Live Chat With John Badham November 25th 2002

Subject:  Live Chat with John Badham
Date:  November 25th,  2002


<RonEpstein> Good Evening everyone...at this time I would like to introduce
our guest of honor, Mr. John Badham.  I initially came in contact with Mr. Badham
after my DVD review of "Saturday Night Fever."   This is quite an honor to have
this gentleman here with us.  Good evening, John!

<jbadham> good evening.  what's on everyone's mind?

<RonEpstein> Before I open the floor to questions,   I was wondering what things
you are currently working on?

<jbadham> I've just  finished doing an episode of my favorite TV show "The Shield."
My Lifetime movie with Jenna Elfman was just on a few weeks ago also

<RonEpstein> How long did that episode of "the Shield"  take to direct and when
can we expect to see it?

<jbadham> we will see it in January.  It's the second episode.  It took seven days to
f ilm  and  another seven to prep and seven to finish...WhOOOM!  A lot quicker than
a movie that will take 5 weeks to do the same amount of work

<RonEpstein> Any preferences towards doing television over film or vise-versa?

<ParkerClack> Is that typical? 21 days from start to finish?

<jbadham> TV has become the new place to do interesting things.  Believe it or not
Cable TV is much more adventurous than movies nowadays. Most of the movies
we see are really pretty junky.  The adventure movies are tired retreads of things
we've seen a million times.  The comedies are often hard to take, so that leaves Cable movies

<RonEpstein> Is there anything theatrically on the horizon for you?

<jbadham> Theatrically, I'm always looking and working to develop stuff.  It's a hard
road but I stay on it.

<RonEpstein> I am going to open the floor so that members here tonight can ask
questions.  It's a small group, so we should be able to include everyone.

<JeffKleist> I'm going to be filming a piece for a Finnish Sci-Fi movie, and one of the
scenes I'm going to be shooting takes place at Cheyenne Mountain. Can you give me
any tips on approximating the environment due to the fact that I have virtually 0 budget
and am stuck here in PA to shoot it?

<jbadham> The good news is that the Cheyenne location is just a tunnel in the side of
a mountain.  You should be able to find something that will do that.    We did it in
Washington state and in Los Angeles also for the same movie.  It's just a tunnel.
 Look at WarGames again and you'll see.

<Bob> How do you decide on what format to film in such as anamorphic scope(2.35),
super 35, or flat(1.85), also was The Hard Way released in 70mm 6 track since the dvd
only contains a 2.0 soundtrack and I heard their were lypsync problems with it on many
players? Thanks for the cool movies.

<jbadham> sorry about the lip sync problems.  I decide about the format based on a
gut feeling of what might suit the subject matter the best. For instance I wanted
Drop Sone and American Flyers to be in anamorphic because of the scope of the two
pictures,  however Saturday night fever was in 1.66 format because the dancing is a
vertical art.  Anamorphic would not have suited it well at all.

<winston> What was your favorite movie youv'e worked on and whats Gary Busey lke?

<jbadham> my favorite movies I guess are Stakeout, Saturday Night Fever, Whose Life Is
It Any way, WarGames, Bluethunder.  I'm the wrong person to ask because I'm emotionally
connected to all of them including the real dogs.ARF.   Gary Busey is a tricky guy but can
be real fun.  and not real fun. more than that I cant say

<Chuck_C> Dear, John, I love your movies, especially Wargames which came out when I
was only 2.  It became one of those movies I grew up with from seeing on TV, and you
can imagine my excitement when it finally came out on a great DVD.    How long did Wargames
take to shoot and what was the biggest challenge on the set?

<jbadham> Wargames shot for 50 days.  The hardest part was a real technical challenge
to put all the images up in the War Room at the same time.  No one had ever tried to put
up 10 rear screens and 85 video screens all playing in dead synchronization before.   We
had almost no computer effects there because they weren't developed yet, so we had to
film it all for real at the same time.  Many people said we couldn't do it and there were
days when I thought they were right.  It didn't help that Matthew Broderick's Dad died
in the middle of filming.   And it wasn't sudden either.   He had been sick for a long time
and Matthew had been flying back and forth from NY to LA whenever he coud to be
with his DAD.  Hard to work on a light film under those circumstances.

