What's the anonymous screen credit name for director of a bad movie?
Knight
this group has a lot of knowledgeable people, so here goes: there's
supposed to be a particular director's name that appears in the screen
credits of a movie which is so bad that no one wants to claim the
credit for it. Do you know what it is? I tried some searches on Google
but didn't get a hit (maybe wrong choice of keywords - such as
"multiple directors screen credit"). Thanks in advance.
kay w
>there's
>supposed to be a particular director's name that appears in the screen
>credits of a movie which is so bad that no one wants to claim the
>credit for it. Do you know what it is?
Alan Smithee, I believe.
--
kay w
Address munged. AOL isn't necessarily comatose, evidence to the contrary not
withstanding.
KGename
>
>Hi,
> this group has a lot of knowledgeable people, so here goes: there's
>supposed to be a particular director's name that appears in the screen
>credits of a movie which is so bad that no one wants to claim the
>credit for it. Do you know what it is?
Alan Smithee.
73,
Keith
*TASKMASTER EXTRAORDINAIRE*
--Revolutions halted--Tigers tamed--Computers verified--Bars emptied--
--Uprisings quelled--Creationism disproven--Dictators overthrown--
--'Pi' calculated completley--Female minds understood--
Shotgun Mosquito
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Smithee,+Alan
Larry Palletti
Alan Smithee. There may be others, but this one is okayed by the guild
and, as I understand it, must be approved before a director uses it.
--
Larry Palletti East Point/Atlanta, Georgia
www.palletti.com www.booksonscreen.com
Opinionated, but lovable
D.F. Manno
<la...@palletti.com> wrote:
> On 19 Mar 2002 16:02:00 -0800, knigh...@yahoo.com (Knight) wrote:
>
> > this group has a lot of knowledgeable people, so here goes: there's
> >supposed to be a particular director's name that appears in the screen
> >credits of a movie which is so bad that no one wants to claim the
> >credit for it. Do you know what it is? I tried some searches on Google
> >but didn't get a hit (maybe wrong choice of keywords - such as
> >"multiple directors screen credit"). Thanks in advance.
>
> Alan Smithee. There may be others, but this one is okayed by the guild
> and, as I understand it, must be approved before a director uses it.
Speaking of Alan Smithee: didn't I hear somewhere that because of the notoriety
given the pseudonym by the film "An Alan Smithee Flim: Burn Hollywood Burn," the
Directors Guild was planning to phase out that name in favorite of a new one?
--
D.F. Manno
domm...@netscape.net
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." (Benjamin Franklin)
Kim
"Knight" <knigh...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:e088fca8.0203...@posting.google.com...
Roger Corman
Kim ~ actually it changes all the time. Now it seems to be "George Lucas".
(I'm kidding, really, it's Allen Smithee like the others said).
*If I ever won the lottery, I would lie around all day and do nothing. But
since that's pretty much what I do now, I guess I'm one lucky guy. (Tom
Sims)*
Al Yellon
news:dommanno-1BEC55...@news.localnet.com...
> In article <frrf9uop6sd19ct4a...@4ax.com>, Larry Palletti
> <la...@palletti.com> wrote:
>
> > On 19 Mar 2002 16:02:00 -0800, knigh...@yahoo.com (Knight) wrote:
> >
> > > this group has a lot of knowledgeable people, so here goes: there's
> > >supposed to be a particular director's name that appears in the screen
> > >credits of a movie which is so bad that no one wants to claim the
> > >credit for it. Do you know what it is? I tried some searches on Google
> > >but didn't get a hit (maybe wrong choice of keywords - such as
> > >"multiple directors screen credit"). Thanks in advance.
> >
> > Alan Smithee. There may be others, but this one is okayed by the guild
> > and, as I understand it, must be approved before a director uses it.
>
> Speaking of Alan Smithee: didn't I hear somewhere that because of the
notoriety
> given the pseudonym by the film "An Alan Smithee Flim: Burn Hollywood
Burn," the
> Directors Guild was planning to phase out that name in favorite of a new
one?
As an actual card-carrying member of the Directors Guild, I believe I can
answer both of these questions.
First of all, Allen (that's the right spelling) Smithee is the name.
Second, no, you don't have to have "approval". All you have to do is say
that you DON'T want your name on the film, and you can have Smithee's name
substituted.
And finally, AFAIK there is no plan to "phase out" the name.
HTH
--
"If you're not part of the future, then get out of the way"
-- John Mellencamp
Larry Palletti
<domm...@netscape.net> wrote:
>In article <frrf9uop6sd19ct4a...@4ax.com>, Larry Palletti
><la...@palletti.com> wrote:
>
>> On 19 Mar 2002 16:02:00 -0800, knigh...@yahoo.com (Knight) wrote:
>>
>> > this group has a lot of knowledgeable people, so here goes: there's
>> >supposed to be a particular director's name that appears in the screen
>> >credits of a movie which is so bad that no one wants to claim the
>> >credit for it. Do you know what it is? I tried some searches on Google
>> >but didn't get a hit (maybe wrong choice of keywords - such as
>> >"multiple directors screen credit"). Thanks in advance.
