I would like to see full length, (or nearly so) feature films of popular movies made entirely from sound and lighting check cutting room clips.
The scenes would adhere as closely to the box office version as possible but the actors would keep changing as different extras read their dead-pan lines.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jun 18 2005

But the sound and light checks would be just the beginnings of the scenes. They don't shoot the whole scene, check the sound, then re-shoot it all.
-- angel, Jun 18 2005


That IS a shame. So, no human Gollum in his ping pong ball/computer animation suit then?
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jun 19 2005


Except those outtakes they've started including with animated films, where the character's hair is replaced by a blue blob. That might have seemed funny after a long session at the computer, but just isn't.

What I would like to see is all those scenes with characters who were completely cut out of the original film. +
-- moomintroll, Jun 19 2005


Didn't Ed Wood work along this idea? Or most videos from Van Nuys? +
-- sartep, Jun 19 2005


It would be interesting to watch *all* unfeatured footage from production. I imagine trying to do this with some modern films could take a while.
-- wagster, Jun 19 2005


out takes from Shaun of the Dead were hilarious
-- po, Jun 19 2005


as were the explanations of the plot holes.
-- stilgar, Sep 06 2005


Is this like casting couched?
-- bristolz, Sep 06 2005


Heh, now that would be good. A movie made entirely from auditions of every scene.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 07 2005


I'm watching "The X-Factor" at the mo (think American Idol etc.). The early auditions are fantastic to watch, but after they weed out the terrible, deluded and just plain old mad it gets fairly tedious.
-- wagster, Sep 07 2005


There are no //sound and lighting check cutting room clips.// Where you describe //extras reading their dead pan lines// you really mean 'stand-ins,' actors of similar size and coloring to the principals. Camera and lighting use the "b-team" stand-ins to set-up the shots, but they rarely run the lines and almost never roll film. Finding even a single clip as described here would be lucky.

Extras appear on film in the background and change often. Stand-ins can work the whole show; many big stars use the same person for all their movies. My girlfriend was Rene Russo's stand-in on "Buddy" and the only time she was photographed showed only the back of her head.

During the production of "Dracula" in 1933, after Tod Browning and Bela Lugosi went home for the night, another cast and crew came in and shot a Spanish language version with the same sets and costumes. It remains a curious rarity. In a film school directing class, my friend Grover put together a scene from 'Deliverence' using takes of different actors auditioning for the same parts. The results were even worse than just plain bad.
-- Cube, Feb 04 2006


There are probably ugly and embarassing things that take place in the filming of any movie that would give the production studio a very bad image. As with most companies, there is an ugly side to the business that they would rather the customer didn't see. I think that the same applies for movies.. say if the director was really irate that day and he stormed on the set and punched one of the actors and then his girlfriend jumped in and it eventually became a movie set brawl simply because the guy forgot his lines. Even though the outakes on DVD are sometimes comical or interesting, they are still carefully selected.
-- Jscotty, Feb 05 2006


If you would enjoy seeing the previous annotation acted out, I recommend "Living in Oblivion", a wonderful, funny movie about making independent movies. With Steve Buscemi and Catherine Keener.

Thanks for setting us straight, [Cube].

I thought this would simply be a remake of the movie made out of takes that didn't get chosen. Same actors as the real movie, but just slightly ... off. The way it feels to hear a live verson, or a different live version, of a track you've listened to a thousand times.
-- jutta, Feb 05 2006


In the early days of cinema, if a film was imported to the US from Europe, distributors were forced to pay duties on every print that was sent to the states. Some moviemakers at the time actually shot extra takes during production so they could assemble a unique film negative to ship to America and strike prints from that master, paying the fee only once.
-- Cube, Feb 05 2006



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