Uplift the Race - Softcover

Lee, Spike

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0671644181 ISBN 13: 9780671644185

Publisher: Fireside, 1988

Synopsis

Spike Lee rises again. This time, he and Lisa Jones document his transition from struggling independent to mainstream filmmaker with the making of the Columbia Pictures film, School Daze. No longer working with a small cast and a painfully tight budget, Spike Lee and his crew find themselves working in a swirl of university politics, a cast of thousands, big musical production numbers and the not-insignificant pressures of coming up with a hit in the majors. He "uplifts the race" by demystifying the process of producing an entertaining commercial film that, at the same time, delivers a stinging - yet funny - critique on American culture.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Lee, the writer-producer-director who took the movie industry by surprise with his highly successful 1986 independent film She's Gotta Have It, returns to the screen this month with his bigger-budgeted School Daze, filmed on location. In the movie, Lee draws on his experience as a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta from 1975 to 1979, stating that the action "takes places at a fictitious, predominantly Black College in the South. The student body is divided into two factions: The Haves and the Have-Nots. This division is based upon class and color." Scripts are like "blueprints," he writes, and, with that in mind, he presents his screenplay with a code indicating scenes never shot and those deleted during editing. He includes reminiscences and statements by others connected with the production and a section on his career in the music-video field. The result is a hefty package of inside info and filmmaking know-how that should fascinate industry professionals as well as film students and fans.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fireside
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0671644181
• ISBN 13: 9780671644185
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368