Making up and making of.
December 9, 2020 2:19 AM
I just watched this Apple Ad and its making of (so cool!) I also recently watched the making of of Apocalypse now (awesome!) and all this made me wonder about making-ofs.
Please tell me about your favorite behind-the scenes/making of content and stories (be it videos, books, documentaries etc.).
Dangerous Days (Blade Runner)... covers a lot of territory
there's a making of for the Netflix Dark Crystal series that's excellent
posted by kokaku at 3:13 AM on December 9, 2020
there's a making of for the Netflix Dark Crystal series that's excellent
posted by kokaku at 3:13 AM on December 9, 2020
I have a special edition DVD of The Incredibles that has multiple chapters documenting so many different aspects of the making of that movie, from character design to how the story was written, the music, everything. It has many interviews with the different people involved and it shows so much of the mess and struggle and negotiation of a creative project when people are collaborating. I find it incredibly inspiring. Everyone who is interviewed is so passionate and enthusiastic, and those are qualities I love to see in people.
posted by Zumbador at 3:26 AM on December 9, 2020
posted by Zumbador at 3:26 AM on December 9, 2020
Jodorowsky's Dune is a great making of documentary on a movie that unfortunately was never made.
posted by fairmettle at 3:40 AM on December 9, 2020
posted by fairmettle at 3:40 AM on December 9, 2020
Not as good a movie as Apocalypse Now, but if you have any interest in Patrick Stewart or Star Trek, there's an E-book floating around called "Fade In: The Making of Star Trek Insurrection" that is fascinating.
posted by johngoren at 3:52 AM on December 9, 2020
posted by johngoren at 3:52 AM on December 9, 2020
Burden of Dreams is a great behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Werner Herzog's absolutely sublime film Fitzcarraldo. (And it includes a quintessential Herzogian rant about the horrific insufferablity of nature. Delivered from deep in the Amazon jungle.) Watch Fitzcarraldo first, if you haven't seen it already. It's truly sui generis.
posted by bertran at 4:19 AM on December 9, 2020
posted by bertran at 4:19 AM on December 9, 2020
In the 1980s there was a paperback about the "Making Of The Return Of The Jedi" I was really into, which was a fun combination of interviews with the leads, production diary, and some of the funnier faxes from the production crew. (There has been another different "Making of" published since then and that new one is the only one I can find links for, unfortunately....)
Emma Thompson published her personal production diary in the same volume with her adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. Very actor-focused, but absolutely delightful and dishy, with some fantastic anecdotes about herself and Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant and Hugh Laurie, all of whom come across as being exactly the way you always pictured them.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:44 AM on December 9, 2020
Emma Thompson published her personal production diary in the same volume with her adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. Very actor-focused, but absolutely delightful and dishy, with some fantastic anecdotes about herself and Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant and Hugh Laurie, all of whom come across as being exactly the way you always pictured them.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:44 AM on December 9, 2020
There's a super campy 2001 movie called Wet Hot American Summer (which now has two Netflix series based on it) that was filmed at a summer camp in Pennsylvania, with most of the actors and crew staying onsite during filming. In 2015 they cut together some of the tons of extra footage into a documentary of sorts called Hurricane of Fun. It's a lot of goofy fun to watch.
posted by SeedStitch at 6:19 AM on December 9, 2020
posted by SeedStitch at 6:19 AM on December 9, 2020
I'm a big Beatles fan. I like the movie Let It Be, where you feel like a fly on the wall while they work on their second-to-last album. There's also a fantastic series of films that are collectively called Deconstructing the Beatles, in which Beatleologist Scott Freiman talks about the nitty-gritty details of how the Beatles recorded their songs. What struck me is how much thought and creativity went into the smallest details of their music.
posted by alex1965 at 6:23 AM on December 9, 2020
posted by alex1965 at 6:23 AM on December 9, 2020
I thought the Showtime documentary The Beach Boys: Making Pet Sounds was incredibly illuminating.
posted by kevinbelt at 6:25 AM on December 9, 2020
posted by kevinbelt at 6:25 AM on December 9, 2020
The late novelist, screenwriter, and playwright William Goldman wrote three nonfiction books about his behind-the-scenes experiences in entertainment - they don't necessarily go into a lot of detail about specific individual productions (although there is some), but they definitely give a detailed look at how the sausage is made from several perspectives.
The Season (covering the 1967-68 season of the creation and production of plays and musicals on and off Broadway), Adventures in the Screen Trade (1983, covering roughly his first 20 years working in movies), and the 2000 followup to Adventures, Which Lie Did I Tell?
posted by soundguy99 at 6:33 AM on December 9, 2020
The Season (covering the 1967-68 season of the creation and production of plays and musicals on and off Broadway), Adventures in the Screen Trade (1983, covering roughly his first 20 years working in movies), and the 2000 followup to Adventures, Which Lie Did I Tell?
posted by soundguy99 at 6:33 AM on December 9, 2020
The Disney+ series, Disney Gallery: Star Wars: The Mandalorian is a series about the making of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian. It’s basically a bunch of people sitting around a table geeking out about the geeky thing they made, and it’s amazing.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 6:55 AM on December 9, 2020
posted by 1970s Antihero at 6:55 AM on December 9, 2020
I don't think they touched on it in the making of, but Twigs was recovering from surgery when she filmed the video which is just... she is incredible.
