Some still work under the assumption that reshoots are a bad thing. Simon thinks otherwise. And here’s why.
In the past few months, there appear to have been one or two corners of the Internet that have gone into panic mode over the news of two of the summer’s blockbusters scheduling reshoots.
Firstly, there was The Amazing Spider-Man, for which director Marc Webb shot some more material several months after production initially wrapped. And then there were rumours (which proved to be unconfirmed) of The Avengers reshoots, right at the start of this year.
Here’s a flavour of some (printable) comments, from an assortment of websites, that greeted this news:
”They are probably reshooting out of panic!”
”4 months to go and they're doing reshoots. this movie sucks.”
“Hmmmmm, I'm not sure what to make of reshoots. I honestly can't think of any movie that I heard that was going through reshoots turned out good.”
That latter one in particular is a common misconception. Peter Jackson, for instance, built into his schedule for the Lord Of The Rings trilogy (and presumably for The Hobbit) time to get more footage, if required (and it was). Given the scale of what he was trying to do, it seemed wise to allow some kind of safety net.
In fact, it’s hard to think of a major blockbuster movie that wasn’t shooting new material after original production wrapped. Harry Potter, Avatar, X-Men 2, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World… it’d be quite a list if we tried to dig them all out. The long and short of it is this: the reshoot is part of the process, and a not uncommon one.
Even the term reshoots isn’t particularly accurate. A reshoot seems to indicate that a particular shot has to be captured again. More likely, when assembling a cut of the picture in question, the director has noticed that a scene could use an extra shot or two here and there, or perhaps some more dialogue, just to add clarity. In some instances, a fresh scene or two might be needed, for similar reasons. That’s, though, pick-up work, rather than an outright reshoot. Extra shooting might be a more appropriate phrase.
Obviously, there may be technical reasons, too. In effects-heavy blockbusters, further shots are often necessary when the CG work, for example, doesn’t quite marry up to the live action footage. Does that suddenly mean the movie is bad? No. It means that someone has noticed a problem, before the film has been completed, and is bothering to fix it.
That has to be a good thing, surely?
Audiences do have good reason to be wary of some reshoots, of course. Take 2004’s Exorcist: The Beginning. That was a movie that Paul Schrader pretty much shot, only for the film’s producers to hit the proverbial panic button when they saw what he’s made. They hated his cut, fired him from the project, and hired Renny Harlin to come in and reshoot the movie. The resultant final cut, that was cinematically released, was made up of just 10% or so of material Schrader filmed (his cut was subsequently released on DVD). You probably already know that Exorcist: The Beginning isn’t very good. In that instance, reshooting in some degree of panic was always unlikely to work.
That’s the kind of reshoot, then, that an audience should be wary of. Or a reshoot where large swathes of a film are being retooled against the clock to paper over cracks, rather than fix specific issues. A few scenes here and there, in the context of this, is surely nothing to worry too much about.
In fact, in the instance of the projects that go badly wrong, the issues are in the shoot in the first place, rather than the further production, which is trying to fix them.
Let’s not forget, either, that the average blockbuster is a far more ambitious and technical production than ever before. There’s more money involved, time pressure, and, in many cases, a greater reliance on location shoots. These are all variables that have ramifications, and may cause issues that simply need fixing.
So perhaps it’s time that the furore and instant clamour to declare bad news when a major project goes back for more shooting comes to an end. Additional production is, and has been for some time, a part of the process of making a film. It is, more often than not, a good thing (it’s certainly not a cheap one!). And, in my book, anyone trying to solve issues ahead of a release, rather than not bothering, should be encouraged.
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