Don device
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don device (born Walter Donald McPhee on September 1966) is an American filmmaker. He launched his career as a child-actor shortly after being recognized for his performance in a church production in 1972, the same year he completed his first personal film as director, using kids from his neighborhood and his father's regular-8 camera. After an award-winning turn as Mozart in "Amadeus" off-Broadwayin 1985 device chose to retire from his acting career, to further his studies in Theatre Arts, and Filmmaking at the California Institute of the Arts (also referred to as CalArts) where he learned under the wings of Alexander Mackendrick, director of such classic films as The Sweet Smell of Success and The Ladykillers. Upon graduation, device immediately began writing and directing short films for television as well as writing sketch comedy for various talk-shows such as The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman. By the age of 25, he had already written or directed over 50 projects for television and sold 4 film scripts.
Simultaneously, he pursued his passion for music, co-founding the band devices and began recording with producer Carl Stephenson. The band found success surprisingly quickly along with friends and label-mates Forest For the Trees and Beck. Upon the break-up of the band during the recording of their second album, he moved to Paris (where he currently resides), with the will to form a more experimental hard-rock band named 'Bends'. Following two independent discs, the band broke up after playing to an audience of 200,000 people as part of a rock festival in Hungary that included such acts as the Scorpions and Slayer. "They may as wall have included the Manson Family for all we had to do with the other bands up there," device was quoted in Rock and Folk magazine,"In America we have a kid's show with a song, 'One of these things doesn't belong here.' Well, that thing was bends."
Lead Guitarist Vermeulen and Drummer Rak were less amused, both requiring medical treatment for tendonitis in both arms and device had nodules scraped from his vocal cords. "Who had what and who was faking because they just couldn't face another day in that smelly van doesn't matter. We were all fed up." None of them were to see each other for the following four years. With a whopping 350 dollars in his bank account to show for nearly three years of non-stop touring, "'Bends' just broke."
Still quenching his thirst for film, device began teaching cinema as well as returning to directing and film making. He worked as head screenwriter for what he refers to as "..one of the most execrable attempts at a television series, and an unforgivable assassination attempt on the sitcom form." After a car accident and assault, which led to the loss of hearing in his left ear, his musical career came to an end, except for the occasional concert with his collaborator, famed New York minimalist composer,Rhys Chatham. "I'll tell you how successful I was," said device recently, "when I retired, I was the only one who knew."
The new millennium saw him working on 3-D films with famed composer/metteur-en-scène Bernard Szajner for amusement parks and local town councils around the United States and France, a fruitful collaboration that continues to this day, expanding into the Middle East and Asia as well. In 2004 he was Heading the Short Film Jury at the Lausanne Underground Film Festival (LUFF)] as well as debuting a new composition by Chatham to a sold-out crowd. They are rumoured to be collaborating on recordings and film projects as well. He can be seen in the film-documentary "Mackendrick on Film" by Paul Cronin. As well as reinvesting himself in his film career and directing the occasional project for French television, in his free time device conducts weekly classes for actors, actresses and aspiring directors.
