Action! - The Best Behind-the-Scenes Documentaries - article discussion

Great List, i would add the superb making of Prometheus to that list, covers everything and is very informative
 
Love a proper making of doc, there's hardly any at all these days though.
 
There's a great one that came out recently called The Death of Superman Lives about Tim Burton's attempt to reboot Superman in the late 90s which I haven't had a chance to see yet. There's also a new one about the making of Back to the Future which looks good and there's a couple of great documentaries about the making of Jaws, which falls into that category of troubled production that turned out well in the end.
 
There's a great one that came out recently called The Death of Superman Lives about Tim Burton's attempt to reboot Superman in the late 90s which I haven't had a chance to see yet.

If you haven't seen it yet, how do you know it's great?

:D
 
Well it looks great in the clips I've seen and I know from Kevin Smith's comments that's there's a fascinating story behind Superman Lives. Here's a link to the site: The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened?

The Back to the Future documentary is called Back in Time and I think it's being released on the 21st of October 2015, which is the date Marty goes to in Back to the Future Part II. Here's a link to their website: About | Back in Time
 
No American Movie showing the making of Coven!
This is one of my all time favourite film making documentaries.
 
I've never even heard of American Movie or Coven, thanks for the heads-up, I'll check that out.
 
The Death of superman Lives Docu is not too bad, it drags a bit but has some interesting bits and bobs in it... Kevin Smith always tells a good story
 
American Movie is brilliant, don't expect a filmmaking masterclass but a film about how passion and deidication can be their own reward. I've never been able to look at a kitchen cupboard door again.

 
It's quite new, but for me it's the best of the 'unmade' docs we have seen recently, but Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's The Island of Dr. Moreau is terrific. Miles better than Superman Lives.
 
Slightly OT but I haven't seen Blade Runner in about 15 years. There's seems to be so many now so which edit should I be watching?
 
Well there are five versions - Work Print, Theatrical Cut, International Cut, Director's Cut and Final Cut. All are interesting in their own way but the Final Cut is probably the best, since it's closest to Ridley Scott's vision of the film, with various mistakes fixed, no voice over, no happy ending etc., so I recommend watching that one.
 
Worth checking out 'Interstellar' too; how they spent a great deal of time looking for the farm location, growing the corn,building the house, as well as detailing all the practical space craft as 'big-atures' in order to get as much as possible shot 'in-camera'. Really interesting documentary.
 
Worth checking out 'Interstellar' too; how they spent a great deal of time looking for the farm location, growing the corn,building the house, as well as detailing all the practical space craft as 'big-atures' in order to get as much as possible shot 'in-camera'. Really interesting documentary.

Yeah I saw that. I couldn't believe the size and detail of the spaceship/lander they built - it was on a giant see-saw type thing - it was nearly as big as the alien ship from Alien. I was thinking - this must have cost a fortune to build and you wouldn't notice it at all watching the film - a classic example of wasting money the audience wont notice!
 
Very interesting list. I have most of those Blurays/DVD boxsets and I think i have looked at a few of them before. Must go back now and rewatch those documentaries again. Like many suckers I have both the DVD and Bluray boxsets of Starwars and can't remember if i saw the documentaries in full before.

Another very interesting one I saw which isn't on the list was the making of "The Shining" and the incredible lengths Kubrick went to recreate the hotel and maze for the film (which were all sets amazingly - the outside of hotel in beginning was real hotel somewhere). It also documents how he invented "steadicam" during this film to do the corridor scenes with camera following child on bike.

Also another very interesting making-of was the one for "The Thing". As far as I remember they actually found some remote snow covered place to do the shoot for real, and crew was up there for months.

Both The Thing and Shining documentaries are on the Blu-rays.
 
not at home at the mo so cant check, but pretty sure empire of dreams wasnt in the new bluray boxset which was a travesty in itself, neither was the phantom menace doc., the list is a great one and one which i completely concur. the subsequent comments are also great whcih some of thse docs sound fascinating but i haven't seen yet.
 
Very interesting list. I have most of those Blurays/DVD boxsets and I think i have looked at a few of them before. Must go back now and rewatch those documentaries again. Like many suckers I have both the DVD and Bluray boxsets of Starwars and can't remember if i saw the documentaries in full before.

Another very interesting one I saw which isn't on the list was the making of "The Shining" and the incredible lengths Kubrick went to recreate the hotel and maze for the film (which were all sets amazingly - the outside of hotel in beginning was real hotel somewhere). It also documents how he invented "steadicam" during this film to do the corridor scenes with camera following child on bike.

Also another very interesting making-of was the one for "The Thing". As far as I remember they actually found some remote snow covered place to do the shoot for real, and crew was up there for months.

Both The Thing and Shining documentaries are on the Blu-rays.

pretty sure it was garrett brown who invented steady cam when filming the original rocky film.
 
While it's becomes less a making of, and more a portrait of a bell-end, the film Overnight is brilliant. It's about Troy Duffy who went from Barman to writer/director of The Boondock Saints as the cameras rolled. Sadly, Duffy uses the opportunity of a lifetime to burn every bridge and piss off everyone in his path.

 
pretty sure it was garrett brown who invented steady cam when filming the original rocky film.

Oh really, it's a long time since I saw the Shining documentary, they were definitely talking about how he used one to do the corridor tracking shots - could have sworn they said he more or less invented the tech, maybe they just said it was one of the earliest uses or something, I'd have to look again.
 
Garrett Brown did invent the Stedicam and one of the first uses was the steps scene in Rocky but Kubrick was the first director to make extensive use of it in The Shining.
 
Fear Of The Flesh: The Making Of The Fly is better than half that list.
 
Agree with a previous poster that the Prometheus making of is as good as dangerous Days , better in fact as it shows what the final product should/could of been. Sad to say its actually more interesting than the film and a worthy inclusion on this thread .
 

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