The (always great) Prince Charles Cinema in London, England is showing a 35mm double feature of Singles and Almost Famous on Monday, March 20th. More info and tickets can be purchased on their official site. Give us a shout and send us some pics if you’re able to attend.
Almost Famous kicks off the new year as part of QV Melbourne’s new pop-up Outdoor Cinema film festival. Viewers are provided with individual wireless headphones to enjoy the film in a beautiful outdoor setting in Melbourne, Australia. Almost Famous plays on January 2nd and is followed over the next couple of months with a wide variety of films such as Amelie, Wall-E, Love & Mercy, Searching for Sugar Man and many, many more.
All the details and ticket information can be found over at their official site.
Stillwater Cleveland Poster (Sorry, just a prop everyone!)
Can you believe it has been 15 years since Almost Famous hit theaters? While the film premiered on September 8th, 2000 at the Toronto International Film Festival, we will be celebrating its release with a bunch of fun photos (behind the scenes, Stillwater, etc.) daily for the next 10 days or so. So let’s begin and please share your memories of the film in the comments section!
backstage passes made for the film.
With Jason Lee and Billy Crudup. Photo by Neal Preston. ©Dreamworks
And now a special message from Cameron Crowe
Posted by Sound Opinions on Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Some fun Summer screenings are right around the corner. On July 28th you can see Almost Famous playing at Millennium Park in Chicago (and Presented by “Sound Opinions” WBEZ 91.5 FM). Cameron did a short video about for that..
Also, this Saturday, July 25th, there’s a Singles screening in Seattle as part of the West Seattle’s Outdoor Movie Series.
Jeff on the set of Elizabethtown. Picture courtesy of Jeff Wexler.
Jeff Wexler has been working in the film industry since he was an intern on Harold and Maude back in 1971. His career spans more than four decades with such varied films as Foul Play, Being There, The Natural, Spaceballs, Independence Day, Fight Club and Mission Impossible III. We spoke on location working on his sixth film with Cameron, Aloha.
Looking back on your 40 year career in the film industry, I read that you had no plans to follow in your dad’s footsteps (preeminent cinematographer Haskell Wexler). Tell us how working a summer job on Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude changed your life?
I had been on sets with my father probably since about the age of two. I was very familiar with what goes on when making a movie but when I started to think about what I would do “when I grow up” it never crossed my mind that I would work on movies. I spent 5 years in college preparing to teach sociology at the college level. One summer I think my father felt that I had been in school long enough and needed a summer job. Of course he got me a job on a movie, working as a production assistant in the Art Department on Harold and Maude. I had known Hal Ashby from times spent going to dailies with my father, visiting the editing room (Hal was an Academy Award winning editor on several movies my father had shot), so I was quite comfortable on the set again, with people I knew. What I was not prepared for was how I felt, for the first time, being on a movie, not as a visitor but as a participant. I fell in love with the movies. When the movie wrapped I made the decision: teaching was out — I would pursue a career working on movies.
Describe to our readers the duties of a Sound Mixer?
I am a Production Sound Mixer and it is the responsibility, with my crew, for all the sound that is recorded during production. This is primarily dialog recording, but we also record sound effects, ambiences, music (sometimes live performances depending on the movie). Many others will work on the soundtrack for a movie in post production (i.e. sound designer, sound editorial, foley, music composer, re-recording mixer, etc.) but the production sound recordings are the primary and fundamental basis for the movie.
Here’s a recap of yesterday’s Twitter chat that Cameron did with IMDB. I’ve reformatted it to make it easier to read (one paragraph answers, no hashtags, etc.).
For some reason romantic comedies seem to be a lost genre. What makes Aloha unique?
Only a matter of time until some reinvents the genre and makes it fresh again. It always begins with the characters, and the twists that make it real and unique. A great romantic comedy always has aches, along with the laughs. “Silver Linings Playbook” was a great romantic comedy. The new movie “The Overnight” is excellent, as was “Skeleton Twins.” “Aloha” has a lot of elements, one being romantic comedy in the style of the movie “Ninotchka,” that was a favorite of Emma Stone’s too.
How did you choose the cast?
Everything began with the great Emma Stone then we built from there. Emma was the catalyst. Bradley next. Then Rachel became available. Krasinski, McBride, Bill Murray. One by one, a dream cast developed. Always such a thrill to have Alec Baldwin with us too. We had a great time on “Elizabethtown.”
Aloha looks like a collision of the past & the future for Bradley’s character. Is that accurate?
Editor Joe Hutshing, Gilcrest & Ng – Untitled Hawaii Editorial – March 28, 2014
Here’s the latest picture from Untitled Hawaii courtesy of Cameron. It’s editor Joe Hutshing hard at work on a scene with Bradley Cooper (Brain Gilcrest) and Emma Stone (Allison Ng). Joe has worked his magic previously on Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky.
In celebration of Empire magazine’s 300th issue, Cameron shared his original notes as he contemplated the many possible titles for Almost Famous. As you know, the movie was Untitled for quite awhile (and was Cameron’s original choice). Check out Cameron’s introduction and all the various alternative titles below:
