In all these years I've read so much crap on 200 Motels, some are the result of pure imagination, while many others were caused by Frank Zappa himself. The output of the restored film on DVD gives me the opportunity - my first opportunity - to correct one or two of the wildest stories as to how the film came out and what really happened during the shooting. Contrary
what Frank and his biographers have suggested, when I was involved in the project there was no script or screenplay, only a pile of notes that contained scenes 'mostly autobiographical'. My work - according to what Frank said - was to make some sense (ntd film) all that stuff trying to build a script to produce any coherent film. It 's true that Frank had written a lot of music, good and less good, but it was not anticipated no orchestra, no solo, no chorus and no choreography. My further work would be to organize all this really in a very short time available. Usually to hire an orchestra in London - especially if you plan to hire for a week - you need to apply at least a year before ... I had only three weeks to find an orchestra of the highest level.
Moreover, though the film had an original idea due entirely to Frank, MGM / UA was not willing to invest so much in such a movie even if the estimated expenditure is around the figure of half a million dollars ( at the end of the cost was $ 679,000). In reality it was the MGM / UA to remove it from the official role of director to insist on custody of the material instead of "two hands safer" to be sure a product come out from their investment of some quality. Shortly before had happened me that I had been offered a contract with MGM (who themselves were later canceled) and it was aware of the then manager Herb Cohen Zappa. Knowing that in the past I have worked with Frank Cohen finally put together the pieces of the puzzle.
Still, it quickly became obvious that the scenes (just as he had thought Zappa) could not be filmed in any case with traditional media ... or better ... could also have been shot, but in a very long time and with great waste of economic resources (but we had neither time nor money and in reality) because of the visual effects provided. It was I who suggested the use of video tape, not Frank, since I was already experiencing with video effects can be obtained using the first color cameras only available to the BBC for three years. At first MGM / UA vetoed a similar idea since - according to their reasonable objection - the video tape ("What is a video tape?" I asked a production manager of MGM / UA once) could not objectively be shown in cinemas.
was a colleague of mine at Technicolor London who found the solution. The pre-war equipment of its Technicolor provided the process of development of the shooting carried out using three different negative (red, green and blue) placed in parallel, which was similar to the technology for the division colors used in the realization of the video. It then became possible to transfer "individually" color elements of shooting video in three different films to be developed then the normal procedure in parallel. And that's exactly what happened then, becoming the first film ever produced by the transfer film on video tape. At that point, MGM / UA was satisfied because at the end actually had a movie and not a video. Frank was happy because he got all the effects he wanted quickly and without much expense. But at the same time it had nothing to do with the solution of the problem ... and they are not too sure that we have even understood anything about it. However often I read that he was somehow considered a "pioneer" of the entire project, a mistake that was repeated in a documentary on the making of the film produced by VPRO Dutch television.
same film, was shot Zappa said that only one third of the script / screenplay. A phrase this without any sense. It also states that the director (or I) "left the production in the middle of work ... definitely something new for me as it had happened for several other actors and members of the band. Even more inaccurate. Wilfred Brambell, the famous British actor, he refused the part offered and Jeff Simmons was replaced by Martin Lickert in the role of Jeff on the sole ground that took the bold initiative of calling a Zappa "ego-maniac." All true, but statements of Zappa who claims that these events led to profound changes in the last minute the script is even more absurd.
Again according to the Dutch documentary, when I left, I threatened to cancel the original tapes ... which sounds strange since I was myself to complete the task of editing before handing them over to the MGM / UA. I also read that all the outtakes and the original video tapes were erased and re-sold to MGM / UA as tape used to recoup costs incurred excessive. Well, no company in the level of MGM / UA never accept second-hand tape - even if deleted - Why do not we judge them, however, reliable. Enensima a "dance" Zappa.
This sounds like if I tried to de-legitimize what has been spent Zappa's own. E 'but rather the opposite. It 's impossible not to have an oblique admiration for a film that would never have been realized had it not been for him and his strange talent. Then, as it may sound crazy it is true that the film offers a fairly reliable view of reality of "life on the road common to many rock-band era. It is also an incontrovertible fact that we are here at a distance of 40 years and there is still a substantial interest for this film.
Oh, by the way, even according to some Web sites devoted to movies, since "I was fired" 0ppure "I left the set (you choose the version you prefer) I would have burned the master tapes of the shot ... something very strange since they are the same master that I have before me as I write these notes.
And finally, as a result of any of the stories mentioned above (once you choose which one) Frank and I we have not spoken to her, which is even more strange given that two years after the events, when Zappa quoted in the same court the Royal Albert Hall for canceling a concert in which the music should have been done of 200 Motels, the process was summoned to the Royal Court of Justice as a witness expert in "Zappa". Whether it was the same hoe want to stop it remain somehow friends?
