documentary
Budget: £250 – £750 GBP
I'm in need of a passionate filmmaker to create a documentary for me. This documentary will focus on a biography of a person of my choosing and will have to be at least 60 minutes in length. I'm looking for this documentary to be framed in a narrative style, with creative visuals and gripping story telling that will grab the attention of the viewers. A successful completion of this project will depend on the filmmaker's ability to successfully tell this story and convey emotion in the most engaging way.Please note that I'm open to creative suggestions as developing this documentary further. Please apply if you have an idea for a compelling documentary portrait, with the ability to create a narrative that is gripping, inspiring and unique. Thank you for your interest.
You can draw on two books I have written on the person:
The hoopla surrounding the purported fiftieth anniversary of rock & roll didn't quite ring true. Bill Haley might have lobbied for 2001 ... fifty years after he'd covered Rocket '88'; or 2002 ... fifty years after he'd recorded Rock The Joint; or 2003 ... fifty years after he broke into the pop charts with Crazy Man Crazy, a record that fit every criterion of rock 'n' roll. But, of course, Bill Haley said not a word; he had died neglected and alone on the Mexican border in 1981, and even at the time of his death he was wondering why he'd be written out of the story." (Colin Escott, Nashville)
On April 12th 1954, Bill Haley & His Comets created the "National Anthem Of Teenagers" (Lillian Roxon) with "Rock Around The Clock", - the song which became the best-selling rock single of all time. It was not until July 6th 1954 when Elvis Presley cut his first disc - "That's Alright" - which became only a local hit in Memphis. During the same year, Bill Haley & His Comets received their first gold record for their million-seller "Shake, Rattle & Roll" and scored with "Dim Dim the Lights" in the Pop and Rhythm & Blues Charts. Bo Diddley was a year away from scoring his first hit. The same applied to Chuck Berry. Buddy Holly was sixteen and playing with school friend Bob Montgomery as a Western swing duo. Little Richard did various odd jobs, whereas Fats Domino did not change his New Orleans R&B to a more mainstream rock & roll approach until 1955. Last but not least, Jerry Lee Lewis was still performing country music in the honky tonks of Louisiana.
In 1955, Bill Haley's highly controlled, syncopated chorus of sounds, all driven by a wild, primitive, but always thundering beat, was introduced worldwide in the box office smash teenage drama "Blackboard Jungle" starring Glenn Ford and a young Sidney Poitier. This film was the ignition for "Rock Around The Clock" becoming synonymous with rock & roll. With sales now exceeding 200,000,000 copies, it was recorded by more than 500 artists in 32 different languages. It has also been featured in 40 motion pictures and, of course, as the title track to the TV series "Happy Days"
The greatest accomplishment of Bill Haley & His Comets lies in their paving the way for all the other artists that followed.
From 1952 until 1960, Bill Haley & His Comets scored 30 hits in the US and UK charts. In 1957, at the beginning of Bill Haley’s first UK tour, he was greeted by 4,000 fans at London’s Waterloo train station. The following year, his 1958 European tour included appearances in Germany, (which began approximately three weeks after Elvis Presley was shipped there, courtesy of Uncle Sam) and caught the attention of the international press. The Haley concerts held at the West Berlin Sportspalace erupted in mass rioting and became a daily news item. The East German newspaper “Neues Deutschland” condemned him as “the rock & roll gangster, Haley celebrating an orgy of American un-culture. ”The West German periodical “Rheinische Merkur” reported: “he, of all people, the Comet of instinct-unchaining started a major offensive against taste, standing and self-respect. All that in the bishopric of Essen on the day of the Papacy vote”.
The Soviet paper “Pravda” declared him, along with rock & roll, as “a secret weapon of the west against socialism”, whereas the FBI under the infamous J. Edgar Hoover (best known for his wiretapping of anyone whom he viewed as “suspicious”) started an investigation into theories and accusations of what was feared and suspected as “communist music”. Asa Carter, head of the “Alabama White Citizens Committee”, charged the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) with seducing and corrupting white teenage girls by promoting rock & roll. He is quoted as saying in 1956, “with its basic heavy beat of the Negroes, it appeals to the base in man; it brings out animalism and vulgarity”. He then promised to initiate a “…campaign to force radio stations and jukebox owners to boycott this immoral music”. Perhaps the culmination of all this hysteria, however, was the opinion published as the headline of the prestigious New York Times on March 28th 1956: “Rock & Roll Called ‘Communicable Disease’” in which the Hartford, Connecticut psychiatrist Francis Braceland declared rock music “cannibalistic and tribalistic”, claiming, “…it is insecurity and rebellion. It impels teenagers to wear ducktail haircuts, wear zoot suits, and carry on boisterously at rock & roll affair”. While classical cellist Pablo Casals described the music of Bill Haley in the 1950s as the “distillation of all disgust of our time”, the German music expert Barry Graves (recognized equally in the cultural circles of Berlin and New York) in hearing Haley’s style during the first rock & roll revival at the end of the 1960s conversely declared, “The definitive rock & roll style (is) blended from country & western, Dixieland-jazz and rhythm & blues”. Haley himself, taking a calm, confident and somewhat more level headed approach, explained “I thought if I were to take a Dixieland melody and leave out the emphasis on the first and third beat, but emphasize the second and fourth, and add a beat to which the listenerscan clap or even dance – that would serve their wishes. The rest was easy – I took catchy phrases like ‘Crazy Man, Crazy’ and made songs out of them with the method I just explained.” On February 9th, 1981 Bill Haley died suddenly of an apparent heart attack at his home in Harlingen, Texas. He was only 55 years old. What occurred before, during, after, and in between the many successes and phases of Bill Haley’s career? What was actually behind the professional image of “the star” Bill Haley? And what led to his untimely death at the relatively young age of 55? These are a few of the questions that this book shall attempt to address. And perhaps one more can be answered in the process: WHO, really was the man who invented rock & roll?
