Film budgeting refersp to the process by which a line producer, unit production manager or filmmaker prepares a budget for a film production. This document, which could be over 150 pages long, is used to secure financing for the film and lead to pre-production and production of the film. Multiple drafts of the budget may be required to whittle down costs. A budget is typically divided into four sections: above the line (creative talent), below the line (direct production costs), post-production (editing, visual effects, etc.), and other (insurance, completion bond, etc.). Film financing can be acquired from a private investor, sponsor, product placement, a film studio or entertainment company, or out of pocket funds.

Elements[link]

• Story rights: The right to produce a film based on a play, novel, video game or as a remake or sequel can cost anything from a couple of thousand (Leaving Las Vegas) to over $10 million (the video game Halo). An original screenplay by a Writers Guild of America member can cost from around $50,000 (Quentin Tarantino's True Romance) to $5 million (M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable).
• Screenplay: An A-list screenwriter can be paid $1 million to write the first three drafts of a script, with a further $1 to $2 million sole credit bonus. Once the story has been agreed upon and the script locked, script doctors may be called upon to revise the final draft at $100,000 to $200,000 a week. Recently, Columbia Pictures has been offering the best screenwriters 2 percent of the gross profits (after the production and marketing budget has been deducted).
• Producers: Film producers and executive producers are often well-paid, with a top producer earning a seven-figure salary upfront as well as bonuses and a share of the profits. For Spider-Man, producer Laura Ziskin is estimated to have been paid over $30 million.
• Director: The DGA minimum is about $14,000 a week, for a minimum of ten weeks' work. An A-list film director can command $5 to $10 million a film.
• Cast: While the bulk of the cast gets usually paid by the Actors Guild standard rate of about 2300 US$ per week,^[1] famous and bankable film stars can demand fees up to $30 million per film, plus perks (trailer, entourage, etc.) and possible gross participation.^[2] Sometimes an actor will accept a minimal fee in exchange for a more lucrative share of the profits. Union extras are paid around $130 per day (plus extra for overtime or if they provide their own wardrobe) but on a low-budget film non-union extras are paid less, sometimes nothing at all.
• Production costs: The cost of producing the film includes crew wages, production design, live set and studio costs, wardrobe, catering, accommodation and transportation. The director of photography is usually the highest paid member of the crew at about $500,000 to $1 million.
• Visual effects: The cost of Computer-generated imagery effects and other visual effect work in post-production depends largely on the amount of work, the desired quality, and the effects company involved (Industrial Light and Magic being the most prestigious and expensive); extensive effect work, as in Avatar or The Lord of the Rings can easily cost up to a hundred million dollars.
• Music: The top film composers can ask for a seven-figure salary to compose an hour or so of original film score. An original song by Christina Aguilera (Shark Tale) or Kanye West (Mission: Impossible III) could cost $1 million, and the right to use a song by David Bowie or The Beatles could cost $300,000. (In addition, the artist may wish to see a screening of the film to see if it meets their approval; Bowie did so with the film Training Day, giving the film a good amount of pre-release publicity.). More recently, the rights to have Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" on the film Lords of Dogtown cost producers $3 million. Sometimes a film will turn to unknown or little-known artists willing to licence the rights to their song for a small fee in exchange for the publicity. Typically, the music budget of a major motion picture is about 8 percent of the final total; Spider-Man's music budget was $4.5 million.

Tactics for cutting costs[link]

