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Almost two decades ago during his freshman year at Harvard, Justin Hurwitz wanted to form a rock band and heard of an incredible drummer named Damien Chazelle. “Somebody gave me Damien’s phone number,” Hurwitz recalls, “and I called him up cold and asked, ‘Do you want to be in a band?’ And we started a band with three other classmates.”

A year later, Hurwitz and Chazelle decided they had another passion they wanted to pursue: film. They began working on what would eventually become their first movie, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench.

But their former bandmates, D.A. Wallach and Maxwell Drummey, were at work too — garnering interest from the likes of Kanye West and Pharrell Williams, who ultimately signed them to a record deal as indie-rock duo Chester French. “I was beside myself. I was like, ‘What have I done?’ Like, I quit this band. This was our shot.

Commentary Commentary“There’s no number in this movie that we didn’t try cutting at some point.”

La La Land may not have won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, but it’s still a delightfully mesmerizing experience with one of last year’s best endings. It hits Blu-ray/DVD next week, and along with an 80 minute making-of documentary the disc features a commentary with the film’s award-winning writer/director and composer.

Keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…

La La Land (2016)

Commentators: Damien Chazelle (writer/director), Justin Hurwitz (composer)

1. Chazelle wanted his Cinemascope opening to replicate the widening aspect ratio he recalled seeing in Frank Tashlin’s 1956 film, The Girl Can’t Help It.

https://medium.com/media/9380e26eac8c1822373ef72457dcfef7/href

2. The opening scene is modeled in some ways on 1932’s Love Me Tonight which “begins with a cacophony of street noises, Paris...

Tyler, the Creator shared the first glimpse of his upcoming project, “Cherry Bomb: The Documentary.” The 45-minute film is an in-depth look at the making of his 2015 album “Cherry Bomb.”

The trailer includes a handful of cameos from artists and friends, including Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Lil Wayne, A$AP Rocky, ScHoolboy Q, among others. In the clip we see Tyler in the studio, conducting a string section, playing piano and recording verses.

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The doc was directed, shot, produced, and cut by Mikey Alfred and Illegal Civ Cinema. For fans of the rapper, it will be great insight into his process of creating an album. The first 10 minutes of the documentary will be screened at the Illegal Civilization’s tent at this weekend’s Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival, taking place at Los Angeles’ Exposition Park.

Aside from being a rapper,...