<Pat_Ashmore> Thanks for coming.  Do you know of any plans to re-release American
Flyers as a special edition(with commentary)?  I think it is one of Costner's best. done

<jbadham> thank you.   I agree his acting is the best when he is on the bicycle.  meeow!
I don't know of any plans but it certainly would be a good idea. The race sequences are
among the most thrilling I've ever worked on.

<JamesGarner> I have 2 questions.   1, what led to the decision to not release the PG
"Fever" on dvd..
.
<jbadham> The PG version is like a coca cola gone flat.  Have you ever seen it?  The
language and the sexuality is part and parcel of the lifestyle of those kids.  To take it
away is to flatten and sentimentalize the whole thing.

<JamesGarner> yes. & Do you feel that Robert Stigwood never got the proper credit
for fusing modern music & film for what became music video?

<JamesGarner> good point.  That's correct.   We both had a vision as how modern
video could be and together we pulled it off.   I knew for years that this would be
a great way to present music.   The examples are many: American Graffiti,  Easy Rider.
There even were juke boxes in the sixties that played what were really videos.  I had
seen all of these and knew that this was the new way that musicals would go in movies.
The audience has long lost interest in musicals where people sing on screen.   It works
in a campy environment like Grease,  but don't try to do it in Chorus Line.  Nobody will
buy it.   So we have the new musicals like Flash Dance.

<RyanFB> Two questions: 1) What film has inspired or affected your work the most,
and how? and 2) Being that this is the Home Theater Forum after all ;), do you have a home
theater (or multiple home theaters!) and if so, what's your configuration(s)?

<jbadham> Citizen Kane is always a good start.  Psycho another.   Early George Lucas,
early Francis Coppola all of Busby Berkely.  My home theatre is a DLP projector onto a
twelve foot wide screen.  Harmon Kardon Amplifier and Altec speakers.

<Bob> What advice would you give to someone who wants to be a film director about
getting into the business and also which films of yours were the hardest to make and
which ones did not turn out the way you wanted to?

<jbadham> lots of questions which one is the most important

<Bob> the advice one and the ones that did not turn out the way you expected

<jbadham> Nowadays you can make your own films with DV  these become your calling
card to other places.  You can show them to film schools to Agents to producers.   Before
DV you had to have expensive 16 or 35 film which was prohimitive for us.   Of course
everyone else is doing the same thing so there is a lot of competition.  Spielberg got
started on the strength of AMBLIN' his short film.   He made that on his own.  Of course
because he is so amazingly talented it got him entree everywhere.  Most beginning films
are unfortuantely unwatchable.

<BobBarlen> Hi Mr. Badham - How closely do you work with the screenwriter when
you're directing a film. Is the writer on set? How did you work with the writer(s) on The
Hard Way considering there were several re-writes?

<jbadham> The writer is always welcome to be on the set with me.  Sometimes he cant for
various reasons but I welcome his thoughts.  After all he created the thing in the first place.
In the case of the Hard Way the original writer withdrew feeling he hadn't gotten the tone
of the comedy right.   It also dragged on for a couple of years while we had to wait for
Michael J. Fox.  So the final dialogue work was done by Reno and Osborne, respecting the
previous work by the others.

<DanielL> Hi Mr Badham, I just wanted to get your reaction to seeing the Stakeouts released
without anything to go with them and do you feel a responsibility to the fans for the releases of
your works on DVD?

<jbadham> of course I do.  I don't know why Disney chose to go that way.  They never consulted
me, the DVD's just appeared.  That's rude.

<Tony-B> I have 2 questions for you.   First off, thanks for coming, John. We all appreciate it.
Anyways, as a director, what are your feelings about "pan-and-scan" releases? Will you not allow
a P&S transfer for "Saturday Night Fever" or any other movies you have made?    Second, what do
you think about the Saturday Night Fever parody on Airplane? I personally thought it was very funny.

