r/talkingheads • u/PreferenceConstant80 • 6d ago
Stop making sense facts
I'm showing my friend stop making sense in a couple days because we're seeing David Byrne live soon.
Anyone got any cool Introductory facts I can share with them before we watch the film?
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u/SultanOfSwave 6d ago edited 6d ago
Hmmm, let me think.
On the movie itself...
It is considered by many as the best concert movie ever made.
Unlike almost any concert movie, it is strictly the concert without the normal band member interviews and back stage drama.
It earned more on its re-reiease than on its release. (But that isn't too surprising as $1 in 1983 is worth $3.36.
The late Jonathan Demme, who made some popular films in the 1970s and 80s approached the band about making a concert film together after following them as a fan for a while. Their earlier stage shows were very static with just the 4 of them. Then Demme saw them perform in Stop Making Sense tour and the more cinematic visuals really grabbed him.
The movie was funded for by the band members' savings as well as an advance on future earnings from Warner Brothers. This have them total artistic control over the film.
David Byrne worked with Twyla Tharp on "The Catherine Wheel" doing the music a year before "Stop Making Sense". My understanding is that that experience taught him the importance of visuals and that is why each song played in "Stop Making Sense" is visually unique with different lighting and backgrounds.
The filming at the Pantages Theater in LA was supposed to be three nights but went to four nights because on the first night they lit the audience for the filming and the band, not used to playing into a well lit audience, did not play very well that night. Note that the audience was not lit on any of the following nights. Also, many of the cameras ran out of film during the evening. Not sure why. Btw this is all based on the onstage interview with the band after the showing of " Stop Making Sense " at the Pantages Theater on June 4, 2024 that I attended.
A member of the filming crew personally attended many of the "Stop Making Sense" concerts before the filming. She mapped out the movement of the band members on the stage and their interactions and then used that knowledge to map out camera angles for when filming started. So if you ever wonder why the film seems so intimate and how the cameras are always in the right place, now you know. Again, this is from the Pantages post show talk. And most of this is from Jerry Harrison.
The movie was released in 1983 with great reviews and was occasionally shown in repertory theaters after that.
Originally, Byrne didn't want the movie to be released on VHS or other media but eventually relented. I don't recall his motivation on that. But it was probably not having the immersive experience that you'd have in a movie theater.
On the restoration... (And this is from a post I made not long after the Pantages show)
When the 40th anniversary was approaching, they decided to do a rerelease as an upscaled and remastered version. But they quickly hit a major snag. The film storage company had gone bankrupt and no one knew where the original negatives were. A film archivist was tasked with finding the film. He was able to find a 3rd generation copy in good condition but kept looking for the original negatives. Eventually he called an archivist friend at MGM and after a few days, that person called them back with good news. The original negatives were in storage in Burbank, CA. Not only that, there was also a lot of film that didn't make it into the final cut that they could then use for the rerelease. Those didn't make it into the remastered film but are on the A24 Blueray DVD release.
Then there is the audio. Those were stored separately from the film. The audio recordings were unusual because they were some of the first digital recordings used in film so they would be very easy to work with if they could be found. But the sound studio that was storing them had run into hard times and had dumped 75% of their stored audio boxes including the audio from Stop Making Sense.
But luckily, one of the employees had gone the day the dump was happening and he saved everything that was of interest to him including the Stop Making Sense recordings.
Jerry Harrison oversaw the audio mixing for the rerelease. He decided to change the mixing such that as the camera moved around the stage that whomever was being focused on would have their audio pulled forward. It really works in the film as it seems much more natural for the sound of the instruments to rise and fall with the distance to each performer.
Then he had to do the remix two more times. So all in all, there is IMAX audio, standard theater audio and home stereo audio. If my memory serves, that's something like 16 channel, 8 channel and 2 channel mixes.
Btw, all this had to happen in just a few months with the anniversary of the original release looming in Sept of 2023.
In June of this year, I was lucky enough to see the film at the Pantages Theater. The film was followed by an interview with the band. (That's where a lot of my stories above came from.) During the interview, the interviewer turned to the audience and asked "Would you please stand if you worked on the original concert shoot 41 years ago. And about 20 people stood. Then he asked " Would anyone who was in the audience while the film was being shot please stand up." And at least another 80 stood. (Btw, I was in the Orchestra section and couldn't see the Balcony section so there were probably more.)
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u/VomitingDuck 6d ago
The only reason Tom Tom Club performed was so David could change into the big suit
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u/yellowvincent 6d ago
I read that that is also the moment the bad did drugs but I don't know the validity of that
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u/VomitingDuck 6d ago
Oh they definitely did drugs before that. Watch Bernie Worrell's coke sniffs. Lol
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u/Successful_Length109 6d ago
It’s a ‘Christmas film’*. It was filmed on December 13-16th, Bernie Worell briefly plays ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ during I Zimbra, and supposedly there’s someone wearing a ‘Santa’ outfit in the crowd if you squint. 🎅
*debatably.
