John Waters' Role Models

John Waters has written a new book. Role Models. About the various persons he looks to as role models, including Johnny Mathis and some makers of pornographic movies. Gave an interesting interview to Terry Gross on Fresh Air. You can listen to it at www.freshair.com.

Come to think of it, I said something rude about John Waters in a recent post. About his anti-Diane Linkletter movie.

As I understand it, Waters made "The Diane Linkletter Story" to test out the single-system sound camera he was using to make Pink Flamingos.

Was it really necessary to record live sound?

And, if you ask me, low budget movie makers who shoot without sound and dub everything put way too much work into it.

Look at Manos: The Hands of Fate. It was shot without sound and dubbed. Would that movie really have been any worse if the lip-sych had been a bit off? The voice side of the acting might have been more interesting if they hadn't had to focus on matching everything exactly.

Would it really have hurt if Pink Flamingoes had been sloppily dubbed? Not all that sloppy, but somewhat sloppy. Even John Waters was kind of embarrassed by the overall quality. He could have filmed it faster and cheaper. Wouldn't need to shoot re-takes for bad sound or flubbed lines (although he probably didn't anyway.)

Maybe do it like Doris Wishman where they just avoided showing the actors' mouths while they talked. Gave it kind of an artistic quality----the camera showing people's feet or their hands gesturing, or the person who wasn't talking, listening thoughtfully.