• Eliminate night scenes. Shooting at night requires powerful/expensive lighting and the payment of nighttime rates to the crew. Broken Arrow cut costs by millions of dollars by getting rid of the night scenes from the script. Many directors choose to use the 'day for night' technique.
• Avoid location filming in famous or commercial areas. Shooting a scene on, for example, the Golden Gate Bridge, requires stopping traffic with a resultant drop in revenue to the city of San Francisco. Filming such a scene for Interview with the Vampire cost Warner Bros. $500,000. Shifting the location to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge for close-ups could save hundreds of thousands of dollars in location fees. Some locations are more willing to allow filming than others - commercial enterprises such as hotels and nightclubs. Some producers of low-budget features avoid paying location fees and seek to capture shots by subterfuge.
• Film action scenes early on Sunday morning. Stopping traffic for a car chase scene is easier in the early hours of Sunday morning, when traffic is at its lightest.
• Use unknown cast members rather than stars.
• Ask above-the-line talent to defer their salaries. In exchange for dropping their large upfront salaries, actors, directors and producers can receive a large share of the film's gross profits. This has the disadvantage of cutting the financier's eventual takings. It has the further disadvantage of ambiguity. In the case of net profit participation instead of gross profit participation, disagreements due to Hollywood accounting methods can lead to audits and litigation, as happened between Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema, after New Line claimed that Lord of the Rings film trilogy, which grossed over 2 billion USD failed to make any profit and thus denied payments to actors, the Tolkien estate and Jackson.
• Use a non-union crew. Not an option for studios that have signed contracts with the unions—the Directors Guild of America (DGA), Writers Guild of America (WGA), and Screen Actors Guild (SAG). Directors Robert Rodriguez and Peter Jackson have been known to use the skills of experienced non-union crews for their films.
• Film in another region. For example, many Hollywood movies set in U.S. cities are shot in Canada to take advantage of lower labour costs, subject to fluctuating exchange rates. As well, they take advantage of federal and provincial subsidies designed to grow and sustain the film and television production industries in the area. Many U.S. states have responded with tax incentives of their own (Movie production incentives in the United States). The Czech Republic, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand are other countries in which Hollywood movies are often filmed.

The budget as an advertising tool[link]

For blockbuster movies, high budgets are advertised to imply that the film will be worth watching. On the other hand, El Mariachi was advertised as having a shoestring budget of $7,000. El Mariachi's actual budget including the distribution costs far exceeded $7,000. The festival print of El Mariachi was in fact made for $7,000. The additional budget expenditures came when the movie was picked up for distribution by a studio.

Going over budget[link]

In the US film production system, producers are not allowed to exceed the initial budget. Exceptions have of course been made, one of the most notable examples being Titanic. Director James Cameron ran aground with the budget and offered his fee back to the studio. In other countries, producers who exceed their budget tend to eat the cost by receiving less of their producer's fees. While the US system is profitable and can afford to go over budget, other countries' film industries tend to be financed through government subsidies.

Examples[link]

Though movie studios are reluctant to release the precise details of their movies' budgets, it has occasionally been possible to obtain (clandestinely) details of the cost of films breaks down. For an example of a budget for a $2 million independent feature, see Planning the Low-Budget Film by Robert Latham Brown (ISBN 0-9768178-0-2).

[edit] Unbreakable

• Story rights and Screenplay: $5,000,000
• Producers: $1,878,260
• Director (M. Night Shyamalan & Assistant): $5,081,749
• Cast: $ 31,903,987
  • Bruce Willis: $20,000,000
  • Samuel L. Jackson: $7,000,000
  • Robin Wright Penn: $2,500,000
  • Rest of Cast, Casting, Stunts, & Travel: $5,568,388
• Production costs: $26,214,709
  • Visual effects: $1,000,000
  • Music: $2,253,456

Total: $73,243,106 ^[3]

[edit] Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life

• Story rights and screenplay: $4 million
• Producers: $4 million
• Director (Jan de Bont): $5 million
• Cast: $17.25 million
  • Angelina Jolie: $12 million
  • Extras: $250,000
  • Other (inc. Angelina's perks): $5 million
• Production costs: $67 million
  • Set design and construction: $17.8 million
• Visual Effects: $13 million
• Music: $3.3 million
• Editing: $3 million
• Post Production costs: $1.5 million

Total: $118 million^[4]

[edit] Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

• Story rights (Carolco and Gale Anne Hurd): $19.5 million
• Screenplay: $5.2 million
  • John D. Brancato & Michael Ferris: $1 million
• Director (Jonathan Mostow): $5 million
• Producers: $10 million
• Cast: $35 million
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger: $29.25 million + 20% gross profits
  • Arnold's perks: $1.5 million
  • Rest of principal cast: $3.85 million
  • Extras: $450,000
• Production costs: $58 million
• Post-production costs: $4 million
• Visual effects: $20 million
• Music: $2 million
• Other costs: $33.6 million

Total: $187.3 million^[5]

[edit] Spider-Man 2

• Story rights: $20 million
• Screenplay: $10 million
• Producers: $15 million
• Director (Sam Raimi): $10 million
• Cast: $30 million
  • Tobey Maguire: $17 million
  • Kirsten Dunst: $7 million
  • Alfred Molina: $3 million
  • Rest of cast: $3 million
• Production costs: $45 million
• Visual effects: $65 million
• Music: $5 million
  • Composer (Danny Elfman): $2 million.

