Film
In “Piece by Piece”, Pharrell states that Lego fits his life story
TORONTO (AP) – When Pharrell Williams AND Morgan Neville decided to make a movie about Williams’ life, but animated from Lego bricks, they knew there can be a culture shock. But the creation of Piece by Piece still led to places that neither Williams, Neville or Lego could have predicted.
“We had a long discussion about the width of the back of the bikini bottom on the minifigure in the ‘Rump Shaker’ music video,” laughs Neville. “We had a lot of conversations about things I thought I would never talk about as a filmmaker.”
“Piece by Piece” didn’t include any easy assembly instructions. It’s part musical biopic, part documentary, part family film. It is, like many things in Williams’ life, stuffed with hits, radiating highs, beats and distinctiveness.
“Society likes to put us in boxes, pun intended,” Williams says, chatting with Neville. “It was a moment where this guy’s perspective on my life and the way he put it together was incredibly liberating for me. Even though I never saw myself in a box, now it helps other people too.”
“Piece by Piece,” which opens in Focus Features theaters on Friday, begins like many documentaries, with director Neville sitting with a camera crew focused on its foremost character, Williams. But on this case, Williams – and the whole lot else, including the bearded, bespectacled Neville – is Lego.
“What if we told my life in Lego?” – Williams asks within the film. “That will never happen,” Neville replies.
What follows is something of a conventional documentary, stuffed with colourful tales of past struggles and triumphs, from his childhood in Virginia Beach to a string of chart-topping hits, told through Williams’ voice and multiple talking heads. It was recorded this manner during interviews on camera, Zoom or phone, after which animated into Lego characters. Here’s finally a probability to see Busta Rhymes as Lego together with many others including Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and Missy Elliott.
“Our first meeting was with Lego, because if they said no, there would be no film,” says Neville, director of documentaries including “20 Feet from Fame.” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” AND “Steve!” To their credit, they not only agreed, but I feel they understood what development it might force them to make.”
For Lego, the Danish toy company, making “Piece by Piece” was its biggest challenge since entering feature-length movies with “The Lego Movie” from 2014 Neville approached the corporate’s director of world entertainment, Jill Wilfert, with the thought of making a documentary that can be the primary to be made not about himself. Wilfert reacted immediately.
“The whole idea of Lego is infinite creativity and limitless possibilities, and Pharrell really embodies that,” he says.
To prove the concept, Neville shot a 90-second video of Williams reflecting on his upbringing and his inspirations from artists like Stevie Wonder. (The “Songs in the Key of Life” vinyl record is one other one in all those belongings you never expected to see as Lego.)
Featured Stories
“I went away from saying, ‘This is definitely going to work,’” Neville says. “And everyone we showed it to understood. They said: I need to see this movie.
Still, Neville and Williams knew the Lego approach would mean working inside PG parameters. Some things about Williams’ life – comparable to being young and famous while performing in the highest circles of pop and hip-hop – would not fit right into a family film. Williams claims the film “paraphrases” his life.
“There were definitely some areas that didn’t meet my expectations of where we could go,” Wilfert says. “We had good dialogue throughout the entire process. Morgan and Pharrell, there was mutual respect because we are a brand that people have high expectations of and expect certain things from. So we worked with them on the areas that we thought made sense and the areas that didn’t make sense.”
It also pushed Lego in other ways. Williams is especially happy with the actual fact that Lego has expanded the range of skin tones and hair textures available because of the film. Williams’ Lego – which he carried proudly for the premiere of Piece by Piece on the Toronto International Film Festival – it was specially designed to match his skin tone.
“Name the type of person. We fought hard for its existence and recognition,” Williams says. “Lego has made a commitment and I think the brand is better for it.”
One of the film’s most inventive designs is illustrating songs that Williams created on his own or in collaboration, comparable to Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl,” Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” and Pharrell’s “Happy.” Each one is rendered as a novel, small, glowing set of Lego bricks put together.
