The Philadelphia Film Festival's hometown film this year was'White Men Can't Rap'. I had the honor to purchase a ticket to the closing night Festival of Independent's sold out World Premiere of this film. The title of the film gives it so much hope, that this could be one of the best films to come out of Philadelphia. Everyone was excited about the film, cast and crew were out in full force to support Rick Morris. The film is about a Philly Film about a detective going undercover in the Philadelphia underground rap scene. During the festival, I heard producers talk about how distributors are coming to look for the film, and one of the producers right before the screening told someone that they want this film to be in theaters, not just a DVD release. I had high hopes, a budget of $331,000 reports IMDb, just a little below Napoleon Dynamites budget. I am a huge fan of screwball comedies such as Police Academy, Naked Gun, even Billy Maddison! The world premiere of White Men Can't Rap looked like an early cut. The man who selected the film for the festival said that this was a new cut of the film and he has not even seen it! The film was projected from either DVD or Digibeta, so as I suspected that film was not a finished project. Editing was rough, Sound was off, There was no color correction, there were not even titles at the end of the film. If you are going to premiere your film at a major film festival and invite distributors, please make sure at least 2 of these things are completed! You should also set it straight that this is not a completed film.
I'm not going to get much into to plot so there are not too many spoilers in this, but I came in expecting a spoof of 8 Mile, State Property, and even Malibu's Most Wanted, but there is little rapping in this film at all. I am a huge fan of the Bloodhound Gang, and Evil Jared has a part in the film, and I'm a huge fan of Gervase from Survivor season 1, and they are in the film very little.
Rick Morris wrote, directed, and edited the film. The script seems like it needed about 15 rewrites, a new director, and definitely a new editor! During the Q&A after the film, Rick Morris asked a Temple University Grad Student if she was great at Final Cut Pro, that was the only time I laughed during the film! Rick does need a new editor, I think they should start from scratch, take all of the footage, and make a film that makes sense.
I'm sorry if this comes off strong, but as a member of the media in Philadelphia, I love to see Philadelphia filmmakers make it in this tough industry. This film needs help, as where it stands this will be a long shot to even get a DVD release.
If you have the chance to see this at a festival in the future please post some followups to let us know how it ends up.
I'm not going to get much into to plot so there are not too many spoilers in this, but I came in expecting a spoof of 8 Mile, State Property, and even Malibu's Most Wanted, but there is little rapping in this film at all. I am a huge fan of the Bloodhound Gang, and Evil Jared has a part in the film, and I'm a huge fan of Gervase from Survivor season 1, and they are in the film very little.
Rick Morris wrote, directed, and edited the film. The script seems like it needed about 15 rewrites, a new director, and definitely a new editor! During the Q&A after the film, Rick Morris asked a Temple University Grad Student if she was great at Final Cut Pro, that was the only time I laughed during the film! Rick does need a new editor, I think they should start from scratch, take all of the footage, and make a film that makes sense.
I'm sorry if this comes off strong, but as a member of the media in Philadelphia, I love to see Philadelphia filmmakers make it in this tough industry. This film needs help, as where it stands this will be a long shot to even get a DVD release.
If you have the chance to see this at a festival in the future please post some followups to let us know how it ends up.