Total: $200 million^[6]

[edit] Sahara

The Los Angeles Times presented an extensive special report, dissecting the budget of the 2005 film Sahara. The documents had become public domain after a lawsuit involving the film.^[7]

References[link]

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Film budgeting

• List of highest-grossing films
• List of most expensive films
• List of least expensive films
• Box office bomb
• Hollywood accounting
• Film finance

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. It includes attribution to IMDb, which may not be a reliable source for biographical information. Please help by adding additional, reliable sources for verification. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2010)

Tom Kane
Tom Kane at Comic Con 2008
Born	Thomas Kane Roberts (1959-04-15) April 15, 1959 (age 53)[1] Overland Park, Kansas, U.S.
Occupation	Voice actor
Years active	1982–present
Website
http://www.tomkane.com

Tom Kane (born April 15, 1959) is a prominent American voice actor with over 25 years of experience. He is most widely known for his animation work. Notable roles are Jedi Master Yoda and Admiral Yularen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars feature film and TV Series; The Chancellor in Tim Burton's 9, Magneto in Wolverine and the X-Men and Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds; Iron Man and Ultron in Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow; Mr. Herriman, the House Manager in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends; Lord Monkey Fist on Kim Possible; Professor Utonium and Him in The Powerpuff Girls; and Darwin, Eliza's chimpanzee sidekick in The Wild Thornberrys. He is also a prominent video game voice actor, appearing on numerous titles - from bit parts, to major roles such as Gandalf and Professor Xavier, and lead characters in almost every Star Wars game ever made. In the video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed he was "on-camera" as Imperial Captain Ozzik Sturn, Lobot, and also Kento Marek, the father of the protagonist: Galen Marek (Sam Witwer) - thanks to ILM's motion capture technology. In Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops, he provides the voice of Takeo Masaki, a Japanese WWII soldier in the Zombies game mode. In the arena of non-animation voiceover work, he records Movie Trailers, TV promos and commercials daily. In addition, he has been the announcer for the AFI Life Achievement Award show twice, as well as the 78th, 80th, 83rd, and 84th Academy Awards. His most recent performance was as Odin, Thor and Loki's father in the video game adaption of Thor, replacing Anthony Hopkins from the film.

Filmography[link]

Animation roles[link]

• Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Jedi Master Yoda, Admiral Wulff Yularen and the Opening Narrator
• Back at the Barnyard - Freddy's Dad (in "Meet the Parents")
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold - Commissioner Gordon
• Ben 10 - Ultimos, Donovan Grand Smith, Arcticguana
• Duck Dodgers - Walter Carbonite
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends - Mr. Herriman, Additional Voices
• Grim & Evil - Cap'n Heifer
• Heavy Gear: The Animated Series - Greco
• Histeria! - Martin Luther King, Jr (in "Heroes of Truth and Justice"), Additional Voices
• Iron Man - HOMER, Stingray, Sunturion
• Kim Possible - Monkey Fist
• MAD - Farto Tuner Announcer, Giant Fish, Narrator, Rejected Smurfs Announcer, Him
• Robot Chicken - Yoda, Morgan Freeman, Additional Voices
• South Park - News reporter
• Spider-Man - Doctor Doom
• Star Wars: Clone Wars - Yoda
• Teen Titans - Bob (in "Employee of the Month")
• Transformers: Prime
• The Smurfs - Narrator Smurf
• The Boondocks - Dr. Doomis (in "Smokin With Cigarettes")
• The Powerpuff Girls - Professor Utonium, Him, Talking Dog
• The Angry Beavers - Oxnard Montalvo
• The New Woody Woodpecker Show - Santa Claws
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius - Dean Cain (in "Jimmy Goes to College")
• The Wild Thornberrys - Darwin the Chimpanzee
• The X's - Lorenzo Suave and Some Old Guy
• Wolverine and the X-Men - Magneto
• Xyber 9: New Dawn
• The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes - Ultron, Jasper Sitwell

Live action roles[link]

