Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / Dec. 11, 1996, edition 1 / Page 5
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December 11,1996 The Blue Banner - Page 5 Hype! traces grunge rock phenomenon CPS) - Not that long ago, grunge nusic was an underground thing. That vas before it landed mainstream laytime, fueled a fashion trend, and ,elped make Seattle a hip place to ive. Now grunge is passe, says fdmmaker )oug Pray, who directed a film about he grunge music phenomenon called Hype!” “The timing couldn’t be worse, com- ng out in 1996 with a fdm about omething that was hugely popular our years ago. Therein lies the irony if the film,” said Pray. The acclaimed Hype!” tracks the evolution of grunge ock phenomenon that, along with offee, put Seattle on the map. Therein also lies why I would strongly irge people who think the timing is errible to go see the film. It’s really ibout the birth, explosion, and mass onsumption of an underground cul- ure. We could not have come out v'ith “Hype!” in 1992. It took four ears to tell the story because the story s really about a four-year period.” ..Over lunch at an Italian restaurant n midtown Manhattan, Pray and his Hype!” partner, producer Steven ielvey, do their bit to promote Hype!” Both Pray and Helvey come cross as decent guys thrilled that their ilm is seeing the light of day. “I want 0 clarify one thing Doug just said,” ielvey said. “What would be absurd if we came out now with a movie hat said how cool grunge is, because t is now so passe. People in Seattle in 992 were telling us it was over, hough it really wasn’t. If you look at Hype!” 10 years from now, it will till have its valid sense of the scene. • Iniii liiKii* december 11 thru january 23 UNCA FYI is a service of the Student Activities and Student Affairs offices. The film looks back and captures a pop culture cycle in which Seattle was the focus of all the energy. But no one should look at the film as a puff piece about grunge or Seattle.” Indeed, “Hype!” is clearly a labor of love that evolved over a long period of time. Like most first-time filmmak ers, Pray and Helvey struggled to raise funding, lived off credit cards, and struggled to get some of the bigger names in grunge to participate in the project. “Early on, we didn’t have Nirvana, Soundgardern, or Pearl Jam in it,” said Helvey. “We had Mudhoney, The Fresh Young Fel lows, Screaming Trees, and other groups like that, who were instru mental in creating what became known as grunge. We didn’t have stars, so we got a lot of poten- tial in vestors saying, ‘Nice to meet you’ and ‘Good luck. I’m pulling for you’.” Eventually, financial backers came through with money. Soundgarden agreed to appear in the film, and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder also sat in for an interview. Pray and Helvey also landed footage of what’s assumed to be Nirvana’s first live performance of the grunge anthem, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The filmmakers eventually had countless feet of material which took a year to edit into a final form. “You never knew exactly what you got until you looked at it,” Pray said of the editing process. “You’d conduct an interview that seemed totally bad. You’d sit and think, ‘I’m wasting film right now, which is too bad, because this guy SHOULD be interesting’.” “Then, later in the depths of editing hell, you’ll go back to that interview you thought was a waste and find what you need. It suddenly comes to life and is right in context. That hap pened again and again. Other inter views you think you’re nailing while you’re doing them, but they’re not usable. They may be impossible to edit.” Helvey interrupted, saying, “What was interesting about doing the inter views was that these guys and women weren’t stuffy. Most of them were very funny and didn’t take themselves or the music too seriously. The fact that the whole world took the music so seriously was so absurd. Journalists came in and tried to define the grunge sound, the scene, the fashions. It was a big joke. That’s what the movie’s all about.” Pray and Helvey know “Hype!” could be their foot in the door for careers in Hollywood. I’he two are looking lor projects to do together and apart, documentaries and features alike. All that, however, is a bit down the road. First, Pray and Helvey must criss cross the nation in their effort to hype “Hype!” “We’re learning, right now, first hand, a lot about what the bands in the movie are talking about,” Helvey said. “We made a film, somehow got it made. We got it seen at the Sundance Film Festival. Suddenly, we’re meet ing all these industry people and all these media people. Now the film’s getting released, and we’re doing more interviews. It’s so ironic. Doug and I are not Pearl Jam, but we’ve gotten a sense of what people went through in Seattle. It’s exciting and scary, and we’ll see what it leads to.” What a way to cheat: pencils the new fad in cheating scheme (CPS)- Federal officials say some college students taking graduate ad mission tests this fall paid thousands of dollars for pencils that they hoped would sharpen their scores. A California man was charged with fraud Oct. 27 after federal investiga tors said he helped people cheat on graduate admission exams by encod ing their pencils with the answers. George Kobayashi, 45, charged stu dents as much as $6,000 for his “unique” method of preparing them for the GMAT, GRE and other re quired tests though his company “America Test Center,” according to the qomplaint filed in Manhattan fed eral court. Kobayashi allegedly hired a team of experts to take each exam in New York. Relylnp^ on the three-hour rime difference, the expert test-takers tele phoned the answers to Kobayashi’s office in Los Angeles, where the an swers were quickly coded onto pencils given to his clients, federal officials said. “This defendant enriched himself by playing on the insecurities of young people at an anxious time in their lives,” said Mary Jo White, a Manhat tan U.S. attorney. “The victims here are not only the universities that ac cepted students who cheated on their admissions test, but the honest stu dents who perhaps did not get into the school of their choice because they were displaced by someone who cheated.” An undercover federal investigator who employed Kobayashi’s services witnessed the scam and flew to Los Angeles to take the GMAT on Oct. 19. The Educational Testing Service, wljich administers more than 9 mil lion admission exams each year, worked with federal investigators for about a year and a half to bring charges against Kobayashi. “We’re delighted in the sense that the system works,” said Mercedes Morris Garcia, an ETS spokesper son. About 100 students are believed to have used his company to cheat on graduate admission exams, she said. “We have a pretty good idea who was involved in this,” Garcia said. “We’ll take it case by case. There will be serious repercussions down the line.” liac ronfr.'^nt^'rl cimilor ing schemes, according to Garcia. “In the past 10 years, we’ve had seri ous cases involved with the time- zone difference,” she said. “This is more elaborate in the sense that it involves coding pencils.” Garcia would not comment on whether the company was changing its security measures. Patricia Taylor, assistant general counsel at ETS, said : “We take test security very seriously at ETS, and welcome the opportunity to work with federal officials in the future to strike a blow against test fraud.” If convicted, Kobayashi faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on each of two counts of mail and wire fraud, and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice his gross gain from the scheme, whichever is greater. academic notices • Final exams end • 12/13 • Final grades due. Noon • 12/16 • UNCA closed • 12/23 - 12/27 • 1/1 • Orientation for new students • 1/13 - 1/14 • Registration *1/14 • classes begin at 6 p.m. *1/14 • Late registration / drop add • 1/15 - 1/22 • Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday ■ No classes, offices closed • 1/20 exhibits Jon Dawes Sculpture Exhibit, reception 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., OH «thru 12/20 Liberty Becker Raku Exhibit, reception 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., 2nd floor, OH • thru 12/20 Photography Exhibit - UNCA students' photographs, 12-4 p.m.. Gallery f/32, 32 Biltmore Ave. • thru 1/13 children's Art Works - rotating exhibit, RL Jason Watson Exhibit, 1st floor Univ. Gallery, OH • 1/17 - 1/28 Rhett Thompson, 2nd floor Gallery, OH • 1/17 - 1/28 athletics (ext. 6459) Women's Basketball Women's Basketball Men's Basketball vs. Men's Basketball vs. Men's Basketball vs. Men's Basketball vs. Women's Basketball Women's Basketball Men's Basketball vs. Men's Basketball vs. vs. Western Carolina, 3 p.m., JC • 12/29 vs. Georgia State, 2 p.m., JC • 12/31 UMBC, 7:30 p.m., JC • 1/4 Marshall, 7:30 p.m.. Civic Center *1/6 Liberty, 7:30 p.m., JC • 1/11 Winthrop, 7:30 p.m., JC • 1/15 vs. UNC Greensboro, 7 p.m., JC • 1/16 vs. UMBC, 2 p.m., JC • 1/18 Charleston So., 4 p.m., JC • 1/18 Coastal Carolina, 7:30 p.m., JC • 1/20 homecoming '97 - feb. 3 -9 Watch for schedule in January for week-long events lectures Reading by Visiting Prof. Tom Hubbard of Fife, Scotland, 7 p.m., Urthona Gallery, 91 Patton Ave. • 12/11 "Developing an International Awareness in Western Nortb Carolina," World Affairs Council, 7:30 p.m., OCC (ext. 6140) *1/13 concerts/live entertainment "42nd Street," Broadway Musical tickets $18, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., HC27* 1/7 Charlotte Hornets tickets available for 12/13- Philadelphia, 1 /2 - Dallas, 1/15- New Jersey; January 21-31 games on sale • starting 1/14 Used Book Co-op - Buy and Sell, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m./4 - 6:30 p.m., HC 18 (sponsored by by SGA and NCSL) • 12/9 - 12/12 Used Book Buy, 9 a.m. ■ 4 p.m., HC Bookstore • 12/9 - 12/13 Highsmith Center open all night • 12/8 - 12/12 Residence Halls close at 9 a.m. • 12/14 Movie tickets - $3. 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., HC 27 (ext. 6584) Mediation Workshop, 9:30a.m. - 4:30 p.m.. Laurel Forum, KH, Free (R.S.V.P by 1 /25) (253-5120) • 1 /25 Escort Service for students from any area on campus; call Public Safety or use yellow box at Vance Hall - 251 - 6710 "Freedom From Smoking" - smoking cessation classes - orientation meeting, 12:15 p.m., WHC (ext. 6520) • 1 /23 Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration, 3:30 p.m., HC • 1/23 organizations - special programs "Mittens, Hats, Socks For Kids" - hang them on the Christmas Tree in HC (sponsored by ODK) • thru 12/13 Have a Happy and Safe Holiday Break!
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