Mistakes from a first-time filmmaker
I f*cked up so you don't have to
The finale number for my documentary, Pretty Things (HBO 2005) was shot in downtown Los Angeles, at the beautiful art deco Orpheum Theater. The Orpheum was a major burlesque and vaudeville era stomping ground and one of the last theaters in America to host two-a-day vaudeville shows. It closed in the mid-1940s until 2001 when it began a multiple years long restoration project under the Ace Hotel.
Albert Maysles shot the finale number on black and white 16 mm film—a rarity today. I loved the grainy, period accurate look. Throughout Pretty Things, you see me rehearsing for the finale; recording a version of Big Spender, the song I strip to during the finale; to choreography sessions to costume fittings. Big Spender was originally written by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields for the 1968 musical Sweet Charity which was choreographed by my cinema/dance idol Bob Fosse.
Below is a clip from Pretty Things during the recording of Big Spender, also shot by Albert Maysles. If you read my previous post about Busby Berkeley, you will see some of the overhead kaleidoscope dance sequence I recreated for the film.
Please do not share or reproduce copyright Liz Goldwyn Films xoxo
I didn’t have the faintest clue about music supervisors or licensing songs when I started filming Pretty Things at 19. No one told me not to commit myself to an expensive song (Big Spender) or film hundreds of hours of footage singing and dancing to it before I knew the costs. Thank goodness for my amazing music supervisor Dawn Soler, who eventually came on board and straightened me out. She helped facilitate getting expensive Blue Note Jazz rights cleared and David Bowie’s Oh! You Pretty Things for the film.
It just so happened, when Dawn sent out the agreement to Cy Coleman, who wrote Big Spender, it coincided with his passing, and thus the rights to his song got tangled up in publishing/ record company estate logistics. As I mentioned before, during the production of Pretty Things, I had a crash course in how the music industry profits off of artists; and how often artists don’t earn a dime when it comes to their work being sold for use in films or commercial purposes. In some cases, the record company loses track of who owns certain global territories for their artist completely. For example, Betty Davis, a singer/songwriter whose song Gettin’Kicked Off, Havin Fun, I used, was impossible at the time to clear worldwide.
Music liscencing issues are the reason why I haven’t been able to clear Pretty Things for streaming. The cost of either replacing the visual vocals (when music is heard that is tied to action taking place) or paying new licensing fees is so prohibitive that I’d need to get a good enough up front deal from a streaming distributor to afford it. Take it from me: DO NOT fall in love with a song before you know if you can afford to use it and make sure to hire a music supervisor straight off the bat if music is going to be integral to the story you are telling.
I’m going to put the full length finale number, shot by Al Maysles, below the paywall, for all you HARDCORE STARF*CKERS because 1. I APPRECIATE ALL OF YOU SO MUCH! 2. I trust that you will keep it entre nous and not share or otherwise distribute it, causing me to land in major legal hot water. I still have faith that I will be able to make this film public someday, with extended bonus footage. Al told me it had taken 25 years for the Maysles Brothers classic Grey Gardens (1975) to be released even on DVD (in 2001 by Criterion Collection.) So, fingers crossed and please enjoy: