YouTube Video Discussion

[JohnD]

So, for Christmas I got the boxed set of Busby Berkley musicals, which made me remember my favorite production number. This one was from the MGM production of "The Great Ziegfield". I am always amazed by the stage craft involved in this number, I wish there were photo's available of the rigging used for that huge drape (notes on youtube clip say it took 4,300 yards of rayon silk). This is also one of those great clips of the Hollywood version of a Broadway show, starting with the proscenium opening, then it gets Hollywood.

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[gafftaper]

This is so amazing! John originally posted it in off topic but I decided it deserved more than just the usual "hey that was a cool video treatment". It deserves some serious discussion so I moved it here.

The size of that revolve is impressive! The size of the set, considering the weight of all those people on it and that it moves, amazing. Then there's the crazy rigging. How do you rig something like that? Is there a revolving section of grid matched to the revolve of the deck?

I'm a little dumbfounded at the moment. This is right up there with the kind of stuff Cirque does today, but done with old school technology. How many takes did it take to get everything right for the camera?

 

[bobgaggle]

HOLY CRAP! I imagine they had a few locomotives backstage to power that thing. Does it slow down to make it seem like the smaller radii of the upper levels is rotating at the same speed as the lower levels?

 

[JohnD]

There is something magical about the glossy black floor contrasted with the white set and costumes. Other movie musicals of the time did the same thing. I wonder if the opening single tab curtain is seperate from the spiral venetian contour drape. Then it closes with a traveler. There are also three segments in this clip, one cut is after the tab curtain opens, the second cut is during the Pagliacci segment. MGM was much better at crane shots than Warner Bros. The shaky crane work in 42nd street and other Busby Berkely works is distracting.
The reference to Cirque is also interesting, I was thinking the same thing. Maybe someday Cirque will do a "Hooray for Hollywood" type spectacular.

 

[derekleffew]

... The reference to Cirque is also interesting, I was thinking the same thing. Maybe someday Cirque will do a "Hooray for Hollywood" type spectacular.

You mean like the colossal failure, closing soon, IRIS (pronounced "E-rus") A journey through the world of cinema?

 

[ruinexplorer]

From what I have heard, that is one of the best Cirque shows ever. Now if I could only get to LA before January 19th... Hollywood just doesn't have the live theater draw, especially for tourists at night.