President Obama's Tribute to Led Zeppelin!

"I worked with a speech writer. There is no smooth transition from ballet to Led Zeppelin. (Laughter). We were trying to work the Stairway to Heaven metaphor...it didn't work. (Laughter). When Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham burst onto the music scene in the late 1960s, the world never saw it coming. There was this singer with a mane like a lion, a voice like a banshee; a guitar prodigee who left people's jaws on the floor; a versatile bassist who was equally at home on the keyboards and a drummer who played like his life depended on it..."

Watch the rest of the AWESOME tribute.

BARACK OBAMA, TOM MORELLO, W.KAMAU BELL AND ROBERT LYONS

W. Kamau Bell: You've often drawn comparisons between you and Barack. You both went to Harvard, you're both half Kenyan, devastatingly attractive...
Tom Morello: I have a pretty good outside jumper.
W. Kamau Bell: Yeah, pretty good outside jumper. So how disappointed is your Mom that you're not the first black president?
Tom Morello: (laughs)

Watch Tom Morello's very interesting answer:



W. Kamau Bell: Your latest single "we are the 99 percent" is about Occupy Wallstreet. You are deep in the Occupy Wallstreet movement. Why do you think it's so important for artists to be connected to social movements and should all artists do that?

One artist (who is a literal artist, as in drawing and painting etc), that was also involved in the Occupy Wallstreet movement is Robert Lyons. He is "An animation artist with a history in photographic and optical special effects that has worked with many of NYC’s most prominent production houses." His film and TV credits include: “Pee Wee’s Playhouse”, Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time” music video, Paramount Picture’s “Star Trek V”, Bill Morrison’s “Decasia” and Zbigniew Rybczynski’s “The 4th Dimension”. In 1992 he founded his own animation/effects company, Interface Arts. Currently he is working as a media arts professor at Pratt Institute and The University of the Arts teaching film and animation courses while also creating his own independent animation, documentary, and experimental films.

Five of Robert Lyon's experimental films have been officially selected by ROFFEKE. The other Robert Lyon film that has been selected is his documentary titled "Occupy Wall $treet, Taking the Brooklyn Bridge". It is a documentary "disguised as a music video. Shot over the course of apx. 4 hours on October 1st, 2011, in Zuccotti Park, and on the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC. It's day 14 of the Occupy Wall Street movement and a march has been planned, however the destination was as yet unknown. Participating for my first time, I wanted to document this emerging phenomenon and brought a video camera. As it turned out, for a brief time we collectively occupied The Brooklyn Bridge, at least until 700 of us were arrested. This was my experience."

You can watch the documentary here.

Long live positive rebellion!

And long live Tom Morello's awesome guitar solos :-)

SOULED OUT: A fun film that touches on the question - is rock 'n' roll the devil's music?

Souled out is a fun and funny short film with a twist in its red,pointed tail! :-) It touches on the question: "Is rock 'n' roll the devil's music?" The synopsis: "Simon Lake discovers what it takes to become the greatest rock star of all time." It was directed by Stephen Broekhuizen.

Director’s Statement:
Souled out was perhaps the most fun we have had on a shoot. The actors were great and everything really came together well. The idea for the story was just in taking a little twist on how the Devil is often thought of in both the world at large but also in film and TV. It really was a joy to work with such a talented crew and as professional a group of actors as anyone could ever hope to work with.

ROFFEKE: How long did it take you to film this?

STEPHEN: It took us 7 hours to film it, but that was down to doing a lot of prep the week before, having all the sets ready to go. The makeup for the devil took a further 2 hours. The actors had the scripts for maybe 8 weeks before we started filming, so while it was fairly quick to shoot on the day, a lot of work was done before filming. We had the lighting set up ready to go and the fact that we had not far to travel between locations also helped. Like we always say, the more you put into pre production the easier the production goes. We were also so lucky to have a group of actors who fully bought into the script and just had fun with it. Had we a budget or anything we would have maybe done a bit more with it but given it was done without any funding we did the best we could.

ROFFEKE: Did you write a full screenplay for this or did you just work with the idea/treatment and had the actors ad lib?

