Nerdcore For Life: Now on DVD!

I can’t believe the day has finally come. Today is August 3rd, 2010 which means that our documentary Nerdcore For Life is now officially available to own on DVD! If you’d like top purchase a copy, just head to www.nerdcoreforlife.com to place your order. What does the DVD include? Well, here’s a breakdown of what’s on there:

The Movie
-The feature-length documentary (of course)

Bonus scenes
-Nerdcore Night After party
-The Sucklord meets Nomad
-Nerdcore in Las Vegas
-Monzy performs at Stanford
-The Nerdcore For Life team in Amsterdam

Music videos
-LOLcats by Doctor Popular
-Buggin’ Out by MC Router

As much as I love our film, I think the bonus scenes contain some of the best moments on the entire DVD. There’s some really awesome stuff in there. Basically the bonus scenes contain the footage that we thought was a little too harsh for the documentary.  (Check them out and you’ll understand what I mean.)

The release of the DVD closes a really huge chapter in my life. This Friday, August 6th it will be five years since I first heard of Nerdcore and got the insane idea in my head to try and make a movie about what was then, a totally underground and nascent genre. I’ve been trying to write a new description of the film for this announcement but I think our official synopsis still describes the film perfectly:

Two of the 21st century’s most powerful social forces; Hip-Hop and geek culture collide head-on in the feature-length documentary, Nerdcore For Life. Born on the internet, Nerdcore Hip-Hop is rap music made by geeks, for geeks and covers such traditionally nerdy topics as comic books, video games, sci-fi, anime and technology. This new and fascinating genre is founded on “Do It Yourself” ethics and most Nerdcore rappers create their music on home PCs and disseminate their work for free on the internet.

Though it has existed on-line for almost a decade, only recently has Nerdcore gone from being an internet fad to an underground cultural phenomenon. Filmed over the course of two years, Nerdcore For Life profiles the top names in the genre as they celebrate “geek Life” and their passion for hip hop to the fullest, fight anti-nerd stereotypes, and attempt to overcome the common obstacles that block musicians of all types from fulfilling their dreams. The documentary follows these dedicated artists as they go from recording rhymes in their mother’s basement to performing live for thousands of cheering fans. From their first song to their first MTV appearance, Nerdcore For Life chronicles the amazing transformation of a group of unknown nerds into internet celebrities and rising hip-hop stars.

I’m quite proud of this film and what we accomplished with it.  Now all that’s left for us to do is sell a copy to YOU!  So click here to do just that:  http://www.nerdcoreforlife.com/

In Your Face, Chicago!

In the early spring of 2009, I got a fancy new DV camera and I decided the best way to test it out would be to create a weekly web series. Yes, I was insane. The show was called In Your Face, Chicago! and lasted all of 7 episodes before I got totally burnt out. But those 7 episodes are actually pretty damn good if you ask me. I realized that there was no place on the web where all 7 episodes could be seen together. So I present to you now the full, 7 episode archive of In Your Face, Chicago!

Episode 3: Let the good times roll from In Your Face, Chicago on Vimeo.

Episode 4: The Best Comic Book Shops in Chicago from In Your Face, Chicago on Vimeo.

Episode 5: Love fest in the Land of the Dead from In Your Face, Chicago on Vimeo.

Episode 6: St. Patrick VS. The Southside from In Your Face, Chicago on Vimeo.

Episode 7: Talk Derby to Me from In Your Face, Chicago on Vimeo.

Fermilab music video hits the web

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland is (finally) up and running! While the folks over in Europe are busy celebrating, we thought we’d take this opportunity to pay homage to the ORIGINAL king of the particle accelerators; Fermilab in Batavia, IL, USA. The LHC got it’s own rap video back in 2008 so we figured it was about time Fermilab had one too!

Filmed on location in and around the Tevatron particle collider at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, “Particle Business” is rapper funky49’s hip-hop tribute to the “O.G. Atom Smasher.” The video was directed and edited by Dan Lamoureux, the filmmaker behind the Nerdcore hip-hop documentary, “Nerdcore For Life.” Huge thanks to all the fantastic folks at Fermilab that made this crazy thing possible! For more music from funky49 visit funky49.com.

And check this out, we even got a write up on the Discovery channel’s website: http://news.discovery.com/space/where-da-higgs-at-fermilabs-particle-rap.html

Coors Light buys our spec commercial

Hey! You’ve seen those Coors Light commercials where regular dudes crash a press conference and ask NFL coaches questions about Coors Light, right? Well Coors wanted more of those commercials to play on the “Coors Light Channel” on Tivo so they posted some footage of some NFL coaches giving answers and they invited filmmakers to use the clips in their own, original ads. I went for it and they bought and used my commercial! Here it is…..

