April 15, 2011
- Thread starter Gemini
- Start date
I just wrapped up an interview with the Monterey County Herald newspaper. It will be in the Sunday edition.
I will keep you all posted.
http://www.montereyherald.com/
I will keep you all posted.
http://www.montereyherald.com/
Made it to the local news in the 831 area!!!!!
Soledad Filmmaker Gets Ready For His Close-up
Posted: Apr 08, 2011 12:00 PM PDT Updated: Apr 08, 2011 12:31 PM PDT
By David Lee
SOLEDAD, Calif - Documentary filmmaker Fred F. Segura is excited and ready to screen his new film, "Street Connect: Everybody Has a Dream"
The film is based on local artist in the Monterey County area and how difficult it is to make it in the music business.
The heart of the film is based on an artist who is trying to make it, yet deals with the loss of his father and his mom being in a coma for the past 3 years.
According to Segura, the film is a positive one. No negativity whatsoever. Segura says, "It's a humble organic story that is happening in our area and all over the world. The only difference is, it's been documented on film in Monterey County."
The first screening of the film is Friday April 15, at the Soledad Bowling Alley in Soledad.
http://www.kionrightnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=14411519
Soledad Filmmaker Gets Ready For His Close-up
Posted: Apr 08, 2011 12:00 PM PDT Updated: Apr 08, 2011 12:31 PM PDT
By David Lee
SOLEDAD, Calif - Documentary filmmaker Fred F. Segura is excited and ready to screen his new film, "Street Connect: Everybody Has a Dream"
The film is based on local artist in the Monterey County area and how difficult it is to make it in the music business.
The heart of the film is based on an artist who is trying to make it, yet deals with the loss of his father and his mom being in a coma for the past 3 years.
According to Segura, the film is a positive one. No negativity whatsoever. Segura says, "It's a humble organic story that is happening in our area and all over the world. The only difference is, it's been documented on film in Monterey County."
The first screening of the film is Friday April 15, at the Soledad Bowling Alley in Soledad.
http://www.kionrightnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=14411519
Yezzir! Thank you. This is the new direction I've been wanting to take. Too many people want the "streets" to embrace their music / product, but we end up falling into the same loop of people and never move past that.
Reaching out and getting support from the community opens more doors and really promotes you to a much bigger audience.
At the same time, to each his / her own.
Most important, little things like this are simply stepping stones. And with that being said it's important to stay focused and humble on this road we have all chosen to take.
I went out to Bend, OR. & Tx, but trust me, you could never cram in every rapper from interviews like that into a one hour film. Although, you can get away with it if you added the ones not interviewed to appear in a cameo. Which is what I did. And even then, not everyone will make the final cut.
You have to step in as an actual filmmaker & not take it personal. I found myself wanting to leave shots because of certain people, or what I though was well said, but stepping outside the box I realized it was not vital to the story, so I cut it.
The original cut was already at 1 hr. & 45mins. I let some people screen it... I stepped away from it for a few months and got back to it and really focused on it strictly as a filmmaker and ended up cutting 50 or so minutes out. I replaced a few shots and ended it at an hour.
Let people screen it again & one said, "I saw the longer version, but felt like it needed more. And the shorter version, seems like I got more out of it."
Some people said I took too long, but know that putting an actual film together is not like putting together a music video. You can get away with a few things in music videos that you can never do in film. In a actual film, you have to hold the story line and keep it moving. And know to not show one person talking forever because it just becomes boring. That's where your editing skills have to kick in because you may have the right idea & the everything said is important, but your film can end up being a disaster if not edited right.
You have to step in as an actual filmmaker & not take it personal. I found myself wanting to leave shots because of certain people, or what I though was well said, but stepping outside the box I realized it was not vital to the story, so I cut it.
The original cut was already at 1 hr. & 45mins. I let some people screen it... I stepped away from it for a few months and got back to it and really focused on it strictly as a filmmaker and ended up cutting 50 or so minutes out. I replaced a few shots and ended it at an hour.
Let people screen it again & one said, "I saw the longer version, but felt like it needed more. And the shorter version, seems like I got more out of it."
Some people said I took too long, but know that putting an actual film together is not like putting together a music video. You can get away with a few things in music videos that you can never do in film. In a actual film, you have to hold the story line and keep it moving. And know to not show one person talking forever because it just becomes boring. That's where your editing skills have to kick in because you may have the right idea & the everything said is important, but your film can end up being a disaster if not edited right.
