When director Damien Chazelle was unable to secure funding in 2013 for the movie Whiplash, which went on to become a critically acclaimed masterpiece, he decided to make a short. The 18-minute movie would serve as proof that the feature about an instructor and his questionable methods of inspiring greatness and artistry needed to be made. The short, which took home an award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and stars eventual Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor J.K. Simmons, has recently surfaced on YouTube, Filmmaker magazine noted.
For those who have seen Whiplash, the short makes up arguably the most powerful scene from the feature film. A young and nervous Andrew Neyman (Andrew Simmons) in the short -- Miles Teller took over the role for the feature -- sits in with an upper-level jazz ensemble in the clip below. After he fumbles through his first meeting with the other musicians, Neyman experiences the sheer brilliance and terror of instructor Andrew Fletcher (J.K. Simmons, no relation). Halfway through the composition "Whiplash," Fletcher stops the rehearsal and belittles an out-of-tune trombone player until he quits the ensemble.
Fletcher catches Neyman in the hallway and has a friendly conversation, recounting the story about how Charlie Parker became great because Joe Jones threw a cymbal at his head. That jazz parable becomes the foundation of Whiplash as Fletcher returns to rehearsal and assaults Neyman for being off tempo. Check out the intense scene below.
Despite Whiplash being written as an original screenplay, it was not eligible for that award at the Oscars because of the short. Instead, Whiplash was included in the Best Adapted Screenplay category, which it lost to The Imitation Game. The film took home the Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing statues in addition to Simmons's honor.