You can draw on two books I have written on the person:
The hoopla surrounding the purported fiftieth anniversary of rock & roll didn't quite ring true. Bill Haley might have lobbied for 2001 ... fifty years after he'd covered Rocket '88'; or 2002 ... fifty years after he'd recorded Rock The Joint; or 2003 ... fifty years after he broke into the pop charts with Crazy Man Crazy, a record that fit every criterion of rock 'n' roll. But, of course, Bill Haley said not a word; he had died neglected and alone on the Mexican border in 1981, and even at the time of his death he was wondering why he'd be written out of the story." (Colin Escott, Nashville)
On April 12th 1954, Bill Haley & His Comets created the "National Anthem Of Teenagers" (Lillian Roxon) with "Rock Around The Clock", - the song which became the best-selling rock single of all time. It was not until July 6th 1954 when Elvis Presley cut his first disc - "That's Alright" - which became only a local hit in Memphis. During the same year, Bill Haley & His Comets received their first gold record for their million-seller "Shake, Rattle & Roll" and scored with "Dim Dim the Lights" in the Pop and Rhythm & Blues Charts. Bo Diddley was a year away from scoring his first hit. The same applied to Chuck Berry. Buddy Holly was sixteen and playing with school friend Bob Montgomery as a Western swing duo. Little Richard did various odd jobs, whereas Fats Domino did not change his New Orleans R&B to a more mainstream rock & roll approach until 1955. Last but not least, Jerry Lee Lewis was still performing country music in the honky tonks of Louisiana.
In 1955, Bill Haley's highly controlled, syncopated chorus of sounds, all driven by a wild, primitive, but always thundering beat, was introduced worldwide in the box office smash teenage drama "Blackboard Jungle" starring Glenn Ford and a young Sidney Poitier. This film was the ignition for "Rock Around The Clock" becoming synonymous with rock & roll. With sales now exceeding 200,000,000 copies, it was recorded by more than 500 artists in 32 different languages. It has also been featured in 40 motion pictures and, of course, as the title track to the TV series "Happy Days"
The greatest accomplishment of Bill Haley & His Comets lies in their paving the way for all the other artists that followed.
From 1952 until 1960, Bill Haley & His Comets scored 30 hits in the US and UK charts. In 1957, at the beginning of Bill Haley’s first UK tour, he was greeted by 4,000 fans at London’s Waterloo train station. The following year, his 1958 European tour included appearances in Germany, (which began approximately three weeks after Elvis Presley was shipped there, courtesy of Uncle Sam) and caught the attention of the international press. The Haley concerts held at the West Berlin Sportspalace erupted in mass rioting and became a daily news item. The East German newspaper “Neues Deutschland” condemned him as “the rock & roll gangster, Haley celebrating an orgy of American un-culture. ”The West German periodical “Rheinische Merkur” reported: “he, of all people, the Comet of instinct-unchaining started a major offensive against taste, standing and self-respect. All that in the bishopric of Essen on the day of the Papacy vote”.
The Soviet paper “Pravda” declared him, along with rock & roll, as “a secret weapon of the west against socialism”, whereas the FBI under the infamous J. Edgar Hoover (best known for his wiretapping of anyone whom he viewed as “suspicious”) started an investigation into theories and accusations of what was feared and suspected as “communist music”. Asa Carter, head of the “Alabama White Citizens Committee”, charged the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) with seducing and corrupting white teenage girls by promoting rock & roll. He is quoted as saying in 1956, “with its basic heavy beat of the Negroes, it appeals to the base in man; it brings out animalism and vulgarity”. He then promised to initiate a “…campaign to force radio stations and jukebox owners to boycott this immoral music”. Perhaps the culmination of all this hysteria, however, was the opinion published as the headline of the prestigious New York Times on March 28th 1956: “Rock & Roll Called ‘Communicable Disease’” in which the Hartford, Connecticut psychiatrist Francis Braceland declared rock music “cannibalistic and tribalistic”, claiming, “…it is insecurity and rebellion. It impels teenagers to wear ducktail haircuts, wear zoot suits, and carry on boisterously at rock & roll affair”. While classical cellist Pablo Casals described the music of Bill Haley in the 1950s as the “distillation of all disgust of our time”, the German music expert Barry Graves (recognized equally in the cultural circles of Berlin and New York) in hearing Haley’s style during the first rock & roll revival at the end of the 1960s conversely declared, “The definitive rock & roll style (is) blended from country & western, Dixieland-jazz and rhythm & blues”. Haley himself, taking a calm, confident and somewhat more level headed approach, explained “I thought if I were to take a Dixieland melody and leave out the emphasis on the first and third beat, but emphasize the second and fourth, and add a beat to which the listenerscan clap or even dance – that would serve their wishes. The rest was easy – I took catchy phrases like ‘Crazy Man, Crazy’ and made songs out of them with the method I just explained.” On February 9th, 1981 Bill Haley died suddenly of an apparent heart attack at his home in Harlingen, Texas. He was only 55 years old. What occurred before, during, after, and in between the many successes and phases of Bill Haley’s career? What was actually behind the professional image of “the star” Bill Haley? And what led to his untimely death at the relatively young age of 55? These are a few of the questions that this book shall attempt to address. And perhaps one more can be answered in the process: WHO, really was the man who invented rock & roll?