• 84th Academy Awards - Announcer
• 83rd Academy Awards - Announcer
• 80th Academy Awards - Announcer
• 78th Academy Awards - Announcer
• American Cinemateque Tribute to Samuel L. Jackson - C-3PO
• AFI Tribute to Michael Douglas 2009 - Show Announcer
• AFI Tribute to Sean Connery 2007 - Show Announcer
• Back to You - Narrator
• Big Time Rush - Narrator
• Mr. Belvedere - Wedding Guest
• Stand Up to Cancer 2009 - Show Announcer
• Stand Up to Cancer 2010 - Show Announcer
• Team Knight Rider - Dante
• The Cosby Show - TV Newscaster
• The Adventures of Timmy the Tooth - Wisdom Tooth
• Who's The Boss - TV Newscaster
• Will & Grace - Guest Announcer
• TED - TED

Movie roles[link]

• 9 - The Chancellor (credited as "Dictator")
• Dracula II: Ascension - The Doctor
• Dracula III: Legacy - BBC Anchorman
• Dracula 2000 - CNN Anchorman
• Dear Santa - Santa Claus
• Forrest Gump, The Making of (documentary) - The voice of John F. Kennedy
• Halloween H20 - Dr. Samuel "Sam" Loomis (voice)
• Infinity's Child - Phleig Narrator
• Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time - Lord Monkey Fist
• Next Avengers - Iron Man, Ultron
• Powerpuff Girls: Twas the Fight Before Christmas - Professor Utonium
• Rugrats Go Wild! - Darwin
• Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase - Professor Robert Kaufmann
• Shrek the Third - Princess Guard
• Chipmunks - Narrator
• The Smurfs - Narrator Smurf
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Jedi Master Yoda, Admiral Yularen, Narrator
• The Powerpuff Girls Movie - Professor Utonium
• The Prophecy 3: The Ascent - Angel Voice
• The Wild Thornberrys Movie - Darwin
• The Wild Thornberrys: The Origin of Donnie - Darwin
• Wish Me Luck - Slag
• The Nanny "Oy to the World"- Mr. Sheffield
• District 9 - Newscaster

Video-game roles[link]