The other, less completely happy facets of Williams’ life are out of the query. You won’t see anything “Blurred Lines” lawsuit by which Marvin Gaye’s estate sued for copyright infringement and won. There’s also nothing within the video about Williams’ recent legal spats with Neptunes co-founder Chad Hugo. Earlier this 12 months, Hugo filed a trademark opposition to the duo’s name, alleging that Williams had “fraudulently” tried to realize control of it. Williams’ representatives disagreed, saying Williams “contacted the company on numerous occasions to share ownership.”
However, “Piece By Piece” provides a positive portrait of Hugo, particularly from Williams’ early days in Virginia Beach when the 2 began making music together.
“There is nothing bittersweet. I am grateful for my experiences. “Chad is an integral part of the beginning, the genesis of my musical exploration and being there,” Williams says. “I met him in second grade in band class and the memories we have of making music together, I wouldn’t be sitting here if it weren’t for our meeting.”
Williams, who’s Men’s Creative Director at Louis Vuittonhas a talent for brand management. He released his debut solo album “In My Mind” in 2006 and way back got here into the highlight himself. However, as he himself admits, he remained a producer at heart. Not the whole lot in Piece by Piece was easy for him.
“A lot of this stuff felt vulnerable to me,” Williams says. “I cried twice during this story. I didn’t consider that he might ask questions that would trigger emotions. I’m such a manufactured person. I have produced so much of myself.”
It’s a sense that Neville can relate to, as a protean documentarian who’s accustomed to adapting to the style and attitude of his subjects.
“Pharrell, as a producer, often holds a mirror up to artists so they can see themselves. My job is to put a mirror in front of him so he can see himself,” Neville says. “I have a strange feeling that we have the same job.”
When Neville interviewed other musicians for the film, he told them they might be animated. But he didn’t say how. Only later did they learn that they might be Lego minifigures.
“Everyone was shocked and excited,” Williams says. “I feel prefer it brought out the inner child in each of them. Some of them take a look at life that way anyway. Others, even the tough ones, said, “Oh man, this is great.”
Capturing Williams’ life in a fun, even childlike way will definitely help some younger viewers connect with his story. Becoming a world-famous multi-hyphenate could seem unattainable to most, but “Piece by Piece” makes it seem almost like a lightning bolt.
“Lego highlights universality,” says Neville. “I have the impression that this whole film is an experiment in the tension between the specificity of real life and documentaries, and imagination and the universality of imagination.”
Forget about one list of action or overloaded my mother’s trail. “Force Shadow” gives us something that we rarely see: a black woman with a weapon in one hand and a motherly instinct in the opposite. In his debut, Kerry Washington, together with SYRA SY, provides fresh dynamics, which again defines what it means to guard and ensure-on the screen and beyond.
“So it was really great to have this new chapter in my library, in which I try to save my son with my husband, and we save our son,” she added, describing this role as “an exciting forward move” in her story as an actress.
In this full thriller Washington and Sy, they play in Kyrah and Issac, two former international special forces officers who fall in love and get off the online to guard their son. Starring Da’vine Joy Randolph and Method Man and produced by Washington and Sterling K. Brown, “Shadow Force” appears to be a modern, black family return of the classic love history “Bonnie and Clyde”.
Sy shouldn’t be foreign to the genre, appearing in the productions of action such as “Lupine” and “The Killer”. However, he says that this film made him take into consideration his experience as the daddy of a five -person screen.
I assumed my life was complicated, but after this film I spotted that it was not complicated – he concluded.
Washington, who’s the mother of 4 children who deliberately holds in the focal point, says that this role helped her see the balance that each one parents must navigate between being strong and loving, protective and care. We saw the star “Scandal”, which repaired Unfixable on heels. But he examines the nuances of contemporary parenting, avoiding missiles, balancing the emotional work of motherhood with the physicality of survival.
“Everyone who is the native parent is bad donkeys,” she said. “We will always balance the need to be fierce, strong and brave and go to the world to protect our children, with the need to be present, loving, generous and warm.”
Paying attention to the balance that she and the characters of Syne offer one another, raising her son, Washington explained: “Such is parenting in many ways.”
“Not all are trained mercenaries who kill people on life, so the circumstances look different, but we are all in our parenthood, we really try to balance this courage with this love.”