So 40 years later, I am proud to be somehow associated with filter, and proud to have known Frank was proud to be his friend, despite all the mud that (mainly), others have written about what "really" is happened ".
Tony Palmer
what Frank and his biographers have suggested, when I was involved in the project there was no script or screenplay, only a pile of notes that contained scenes 'mostly autobiographical'. My work - according to what Frank said - was to make some sense (ntd film) all that stuff trying to build a script to produce any coherent film. It 's true that Frank had written a lot of music, good and less good, but it was not anticipated no orchestra, no solo, no chorus and no choreography. My further work would be to organize all this really in a very short time available. Usually to hire an orchestra in London - especially if you plan to hire for a week - you need to apply at least a year before ... I had only three weeks to find an orchestra of the highest level.
Moreover, though the film had an original idea due entirely to Frank, MGM / UA was not willing to invest so much in such a movie even if the estimated expenditure is around the figure of half a million dollars ( at the end of the cost was $ 679,000). In reality it was the MGM / UA to remove it from the official role of director to insist on custody of the material instead of "two hands safer" to be sure a product come out from their investment of some quality. Shortly before had happened me that I had been offered a contract with MGM (who themselves were later canceled) and it was aware of the then manager Herb Cohen Zappa. Knowing that in the past I have worked with Frank Cohen finally put together the pieces of the puzzle.
Still, it quickly became obvious that the scenes (just as he had thought Zappa) could not be filmed in any case with traditional media ... or better ... could also have been shot, but in a very long time and with great waste of economic resources (but we had neither time nor money and in reality) because of the visual effects provided. It was I who suggested the use of video tape, not Frank, since I was already experiencing with video effects can be obtained using the first color cameras only available to the BBC for three years. At first MGM / UA vetoed a similar idea since - according to their reasonable objection - the video tape ("What is a video tape?" I asked a production manager of MGM / UA once) could not objectively be shown in cinemas.
was a colleague of mine at Technicolor London who found the solution. The pre-war equipment of its Technicolor provided the process of development of the shooting carried out using three different negative (red, green and blue) placed in parallel, which was similar to the technology for the division colors used in the realization of the video. It then became possible to transfer "individually" color elements of shooting video in three different films to be developed then the normal procedure in parallel. And that's exactly what happened then, becoming the first film ever produced by the transfer film on video tape. At that point, MGM / UA was satisfied because at the end actually had a movie and not a video. Frank was happy because he got all the effects he wanted quickly and without much expense. But at the same time it had nothing to do with the solution of the problem ... and they are not too sure that we have even understood anything about it. However often I read that he was somehow considered a "pioneer" of the entire project, a mistake that was repeated in a documentary on the making of the film produced by VPRO Dutch television.
same film, was shot Zappa said that only one third of the script / screenplay. A phrase this without any sense. It also states that the director (or I) "left the production in the middle of work ... definitely something new for me as it had happened for several other actors and members of the band. Even more inaccurate. Wilfred Brambell, the famous British actor, he refused the part offered and Jeff Simmons was replaced by Martin Lickert in the role of Jeff on the sole ground that took the bold initiative of calling a Zappa "ego-maniac." All true, but statements of Zappa who claims that these events led to profound changes in the last minute the script is even more absurd.
Again according to the Dutch documentary, when I left, I threatened to cancel the original tapes ... which sounds strange since I was myself to complete the task of editing before handing them over to the MGM / UA. I also read that all the outtakes and the original video tapes were erased and re-sold to MGM / UA as tape used to recoup costs incurred excessive. Well, no company in the level of MGM / UA never accept second-hand tape - even if deleted - Why do not we judge them, however, reliable. Enensima a "dance" Zappa.
This sounds like if I tried to de-legitimize what has been spent Zappa's own. E 'but rather the opposite. It 's impossible not to have an oblique admiration for a film that would never have been realized had it not been for him and his strange talent. Then, as it may sound crazy it is true that the film offers a fairly reliable view of reality of "life on the road common to many rock-band era. It is also an incontrovertible fact that we are here at a distance of 40 years and there is still a substantial interest for this film.
Oh, by the way, even according to some Web sites devoted to movies, since "I was fired" 0ppure "I left the set (you choose the version you prefer) I would have burned the master tapes of the shot ... something very strange since they are the same master that I have before me as I write these notes.
And finally, as a result of any of the stories mentioned above (once you choose which one) Frank and I we have not spoken to her, which is even more strange given that two years after the events, when Zappa quoted in the same court the Royal Albert Hall for canceling a concert in which the music should have been done of 200 Motels, the process was summoned to the Royal Court of Justice as a witness expert in "Zappa". Whether it was the same hoe want to stop it remain somehow friends?
So 40 years later, I am proud to be somehow associated with filter, and proud to have known Frank was proud to be his friend, despite all the mud that (mainly), others have written about what "really" is happened ".
Tony Palmer
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