“You can have the greatest picture in the world, the greatest actor or screenplay in the world, but you have to have sound. If I can’t hear the lines, or music that moves me emotionally, it’s sort of a failed effort.” – David Merrill, co-founder, FuelFilm Memphis.
FuelFilm Memphis held its first Media Expo on Saturday, August 27, at Sky Grille in Midtown Memphis. FuelFilm is a nonprofit organization promoting the growth of the Memphis film industry by educating filmmakers and investors on the development of independent film projects, and facilitating relationships between investors, producers, directors and writers to get more local films made in Memphis.
The event combined two previous FuelFilm events, “one that was a crew trade show and networking event for people working behind the scenes, and the other was a mass casting event where independent filmmakers could come and cast their film projects,” said Merrill.
As Merrill said, bad sound and music can doom a project, which is why during their annual “48 Hour Film Launch” event FuelFilm puts out a call to local musicians who are asked to donate music for free or for a nominal fee. “We like to help network, because a local musician has a real opportunity to work with a filmmaker they like and provide their music or compose something original for the film,” added Merrill.
If there was anybody at the Media Expo on Saturday that understands the music/film marriage it was Sherman Willmott, founder of Shangri La Records, and later Shangri La Projects. Willmott attended the expo “to help other filmmakers, producers and directors to get their film out without spending too much money, (to teach them) how to make a film properly without making too many mistakes, and the trials and tribulations of distribution in a world that is literally changing every day for film, video and TV.”
Sherman Willmott with Memphis Film Commisioner Lynn Sitler
Willmott recently worked as a co-executive producer with Off the Top Rope Productions on “Memphis Heat,” a documentary about professional wrestling in Memphis from the 1950s to the 1980s. The soundtrack to the film “is an amazing piece of work by one of the top producers in the country,” said Willmott. No jet lag here—the producer was Doug Easley of Easley-McCain Recording, a Memphis company. Along with two tracks by local band River City Tanlines, “the soundtrack was mostly composed for the film by Doug and his crew at his studio, and he really captured the mood of the film wherever it needed to be.”
Musicians matched with filmmakers. Soundtracks by top notch producers that also show how passionate they were about the film. Local upstarts such as Piano Man Pictures should have no problem getting their feet in the door, onto the foyer and into the kitchen.
“One night I just got a USB microphone, turned the reverb all the way up, got out a guitar and messed around,” said Shelby Baldock, co-founder of Piano Man Pictures along with friend Chad Barton, about the soundtrack to their film “I Can’t Turn it Off.” But the soundtrack wasn’t just home produced. “I took it to my friend Michael Joyner who has a studio here in town and he did the mastering.” Baldock and Barton attended the event to promote their latest project, a TV pilot called “Lights, Camera, Bullshit,” an absurdist comedy that may or may not include a gang of presidential icons led by Herbert Hoover. Shooting begins in December.
With as many filmmakers and musicians as there are in Memphis, it’s no wonder the two media are growing together. Baldock added “I don’t think we would have been able to do what we did in the last year if we were in a different city. Someone once said that you can walk around Memphis with a wad of pennies and throw it, and no matter who they hit one of them will have some kind of musical ability.”
Film needs music, and vice versa. With nonprofit organizations like FuelFilm organizing collaborative events and local production companies lending their services to produce material locally it’s obvious that the film and music businesses in Memphis are willing to work together and because of that are here to stay for a long time.