It was apparently available on Tivo for a while but I never got to see it. The goal for 2010 is to have a company actually air something I made on TV but Tivo is a good start.

Haunts Against Hunger mini-doc

Way back in October I shot a mini-documentary for an ingenious event called Haunts Against Hunger.  Basically a bunch of very committed Halloween enthusiasts dress like zombies and hold a food drive.  The drive has grown nicely since it’s inception and now “home haunters” leave boxes in their front yards all month so people can drop off food.  As the video explains, they had a really successful drive this year.

Big thanks to all the folks that appeared and who support the food drive including founders Thom Kramer and Paul Daniels of Darkside Studios and guests Kitty Zombie and Ron Fitzgerald!

Harley Davidson buys our promo!

A few months back I found an awesome website called Poptent which hooks up filmmakers with brands that are looking for creative content.  Harley Davidson held an Open Call on Poptent for videos that promote the new Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee.  Milwaukee’s only a 2 hour drive for me so I figured why not take a road trip and do a little mini-documentary about the museum?  Well, I just found out that Harley bought my video for a VERY nice amount!  The plan is that the video will be shown on the museum’s website and it will even run on the TVs in Harley Dealerships.

I’m really, really proud of the way this video turned out.  It might be the most challenging thing I ever edited.  As fate would have it, my Crapbot associate, Rodney Simale and I went to the museum right in the middle of Milwaukee’s annual motorcycle fest.  That meant the museum was full and lively and that was great….but outside there were hundreds of bikes revving all…day…long.  The grounds of the museum are really cool looking; there’s a huge area where riders park their bikes so everyone can look at them.  I thought we’d do a bunch of our interviews in that area.  But when we got there the noise was loud I figured we’d have to do most of our filming inside.

But guess what you hear inside the museum?  Audio recordings of revving motorcycles!  As Nelson Muntz would say, the ironing was delicious.  Still, we were able to find some spots that were quiet enough.  It took a lot of work but I think the final spot turned out really nicely.  If my work has a “style” this is definitely a perfect representation of it.  Check it out, won’t you?

It is on like a Tevatron

One of the best things about being a filmmaker is that sometimes you get to go places and see things that are off limits to the general public.  My camera has opened a lot of doors for me but of all the crazy things I’ve been allowed to shoot, the stuff I got to film this past week takes the cake.  For reasons that are still not 100% clear to me, I got to spend 2 days filming a music video at one of the most important scientific facilities in the world; FermiLab.  FermiLab is located in Batavia, IL and is home to the world’s largest particle accelerator. (Though the Large Hadron Collider at Cern will be taking over that title soon)  Anyway, it’s a big ass machine called a tevatron that flings particles at each other at mind-blowing speeds.  When the particles collide they rip apart and physicists are able to catch a passing glimpse of the stuff that makes up those particles.  But that’s just one of the many types of world-class science they are doing at FermiLab.  Those people are hardcore over there.

I grew up only about an hour from FermiLab.  I was kind of an atomic energy nerd when I was younger and I always hoped that my class would go to the lab for a field trip.  We never did and I always regretted it.  Well, I that is to say I did regret it.  Over the last few days I got to see every nook and radioactive cranny of that place.

Me, Funky49 and our bodyguards in the Tevatron control room

How’d it happen?  Well a few weeks back a Nerdcore rapper from Florida named Funky49 e-mailed and said he had written a rap about FermiLab and he was flying to Illinois to visit the facility.  Funky makes a brief cameo in Nerdcore For Life and he knew that I lived not to farm from Batavia so he asked if I’d want to shoot a music video with him while he was in town.  I said ‘heck yeah’ and that was that.

Funky49 outside FermiLab's Wilson Hall

FermiLab was really, really, REALLY supportive of the whole project.  As it turned out the Fermi rap was even the brainchild of FermiLab scientist; Dr. Ben Kilminster.  Funky49 had created an entire hip-hop album about Tampa’s Museum of Science and Industry.  Dr. Ben heard it and thought Funky would be the perfect guy to do a rap song and video about FermiLab.

Now, if you are a gigantic mega-nerd this whole concept might sound a little familiar to you.  A rap video shot at particle accelerator?  Hasn’t that been done before??  It sure has and that’s the point!  As I mentioned, the tevatron at FermiLab is about to lose its “world’s largest” status to the new particle accelerator at CERN in Switzerland.  Last year, some staff members at CERN created their own hip-hop video entitled “The Large Hadron Rap.”