>>
>> Alan Smithee. There may be others, but this one is okayed by the guild
>> and, as I understand it, must be approved before a director uses it.
>
>Speaking of Alan Smithee: didn't I hear somewhere that because of the notoriety
>given the pseudonym by the film "An Alan Smithee Flim: Burn Hollywood Burn," the
>Directors Guild was planning to phase out that name in favorite of a new one?
Yep. According to the Vancouver Film School
<http://www.vfs.com/vfsnews/2000/may4.htm>
the Directors Guild responded to "Burn Hollywood Burn" by changing the
directorial pseudonym to "Thomas Lee."
Nice catch, Dom. I knew I was keeping you in Philly for a good reason.
--
Larry Palletti East Point/Atlanta, Georgia
www.palletti.com www.booksonscreen.com
Opinionated, but lovable
A nice Italian boy who found work
Mark Hanson
It *was* "Alan Smithee," but the DGA recently killed off the pseudonym. It
was becoming a joke, and everyone knew what the name meant to a movie. Now
they apparently have a rotating series of less memorable names.
Mark
Stephan Lemonjello Jr.
>that you DON'T want your name on the film, and you can have Smithee's name
>substituted.
Not true. According to the documentary "Who is Alan Smithee?", the movie studio
has to approve.
Andrew Gore
<aye...@REMOVETHIScolgatealumni.org> wrote:
>> >
>> > Alan Smithee. There may be others, but this one is okayed by the guild
>> > and, as I understand it, must be approved before a director uses it.
>>
>> Speaking of Alan Smithee: didn't I hear somewhere that because of the
>notoriety
>> given the pseudonym by the film "An Alan Smithee Flim: Burn Hollywood
>Burn," the
>> Directors Guild was planning to phase out that name in favorite of a new
>one?
>
>As an actual card-carrying member of the Directors Guild, I believe I can
>answer both of these questions.
>
>First of all, Allen (that's the right spelling) Smithee is the name.
>
>Second, no, you don't have to have "approval". All you have to do is say
>that you DON'T want your name on the film, and you can have Smithee's name
>substituted.
>
>And finally, AFAIK there is no plan to "phase out" the name.
Sorry to go against a DGA member, but you may not have kept up
on this. What you say is correct for the past, but not to about 1998,
and for the future.
Alan (not Allen) Smithee was the accepted name any director
could choose to replace his own, if he so chose to. He could choose a
made-up name, as long as it wouldn't be confused with a real
director's name, or he could choose Smithee. Usually a made-up name
indicated the director was rather embarrassed by the film and wanted
to avoid association with it, i.e."Hey, I only directed Curse of the
Vampire Women From Mars cause my girlfriend needed a boob job. They
drove a truckload of money up to my door and, well, I'm not made of
stone, you know." Sometimes directors opted not to have any
directorial credit at all appear in the film ("Where the Buffalo
Roam"). Or they could use Alan Smithee, which became known as a way
for the director to protest how the film came out. Maybe the Dr didn't
get the budget he wanted, or he had to use actors other than what he
wanted. Usually tho it meant that the film was "taken away" from him
and edited all wrong , in his opinion.The Smithee credit was sometimes
given when a movie was recut and/or pan & scanned badly, etc for
TV-cable release (David Lynch and "Dune" for TV).
Interesting trivia about "Burn Hollywood Burn: An Alan
Smithee Film". It was directed by Arthur Hiller, respected director
and former President of the DGA. After he finished the film, the
studio edited it and, sure enough, he objected to the final cut they
came up with. "They made it look like a Saturday Night Live sketch", I
remember him saying. So, in a twist of incredible irony, he insisted
they give directors credit to you-know-who. He says that to this day
he will never convince anyone that the Smithee credit (not Thomas Lee)
was not 'part of the joke' from the start. That the film was a flop is
perhaps his vindication.
BUT... a few years back the DGA decided the whole Smithee
thing was a bit of a worn-out joke, and decided to change the rules.
Now, a director has to 'prove', as far as possible, that the studio's
final cut differed greatly from his artistic vision. This involves a
DGA greivance committee actually comparing the director's working
script with the finished product. And, if they agree he has a real
beef, he cannot use "Smithee" anymore; the committee gives him 5
nondescript names to choose from. No more Alan Smithee films.
I can understand these changes. Taking one's name off the
director's credit shouldn't just be a casual decision on the part of
the Dr. It can be too easily abused, in the case of Dr's that are
simply incompetent or uninspired. It's like... a lazy chemistry
student who fails a test cuz he didn't study or try hard enuf. He
can't just say,"I didn't like that test. Take my name off it. I don't
want it appearing on my record." Doesn't work that way. A bad director
can ruin a movie, can cost a studio and a film's investors hundreds of
millions of dollars, can cause a good TV series to get cancelled,
causing havoc and pain in hundreds of people's careers and lives. I
can think of no reason he should just casually dissasociate himself
from his flops, any more than a surgeon can write off his mistakes as
"death by natural causes".
