Stop Making Sense: Difference between revisions
Added a bit of information about James Mockoski and linked the Rolling Stone write up about the restoration, also changed the formatting a bit to improve readability
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Demme also considered including more shots of the audience reacting to the performance, as is traditional in concert films. However, he discovered that filming the audience required additional lighting, which inhibited the audience's energy. This in turn made the band feel insecure and thus led to "the worst Talking Heads performance in the history of the band's career". The only direct audience shots in the film occur at the very end, during ''[[Crosseyed and Painless]]''. | Demme also considered including more shots of the audience reacting to the performance, as is traditional in concert films. However, he discovered that filming the audience required additional lighting, which inhibited the audience's energy. This in turn made the band feel insecure and thus led to "the worst Talking Heads performance in the history of the band's career". The only direct audience shots in the film occur at the very end, during ''[[Crosseyed and Painless]]''. | ||
== | ==Releases== | ||
The film premiered during the [[San Francisco International Film Festival]] on April 24, 1984, and entered commercial release in the United States on October 19, 1984. | The film premiered during the [[San Francisco International Film Festival]] on April 24, 1984, and entered commercial release in the United States on October 19, 1984. | ||
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The film has been released on Blu-ray, widescreen DVD, VHS in both fullscreen and widescreen versions, and at one point Laserdisc (in Japan). | The film has been released on Blu-ray, widescreen DVD, VHS in both fullscreen and widescreen versions, and at one point Laserdisc (in Japan). | ||
A24 has also released a 4K Collector's Edition. The home video release includes an extended cut overseen by the members of Talking Heads, with the performances of ''[[Cities]]'' and ''[[Big Business / I Zimbra]]'': the original negatives had been lost, but new edits were compiled using the restored footage from the cameras, including unseen footage. Jonathan Demme's own extended cut featuring the missing songs, originally released on VHS and LaserDisc, is also included. | |||
== 2023 Restoration == | |||
As part of the deal with the film's original distributor, Cinecom, the ownership of the rights to ''Stop Making Sense'' reverted back to Byrne, Weymouth, Frantz, and Harrison shortly before the 40th anniversary of its original release. Hoping to commemorate the occasion, the group sought out potential companies to partner with on a re-release, eventually settling on [[A24]]. A24 announced they had obtained the distribution rights in March 2023, and revealed plans to release a 4k restoration in theaters the following September. | As part of the deal with the film's original distributor, Cinecom, the ownership of the rights to ''Stop Making Sense'' reverted back to Byrne, Weymouth, Frantz, and Harrison shortly before the 40th anniversary of its original release. Hoping to commemorate the occasion, the group sought out potential companies to partner with on a re-release, eventually settling on [[A24]]. A24 announced they had obtained the distribution rights in March 2023, and revealed plans to release a 4k restoration in theaters the following September. | ||
James Mockoski, a restoration supervisor who primarily worked with Zoetrope studios, was called in by A24. Although seeking out as much of the original materials as possible for the restoration, it was soon reveled that the original [[Negative (photography)|negative]] for the film was missing. Prior distributors simply scanned preexisting screening prints of the film, including for the previous 1999 re-release. Mockoski remarked in a Rolling Stone write up of the restoration that "I wanted to know what they were working with, and she told me that the Talking Heads’ manager [Tomas Cookman] had got everything in from the previous distributor. They sent me a list, and there were almost no film elements included. There might have been, like, one screening print, and that was it. I asked, ‘So, where’s the negative?’ And the answer was, ‘Well, it should all be there.’ Which was … not quite the case. Not at all.”<ref>Fear, David. “Big Suits, Lost Tapes, and Dancing Heads: Inside A24’S Incredible “Stop Making Sense” Restoration.” ''Rolling Stone'', 27 Sept. 2023, www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/stop-making-sense-talking-heads-restoration-david-byrne-a24-40th-anniversary-1234828312/.</ref> | |||
After an extensive search, the original negative for the film was found in an [[Wikipedia:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]] film vault, despite MGM not having been involved in the making of the film. Similarly, Eric Thorgren and Talking Heads member Jerry Harrison planned to create new [[Dolby Atmos]] sound mixes, initially using materials from the previous distributor and [[Rhino Entertainment|Rhino Records]]. However, they ran into difficulty when they discovered they did not have the original audience tracks: the original audio was stored in the library of [[Wikipedia:Todd-AO|Todd-AO]], which had since gone out of business and its building demolished. Eventually, it was discovered that Todd-AO's collection was claimed by [[Wikipedia:Sony|Sony]], who transported it to a warehouse in Kansas, where the original audio tracks were found in time to be included in the restoration. Using these original tracks, as well as the post-production overdubs originally overseen by Demme to fix mistakes in the film's recording, Thorgren and Harrison painstakingly remastered the film's sound. | |||
The studio premiered the new restoration on September 11, 2023, in 4K on [[Wikipedia:IMAX|IMAX]] at the [[2023 Toronto International Film Festival]], followed by a Q&A hosted by [[Spike Lee]] with Byrne, Weymouth, Frantz and Harrison in attendance, reuniting the group for the first time since their induction into the [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]] in 2002 | The studio premiered the new restoration on September 11, 2023, in 4K on [[Wikipedia:IMAX|IMAX]] at the [[2023 Toronto International Film Festival]], followed by a Q&A hosted by [[Spike Lee]] with Byrne, Weymouth, Frantz and Harrison in attendance, reuniting the group for the first time since their induction into the [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]] in 2002. | ||
The film entered first as an exclusive IMAX exhibition on September 22, 2023, before heading to conventional theaters on September 29, 2023, globally. [[Rhino Entertainment]] also released a new remaster of the [[Stop Making Sense (album)|film's soundtrack]], which includes the complete concert for the first time, on vinyl and digitally on August 18, 2023. | The film entered first as an exclusive IMAX exhibition on September 22, 2023, before heading to conventional theaters on September 29, 2023, globally. [[Rhino Entertainment]] also released a new remaster of the [[Stop Making Sense (album)|film's soundtrack]], which includes the complete concert for the first time, on vinyl and digitally on August 18, 2023. | ||