<jbadham> I loved the airplane parody.  I peed my pants. Pan and scan is something that should
go away.  Now that our TVs are going to 16:9 we will have a better format.

<Esten> What are your thoughts on the Stallone helmed sequel to Saturday Night Fever.... Staying
Alive? It gets a bad rap,but it's a fun film... it's no SNF, but still

<jbadham> well it's not something that worked for me.  I thought it was a betrayal of all that the
original movie stood for.   I have no strong feelings on this you understand, but I dont like the
story  -- it lacks the humanity of the original.   I don't like John's character.  It's not the Tony Manero
we fell in love with.  He's some steroided greased up image of Stallone's.   The shooting was terrible.
There's no trick to shooting dances that are cut into twelve frame cuts from hundreds of angles.  You
can make a spastic turtle look good that way.  I'm surprised because in the original John insisted that
we shoot him head to foot most of the time like Fred Astaire.

<jay_schwyhart> Would you like to direct a BOND movie

<jbadham> sure what a great time that could be

<Bob> What is your favorite genre to direct and which films of yours do you think could have
turned out better?

<jbadham> my favorite genre is usually the one I'm doing at the time.   I really don't like to get stuck
in any genre.  Too boring and repetitive.  I could do ALL of my films better.  I'm never happy, even
with the successes.   I could go back and do them all over again trying to fix things but that is the
nature of making movies.  Compromise is reallly unavoidable.  No matter what anyone tells you it
happens all the time.  You just try to hold it to a minimum.  There's too many things to control to
be able to say "This one is perfect"

<JeffKleist> What kind of features do you feel are missing on current DVDs? Is there any one
thing that you would love to try to do with the medium?

<jbadham> I'm not sure I have anything to contribute to that question.   I think the medium of DVD's
is a great advance and we're just starting to figure out what to do with it.

<winston>  What are your thoughts on Short circuit 2 and did you ever think a sequel was neccessary
during the making of SC1?

<jbadham> Sequels can be fun  sometimes.  Usually they are a boring way for the studio to make
more money.   GodFather 2 is an exception  but there are few of those.   I avoided SS2 because
the script was do-do....or is that doo-doo?  I did Stakeout 2 because I thought it was very funny
as did all the cast.  We had a great time making it.  Even though it's not as strong as the first, I'm
glad we did it

<RonEpstein> While we are talking about SHORT CIRCUIT.....John, I had a big crush on Ally
Sheedy during the 80s. I suppose she was an actress you liked to work with (Wargames and Short
Circuit) - could you tell us a little bit about working with her at that time?

<jbadham> She is one of the nicest people you ever want to be with.   She is a gentle poetic
soul, very troubled, very loving, very hard working.  I love to see many of the roles she does.  
She surprises me constantly.  Was it High Art  that she did?  That was terrific....and she's
not bad to look at

<jbadham> here's a question...

<RonEpstein> ok...

<jbadham> Mr. Badham Have you ever slept with any of your actresses?

<ParkerClack> :) :)

<jbadham> Answer:  well I have slept at the same time as some of them, but not necessarily
in the same place,  except for our nappy after lunch with our blankies.   I can't stay seated
much less stand up

<RonEpstein> hee-hee

<ParkerClack> Here's one. Mr. Badham have you ever considered stand up comedy?
You would be a riot to work with. I can see why you had such fun with Dreyfus.

<jbadham> He's a blast!   Thanks every one for putting up with me it's been fun

<RonEpstein> I can't begin to tell you what an honor it is to have you here tonight, John.  It was
so kind of you to take the time out to talk with us.  Thank You for films like SATURDAY NIGHT
FEVER and WARGAMES -- they are the most cherished of my young adult years.

<jbadham> I'll try hard to make some more for you

<jbadham> Thanks to you all Good Night.  god Bless Us every one!


Session Close: Mon Nov 25 22:11:25 2002

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