GrapeApe
Al Yellon
news:20020320193337...@mb-mv.aol.com...
> What pseudonym did Paddy Chayefsky use for the screenplay of Altered
States?
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0080360
Sidney Aaron.
HTH!
Jeff Lanam
(GrapeApe) emitted:
>What pseudonym did Paddy Chayefsky use for the screenplay of Altered States?
Sydney Aaron
http://us.imdb.com/Credits?0080360
The bio for Alan Smithee is amusing
http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Smithee,+Alan
Al Yellon
news:3c992f21....@news.compaq.com...
From that page:
"Alan Smithee" is an anagram for "The Alias Men"
tooloud10
news:3c9913d2...@news.earthlink.net...
<snip>
> I can understand these changes. Taking one's name off the
> director's credit shouldn't just be a casual decision on the part of
> the Dr. It can be too easily abused, in the case of Dr's that are
> simply incompetent or uninspired. It's like... a lazy chemistry
> student who fails a test cuz he didn't study or try hard enuf. He
> can't just say,"I didn't like that test. Take my name off it. I don't
> want it appearing on my record." Doesn't work that way. A bad director
> can ruin a movie, can cost a studio and a film's investors hundreds of
> millions of dollars, can cause a good TV series to get cancelled,
> causing havoc and pain in hundreds of people's careers and lives. I
> can think of no reason he should just casually dissasociate himself
> from his flops, any more than a surgeon can write off his mistakes as
> "death by natural causes".
True, but say a director finishes a film and it's exactly as he liked it,
but the studio wants to start snipping. They tell him that if he doesn't
agree to it, they won't support his next film. What's he supposed to do?
--
tooloud10
Remove nothing to reply...
John Hatpin
>"Jeff Lanam" <jeff.lana...@compaq.com> wrote in message
>news:3c992f21....@news.compaq.com...
>> On 21 Mar 2002 00:33:37 GMT, the evil clone of grap...@aol.comjunk
>> (GrapeApe) emitted:
>>
>> >What pseudonym did Paddy Chayefsky use for the screenplay of Altered
>States?
>>
>> Sydney Aaron
>> http://us.imdb.com/Credits?0080360
>>
>> The bio for Alan Smithee is amusing
>> http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Smithee,+Alan
>
>From that page:
>
>"Alan Smithee" is an anagram for "The Alias Men"
Also, note this passage:
Although his first name is occasionally
misspelled "Alan", the name Allen
Smithee has come to represent a unique
vision in American film.
Yet the IMDb page has "Allen" twice and "Alan" 11 times in the text,
including the title of the article, and spells it "Alan" in the page
title too. Confusion reigns.
--
John Hatpin
"I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the
Universe and all that surrounds it." -- Peter Cook
Alan Hoyle
>>From that page:
>>
>>"Alan Smithee" is an anagram for "The Alias Men"
> Also, note this passage:
> Although his first name is occasionally
> misspelled "Alan", the name Allen
> Smithee has come to represent a unique
> vision in American film.
> Yet the IMDb page has "Allen" twice and "Alan" 11 times in the text,
> including the title of the article, and spells it "Alan" in the page
> title too. Confusion reigns.
Maybe somebody should ask him....
-alan
--
Alan Hoyle - al...@unc.edu - http://www.alanhoyle.com/
"I don't want the world, I just want your half." -TMBG
Get Horizontal, Play Ultimate: Ring of Fire - Spear
John Hatpin
>On Thu, 21 Mar 2002 12:47:41 +0000, John Hatpin wrote:
>>>From that page:
>>>
>>>"Alan Smithee" is an anagram for "The Alias Men"
>
>> Also, note this passage:
>
>> Although his first name is occasionally
>> misspelled "Alan", the name Allen
>> Smithee has come to represent a unique
>> vision in American film.
>
>> Yet the IMDb page has "Allen" twice and "Alan" 11 times in the text,
>> including the title of the article, and spells it "Alan" in the page
>> title too. Confusion reigns.
>
>Maybe somebody should ask him....
You do it, Allen.
Alan Hamilton
<ag...@brooREMOVEMEkview.karoo.co.uk> wrote:
>You do it, Allen.
Who, me?
--
/
/ * / Alan Hamilton
* * al...@arizonaroads.com
Andrew Gore
The whole point of having a DGA committee look into it at the
director's request is to try to have a third-party make a judgement.
In a tight union town like Hollywood, it is actually a union-
management grievance issue. But the best response to your point is,
for the director to demand "final cut". If a director has sufficient
clout in Hollywood, he can contractually demand that the final edit
get his approval before release. Thus, he has no one but himself to
blame if it tanks. Another important and interesting point is that the
sell-thru products - tapes and DVDs for sale - often feature the
"director's cut", an alternate version that is supposed to be the Dr's
"true vision". This is significant as it is not at all unusual for a
film to make more money in video than it did in the theatres.