Wave Twisters | |
---|---|
Directed by | Eric Henry Syd Garon |
Screenplay by | Doug Cunningham Syd Garon Eric Henry |
Story by | DJ Q-Bert |
Produced by | Yogafrog |
Edited by | Rodney Ascher Kim Bica Syd Garon Eric Henry Carol Lynn Weaver |
Music by | DJ Q-Bert |
Distributed by | Thud Rumble |
Release date |
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Running time | 46 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $250,000 [2] |
Wave Twisters is a 2001 American animated film directed by Eric Henry and Syd Garon and based on DJ Q-Bert's album of the same name. It is known as the first turntablism-based musical. It is a mix of live-action, computer graphics, and cel animation.
A crew of heroes is determined to save the lost arts of hip hop: break dancing, graffiti, MCing, and DJing from total extinction. The lost arts are being oppressed throughout inner-space by lord Ook and his evil minions the Chinheads. DJ and dentist The Dental Commander, graffiti artist Honey Drips, robotic MC Rubbish, and breakdancer Grandpa have a series of adventures, synchronized to the music. Armed with the ancient relic known as the Wave Twister (a small turntable/wristwatch, the only weapon powerful enough to defeat the enemies), they travel to the far ends of inner-space for a final confrontation with the sinister army of oppressors. The film ends with the team teaching the liberated the lost fundamentals of hip hop.
The film is entirely scripted to match the DJ Q-Bert recording. It was produced digitally using Adobe After Effects and a relatively small team of animators, who used Apple PowerMac G3 computers. [2] [3] The film spent three years in production. [4] DJ Q-Bert wanted to make videos for his music without sacrificing his street influences. At the same time, he wanted to highlight the underground elements in hip hop culture. [5] [6] Sources for the images used in the film include NASA and old cartoons. Other influences include Shaft , Star Trek , Bullitt , and Lost in Space . [2]
The film has had several different premieres, each of which debuted a new cut of the film. [2] After the showing at Sundance Film Festival, DJ Q-Bert self-distributed the film and released it on home video without any copy protection. [3] [4]
Vibe called it "a Saturday-morning cartoon gone street". [4] Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote, "A dazzling sensory-overload goof, animated featurette Wave Twisters pays parodic homage to sci-fi actioners in terms as densely layered as its visual and sonic textures." [7] Harvey states that more staid audiences may not get the film, but it will appeal highly to the MTV generation. [7]
Fred Brathwaite, more popularly known as Fab 5 Freddy, is an American visual artist, filmmaker, and hip hop pioneer. He is considered one of the architects of the street art movement. Freddy emerged in New York's downtown underground creative scene in the late 1970s as a graffiti artist. He was the bridge between the burgeoning uptown rap scene and the downtown No Wave art scene. He gained wider recognition in 1981 when Debbie Harry rapped on the Blondie song "Rapture" that "Fab 5 Freddy told me everybody's fly." In the late 1980s, Freddy became the first host of the groundbreaking hip-hop music video show Yo! MTV Raps.
The High School of Art and Design is a career and technical education high school in Manhattan, New York City, New York State, United States. Founded in 1936 as the School of Industrial Art, the school moved to 1075 Second Avenue in 1960 and more recently, its Midtown Manhattan location on 56th Street, between Second and Third Avenues, in September 2012. High School of Art and Design is operated by the New York City Department of Education.
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Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects, mixes and other creative sounds and beats, typically by using two or more turntables and a cross fader-equipped DJ mixer. The mixer is plugged into a PA system and/or broadcasting equipment so that a wider audience can hear the turntablist's music. Turntablists typically manipulate records on a turntable by moving the record with their hand to cue the stylus to exact points on a record, and by touching or moving the platter or record to stop, slow down, speed up or, spin the record backwards, or moving the turntable platter back and forth, all while using a DJ mixer's crossfader control and the mixer's gain and equalization controls to adjust the sound and level of each turntable. Turntablists typically use two or more turntables and headphones to cue up desired start points on different records.
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Scratch or scratching may refer to:
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