RoofTop Legends Update!

Rooftop Legends 2013 had their 6th anniversary on sunday June 2nd !
Curated by my dean Jesse Pais  who is a former Graffiti Artist.
Here are Some photos from the show ! Heres a Link to a blog site called Respect who took more photos of their favorite murals that were on the Rooftop.  Street Art:Rooftop Legends 

Music Post: Asap Rocky

 Rakim Mayers known for his stage name Asap Rocky, he is  a new wave rapper, who has become one of hip hops new greatest stars. He incorporates his love for high fashion and his native harlem style into his songs. Rakim had a rough beginning growing up between harlem and the bronx in and out of shelters with his mother, his father in and out of jail and his brother was killed on his block all at the age of 12. This tough start inspired him and gave him the drive to take rapping seriously and become an icon in the rap industry. His chance came finally when he joined Asap Mob and was given the name Asap Rocky!
His music is inspired by a lot of old school hip hop artist such as Mob Deep, Wu Tang Clan, Three 6 Mafia and more !

Upcoming Movie

From the directors of Superbad and Pinapple Express, there is a new upcoming comedy called This Is The End, Starring movie actors such as James Franco, Seth Rogan, Danny Mcbride, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and Jay Baruchel. In which they play themselves at a party at James Francos house, but then there's an explosion and everyone rushes outside and there are alien spaceships blowing things up and its basically the end of the world and these 6 guys end up together against the aliens ! This movie is set to release june 12th, 2013. 

TooFly Interview

Maria “TOOFLY” Castillo is a Graffiti Artist that my group and I interviewed for our film, she started writing Graffiti at a young age developing her own hand style and 'TooFly' characters. Her work soon blossomed on various graffiti black books, allowing her skills to be recognized by writers across the five boroughs. She has also done a few pieces on the RoofTop in the recent years, she also has her own online shop where you can buy limited amounts of her art work and merchandise that she sells. 

http://www.tooflynyc.com/life/history/

FEMALE RAPPER

Azelia banks: New wave female Hip hop. At the moment I think I can count the number of female rappers on one hand that don't perpetuate the stereotype of either women as sex objects, or products of the media. Ms. Banks transcends her eccentric personality through her music, as opposed to exploiting the concept of females as sex objects. Her music is empowering and inspiring to me, I think its important to have female icons that don't fall under the pressures of sexualizing their music to promote to guys.
In the film about Graffititi that my film crew and I are making, hip hop has had lot of involvement over the past 40 years in Graffiti. But there has not been as many female rappers and graffiti artist as males because both are male dominated industries. BUT THINGS ARE CHANGING.

Outkast

Outkast is one of the longest lasting groups that has maintained its place in the limelight.  Outkast although, not the original rap, has influenced many hip hop and rap artists of the 21st century.  With their upbeat tracks, and influential style, Outkast is one of the main reasons that newer artists in the rap scene are more melodic and use more than just a drum beat.

Music Choice for Film

This song is what my group and I choose for our minute trailer, but for the 5 minute film we are having one of our group members use the instrumental of the song and rewrite the lyrics so they are not contradictory to what Rooftop Legends stands for.

Musica Post: RatKing/Wiki1993

Ratking, "New Band of the day" as stated by the Gardian.uk, is an upcoming band in the New York DIY scene.  They have played at almost all of the smaller well known venues in NY, including Shea Stadium, Apostrophe, Mercury Lounge as well as larger festivals like SXSW.

Wiki, Hak and Sporting Life, are the three members of the band.
http://www.xlrecordings.com/ratking

"RATKING manage to mix youthful hardcore energy with pure NY beats and rhymes in a post-hip-hop crew that could only exist in 2012." -XL RECORDINGS

Beastie Boys

The Beastie Boys were an New York based hip hop band formed in 1981, with three MCS  Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass) and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar). The Beastie Boys with 7 platinum albums are the longest living hip-hop act worldwide.

"The Beastie Boy have influenced hip hop through out the world and over the course of 25 years, they released only seven albums, their impact has been gigantic. Starting with 1986′s "Licensed to Ill," the Beastie Boys rewrote the rules for commercial hip-hop, the mainstreaming of hardcore punk, the state of sampling, and the treatment of hip hop." 

RIP MIKE D DIAMOND

Rooftop Legends Trailer !

My First Project from Mediastorm New Design on Vimeo.

WATCH THIS NOW


This is the trailer for the Rooftop Legends film, soon to come in june!

This trailer was done for my film class Media Storm at New Design High School. The class is taught by my principal Scott Conti, the objective of the class was to find a subject to film with meaning. My group and I choose the Rooftop of our school, because it has such a young history and there's  never been a film about it and who better to do it, then students that attend NDHS.

The Road Forward

This film that my group and I are making is called Rooftop Legends. It documents the history of Graffiti and the making of the Graffiti on this Rooftop and how it all collides into one story about the controversial art form. The 1st semester project has been a success so far, my team and I finished our films trailer. In order to get the footage we needed to complete the trailer we had to go on the roof of our school and film almost everyday to have a variety of footage. My team and I also needed to get an interview from the curator of the roof so we had to first come up with question to ask him and find out when he was available to be interviewed, that was a difficult process coming up with the right questions to ask and getting the oh so busy Jesse Pais to be interviewed for our film. The most grueling process out of the trailer was editing it on imovie and finding which footage looked best, the trailer is mostly filmed in fish eye and switches to wide angle for the interview.

Now for the 3rd quarter, my team and I need to figure out how to complete the whole film and what we are trying to convey to our audience. The key to my groups success is if we come to class, staying on task during class, remember to bring materials needed, and communication is #1 key to success because if someone in the group doesn't like what we are doing, it is important for us to discuss the issue and find a solution.

Rooftop Legends Film

Photo by Luna Park

Rooftop Legends is located on the roof of the Seward Park Campus school. Rooftop Legends is one of the largest street art shows in New York City. Jesse Pais, is dean at New Design High School, which is one of 5 schools in the building. He is also the founder of Rooftop Legends. He started Rooftop Legends when he was asked to do a credit recovery program on the history of hip-hop. He originally planned on taking students to the Graffiti Hall of Fame in Harlem but it was going under construction as it only contained a minimum amount of tags and throw up’s. He decided that the roof of Seward Park  would be a good place for graffiti. He created Rooftop Legends. The roof contains over 60 pieces of graffiti, and every year it is updated with new graffiti. People are allowed to explore and view the art. When people enter the roof, all they can see and touch is pure art from corner to corner. We would like to welcome you to, Rooftop Legends.

Beast of the Southern Wild Movie

This movie is really interesting because the actors were not trained actors. They were just people from everyday life. But yet they were able to act 10000 times better than any actor who has been training for years (in my opinion). 

The movie is set in the Louisiana, and these people live in a bayou community cut off by the rest of the world by a levee. The main character is Hushpuppy a six year old living with her sickly hot-tempered father. The story follows them throughout a storm that makes their whole community become underwater, and very few survive. You have to watch the trailer to find out the rest! This movie has a mythical and optimistic feel to it, and you will definitely cry towards the end of the movie.