• Batman: Arkham Asylum - Commissioner Gordon, Amadeus Arkham, Louie Green, Warden Quincy Sharp
• Batman: Arkham City - Mayor Quincy Sharp
• Call of Duty: Black Ops - Takeo Masaki, Dr. Shuster
• Call of Duty: World at War - Takeo Masaki
• Dance Central 2 - Dr. Tan
• Escape from Monkey Island - Bagel the LUA Bar Patron, Heckler, Pegnose Pete, Pirate 6
• Fat Princess - Announcer
• Final Fantasy XII - Marquis Halim Ondore IV
• Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall - Professor Utonium, Him, and Mr. Herriman
• Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned - Mallory, Jesus
• Grim Fandango - Raoul, 2nd Mayan Mechanic, Gate Keeper, Cat Track Announcer
• Ground Control: Dark Conspiracy - Cardinal Galen Yi, Units #13
• Interstate '76 - Skeeter
• Interstate '76 Nitro Pack - Skeeter, Natty Dread
• Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars - Yoda
• Mercenaries - Additional Voices
• Marvel Super Hero Squad - Magneto
• Marvel: Ultimate Alliance - Grey Gargoyle, Professor X, Kurse, Triton
• Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds - Magneto
• Pitfall 3-D: Beyond the Jungle - Arcam, Scourge
• Powerpuff Girls: Mojo's Pet Project - Professor Utonium
• Resonance of Fate - Antourion
• RTX Red Rock - M.E.L., Panel Voice
• Rugrats Go Wild! - Darwin
• Shadow of Rome - Narrator, Additional Voices
• Soul Calibur IV - Yoda
• Spore - Trailer narrator
• Star Trek: Elite Force II - Additional Voices
• Star Wars: Battlefront - Admiral Ackbar, Yoda
• Star Wars: Battlefront II - Imperial Officer 3, Yoda
• Star Wars: Bounty Hunter - Longo Two-Guns
• Star Wars: Demolition - Boba Fett, Bib Fortuna, General Otto, Lobot
• Star Wars: Droid Works - C-3PO, British Droid, Male Pedestrian, and Narrator.
• Star Wars: Empire at War - C-3PO, Additional Voices
• Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles - Yoda
• Star Wars: Episode I Racer - Elan Mak, Slide Paramita
• Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace - C-3PO, Barbo, Jym Lang, Prisoner, Thug Leader
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - Yoda, Cin Drallig, Neimoidian Guard, Neimoidian Brute, Jedi Leader
• Star Wars: Force Commander - AT-AT Driver, ATC-Airfield, ATC-Star Destroyer, C-3PO
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Captain Ozzik Sturn, Kento Marek, (credited as Jedi Knight), Lobot
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II - Yoda
• Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds - Boba Fett, C-3PO, Empire Missile Destroyer Captain, Vilmarh Grahrk, Yoda, Naboo Destroyer Captain
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Yoda
• Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy - Boba Fett, Cultist 3, Stormtrooper 1, Rodian
• Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast - Reborn Jedi 2, Rodian 1, Shadow Trooper 1, Stormtrooper 3
• Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter - Captain Juno, Yoda
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - Master Vandar Tokare, Uthar Wynn Additional Voices
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords - Master Vandar Tokare
• Star Wars: The Old Republic - Secret Major Characters
• Star Wars: Racer Revenge - Dax Gazaway, Shrivel Braittrand
• Star Wars: Republic Commando - Yoda, Captain Talbot, Trandoshan Slaver #2
• Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader - Crix Madine, Imperial Pilot 2, Transport Captain 3
• Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike - C-3PO, Crix Madine, Imperial Pilot 2, Imperial Recruiter, Yoda
• Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire - Leebo
• Star Wars: Starfighter - Mercenary Pilot, Wingman
• Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing - Battle Droid, Chancellor Valorum, Yoda
• Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - Cmdr. Beckman, Golav Nakhym, Nien Nunb, Imperial Officer
• Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter -
• Storybook Weaver - Narrator, North-Going Zax
• Storybook Weaver Deluxe - Narrator, North-Going Zax
• The Curse of Monkey Island - Captain Rottingham, The Flying Welshman
• The Dark Eye - Narrator
• The Hobbit - Narrator, Additional Voices
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Gandalf
• The Powerpuff Girls: Chemical X-traction - Professor Utonium, Him
• Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 - Magneto
• X-Men Legends - Chuck Simms, Additional Voices
• X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse - Additional Voices
• Aragorn's Quest - The Narrator
• Thor: God of Thunder - Odin

Disney Parks[link]

• Disneyland/Disney's Hollywood Studios: Jedi Training Academy - Yoda, C-3PO
• Raiders of the Lost Jedi Temple of Doom: A Fan Film of Epic Proportions - Yoda
• Star Tours: The Adventure Continues - Admiral Ackbar
• Star Wars Weekends: Star Wars Parade - 2011 Parade Announcer

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Tom Kane at the Internet Movie Database

For Real was an American R&B and soul quartet, that formed in 1993.^[1] In the latter part of that decade they were nominated for a Grammy, Billboard Music Award, and Soul Train Music Award.

Biography[link]

For Real secured their recording contract by accident. "We were picking up our manager from the airport. So we decided to greet him with an acappella song. Someone from A&M Records just happened to be in the airport and heard them perform. Not long after, they were signed," said Latanyia Baldwin.^[2]

The band released their debut album, It's a Natural Thang, with production from Brian McKnight on A&M Records in 1994, and it became a critical success, including a rare four stars from Rolling Stone magazine.^[3] Their first single, "You Don't Wanna Miss" hit #28 on the Billboard chart, courtesy of a danceable new jack swing remix by Steve "Silk" Hurley, which was featured in the song's video. A second single, "Easy to Love", peaked at #65 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album scored another chart hit with the a cappella love song, "You Don't Know Nothin'", which was written and produced by Mervyn Warren, and which peaked at #27. The song peaked at #54 in the UK Singles Chart in July 1995.^[4] The album sold over one million copies worldwide, and peaked at #80 on the Billboard 200.

In 1995, the band appeared in Italian Vogue, modeling men's suits. They toured alongside Stevie Wonder,^[5] and lent their voices to the Martin Scorsese film project Grace of My Heart. The foursome also forayed into acting with appearances in the film Shake, Rattle and Rock! starring Renée Zellweger and Howie Mandel^[6] on Showtime.

