DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY

Scenes from the Model High School Band Christmas Party 1985 is a 6 minute film (plus 90 seconds of ending credits) that was carved out of 39 minutes of raw original footage. The original cut of this film clocked in at 9 minutes and 50 seconds, and the first edit was trimmed down to 7 minutes and 50 seconds. At least two other editing sessions eliminated that last minute-and-50-seconds of footage.

In deciding what to cut and what to keep, a couple of goals had to be kept in mind. First and foremost, since this footage was to be seen by people who had not seen any of these moments in over 20 years, a conscious effort was made to feature every band member in at least one scene by themselves. In the case of some band members, these "solo shots" were somewhat difficult to obtain, because they were either extremely camera shy, or I just simply didn't film them enough (and in the case of one band member, I accidentally cut out all of her solo shots while editing, and had to go back and re-insert her scene).

Secondly, it must be known that the original filming of this party was for two projects, the Model High School Band documentary, and CRC: The Movie (the rock documentary of the legendary Richmond band known as Central Rock Company). Therefore, many of these scenes focus on Shay Quillen and Kurt Adams, and while there are many entertaining scenes featuring the two, they do not fit quite as well in the context of the MHS Band than as they do with Central Rock Company. For example, there is a very long sequence in which CRC show up for their "gig" in the auditorium, they perform, they get booed off the stage, and get chewed out by William Hill and their "manager," Aaron Francis. For the CRC movie, this was gold. For this film, it was about two minutes of drivel and extraneous fluff which really dragged the movie down. The funniest bits were preserved, but the rest ended up on the cutting room floor.

Related to the second goal was the consideration of the audience that would be watching this. There are many scenes which are extremely hilarious for the, oh, say, THREE people who were involved in the scene ... the same scenes, viewed by someone who wasn't there, turn out to be not quite as funny, and could ultimately be somewhat tedious. So those had to go. In the end, about three minutes worth of footage that "would have been nice to include" were exorcised.

