Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1987


Dead Ringers: The Making of Touch of Grey

Buy Dead Ringers: The Making of Touch of Grey now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




'Dead Ringers: The Making of Touch of Grey' is a music documentary film about the American rock group the Grateful Dead. It depicts the production of the band's first music video, for their song "Touch of Grey".

'Dead Ringers' was directed by Justin Kreutzmann, the son of Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann. Released on VHS video tape in 1987, it is 30 minutes long.

The film is known by several different names. The cover of the video box says both 'Dead Ringers' and 'The Making of the Touch of Grey Video and More'. However, the opening titles of the film definitively give the name as 'Dead Ringers: The Making of Touch of Grey'.

Film sequences



'Dead Ringers: The Making of Touch of Grey' begins with a concert performance of the song "Touch of Grey". This is from the May 9, 1987 Dead show at the Laguna Seca Recreation Area in Monterey, California.Grateful Dead Live Album Database This and subsequent sections of 'Dead Ringers' also include interviews with all the members of the Grateful Dead. At that time the band consisted of Jerry Garcia (guitar, vocals), Bob Weir (guitar, vocals), Phil Lesh (bass), Brent Mydland (keyboards, vocals), Bill Kreutzmann (drums and percussion), and Mickey Hart (drums and percussion). The music for "Touch of Grey" had been written by Garcia, and the lyrics were by Robert Hunter. Garcia sang lead vocals. The Dead had been performing the song live since September, 1982.Scott et al. (1999). 'DeadBase XI', p. 219. It was about to be released as the first track of the Dead's first studio album in seven years, 'In the Dark'.

The next section of 'Dead Ringers' shows the preparations for the filming of the "Touch of Grey" video. It was decided that the video would depict the band as skeletons, with features and mannerisms that would allow each one to be easily recognizable. The skeletons would be life size marionette puppets. This part of the film shows the construction of the marionettes and other pre-production activities. The "Touch of Grey" video was directed by Gary Gutierrez, who had created the animated scenes for 'The Grateful Dead Movie'.McNally (2002). 'A Long Strange Trip', p. 563 Gutierrez is interviewed, along with several of the puppeteers, one of whom is Annabelle Garcia, daughter of Jerry Garcia and Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Adams.

The next sequence of the documentary covers the filming of the video. After the May 9, 1987 Laguna Seca Grateful Dead show, the audience was readmitted to the concert area, to appear as themselves in the video. The band was filmed on stage, lip syncing the "Touch of Grey" studio recording. Then the marionettes were filmed in the band members' places, also lip syncing the recording. The audience, coached with cue cards, was also filmed. The visuals were naturally enhanced by fog that had rolled in from the nearby Pacific Ocean.

The last section of 'Dead Ringers' consists of the "Touch of Grey" music video. The video shows the band performing "Touch of Grey" on stage before an enthusiastic audience of Deadheads. During the first part of the video, the members of the band are revealed to be skeletons. The fact that they are marionettes is clearly shown, as there is no attempt to hide the strings that move them. After a few verses, brief shots of the band in actual, human form are intercut with the puppet footage. During the last part of the video, the band members are shown as themselves rather than as skeletons.

The closing title music for 'Dead Ringers: The Making of Touch of Grey' is "When Push Comes to Shove", another song from the album 'In the Dark'.

Aftermath



The "Touch of Grey" video received significant amounts of airplay on MTV and other music video stations.McNally (2002). 'A Long Strange Trip', p. 564 Partly as a result of this, the song went on to become the Grateful Dead's only top ten hit. Within a short time, the band had achieved a greater degree of popular, commercial success than in their previous 22 years in the music industry."Touch of Grey" song review on Allmusic

Notes



References



*

*

*

*[http://www.deaddisc.com/vi/Making.htm 'Dead Ringers: The Making of A Touch of Grey'] on the Grateful Dead Family Discography

*[http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/video.html Grateful Dead Films and Videos], The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics

*[https://web.archive.org/web/19991009004916/http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/3088/livevideo1.html Video Page], The Grateful Dead Live Album Database

*Scott, John W.; Dolgushkin, Mike; Nixon, Stu (1999). 'Dead Base XI: The Complete Guide to Grateful Dead Song Lists'. DeadBase, p. 122. .

*McNally, Dennis (2002). 'A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead'. Broadway Books. .

Category:1987 films

Category:American documentary films

Category:Grateful Dead

Category:Rockumentaries

Category:1980s English-language films

Category:1980s American films

Buy Dead Ringers: The Making of Touch of Grey now from Amazon

<-- Return to movies from 1987



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1107016961.