They also hit the US Top 20 with the single "Freedom (Theme from Panther)" featuring Aaliyah, TLC, En Vogue, BlackGirl, SWV, and Vanessa Williams from the film Panther. They also recorded a duet with Stevie Wonder called "Stubborn Kind of Fellow", which appeared on the Marvin Gaye tribute album, Inner City Blues: The Music of Marvin Gaye.^[7] For Real also recorded songs for the soundtracks of the films Waiting to Exhale and Fled.

After a label change from A&M to Dallas Austin's Arista imprint Rowdy Records in 1996, For Real struck again with the Austin-produced, 60s-leaning single "Like I Do", from their second album Free. "Like I Do" hit #10 on the Billboard singles chart. The video also earned a Billboard nomination for Best R&B Clip; the album made the Top 100, and sold nearly 400,000 copies in the US. The album's next and last single was the Diane Warren-penned pop ballad "The Saddest Song I Ever Heard" which hit #65 on the Top 100 singles chart. The band performed "Saddest Song" on the TV series All That. Free included production from top R&B/pop producers like Babyface, Mario Winans, and Jon B..

The band also recorded three songs ("I Do", "Born to Love That Boy" and "Unwanted Number") and appeared in the critically acclaimed film Grace of My Heart. The film's soundstrack won a Satellite Award in 1997.^[9][10]

In January 1997, the band won an American Music Award for their work on the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack, in Summer 1997, the group earned a Soul Train Award nomination for Album of the Year (By a Group, Band or Duo) for Free.

In 1999, Wendi Williams lent her voice to the Emmy-winning film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge with Halle Berry, in which Berry plays a singer but Williams is behind her singing voice.^[11]

In 2002, their song "Love Will Be Waiting at Home" appeared in the film Two Can Play That Game, which starred Vivica A. Fox and Morris Chestnut.

In 2009, CoryLavel began to work with Josina Elder on her new album.

Discography[link]

• It's a Natural Thang (1994)
• Free (1996)

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• SingingFool.com Streaming music videos for "Like I Do" and "The Saddest Song I Ever Heard"
• Allmusic^{[dead link]} Discography, biographies, and pictures
• IUMA Group photos, lyrics, message board, audio streams, and biography
• Google Album info, photos, and lyrics

PHASE 2 (aka Lonny Wood)^[1] is one of the most influential and well known New York City aerosol artists. Mostly active in the 1970s, Phase 2 is generally credited with originating the "bubble letter" style of aerosol writing, also known as "softies".^[2] He was also influential in the early hip-hop scene.

Graffiti career[link]

Phase 2 is from The Bronx, and attended DeWitt Clinton High School along with a number of other early graffiti artists. Many famous graffiti writers of the early 1970s would meet at a doughnut shop across from the school called the Coffee Shop before heading down to the subway station at 149th Street and Grand Concourse to watch tagged trains on the IRT line pass by.^[3] Phase 2 was mentored in graffiti by his friend and neighbor Thomas Lee aka Lee 163d!, one of the pioneers of graf writing in The Bronx.^[2]

He began writing in late 1971 under the name Phase 2, a moniker which had a rather mundane provenance. As Phase 2 would later recall, "the previous year we'd given this party. We were getting ready to give another one and I said, 'We'll call this one Phase Two.' I don't know why, but I was stuck on the name. It had meaning for me. I started writing 'Phase 2.'"^[4]

Part of the appeal of graffiti writing for Phase 2 was that it allowed him to get his "name" known yet remain anonymous.^[5] He noted later that tagging provided disadvantaged urban teens "the only significant vehicle to represent their 'existence.'"^[6]

It was in late 1972 that Phase 2 first used an early version of the "bubble letter" or "softie", a style of graffiti writing which would become extremely influential and is considered a "giant leap" in the art form.^[2] The puffed-out, marshmallow-like letters drawn by Phase 2 were soon copied by other artists who added their own variations. Phase himself quickly embellished on his original form, creating and naming dozens of varieties of softies such as "phasemagorical phantastic" (bubble letters with stars), "bubble cloud", and "bubble drip."^[7] He is also credited with pioneering the use of arrows in graf writing around this same time.^[8] Hip-hop journalist Jeff Chang has noted that Phase 2's canvasses from 1973 have "been widely recognized as defining the early genre."^[9]

