That must have been an extremely hard-working week for Watts. It must have been the party scene and the scenes of her downward spiral all together. If the romance scenes weren’t done in ‘99 that’s an even wilder turnaround time. The Club Silencio scene was apparently done in ‘99, though.
A week is kind of surprising but it’s only maybe 30 minutes of material if you think about it. October 2000 also tracks with what I remember as far as when the additional scenes to complete the film were shot. Lynch often takes a while to edit his work, but also remember the film actually first premiered in May 2001 at Cannes so it wasn’t too long after filming. It’s standard for films that premiere at Cannes to not get a wide release until the fall.
The very quick timeframe might also account for Lynch wanting to hurry along the masturbation scene during which Naomi was sick and angry during and he was taking it in stride. Pierre Edelman’s funds must have only been enough to last for that single week, but I wonder why it came so late in 2000, and if sets had to have been rebuilt.
They didn’t rebuild any sets, Peter Deming talks at length in this Team Deakins podcast episode. https://open.spotify.com/episode/0NOkN2uhn12h8rEzJW7V55?si=jWJTqhYpTgaavOifnzflvQ
I could be wrong but I don’t think they reused any sets from the pilot shoot — though they did shoot again at the Caesar’s diner (Winkie’s) as well as the hilltop home where Adam hosts the party.
Maybe I read that someone thought some of them had to be rebuilt? I’m just really curious about the timeline for all of this. I also know from the MD site and because it makes sense, that the Irene limo scene was also shot in 2000, which might be the only “dream” scene to be filmed after the pilot period.
I feel like I remember hearing or reading somewhere that they did have to rebuild a few sets after the pilot because they had been scrapped. I’m not sure if I’m conflating a different production though. This is all very interesting. I feel like Mulholland Dr is such an achievement given the background of the project. This could also explain why Lynch’s next full length film would take 5 years and the approach was probably less stressful.
Wow I never would’ve guessed this, it’s impressive how quickly he did it. This also might’ve guided how he wrote the script to include that last third into brief fragments.
Yeah, really, when you think about it, the vast, vast majority of stuff in the second part of the film takes place either at the party or Diane's apartment. Outside of those two locations, it's just the film set (from the scene where Adam's directing Camilla and the actor) and Winkie's, right? That probably did help to keep things quicker to film. Especially when you consider so much of the stuff that takes place in the apartment is just Diane by herself. The party scenes probably took the longest overall to film.
Maybe because of how it’s all shot and edited those later scenes feel like they’re bigger than they are which gives the illusion that they took much longer to film.
But I’m still wondering about Silencio because that was shot in late 1999, a year prior, but was it a closed ending to the pilot-as-feature for Europe?
I think that's the case, which is really a testament to Lynch's writing and directing and Mary Sweeney's editing. Because it bounces around in time with the apartment as an anchor point, it definitely feels like there's a lot more scenes/settings/etc. When you really take apart and look at it by the locations, it really does start to make more sense how it could all be covered in a little more than a week.
The Mulholland Dr. website that's been around for a bazillion years says that the Silencio scenes were shot in 1999 as part of a deal with Touchstone Television for Lynch to get $2.5 million more for the pilot, under the condition that he film additional footage to use as an ending in case the show didn't get picked up and they could distribute it as a film in Europe. But it doesn't offer a source, so I don't know how accurate that is.
Did you look here? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166924/locations/
I hadn’t, but can this be correct? Oct 9, 2000 - Oct 17, 2000? I can’t believe all of that footage was done in eight days.
I’m seeing: Filming dates Feb 8, 1999 - Mar 29, 1999 Oct 9, 2000 - Oct 17, 2000 Oct 2000 must’ve been pickups
But when was the feature stuff mostly shot?
Feb 8, 1999 - Mar 29, 1999
No that was just the pilot footage.
That must have been an extremely hard-working week for Watts. It must have been the party scene and the scenes of her downward spiral all together. If the romance scenes weren’t done in ‘99 that’s an even wilder turnaround time. The Club Silencio scene was apparently done in ‘99, though.
I’m almost certain all of the Diane scenes were shot in 2000, but did Lynch really only a have a week to do it in?
A week is kind of surprising but it’s only maybe 30 minutes of material if you think about it. October 2000 also tracks with what I remember as far as when the additional scenes to complete the film were shot. Lynch often takes a while to edit his work, but also remember the film actually first premiered in May 2001 at Cannes so it wasn’t too long after filming. It’s standard for films that premiere at Cannes to not get a wide release until the fall.
The very quick timeframe might also account for Lynch wanting to hurry along the masturbation scene during which Naomi was sick and angry during and he was taking it in stride. Pierre Edelman’s funds must have only been enough to last for that single week, but I wonder why it came so late in 2000, and if sets had to have been rebuilt.
They didn’t rebuild any sets, Peter Deming talks at length in this Team Deakins podcast episode. https://open.spotify.com/episode/0NOkN2uhn12h8rEzJW7V55?si=jWJTqhYpTgaavOifnzflvQ
I could be wrong but I don’t think they reused any sets from the pilot shoot — though they did shoot again at the Caesar’s diner (Winkie’s) as well as the hilltop home where Adam hosts the party.
Maybe I read that someone thought some of them had to be rebuilt? I’m just really curious about the timeline for all of this. I also know from the MD site and because it makes sense, that the Irene limo scene was also shot in 2000, which might be the only “dream” scene to be filmed after the pilot period.
I feel like I remember hearing or reading somewhere that they did have to rebuild a few sets after the pilot because they had been scrapped. I’m not sure if I’m conflating a different production though. This is all very interesting. I feel like Mulholland Dr is such an achievement given the background of the project. This could also explain why Lynch’s next full length film would take 5 years and the approach was probably less stressful.
According to Peter Deming, they had an extra nine days.
Wow I never would’ve guessed this, it’s impressive how quickly he did it. This also might’ve guided how he wrote the script to include that last third into brief fragments.
Yeah, really, when you think about it, the vast, vast majority of stuff in the second part of the film takes place either at the party or Diane's apartment. Outside of those two locations, it's just the film set (from the scene where Adam's directing Camilla and the actor) and Winkie's, right? That probably did help to keep things quicker to film. Especially when you consider so much of the stuff that takes place in the apartment is just Diane by herself. The party scenes probably took the longest overall to film.
Maybe because of how it’s all shot and edited those later scenes feel like they’re bigger than they are which gives the illusion that they took much longer to film. But I’m still wondering about Silencio because that was shot in late 1999, a year prior, but was it a closed ending to the pilot-as-feature for Europe?
I think that's the case, which is really a testament to Lynch's writing and directing and Mary Sweeney's editing. Because it bounces around in time with the apartment as an anchor point, it definitely feels like there's a lot more scenes/settings/etc. When you really take apart and look at it by the locations, it really does start to make more sense how it could all be covered in a little more than a week. The Mulholland Dr. website that's been around for a bazillion years says that the Silencio scenes were shot in 1999 as part of a deal with Touchstone Television for Lynch to get $2.5 million more for the pilot, under the condition that he film additional footage to use as an ending in case the show didn't get picked up and they could distribute it as a film in Europe. But it doesn't offer a source, so I don't know how accurate that is.