Two of my favorite songs have the word bittersweet in the title. I'll give you brownie points if you can guess what they are. I bring up this fun fact, because it is the only word that can describe my feelings toward my Dead Noon experience.
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Bitter, because of the hatchet job the studio did on our fun little movie. I will never understand how they spent thirty times the amount of money on an additional twenty minutes of footage, then we spent making the entire movie. I will never understand how with that money, they made our movie look and feel more low budget, made the story make less sense and drained out almost every drop of humor and quirkiness. Bitter, because I hate, hate, hate the music they replaced our lovely score with and the cover art they used. The music was amateurish and droning. The cover art was lazy and I'm not even sure the artist (I use the word lightly) watched the movie, as there are things on the cover that are not in the film... hence DEAD NOON does not take place at night, nor involve full moons. They took out my favorite scenes, but left lines in that refer to said scenes and therefore no longer make any sense.... the list could go on.
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Sweet, because I've never had more fun making a film. We were involved in so many aspects and I truly feel this is our movie, not just some film I'm in. Sweet, because I truly think our version was great and entertaining and had cult-classic potential. I have so much fun watching it. Sweet, because this movie has gone farther then I ever thought possible. I don't know anyone who has sold their project to a studio, especially with such a grassroots budget. But mostly... sweet, because I love everyone involved in this project. It doesn't get better than creating with friends and I'm excited to see where it goes.
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It's odd to experience such conflicting emotions over the same project. That being said, we had a fun celebration party tonight commemorating Dead Noon's release. We ate dinner, signed each other's copies, joked about the cover art and watched the special features, including my beloved deleted scenes. It was a great capstone to an interesting chunk of our lives we will now refer to as Done Noon.
6 comments:
I may have been the first to buy full price retail... but as of yet, haven't had the heart to watch it.
I loved the music and the scene where Bear was killed in your original.
Knowing that has been changed makes me not want to watch it...
But, By Golly..... I own the thing.
"Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve. One of the all-time great bands, which I would never have known existed, unless my dear daughter Lil had brought them to my attention. Thanks for a lot of things over the years, Lil, not least of which is The Verve.
Lil and Bear, I wish you much success with "Dead Noon". I know Lionsgate performed openheart surgery with a shovel on it, but it is still yours. Make sure Andy maintains artistic control with his future projects.
Hey, how 'bout them Aggie basketballers. (AP #25 in the country). Aggies, and Tigers (Mizzou), and Bears. Oh my!
Hal
Brownie points Dad... you correctly guessed one of the songs.
I'm thrilled about the Aggies!
Mom it is hard to watch if you've seen the original, but just hold your nose and jump in.
For those of you trying to come up with the second song, a clue is Colorado.
How fun that you guys signed eachothers copies!! Not so happy about the rating...how come they had to come and do that?? Loved reading your take on it :)
Knowing nothing about filmaking, this makes me so sad that they charged you dearly to ruin your movie.
I've got the other answer on the tip of my tongue, but all I have in my head is The Bodyguard song "...bittersweet memories....that's all I'm taking with me...eeeee...eeeee...eeeee!"
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