Soledad rapper gets personal in new film
Marc Cabrera The Beat
Posted: 04/10/2011 01:33:19 AM PDT
For Fred Segura, what started as a long, hard look at the local hip-hop music scene soon became a deeper examination of his own life struggles.
"Street Connect: Everyone Has a Dream" is a documentary that Segura, who goes by the stage name "Tha Grindhouse," began filming in in 2006.
Segura will screen the film at 7p.m. Friday, at the Soledad Bowling Alley, 235 West St., Soledad. $5 cover, with an after-party featuring DJs. The event is 21-and-over.
Segura is a veteran independent rapper, Soledad resident and stay-at-home father of two who has been recording, producing and performing his own music for two decades now.
His film project began as a reflection of the hip-hop artists representing the 831 area code. Segura interviewed his peers, like-minded rappers who produced, packaged and distributed their own music in the traditional DIY structure.
After all that time, he began to question whether he and his peers were on the right path to turning their passion of making music into a full-fledged career.
"When I started filming, I just felt that we, as an area, were not going anywhere as independent artists," said Segura. "I noticed that people were content with recording CDs, printing them and then selling them in mom-and-pop stores."
"I just felt like, 'There's got to be more than this.' I felt like we weren't progressing anything," he said.
Segura began collecting footage, hours and hours of interviews with local artists like Superior1, Jay Mac, Warlordz, Doom The Original, Yun Gun and Germz — artists who were personally and financially invested in their craft while searching for an audience beyond their local area code.
The initial product was very raw. Lots of fuzzy audio from interviews with artists who recorded in their bedroom and garage studios.
A personal tragedy altered the project, and Segura's perspective in general.
Segura's mother suffered a massive stroke in 2007 that has left her in a coma for almost four years.
When Segura's mother wound up in a nursing facility a block away from his house, he stepped away from his personal project.
He picked it back up in May 2009, determined to complete his work. After splicing together his footage and sharing it with others, he wasn't content with the results.
"I didn't want to be in the film whatsoever," he insisted. "What happened was, I kept getting the same typical rapper story (from the interviews). 'My mother was single. We were on welfare. We live in the ghetto.' I said to myself, 'This isn't working.'"
That's when he decided to turn the camera on himself. Segura decided to focus his lens on personal matters as they related to his art and hip-hop.
He opened up about his personal life, the fact that his mother was in a care facility so close to home, yet he couldn't bear to visit her everyday.
"It's hard for me to deal with it. Some people don't understand and judge and point fingers, but I say that in the film," he said. "I'm trying to live my life and at the same time still trying to make it. That's really what it is."
The film's ultimate message is that while people are quick to label rappers as gangsters and thugs, they are regular people going through regular life struggles.
"My whole vision was to make the area look right," he said. "I wanted to show that the artists in the area, we know how to conduct ourselves."
As Segura gets older and looks at life with a new perspective, his art has taken a more immediate role.
"My perspective is that, as we get older, it becomes a do-or-die kind of mission, where we hit the studio as much as we can and we try to do things as much as we can, because age-wise, we don't have that time," he said.
Even though he's invested so much of his time and personal life into this project, Segura is aware that he has no control over how his art will be received by his audience.
"Everybody is going to get what they get out of it," he said, "But as far as I'm concerned, it's all in there."
http://www.montereyherald.com/marccabrera/ci_17813748?nclick_check=1
I received a call yesterday afternoon from a lady who say's she is an executive producer for a new talk show coming to television. Said they just taped their first episode last week. And she wants me to be on there and she will be attending the screening on the 15th.
Also seemed to have legit info on pitching the film to some big names and advised me not to sell it, or put on DVD.
We'll see how it all goes. If it is legit, maybe I can try & get away with wearing a Siccness.net t-shirt, or simply the gas mask icon :cheeky:
Also seemed to have legit info on pitching the film to some big names and advised me not to sell it, or put on DVD.
We'll see how it all goes. If it is legit, maybe I can try & get away with wearing a Siccness.net t-shirt, or simply the gas mask icon :cheeky:
Again, I'd like to thank everyone who came out to last nights screening. The applause, cheers & standing ovation at the end was overwhelming, but I could never of did it by myself. Everybody! The independent artist, producers, DJ's etc. This is your story! I simply put it together on film for the world to see.
Thank you!
- Fred F. Segura
http:www.facebook.com/Fish831
Thank you!
- Fred F. Segura
http:www.facebook.com/Fish831