She agreed, thinking that it would be a month or so down the line, but Jonze's team flew her out to L.A. the next week. "I looked like death... I looked disgusting. I wasn't supposed to be moving," she says. "And Spike's like, 'Okay, so we're gonna play the song and I need you to dance around your living room to it'. I was fully going for it and literally feeling like my uterus was gonna fall out. I didn't tell them about the surgery or that I had all these stitches in my bellybutton. It was grim. It was grim as fuck."
She continues to describe just how bad it got: "When I was on set with Spike, the stitches in my bellybutton were splitting open. I told him: 'Just so you know, if I start bleeding through this white shirt…'. I basically couldn't lift my arms up, because all your organs stick together and you can't stretch your stomach." Luckily, she was involved in the choreography and created moves to be "very forward and with a contracted stomach" to help with her condition.
https://www.nylon.com/fka-twigs-spike-jonze-ad
posted by humuhumu at 7:12 AM on December 9, 2020
She agreed, thinking that it would be a month or so down the line, but Jonze's team flew her out to L.A. the next week. "I looked like death... I looked disgusting. I wasn't supposed to be moving," she says. "And Spike's like, 'Okay, so we're gonna play the song and I need you to dance around your living room to it'. I was fully going for it and literally feeling like my uterus was gonna fall out. I didn't tell them about the surgery or that I had all these stitches in my bellybutton. It was grim. It was grim as fuck."
She continues to describe just how bad it got: "When I was on set with Spike, the stitches in my bellybutton were splitting open. I told him: 'Just so you know, if I start bleeding through this white shirt…'. I basically couldn't lift my arms up, because all your organs stick together and you can't stretch your stomach." Luckily, she was involved in the choreography and created moves to be "very forward and with a contracted stomach" to help with her condition.
https://www.nylon.com/fka-twigs-spike-jonze-ad
posted by humuhumu at 7:12 AM on December 9, 2020
> Wow. That’s pretty f-ed. They couldn’t wait a month?
They probably could but she didn't let on until they were in the middle of it.
posted by humuhumu at 8:06 AM on December 9, 2020
They probably could but she didn't let on until they were in the middle of it.
posted by humuhumu at 8:06 AM on December 9, 2020
Another entry in the "making of [troubled movie] in the jungle" genre: Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau
posted by Bron at 8:11 AM on December 9, 2020
posted by Bron at 8:11 AM on December 9, 2020
On edit: I see that the OP has already viewed the movie. Mods, please delete this post.
posted by alex1965 at 8:44 AM on December 9, 2020
posted by alex1965 at 8:44 AM on December 9, 2020
Oh, one I forgot about: Disney+ has a great multi-part documentary about the making of the Disney parks.
posted by yankeefog at 8:46 AM on December 9, 2020
posted by yankeefog at 8:46 AM on December 9, 2020
Maybe not exactly what you are looking for, Backstage Secrets (sample) is a multi-part documentary on the 'making of' the Rush Snakes & Arrows tour; divided up into 'Sound', 'Lights', 'Instrument Technicians', 'Video' and 'Tour Manager'. No requirement to be a Rush fan; just a behind the scenes fan.
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 10:33 AM on December 9, 2020
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 10:33 AM on December 9, 2020
There's Lost in La Mancha, detailing Terry Gilliam's failed attempt to bring Don Quixote to the screen, and The Hamster Factor (and Other Tales of 12 Monkeys), a making-of for, well, "12 Monkeys".
posted by hanov3r at 2:49 PM on December 9, 2020
posted by hanov3r at 2:49 PM on December 9, 2020
I loved The Crystal Calls, a documentary about the making of the new Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance series. (Both the series and the documentary are on Netflix.)
posted by nosila at 12:17 PM on December 10, 2020
posted by nosila at 12:17 PM on December 10, 2020
Six Days to Air: The Making of South Park
Saturday Night Live has been posting a bunch of behind-the-scenes videos:
SNL stories from the show
Creating Saturday Night Live
Searching "behind the scenes" on YouTube brings up a lot of results.
posted by bendy at 9:32 PM on December 10, 2020
Saturday Night Live has been posting a bunch of behind-the-scenes videos:
SNL stories from the show
Creating Saturday Night Live
Searching "behind the scenes" on YouTube brings up a lot of results.
posted by bendy at 9:32 PM on December 10, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
PS: Thanks for linking to that making-of video for the Apple ad-- it was really interesting.
posted by yankeefog at 2:55 AM on December 9, 2020