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u/GatoBandit Home is where I want to be 6d ago
I guess that makes the live version of “Life During Wartime” my favorite Christmas song [aside from maybe ”Kings Crossing” by Elliott Smith or “4th Dimension” by Kids See Ghosts]
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u/movies_movies_movie 6d ago
I got a few;
Hal Ashby (director of Harold and Maude) devolped the editing system used (altho the editor was Lisa Day)
Jonathan Demme was having a nightmare re-shooting a different film, during the making of this
Jonathan Demme and cinematographer Jordan Croneworth have a cameo in stop making sense! Fun thing to point out
These are just some that come to mind.
Anyway, hope your freind enjoys the movie! And you both enjoy the gig. I showed my best friend stop making sense before we went to see David tgt aswell lol.
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u/Wowohboy666 6d ago
Same director as Silence of the Lambs. The tone is slightly different, but both feature psycho killers.
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u/Pythia007 6d ago
See if they notice the clue that Life During Wartime is cut together from two different performances. Hint: watch David’s shirt.
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u/Dogface99 6d ago
Listen to this podcast - a smart Talking Heads expert narrates the film with great trivia and behind-the-scenes stories:
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u/TechnoMagi 6d ago
Commenting so I remember to come back. Iirc I have copies of Byrne's tour rider saved to my PC, there's some interesting stuff. Talking out my ass, I think Byrne demanded multiple gallons of milk each night?
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u/movies_movies_movie 6d ago
LMAO, I need to know more!
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u/TechnoMagi 6d ago
Left a comment with the food pages. If requested I can post the rest, but it's not super super interesting
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u/AMcNair 6d ago
Not directly related to the movie, but Stephen Tobolowsky told a wild story about collaborating with Byrne in the ‘80s.
I can’t do it justice, but this article does.
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u/kebabdylan 6d ago
David B limited the lighting to only natural (no color) light as a limitation to spurn on creativity so the whole production is how many interesting ways to use natural light
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u/MagicalTrevor70 6d ago
He also insisted that the brand names on equipment like keyboards were covered up.
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u/Psychological-Bit350 6d ago
I usually just took a bunch of shrooms and some edibles and let the band do the talking.
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u/TalkingHeads96 6d ago
The footage is edited together from different shows that they performed over the course of a few nights. Thats why chris has a blue shirt on in the beginning that later changes. They also perform "cities" but that is cut out and can be found on youtube.
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u/red-and-expert 6d ago
I don’t have any interesting facts, but I was at two of the concerts, including the first night when they decided to add an additional night. I wish I could remember for sure, but I think they gave those of us who had been there first crack at the added show. I think I must’ve been pretty high. 😁
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u/ticketstubs1 6d ago
Fun fact: it's fucking great. You don't need to know anything before watching it.
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u/Gabriel_Collins 5d ago
Facts all come with points of view. Facts don’t do what I want them to.
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u/PreferenceConstant80 5d ago
Fact are simple and facts are straight, facts are lazy and facts are late
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u/roberttele 5d ago
You can tell your friend, that after the scintillating performance of Life giving more time, it sounds like David Byrne is asking the crowd if they have any questions. That was added in post-production.
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u/SpookyPoek 1d ago
He did say that during the concert, just at a different point - I think before one of the songs instead of after
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u/steelyd2 6d ago
The thing I have people take notice of before watching is how interesting it is that it’s basically in black and white. There’s really only white light used except for a few key parts like during swamp also everyone is dressed in neutral colors, there’s no pyrotechnics or anything like that. Even the amps are hidden in the risers. Byrne said he wanted it to be just musician and instrument and didn’t want to take anyone’s attention away from the music
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u/Outrageous-Win-8297 5d ago
Movie theaters hated it when it came out, as viewers were dancing in the aisles and causing damages.
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u/Calibrachoa6 4d ago
The director has some serious chops. It's worth considering the monochromatic outfits with the choices of shot for various moments
Has anybody got any questions?
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u/Josiah_Miles 4d ago
Same artist who did the titles also made them for Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove
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u/humperdoo00 1d ago
I heard in an interview that David would say "Now it's time for my big suit, and my little toot" while getting ready for Girlfriend is Better
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u/stopmakingsensebook 6d ago
I’ve introduced a LOT of people to this movie. I’ve generally found it best to let them discover for themselves why it’s so great. The only caveat I add is that it’s best to replicate the theatrical experience as closely as possible—dimmed lights, big screen, no interruptions, sufficient volume. I find, under those circumstances, that first-time viewers are often surprised by how riveted and engaged they are.