On screen, five men furiously pound out rock music on theirinstruments. Soon, the music they play takes on a life of its ownand takes control of the show. The players begin to pound on oneanother. Eventually the whole show descends into a violentfistfight between the members of the band.
No, this isn't this week's slick MTV "rockumentary" about somenew pop/punk band. No, these guys go to Ball State. They eat in theVillage, too. They are Muncie's ...revel in the morning.
Junior Julian Dalrymple and senior Travis Harvey will premieretheir new film, "Ashes of Rhetoric," at 8 p.m. tonight in PruisHall.
"Ashes of Rhetoric," Dalrymple's first feature-length film, is adocumentary about the rise and fall of ...revel in the morning.
...revel in the morning consists of drummer Erick Sherman,guitarist Ryan Reidy, guitarist Eric "Doog" Alexander, guitaristJustin Clark, and Harvey, whose position in the band is describedby the other members in the film as the "Andy Warhol to our VelvetUnderground and Nico."
In addition to performing with the band, Harvey also acted ascreative consultant, documenter, and publicist.
Dalrymple, a Valparaiso native, is a telecommunicationsproduction major, and has had a life-long interest in film.
Dalrymple said he remembers being impressed early on by filmssuch as "Stardust Memories," "Easy Rider" and "Goodfellas."
As he grew up, he gained interest in the films of [Akira]Kurosawa, [Fran�ois] Trufaut and [Ingmar] Bergman, hesaid.
"With documentaries, I've always had an appreciation for thework of Errol Morris, Ken Burns, and [Martin] Scorsese," Dalrymplesaid.
As a teenager, he and his friends made amateur short films andmusic videos with his parents video recorder.
In high school, he would try to incorporate videos into nearlyevery school project, he said.
"Coming to Ball State allowed me to pursue that passion I hadeven further," Dalrymple said. He also said that since coming toBall State he now understands his passion more, and how far he iswilling pursue a career in film.
"Ashes of Rhetoric" is an important personal project for bothDalrymple and Harvey. For Dalrymple, this project represents over ayear's worth of effort and concentration. For Harvey, it is achance to communicate the story of a band that consumed the livesof its five members during its short life.
Doing so was not an easy task, Dalrymple said. He said that heinitially set out to merely document the band, and it evolved intothe story of their undoing."With the footage I had in front of me,I had to sculpt out a story from that," Dalrymple said. "It wasn'ttoo terribly difficult to do considering that most of the footagewas centered around the destruction and break-up of theband."Dalrymple was then saddled with the enormous task of turning30 hours of raw digital video into a coherent one-hour film.
Dalrymple used Final Cut Pro, an advanced video editing softwareprogram, to assemble the pieces. According to Dalrymple, theediting process took more than 500 hours over the summer, themajority of which was done at night.
"When you spend so much time on something, every little thingcan become a critical nuisance to us," Harvey said, "but to a newviewer they may find it fresh and interesting."
The film includes live concert footage home video that the bandrecorded themselves, interviews with the band en masse and withindividual members, interviews with people who have interacted withthe band, and interviews with other local bands.
"[At first,] the band felt kind of weary about having a cameraaround them. Case in point, [in the film], the day of Doog'sbirthday, ... I pulled the camera over to Ryan and if you notice,Ryan gives me an awkward heads-up nod.
"In time, however, I found myself not so much as a documenter ofthe band, but also a friend," he said.
Although the band is still releasing material, it is what Harveydescribes as a backboard for the members' individual work.
Each member has gone on to be a part of another act. Sherman andAlexander went on to be in the group Clearance, Reidy to be in thegroup Archer Avenue, and Clark in the group Days and Nights in theSkeleton Crew, according to the still-updated ...revel in themorning Web site.
A trailer for the documentary is also available on the site,located at www.revelinthemorning.com.
The pair said they want the film to be as successful aspossible, with a WIPB broadcast in the works, film festivalscreenings being set up, and a DVD release possibly on the horizon.Harvey said the DVD version would most likely be different andextended, and the disc would also contain previously unreleased...revel in the morning material.
"Our documentary is one that can be seen as a voice to the manypeople who have ever been in a band," Harvey said. "But it can alsobe a connection to people that have ever experienced the enjoymentand excitement of collaborating together ambitiously.
"'Ashes of Rhetoric' is more a document of relationships thatsimply a [document of] a rock band," he said.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