STEPHEN: It was scripted. The only ad lib was a little in the radio interview but even parts of that were scripted. I usually write very quickly; the script took about 40 minutes to write once I had the idea.

ROFFEKE: Any challenges?

STEPHEN: Getting the hospital bed was very tricky. We already had the radio studio as we do a podcast now and then and double it as our editing suite, but for sure getting the hospital bed was tough as patients can't get them. We were lucky in that a nursing home was able to give us a room they use for training for a few hours. The next challenge was, for sure, getting the devil looking right. Our makeup girl is fantastic and our wonderful devil (Paddy Gilley) was so patient in his having the makeup applied. It was always going to be key to have the devil look somewhat right or the film wouldn't work really so that was a worry but it turned out very well. Other issues are the usual things you come across such as issues around camera angles in tight spaces. The radio scene was filmed in an attic space that was very tight so that was a technical challenge for sure. Outside of that like anything else you need a little luck for things to work out and we managed to get that as well. My crew are all fantastic and that gives you a confidence to focus on the story and know the shots will look good and everything else will be taken care of.

Director's Bio:

Stephen Broekhuizen grew up between Cork in Ireland and Lisse in Holland. He graduated in 2008 from the University of Southern Maine in America and has been involved in film making and radio production and podcasting since 2003. He is a founding member of Here is No Why productions and has been making films and music videos with them since 2013.

ATTENTION ALL KENYAN ROCK BANDS! - Machakosfest: A short film festival

Hey Kenyan rock bands! Here is a great opportunity for your music to be used in a short film. Alternatively, you can take the initiative and commission a short film to be made and have your music used in the soundtrack. Here's more information.

Josep Calle Buendia, The Devil’s Nephew and a Fairy Tale!

Josep Calle Buendía produced and directed the MUY low-budget yet MUY creative music video for the song “Fairy Tale”. The song was composed and sung by El Sobrino del Diablo, which in English means “The Devil’s Nephew” :-) Josep submitted the music video to the ROFFEKE festhome.com page, together with the following synopsis: “The song deals with the world economic and values crisis, especially in Spain, and how it is affecting children.”

I was so impressed and blown away by the music video that I just had to interview Josep! He was gracious enough to answer my questions.

ROFFEKE: Gracias por su película maravillosa! I loved it! I would really like to know how you did it, the process of making it. How long did it take you? How much did it cost?

JOSEP CALLE BUENDIA: Thank you for your words. I did it with an animation process called "stop motion". It's like a cartoon, but I took photos instead of making drawings. I took 12 pictures per second.

ROFFEKE: How long did it take you? How much did it cost you?

JOSEP: The making was long, about 2 months. It costs less than 100 euros (the cost of some material, photocopies and prints). You can find the videoclip on Youtube too.



ROFFEKE: What was the most challenging part of making the video?

JOSEP: The most challenging part was the animation process. It is difficult to move the objects the right millimetres at the right time!

ROFFEKE: Milimetres. Wow! Why did you particularly use the stop motion technique to make the video? Was it your first time to use this technique or have you done other similar projects?

JOSEP: I am animator and the stop motion technique is my favourite. The musician also loves this technique. He gave me total freedom to adapt his song into images. I have done more animation shorts films. You can check my webpage

ROFFEKE: Were you the one who approached the musician or was it the musician who approached you? In other words, how did you guys find out about each other's work?

JOSEP: I approached the musician because I am a fan of his music. He was very kind and our collaboration was a success. He made other video clips in the past, but this was the first with the stop motion techniques, and it was very exciting. The song is so visual that it was easy for me to imagine the stories for each verse.

ROFFEKE: If someone wants to get into stop motion animation, what words of advice would you give them? What tools would they need? What qualities, apart from the obvious one - PATIENCE - would they need?

JOSEP: The tools I use for modeling are clay sculpting tools. I capture every movement with a DSLR camera connected to a laptop through a stop motion software.The main word of advice for anyone to get into stop motion is determination. It's very common to have unfinished projects because of the hard work required, especially in the beginnings... With patience and determination you can do anything.