SPECIFIC SCENE COMMENTARY Things which may or may not be obvious to the viewer, considering it has been over 20 years since anyone has seen this footage.
	(0:00) The introductory shot of Shay Quillen greeting the audience and leading the viewer into the party itself. A similar introductory shot of Shay Quillen leading into the party from the backroom was used for the 1986 Band Party videotape.
	(0:01-0:30) Montage and quick shot collage leading to the opening title. Featured, in order: Pam Turner and Keith Hartman / Joe Ballew / Denny French, Mischa Blair, Kurt Adams and Shay Quillen / Mischa Blair / Sebastian Odong / Chris Staples / Robby Whitlock / Joe Ballew, Meena Mohanty, Sarah Warner / Robby Whitlock, Joe Ballew, Aaron Francis, Josh Meckler / Shay Quillen and Kurt Adams / the reel-to-reel / Christmas window / Cleaning Lady /
	(0:02) The original shot was about a second long in the first place, in which Joe sucked a cup over his nose and mouth and stood there, clapping his hands.
	(0:04) This shot of Mischa Blair is probably the only solo shot that he has in the whole piece.
	(0:05) This shot of Sebastian Odong is the same one used in the ending credits, and is his only solo shot.
	(0:06) Running-up close-up shot of Chris Staples. Kinda frightening, actually.
	(0:13) "The thing with the hands" -- when it works, it works, and when it doesn't, it really doesn't.
	(0:14) Establishing shot of the old reel-to-reel tape player, just to prove that it actually existed at one time.
	(0:15) Christmas window in the high school wing painted by Jimmy Kwak and Peggy Lin, and some other people whose names escape us at this time.
	(0:32) Originally, this shot followed Shay's introduction to the party. Note the music stands covered with music. Mr. Stephens can be seen attempting to sort out the parts during the party.
	(0:36) The first of many shots of band members reacting to the presence of a video camera.
	(0:40) Bert Thomas can be heard shouting into the microphone "does it pick up sound?"
	(0:44) Josh Meckler attempts to demonstrate the movement of the lens to the autofocus. It doesn't happen.
	(0:53) One of two performances of Central Rock Company's "We are CRC" (and the only one included in this film).
	(1:03) Mr. Stephens signs "hi"
	(1:13) This was intended to be more of an establishing shot of this particular corner of the bandroom, with instrument cases strewn about haphazardly. It also gets us into the percussion section for the next couple of scenes.
	(1:20) This bit with Josh Meckler on the bells actually takes place towards the end of the party (you can tell because the date is missing; see the note at 4:16), but since we are now in the percussion section, the scene was shifted.
	(1:25) Chris Staples in the percussion section, earlier in the party (originally the next scene after the sequence at 1:13). Chris, in fact, did not partake in any food or drinks, and spent the majority of the party standing up against the wall (as in the scene at 0:06) or playing the drums.
	(1:38) Paula Fugate (and the rest of us) discover that Denny French is ticklish.
	(1:40) Note in the background the original flags and tuner.
	(1:46) This scene with Meena Mohanty was the last scene added to the film, because there came the realization that there were no solo Meena scenes, and this scene had already been used in the ending credits.
	(1:59) Josh wasn't really mortally wounded by Joe. And hey, check out Joe's fashionable rat tail!
	(2:15) More Ballew-abuse. Never really found out what was going on in there.
	(2:28) What secret activities took place in the back room? Is this where the more "mature" band members were hanging out, away from the "kids"? We'll never really know ...
	(2:31) William Hill uses a quarter to play the bells (note the melody), leading to one of the all-time greatest exchanges ...
	(2:38) Mr. Stephens: "You want to spend $300,000 then go ahead and bang on it! (refering to William playing the bells)" Note that he also mentions no food or drink on the stage floor because of the recent waxing and buffing, a request largely ignored later on.
	(2:53-3:50) The performance of "Louie Louie" -- note the complete lack of knowledge of the lyrics. There is an edit at 3:44 which trims about 15 seconds of the song, but don't worry -- the whole song is repeated over the ending credits. Four months later, Shay would perform the song at the high school talent show along with Decembrist Uprise (Otto Helmuth, Chad Ward and Stephen Jett).
	(3:33) Robby Whitlock practicing his martial arts moves in the background.
	(3:59) One must wonder what is going through her mind throughout this whole scene.
	(4:15) The whole bit with "manager" Aaron lecturing William and Shay and Kurt about the performance is chopped up from a somewhat longer sequence, which fits the context of the CRC movie much better than it does here.
	(4:16) Note that, in the middle of the whole "backstage" sequence, the date is gone from the lower left hand corner. Any scene that might have been inserted earlier than this point which does NOT have the date in it originally appeared, chronologically, at some point after this scene.
	(4:21) "Hey, William, leave those bells alone!" The next scene, which was deleted, features Shay and Kurt singing "All we are is just another brick in the wall!"
	(4:34) The extended version of this scene features William and Shay practically begging Bert Thomas to let them use the piano (since Bert stepped in and took over on the piano during the previous scenes in the hallway). This sequence was considerably trimmed as it really didn't go anywhere (although it also cut out most of Meena Mohanty's face time).
	(4:47) You can actually kind of tell at this point that Mr. Stephens has pretty much lost control of this party.
	(5:00) This whole "Subdivision/Shay Disses Rush" sequence was originally longer, and it would have been nice to have more of it as it contained probably the most face time of the most band members in one place.
	(5:07) The Joe Ballew wrestling sequence was also originally longer, but really didn't need to be any longer than what is presented here. It is at about this point that you can tell the cleaning lady is about to give up on achieving her goal for the day (especially with these three twits scuffing up her nice, beautiful work).
	(5:24) Chronologically, the "Lola" sequence takes place about ten minutes later than the next scene.
	(5:45) This scene was included solely for Kurt's line, "this is going to be awesome when we get through with this," which is actually referring to the CRC Movie. This bit follows a deleted sequence in which CRC performs "Tainted Love" followed by "We are CRC" on the auditorium stage, the latter featuring Denny French and Stephen Jett leaping around in the background (at which point the cleaning lady finally gives up). This scene is then originally followed by the "Lola" sequence.
	(5:48) The cadence scene was originally much longer.
	(5:59) Yes, JLK Productions existed even back then. Originally, there are a number of other sequences that follow this scene, but they are mostly of band members standing around in the final minutes of the party and nothing really monumental occurs.
	(6:01-7:25) The ending credit sequence. Bonus points if you can find all of the scenes as they originally appeared in the film. HINT: It can't be done.
	(6:11) The ending credit shot of Mischa Blair is not actually in the film.
	(7:26) The coda with Stephen Jett "appearing courtesy of Epic" was added after it was used for his ending credit shot.

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