Well, dear readers, I was watching the really long featurette about the making of The Swimmer because the film has an interesting history and they interviewed lots of good folks for it. And while there are very interesting factoids throughout the over ninety minutes, it is a textbook in how not to make a featurette. I mean, there is one of those credits on this thing that reads “Written, Produced and Directed by” – written? It is ALL interviews – are they really taking a writing credit for having asked some questions? Really? And directed by? I don’t know, setting a camera down and shooting an interview is not my idea of something that would warrant a directing credit, but that’s just me. What would warrant a directing credit is making a compelling featurette and not one where the same information is repeated over and over again. Yes, this thing could have run twenty minutes shorter had all the repetition been cut. It’s classic “I learned how to do this by watching other featurettes that were terrible. So, we get interminable film clips, frequently the same scenes, many of them used to “illustrate” what someone is talking about in an ironic way. That is, for me, a big fail. The purpose of a featurette like this particular one is to present the interviews in a cogent and hopefully interesting way. Again, it’s well worth watching, but there’s an art to making these that seems to elude most of the people who make them. I still haven’t finished the damn thing. But it was fun to see the young girl, Janet Landgard, who isn’t so young anymore (she’s actually six days older than me), and to hear Burt Lancaster’s daughter wax on about her daddy. There was one rather horrifying thing in the featurette, something called Joan Rivers. I mean, they show a clip of her in the film and then show her now – and whatever the now is certainly doesn’t resemble the Joan Rivers in the film and the Joan Rivers in the film is real-looking and kind of cute in her own way. The now Joan Rivers is shocking to look at. The fact that she must think what she’s done to her face looks good is something I will never understand. In any case, this is a great example of How Not to Make a Featurette.
The Swimmer, on the other hand, remains one of the most fascinating movies ever – no, it doesn’t quite work, thanks to the reshoots and reediting, but there’s just something about the film that is hypnotic and poetic and devastating. Helping matters immeasurably is the music of Marvin Hamlisch, his first film score. Hamlisch, of course, is helped immeasurably by his great orchestrators, Leo Shuken and Jack Hayes. Burt Lancaster is wonderful in the film, and the supporting performances, some of which are great and some of which border on amateur, somehow all work and are of a piece. The kind of villain of the piece is Sam Spiegel, the film’s producer who wouldn’t even put his name on the film. When it didn’t test well, they removed Barbara Loden’s scene and reshot it with Janice Rule, directed not by the film’s director, Frank Perry, but by Sydney Pollack, a friend of Burt’s. Pollock also reshot some of Miss Landgard’s scenes and the Kim Hunter scene – Miss Hunter and the man playing her husband weren’t in the film originally. So, it’s kind of a patchwork thing – Pollack has said he recut the film, but the interviewed editor said HE did – who knows, who cares. I would have loved to have seen the Frank Perry cut before it was taken apart. It may not have been good or even releasable, but I know it would be fascinating to see. But what we’re left with is a one-off piece of American filmmaking and a beautiful adaptation of a great John Cheever story (he’s in the film, too). The transfer, thankfully, is really nice and this package is highly recommended by the likes of me.
Prior to the viewing, I’d had a long day but a nice one. I got about eight hours of sleep, then did some work on the computer. Sandy and Lanny came at noon and we went to eat – I had a meatless Cobb salad and a bagel. Then we came back to the house and went through everything we have, did some arrangement work, and worked on phrasing a little. Whilst we were working, two more lead sheets arrived, so Lanny and I worked on those (Sandy had to leave) – we adjusted the key on one of them, plus went through and did corrections, then Lanny was going to send them back to the guy who did them so we could get the final copies. We’re still waiting on about eight lead sheets and until we get them, we’re just vamping.
Then Lanny left and I printed out some orders, picked up a package and had the piano tuned, which it really needed. Once that was done, I had my viewing, cast my Abner Yokum, and then I moseyed on over to the Lonny Chapman Theater to see a staged reading of three one-act musicals by Doug Haverty and Adryan Russ. I’d seen two of these before elsewhere, so only the third was new to me. They’ll be doing a production later in the year at this theater. Because it was a first reading I’ll say nothing, other than more than half of it needs to be severely recast. I’m sure they’ll be looking at things to fix and if they solicit my opinion, I do have thoughts on what I felt could be better.
After that, I came home and ate a bunch of junk, which I have to stop doing – I had some cashews and almonds – ate those – I had some low-fat ice cream in the freezer – ate that – I had some fruity things – ate those. I’d have been better off having a sandwich. Luckily I hadn’t eaten all that much for lunch.
Today, I have an eleven o’clock meeting at LACC to see some preliminary set designs, so I’m sure that will be interesting and fun. Then I come right home and we have a Sandy and Lanny session. I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat, and then I go and begin the mixes on the second day of recording on And the World Goes Round. We’re hoping we can finish that by tomorrow night, but we shall see how it goes. I just hope we’re able to save as much as we were from the first day of recording – that would be great. Once we’ve finished, then we’ll book the pick-up session and get that done.
Tomorrow, I’m not sure what’s happening during the day – I think I may have a production meeting at LACC, but we’re not having a Sandy and Lanny session, so I’m not sure what the rest of the day holds – the evening holds more mixing. Friday I may try to see a show called Floyd Collins – but we’ll have to see how I’m feeling. The weekend has stuff and then next week is hugely busy with Kritzerland rehearsals, a meet and greet for Li’l Abner and all sorts of other stuff.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a meeting, have a work session, hopefully pick up packages, eat, and mix. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall begin a busier than busy day.