Production Forbidden Zone

1 production

1.1 development
1.2 casting
1.3 writing
1.4 directing
1.5 animation
1.6 music

production
development

the mystic knights of oingo boingo formed in late 1972 richard elfman, musical theatre troupe. richard s interest shifted filmmaking, passed leadership of band younger brother danny elfman, had begun lose interest in musical theatre, , had gained interest in other musical styles such ska, , had become sick of lugging around stuff theatre troupe. towards end , elfman remembers, big production... there was, semi full of stuff. , becoming burdensome. so, me, idea of being band can fit gear van , set in club, , hour later playing, became goal.

production began during transitional period when group moving cabaret style towards more pop/rock format; time film completed, band had shortened name oingo boingo.

the film conceived hercules family, 16mm musical consisted of twelve musical numbers , story loosely constructed around them. project grew 35mm , storyline evolved, richard elfman found himself re-shooting many of original scenes fit new film. 2 sequences original 16mm footage featured on 2004 dvd release: 1 of danny elfman, satan, performing minnie moocher (later reshot visual elements borrowed original 16mm sequence , alternate lyrics), , of marie-pascale elfman, singing johnny . sequence elfman satan, , members of oingo boingo minions, came live shows, in band perform cab calloway tunes st. james infirmary blues in same costumes.

marie-pascale elfman, @ time of shooting, married director richard elfman. designed film s expressionistic sets , starred in film. actor , former mystic knight gene cunningham helped fund film. when cunningham , elfman ran out of money during production, richard , marie-pascale elfman helped finance selling houses, before carl borack put money production in order elfman complete film. according elfman, had intended film screened in color, stating original plan ship film china, each frame hand-tinted, plan not practical within production costs.

casting

actor hervé villechaize former roommate of co-writer , co-star matthew bright, villechaize had dated co-star susan tyrrell, 2 had broken time production on film began. according richard elfman, tyrrell , villechaize fought periodically throughout production. elfmans grandfather, herman bernstein, appeared in film, , richard elfman s accountant appeared under name hyman diamond because elfman had no idea whether or not wanted credited. others worked on film include kipper kids (brian routh , martin von haselberg), joe spinell, , former warhol superstar viva.

writing

forbidden zone featured bright s first work on film, , work actor (under name toshiro baloney ). founding member of mystic knights, bright later became screenwriter , director in own right. bright s credits include freeway, ted bundy, , tiptoes. bright , director richard elfman s dispute during screenwriting process on scene in character, squeezit, have been beaten 8 minutes , having walls wiped blood. scene cut script have had squeezit being castrated. according bright, didn t have sense of limits or balance then, @ time, i... know, just, didn t know doing. needed reining in. during filming, bright sitting on set in costume when lighting stand fell onto head, cracking skull, , had rushed hospital. when bright returned work next day, had mild concussion , whiplash, continued filming.

directing

richard elfman had never gone film school when production started, , didn t know getting into. production, original 16mm roots finish, took 3 years. cast , crew members sleep on film s stage, wearing spare gorilla suits stay warm. among film s artistic influences included 1940s big band , jazz music , max fleischer cartoons of 1930s (such betty boop). of film s cast made of non-professionals cast off street. in 1 scene, richard elfman brought in young man mouth words of bim bam boom , when put in front of camera, stood there scene shot. elfman left scene in film editing in bright s lips on actor s face. scene featured homeless men.

animation

the film s animation created then-unknown animator john muto. because of film s low budget, muto created of film s animation sequences himself. muto made frequent use of airbrush techniques establish himself distinctive style. sequences in live-action , animation combined, actors photographed in tight head-on , profile shots, , photos cut out , pasted animation in style recalling terry gilliam s work on monty python s flying circus. muto credits fleischer brothers inspiration.

music

forbidden zone first film scored danny elfman, score, among other films, batman, nightmare before christmas, , charlie , chocolate factory. song witch s egg written georg michalski , tyrrell. in scenes, characters lip synch old records, including recordings cab calloway, josephine baker, , others.

the alphabet song performed in classroom scene inspired swinging alphabet song 3 stooges short violent word curly.

for yiddishe charleston scene, richard elfman had shot sequence him lip-syncing old recording of song, later unable acquire rights recording, , had record new version of song while attempting sync new recording footage.