"Ernst [Mikael Jorgensen] is like the scientist of all things Elvis, and he says, 'I think there are these lost reels.' Jorgensen told him that they might not be easy to get, if they're even gettable at all. Unfortunately, they're in the salt mines in Kansas where they keep all the negatives of everything."
"We met, and it cost a lot to get down there. About $100,000 just to go down and look. But what he found there was priceless: 65 boxes of never-before-seen footage from the concert documentaries "Elvis: That's the Way It Is," shot in 35mm anamorphic film at the International Hotel in Las Vegas in August 1970, and "Elvis on Tour," filmed at arena shows in 1972."
"Angie Marchese, vice president of archives and exhibits at Graceland, came up with a few more boxes of unseen footage, a stash of Super 8 movies of Elvis that included rare footage of Elvis with his wife, Priscilla Presley, and only child, Lisa Marie Presley. Now, Luhrmann had 59 hours of extremely rare footage."
While filming his Elvis biopic, Baz Luhrmann sought to incorporate real footage of Elvis Presley into concert scenes. His Elvis expert Ernst Mikael Jorgensen revealed that lost reels from concert documentaries "Elvis: That's the Way It Is" (1970) and "Elvis on Tour" (1972) were stored in an underground Kansas salt mine vault where Hollywood studios preserve original negatives. Despite the $100,000 cost to access the vault, Luhrmann proceeded and discovered 65 boxes of previously unseen footage. Graceland's archives contributed additional Super 8 footage featuring Elvis with his family. This collection of 59 hours of rare archival material provided Luhrmann with authentic concert footage to enhance his film beyond his original budget-conscious concept.
#elvis-biopic-filmmaking #archival-footage-discovery #film-preservation #baz-luhrmann #concert-documentaries
Read at The Mercury News
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]