#spokenword #benefit #humor #documentary #poetry #friends #livingroom
I did not film this. A couple of my poetry friends back in the early 2000's saw that I was struggling after my car broke down. They decided to throw me a benefit/roast, inviting some of the best poets in L.A./O.C. to participate. Crew Productions filmed the event, but afterward they ran into issues releasing it. Somehow I copied a rough cut and kept it. In 2016, I felt since Crew Productions had long "left the building", to take my rough copy and see if I could put it into some kind of cohesive package. I did that, but most recently, I looked at it and now with better technology, felt I could clean up transitions, redub the music for better quality, etc...Some things I could not really do anything about, like a weird transition wipe that, apparently, Crew Productions utilized. Some of those transitions I could cut or use another effect on. But not always. Another thing I could not alter was the color. Color grading would have made it too dark, so I left that alone. I did add some 8mm grain to enhance the nostalgia and give some form to the images which were a bit faded. Other than that, I merely cleaned up the editing and added new graphics. Not only is there a lot of humor, heart, and joy in this little documentary but it is a time capsule of the poetry scene at that point in time. All that said, it is also entertaining as heck!