A new documentary aims to give proper credit to storyboard artist Harold Michelson and his researcher wife, Lillian; John Oliver once again goes after the FCC over net neutrality debate; San Miguel Perez recorded his debut album in L.A. with help from Colin Hay of Men at Work.
John Oliver reprises his role in the revived net neutrality debate
The debate over net neutrality is back.
While it's the sort of phrase that can make your eyes glaze over, net neutrality actually influences how everyone uses the Internet.
The debate over net neutrality regulations was seemingly settled in 2015. That's when the Federal Communications Commission voted to implement prohibitions against Internet service providers intentionally slowing down service or creating paid "fast lanes" on the information superhighway.
Before those rules were put in place, comedian John Oliver rallied viewers of his HBO show, “Last Week Tonight,” to contact the FCC and voice their support for net neutrality during the public comment period.
Now that President Trump’s FCC chief wants to rewrite the net neutrality rules, Oliver raised the issue on his show once again Sunday night:
Many of the questions about the future of net neutrality this time center on the FCC’s new chairman, Ajit Pai, who says the commission’s current regulations are “holding back investment, innovation and job creation.”
Recode’s senior editor for policy and politics, Tony Romm, recently interviewed Pai on the "Recode Decode" podcast. He joined The Frame to discuss what's different about the net neutrality debate this time around.
To hear the full interview, click the blue player above.
'Harold and Lillian': The 'secret storytellers' behind iconic Hollywood movies
Harold and Lillian Michelson’s film credits are staggering, but you've probably never heard of the couple.
Their work spans decades and genres: "The Graduate"; "The Birds"; "The Cotton Club"; "Scarface"; "Reds"; "History of the World, Part I"; "Spaceballs"' "Death to Smoochy"...
Among the filmmakers who employed the Michelsons are Alfred Hitchcock, Mike Nichols, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and Mel Brooks. But while these men may have relied on them to achieve their visions, they didn’t always give them credits on screen.
A new documentary, “Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story,” aims to right that wrong. It's currently open in New York City and opens in Los Angeles on May 12.
Harold was a storyboard artist whose drawings helped filmmakers frame their shots – at times, turning out to be exact replicas of his sketches. Lillian was a researcher – often going to great lengths to find reference material so filmmakers could create cinematic worlds that were grounded in reality. For decades, storyboard artists were never credited and researchers got even less notice.
Daniel Raim made the documentary about Harold and Lillian. Raim says that Harold's ability to take an image from the scripted page or from rehearsals and imagine it as if through the lens of a camera was his greatest talent:
Harold truly visualized, came up with some of the most iconic images. I mean, he enhanced Hitchcock's vision, but for "The Graduate" he came up with all the amazing shots that have become part of American cinema history, like the iconic leg shot where we see [Dustin Hoffman] framed through Anne Bancroft's leg.
Harold and Lillian would often work together, including on "The Birds" and "Marnie" for Hitchcock. But Raim says that even when they were assigned to different projects, Lillian would help him out:
She worked on hundreds of films. At any given time she's working on nine movies a day. And so she and Harold had the luxury of having Lillian there at home where they could talk about it at any point, and she would feed him ideas. She referred to herself at one point as a "secret storyteller."
Harold was working in the business first and it was with his support that Lillian found her own career. Lillian was "a self-made woman who grew up in orphanages," according to Raim. She had "an incredible appetite to investigate things." Harold found her the opportunity to become a volunteer at the Samuel Goldwyn Research Library. In 1969 she would buy that library from Samuel Goldwyn when it went up for sale. Lillian would enhance it with clippings and books where production designers, storyboard artists and filmmakers could go to talk and get inspiration.
Then, when Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen launched their studio, Dreamworks, they acquired the library from Lillian. According to Raim it was Spielberg who first credited Lillian on screen. That was in 1979 for his film, "1941."
Raim also discussed their marriage in the film and the challenge they faced raising a son with autism at a time when the illness was largely misunderstood. Raim reflects with John Horn on how it was very hard to get Lillian to open up, as she is "camera shy," but that she did it out of her love for Harold who passed away years ago. Lillian is now 88-years-old and living at the Motion Picture Home with other retired members of the Hollywood community.
"Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story" opens in L.A. on May 12.
A Cuban musician expands his sound in LA
A few years ago, a musician named San Miguel Perez came to the U.S. from Cuba, hoping to advance his career as a guitarist. He was a sideman in Havana, but he had dreams of recording a solo album of his own songs.
He always thought about making his first record with a traditional Cuban trio. Five years ago, that’s as far as his vision could go. But now, he says he surpassed those expectations, and he believes it’s all part of living in Los Angeles.
San Miguel (his stage name) hails from Río Cauto, a small town in the eastern Cuban province of Granma. He began playing music at age nine — first, classical guitar. Then at 14, he started playing another instrument called the tres — a guitar of three double-steel strings. At 18, San Miguel moved to Havana to attend Cuba’s top conservatory, Instituto Superior de Arte, to specialize in classical tres.
He learned to play all the classical styles, from baroque to romantic music. In addition to his 13 years of classical music training, San Miguel also carries the roots of his hometown, a style called nengón, the grandfather of the style known as son. "That’s the music of my land," he says, "nengón, son and guaracha."
After graduating from the conservatory, San Miguel began working in Havana as a sideman. He received a couple of music awards and played with played with several bands, including the renown orchestra Adalberto Alvarez y su Son. In 2010, San Miguel got a call from a friend who was coordinating the production of an album for a singer who needed someone who could play the tres.
L.A.-based singer Cecilia Noël was recording “Havana Rocks,” an album of '80s pop hits arranged as Cuban dance tunes. She recalls: “They said, ‘We have the perfect guy for you, and he’s a young tresero.' They called him and I met him at the session. And I remember the first time, it was like, Wow! — that sound carried me, this is exactly how I wanted my album to sound.”
Noël finished mixing the album in L.A.. When she returned to Havana she found out that San Miguel had moved to Florida. She called and asked him to join her band. “And he said, 'Absolutely!' I sent him the music and he learned every single note — everything, no papers, nothing. He came back and he played the show and everyone was, Qhhhhh, woooooow! And then, of course, Colin met him.”
Noël introduced San Miguel to Colin Hay, founder of the band, Men At Work. Hay says when San Miguel first came to his recording studio in Topanga, he brought a song called “Lluvia.” “He played the song perfectly. Very few people play the song and you don’t have to go back and do it again or you don’t have to fix anything, it’s just a rarity.”
Hay says it’s also unusual to find a musician who has all the skills, a novice songwriter whose songs have a structure: “Very rarely do you have somebody who’s just embarking in what I would call that ‘period of ascension,’ where you’re taking off, where mostly you do your best work, when you’re almost ready. ‘Cause when you’re ready, you’re a bit too sure of yourself. It’s like if you’re on a plane, the most exciting part is when you’re taking off. Once you’re there, you’re like, Oh well, here we are.”
San Miguel says, 10 years ago, when he was back in Cuba, he never imagined he’d record a song like “Un poquito de amor everyday” — mixing Spanish and English, and going for a pop sound in his music.
San Miguel says he’s a tres player first and a singer-songwriter second. As a tres player, he wants to make sure not to lose his Cuban roots and the instrument’s identity. He says: “If you don’t strengthen your roots and stay tight, you can easily get diluted.”
San Miguel wants to keep the natural quality of the instrument at a high level and respect the identity of Cuban music. If his debut album is any indication, that should not be difficult to accomplish.