In addition to exciting action scenes and thrilling jokes, “Shadow Force” accommodates a layered story that fully reflects the size of black parenting.
Watch Shadow Force in cinemas today.
(Tagstranslat) black parenting
Film
“One of the greatest actors in history”: Spike Lee praises Denzel and Drops trailer of the new movie Together
There are few dynamic duets in Hollywood that require attention like Spike Lee and Denzel Washington. Many of us still resemble the electric sense of watching “Got Game” or “Malcolm X” and about how their good history has transported us to a different place and time.
Now fans of the best filmmaker from Brooklyn and Money are gaining their very own Mount Vernon, they not must wait for fresh inspiration.
This week, Lee divided for the first time into the “highest 2 lowest”, his new thriller with Washington, which also includes $ AP Rocky, Jeffrey Wright, Lachanze, and even the Ice Spice camera. He wrote on Instagram:
“I know that you waited” Hella Long “, and here is the trailer will give a teaser (finally) to 5. Return D and Lee-Otwywy Street 2 lowest. I da Washington/Lees Family Truth, Ruth. Ya-dig? Sho-Nuff. Simple up (fire) “
The mysterious trailer plays on the hit of James Brown “The Big Payback”, and Denzel Washington talks a few warning about the pursuit of money: “Can you deal with it? All the money is not good.”
IN Last performance In Anthony’s Carmelo Podcastie, “19:00 in Brooklyn” Lee suggested the creation of a movie, not revealing an excessive amount of.
“Denzel plays a music tycoon known as the best ears in the industry – and there is a kidnapping,” Lee said. The film is a reinterpretation of Lee in the classic “High and low” by Akira Kurosawa from 1963.
The film, produced by the iconic favorites A24 Studio, will definitely generate noise in theaters, and when Apple TV+will hit. His release appears amongst the growing expectations for one more known project Duo Black Filmmaking Duo-Ryan Coogler and “Sinners” by Michael B. Jordan.
“It’s as if we were outside in the garden … it’s amazing! Amazing,” Lee said, Praining Coogler and Jordan. “They do their job.”
Lee had nothing but Washington, saying Carmelo that their relationship was an actual creative blessing.
“This is a blessing,” he said, serious about their ten-year partnership, including “Mo ‘Better Blues” and “Inside Man”. “I am blessed that I work with one of the greatest actors in history.”
Lee also shared that “the highest 2 lowest” was invited to be shown at the Cannes film festival – on a major date: May 19. This is the same day “To The Right Thing” of the premiere in Cannes in 1989, in addition to the birthday of Malcolm X.
“I believe in numerology. It’s special for me,” Lee said.
“I am very pleased with the way the film has come up with, and I can’t wait to share it with the world.”
Check the trailer “top 2 lowest” below.
to
President Donald Trump looks at Hollywood at the next round of tariffs, threatening to download all movies produced outside the US 100%.
At the weekend, Trump accused other countries of “theft of film abilities” of the USA and said that he authorized the US trade and US trade representative to instantly start the strategy of implementing this recent import tax on all foreign movies. But further details or dates haven’t been delivered. And the White House confirmed that no final decisions were made from Monday.
Later Trump said that he would meet with industry directors about this proposal, but many remain unclear as to how you may even implement import tax on complex, international productions.
If they’re imposed, experts warn that such a tariff would dramatically raise the costs of making movies. This uncertainty can place film creators suspended, like other industries which have recently been caught on the sight of today’s ongoing industrial wars.
Unlike other sectors, which were recently addressed to tariffs, movies transcend physical goods, questioning the greater consequences of mental property. Here’s what we know.
Why does Trump threaten this steep film tariff?
Trump refers to fears related to national security, justification, which is similarly used to impose import taxes in some countries and a variety of goods specific to the sector.
