Well, dear readers, this week has flown by, like a gazelle in a Maidenform bra. Somehow, it’s Thursday. And that means I must be up VERY early and must therefore write these here notes in a hurry because I must be alert and with it and happening for the first day of our two-day shoot of the three remaining episodes of season one of the web series known as Outside The Box. And if you haven’t subscribed yourself to the Outside The Box channel on You Tube, what on Earth are you waiting for (youtube.com/outsidetheboxseries). I was happy to see that comments are beginning to come in for the Nudie Musical Blu and Ray, such as this one posted on Facebook: “Just got done watching the blu-ray. What an AMAZING job! I can’t believe this is the same movie. This has to be one of the best HD transfers I have ever seen. It’s almost as if a mint 35mm print showed up at my door today. Full review coming soon. Thanks SO much for putting this out!” It makes all that hard work worthwhile.
I had a very nice day yesterday. I got up after a good night’s sleep – that was nice. I answered e-mails and had some telephonic conversations, and then did the four-mile jog. After that, I went to lunch at Mo’s with my editor, Marshall Harvey, the co-producer of the Summer and Smoke CD, Neil Bulk, CD mixer extraordinaire, Mike Matessino, and film music fan Henry Stanny (aka Morricone on the FSM board). It was all fun, with good food to boot. After that, I went to the mail place and picked up three count them three packages, one of which took them fifteen minutes to find.
Then I came home, finally figured out how to cut and paste into the script I’m assembling for the LACC show, so that will now save me a LOT of time, although many of the lyrics I will have to type in by hand as they don’t seem to be available on the Internet. But at least all the commentary can be cut and pasted, so that’s great. I then met my cameraman at the rental place and we got all that equipment.
Then I came back home and continued my search for the final Gardenia cast member for the November show. I need a great belter – a couple of people I’d use are not going to be in town. Then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture entitled Lost Horizon, the musical version, which has just been released on DVD by Sony – and, for the first time, it’s the complete road show version that hasn’t been seen since the film first came out (the laserdisc, which attempted to be complete, wasn’t). The film is a bit of a guilty pleasure and the added twenty minutes actually do help and contain a few good numbers. Most of the cuts were in whole songs, but about ninety seconds was removed from the opening scene, and there were a few other minor trims like that. They tended only to do trims in scenes where there was no underscore or where they could just lift an entire section out. I really do like some of the songs, and the plot of Lost Horizon, from the James Hilton novel, is a good one. The film fails primarily because of the stodgy direction of Charles Jarrott, who was just the wrong guy for the job. He has no sense of musicality, no sense of rhythm or how to shoot a musical number – had the director had any of those talents, even with the hideous Hermes Pan choreography, the film would have at least moved along a little better and not seemed so bloated. The World Is A Circle should have been a joyous number, like Do Re Mi from the film of The Sound Of Music – THAT’S how to shoot a musical number. But for Circle, Jarrott basically puts the camera far away and never cuts so the song just lays there, dramatically and visually inert. Just thinking about what Robert Wise, for example, would have done with this one can imagine an entirely different kind of film – first off, he wouldn’t have had Hermes Pan choreograph and that would have prevented a multitude of sins. It was nice to see all the cut footage back – I Come To You, Where Knowledge Ends, If I Could Go Back, and yes, the fertility dance from Living Together, Growing Together – that was rather mind-boggling in its cheesiness. The transfer is, as per usual for Sony, really terrific – great color, very sharp for a standard DVD, anamorphic – the only downside and it’s really a bad downside and one I just don’t get, is that the sound is mono. I’m quite certain the road show prints were, at the very least, four-track mag. In any case, I enjoyed myself.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must be up at seven-fifteen and at our first location by nine and I definitely need some beauty sleep.
Today, we’ll be shooting two of the three set-up scenes – one in Hollywood and one at my home environment. Hoping it all goes smoothly. We should be done no later than three. Then I’ll have to do the four-mile jog (time permitting), attend a rehearsal for tomorrow’s musical numbers, grab something light but amusing to eat, and then have a one-hour audition at LACC.
Tomorrow is our long shoot date – three musical numbers and a set-up scene. Once again, we begin at nine and will hopefully wrap all the musical stuff by three-thirty. We’ll then shoot the set-up scene directly after that. Then I have to rush over to Barry Pearl’s to go to the opening night of Annie.
I have a lot to do on the weekend – writing, finishing casting the Gardenia show and getting the singers their songs and sheet music – the good news is I’ve found sheet music to all but four songs, so our MD will have to do simple lead sheet charts on those. I thought it was going to be much more than that, so that was a load off for him and me – writing, prepping the next Kritzerland release and on and on and on.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a shoot, do a four-mile jog (time permitting), attend a rehearsal, do an audition, and eat. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite flop musical films and shows – and your favorite songs from them? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall be the shootist and shoot our first of two days’ worth of our remaining three episodes.