suburb. As such, we get to know director Matt Austin Sadowski, and producers Lenny Panzer, Michael Facciolo and Kari Hollend. They're a pretty benign group of personalities, although Facciolo comes across as a silly, hare-brained enthusiast, for the most part (the broken leg and crutches don't help). Feeling alienated by the stock teen films in the current marketplace, these young folk initially wanted to write their own film in the spirit of Hughes's work. As they got further into his psyche, they wondered why he quit the business and soon decided it'd be more interesting to make a documentary about why contemporary teen films pale in comparison to what Hughes made in the '80s. What starts out as a love letter to Hughes ends up being a quest to meet him and demonstrate how much he's missed. The efficacy of Hughes's work is brought to light, sparing no expense; the doc features lots of film clips and interviews, with both Hughes colleagues like Ally Sheedy, Alan Ruck, Judd Nelson, Mia Sara, Kelly LeBrock and a host of other familiar actors (this, by the way, in itself is a great treat), but also filmmakers like Kevin Smith, Jason Reitman and the creative team behindNapoleon Dynamite. Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper grant interviews about Hughes, with Ebert in particular recalling visits to Hughes's sets in Chicago, where virtually all of his films were set. On the whole, these voices illuminate Hughes's sensibility and his uncanny ability to tap into what teens were feeling and thinking. His casting decisions were astute and reflected real teenagers, flaws and all. The filmmakers wisely poll a number of young teens about their favourite films and, remarkably, they all discuss how great Hughes's films are and how well they respond to them, particularly in relation to the high-gloss dreck they're confronted with today. Ruck suggests kids still respond to the work because Hughes's heart is in his films, as all of his offbeat characters were really bits and extensions of Hughes himself. Released after Hughes's untimely death last year, the investigative quest to find him is that much more urgent and suspenseful. But in the end, it doesn't matter; even in glimpses of the man, Don't You Forget About Mecaptures and idealizes John Hughes beautifully as the artist he truly was. (Alliance)