The video is pretty good and damn did it blow up on the web-o-sphere!  The Large Hadron Rap video is up to 5.2 million views on youtube.  So the FermiLab folks figured that perhaps it was time for the Americans to rebut with a hip-hop video of their own!  And so, I now find myself on the front line of history’s first international, particle physics hip-hop feud.

Me filming the camera-shy buffalo

Funky49 and I spent two days running around the FermiLab compound.  And man, it really is a “compound.”  It’s a huge, amazing place.  What I like best about it is that the designers of the facilities really tried to reflect spirit of the mid-west in the grounds.  There are vast fields of open prairie between the buildings and there’s even an entire heard of buffalo living there.

It’s going to take me a few weeks to cut the video together but I have a feeling it will turn out to be something really cool.  We were allowed an absurd level of access.  We even got to film the open tevatron!  After we were done, we had to get “frisked” by a Geiger counter to make sure we hadn’t been irradiated.  And that wasn’t just some overcautious act.  The hardhats of our two chaperons tuned out to have been contaminated with radioactive dust while we were filming!

Inside the Tevatron room with our guides and their irradiated hard hats

So anyway, it was a great couple of days.  Huge thanks to Funky49 for asking me to do the video and extra big thanks to Dr. Ben and all the great people at FermiLab for showing us around and putting up with our shenanigans.  Check back in a few weeks to see the finished video!

Movie meets world

I’m very happy to finally announce that we’ve signed a worldwide distribution agreement for Nerdcore For Life with a fantastic company called Journeyman Pictures.  Journeyman is based in the UK and they specialize is distributing offbeat documentaries.  They do a ton of business throughout Europe which is a market that we all think will be really accepting of a crazy documentary about rapping nerds.  Journeyman has some really interesting plans for Nerdcore For Life. The DVD release is already in the works but the film should hopefully be accessible to people in lots of other ways.  For now though, the focus is getting the DVD ready to ship.  So stay tuned for a release date!

OMG! LOLcats musik video unleeshed on teh internetz!

It was exactly one year ago today, on July 12th, 2008 that Nerdcore rapper/producer Doctor Popular and I spent an afternoon in a garbage filled alley in San Francisco filming a music video for his song LOLcats. Nerdcore For Life is roughly 84 minutes long.  It took about 5 months to edit.  The music video for LOLcats is under 3 minutes.  It took me 12 months to edit.  Ok…I didn’t spend all 12 months editing the thing.  It just got pushed to the back burner for a minute.  But when I realized that the one year anniversary of the shoot was coming up, I dug through my hard drive, found the files and finally finished our nerdcore magnum opus.  I didn’t exactly plan to post the video one year to the day that we shot it but sometimes the universe just makes cool stuff like this happen.

I think the video turned out awesome.  I’ve watched it 500 times at this point and it still makes me smile.  The song is great and Doc Pop is actually a really good actor too.  I think the reason I like the video so much is because I think LOLcats and Icanhascheezburger.com are like the most hilarious things to take up space on the internetz.  I look at ICHC every day!  Doc Pop is an LOLcat fan too and when you combine our geeky affection for this bizarre little meme, you get a very strange music video packed with in-jokes that only the most die-hard LOLcat fans will understand.  Even the San Francisco ally where we shot the video is an in-joke!  (details here)

So watch and try to enjoy the fruits of our Audio and Visual labors.  If you get every single LOLcat reference then congratulations;  you win a cheezburger…..and a belly rub…and a bukit!  We took a bunch of pictures during the shoot.  Here are a few of my favorites:

This might be my favorite photo of the set. It's just 2 guys; one performing and one filming. I didn't even own a decent camera this time last year. The one in the picture is borrowed.

End of the road?

I stopped submitting Nerdcore For Life to film festivals a good while back and now that I think about it, I don’t think the doc has had a festival screening since October!  Oh my God, that feels like it was last month.  No wait!  We screened in the Lake County Film Fest a few months back.  Well anyway, I thought we’d go for one more and as it turns out, we were accepted to what will probably be Nerdcore For Life’s final film festival.  The fest?  The Hardacre Film and Cinema Festival in Tipton, Iowa.  It’s our Iowa premiere!  There are only 5 documentary features selected for this year’s festival so it’s quite an honor to be accepted.  Couple that with the sentimentality that comes with our last fest screening and I’ve got enough motivation to get in my car and drive out there.  The festival runs August 7th and 8th at the very cool looking Hardacre Theater.  Is “Hardacre” the best name for an Iowa film festival or what?  Like I can just imagine that the theater got its name because the farmers would go there at the end of the day to unwind after working their “hard acres” or something.  Or maybe it was just built by a guy named “Arnie Hardacre.”  I don’t know.  I’ll check on that when I get out there.

http://www.tiptoniowa.us/hardacre/

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