On Sunday evening post On its Social Social Trump social networking platform, the American film industry “dies for a very fast death” because other countries offer “all kinds of encouragement” to drag out movies from the USA
Trump previously expressed concern about the production of movies abroad. And in recent years, American film and tv production has been difficult between Covid-19 pandemic failures, Hollywood Guild Strikes from 2023 and up to date fires in the Los Angeles region. Motivation programs have also been inspired for a very long time where movies are shot each abroad and in the USA, and more production leaves California to states similar to Georgia and New Mexico-also countries similar to Canada.
But unlike other sectors directed until recently imposed Trump tariffs, the American film industry currently has a industrial deficit, which is in favor of the USA.
In cinemas, movies produced by America predominantly dominate the domestic market. Data from the Motorcyclist Association also show that American movies have earned $ 22.6 billion for export and $ 15.3 billion in 2023 – with the last report noted that these movies “generated a positive trade balance in every main market in the world” for the USA for the USA
Last yr, international markets accounted for over 70% of total money revenues in Hollywood, notes Heeyon Kim, assistant to the strategy professor at Cornell University. He warns that tariffs and potential retaliation from other countries affecting this industry may result in billions of dollars of lost earnings and 1000’s of jobs.
“For me (this) there is simply no sense,” she said, adding that such tariffs can “undermine the flowering part of the American economy differently.”
The international Alliance of theatrical Stage Employees who represents the behind -the -scenes entertainment employees in the USA and Canada, on Monday said that Trump “correctly recognized” “urgent threat from international competition”, which is facing the American film and tv industry. But the union said that as a substitute, she really useful the administration of the implementation of the federal encouragement of production on production and other provisions regarding the “leveling of the pitch”, while not harming the industry.
How could a tax on foreign movies work?
This is no person.
“Traditional tariffs apply to physical imports cutting boundaries, but film production includes primarily digital services-photographing, editing and post-production work that takes place electronically,” notes Ann Koppuzha, a lawyer and lecturer in business law at the Leave School of Business University at the University of Santa Clara.
Koppuzha said that film production is more like a used service that could be taxed, not a cell. But taxes require confirmation by the Congress, which could also be a challenge even in the case of a republican majority.
Making a film can be an incredibly complex – and international process. Both large and small movies include production in the US and other countries. For example, large budget movies, similar to the upcoming “Mission: Impossible-The Final Reconing”, are shot throughout the world.
US studies often shoot abroad because tax incentives may help in production costs. But the general tariff around the world can discourage or limit options, she said Kim – hurting each Hollywood movies and global industry that help to create them.
“When you create this kind of vocabulary, you lack any nuances of how production works,” added Steven Schiffman, a longtime industry veteran and assistant professor at Georgetown University. “Sometimes it is enough to go to the location, because to be honest, it is too expensive to try to create on the sound stage”
Schiffman points to popular titles shot outside the USA – similar to the “Harry Potter” Warner Bros series, which was almost entirely shot in Great Britain “the costs of making that would literally produce these films under the proposed tariff,” he said.
Can film tariffs have repercussions on one other mental property?
In general, experts warn that the perspective of tariffing foreign movies falls into unexplored waters.
“There is simply no precedent or the sense of using tariffs for this type of creative services,” said Koppuzha. And although the Trump administration can extend similar threats to other types of mental property, similar to music, “they would encounter the same practical obstacles.”
But if it succeeds, some also warn of potential retaliation. Kim points to “amounts” that some countries had to assist in increasing their national movies, ensuring that, for instance, they get a few of the theater screens. Many of them have reduced or suspended such amounts over the years in the name of an open trade-but if the US imposes a wide tariff to all foreign movies, such amounts could return, “which will hurt a Hollywood film or any intellectual property,” Kim said.
And although the US domination in the film means “there are fewer substitutes”, Schiffman notes that other types of entertainment – similar to game development – could see related effects on the road.
Others emphasize the potential consequences of international cooperation.
“Creative distribution of content requires thoughtful economic approaches that recognize how modern story story flows over the boundaries,” notes Frank Albarrella, the American leader of the media and telecommunications sector at KPMG. “The question hanging on every screen: can we better cultivate American history through intelligent, targeted incentives, and maybe inadvertently force the audience to pay for more for what can become a narrower creative landscape?”
(Tagstranslate) @AP (T) Entertainment