Over time Phase's work become more and more complex, moving far away from the simple tags of the early 70s to "hieroglyphical calligraphic abstraction."^[5] Chang points out that much of Phase's work involved "deconstructing the letter", transforming characters in the alphabet "into hard lines, third eyes, horns, drills, spikes, Egyptian pharaohs and dogs, pure geometrics."^[9] Another New York graffiti artist, Vulcan, remarked that "one of the things about Phase is that he was the only person at the time whose name could roll by ten times and each piece was different. That's what you noticed about his [work]."^[5]

In 1974 Phase 2 joined the newly created United Graffiti Artists, a professional graffiti collective which began to attract media attention. He was featured in an important essay on graffiti art by Richard Goldstein which appeared in New York magazine and inspired a new generation of graffiti artists.^[2]

In the 1980s, Phase 2 began publishing International Graffiti Times, the first zine about graffiti writing.^[10]

Influence in hip-hop[link]

Unlike some other pioneers of New York City graffiti, Phase 2 had a prominent role in The South Bronx hip-hop scene in the early 1980s. He also continues to be referenced in hip-hop songs.

Phase participated in the legendary hip-hop shows organized by Kool Lady Blue during the summer of 1982 at the Roxy nightclub in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. These shows brought together the top DJ's, MC's, breakers, and aerosol artist from The South Bronx and introduced hip-hop music and culture to the downtown punk and new wave scenes. Phase 2 designed the flyers for these events and often did aerosol pieces live on stage.^[11] He was also part of the first "international" hip-hop tour when stars from the Roxy performances toured in England and France in November of that year.^[12]

Phase 2 was one of the few aerosol artists to be involved in the musical side of hip-hop culture as well. He had a background as a DJ in the very early days of hip-hop, though he never made a name for himself in that role.^[13] In 1982, as part of his involvement with the Roxy scene, Phase released two rap singles. "Beach Boy" was a collaboration with Barry Michael Cooper, who would later co-write the script for New Jack City. "The Roxy" featured the Bill Laswell-led group Material and Grandmixer D.ST, though Phase 2 would later remark that he was disappointed in the song and felt that it "wasn't done properly."^[13][14]

Phase was also an early b-boy and claims that his dance crew pioneered the uprock (or "battle rock") style of dance despite claims that it originated in Brooklyn.^[13] He was thus actively involved in all of the traditional "four elements" of hip-hop culture.

Though he did not have a role in the production, Phase 2 did apparently influence the classic early hip-hop movie Wild Style. In the DVD commentary for the film, director Charlie Ahearn explained that, when thinking about the key character named "Phade", he had Phase 2 in mind (either to actually play the part or simply as a model) because Phase was a legendary graffiti writer from the past who was also involved in the hip-hop scene, as was the character of Phade. The role would ultimately be played by Fab 5 Freddy, himself a graffiti artist who along with Ahearn was the major creative force behind Wild Style. Phase 2 did take on an official role in another early hip-hop film when he worked as a graffiti consultant on the 1984 movie Beat Street.^[15]

In his 1995 song "Out for Fame" - an homage to graffiti artists and culture - KRS-One implores his audience "in the name of Phase 2" and fellow Bronx graffiti legend Stay High to "grab your cans and hit the streets." Several years later Mos Def mentioned Phase 2 on his widely respected debut album Black on Both Sides, specifically on the track "Hip Hop", in which he noted that hip-hop itself was "all city like Phase 2" - presumably a reference to the ubiquity of Phase 2's graffiti pieces on trains throughout the city during the early 1970s. In 1996, he appeared in the song I Messaggeri Pt.I contained in italian artist Neffa's album I Messaggeri della Dopa.

References[link]

Works cited[link]

• George, Nelson Buppies, B-boys, Baps & Bohos: Notes on Post-Soul Black Culture. Da Capo Press. 2001. ISBN 0-306-81027-1. 
• Chang, Jeff (2005). Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. Picador. ISBN 0-312-42579-1.
• Castleman, Craig (1982). Getting Up: Subway Graffiti in New York. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-53051-1. 

External links[link]

• Adam Mansbach interview with PHASE 2
• "Writer of the Storm", Raw Vision interview with PHASE 2

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