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Why scenes were filmed but were edited out

posted 10 years ago by ChristmasStan
8 replies | jump to latest

Working here and there in film business I know a few things!

Now this is why I think somethings were cut from "Prom Night" & you will be surprised! I have a feeling the main purpose why scenes were most likely cut to keep the cost down. Let me explain

Some Independent films companies (like the one that made Prom Night) always kept their films to no more then 90 minutes. They did this because a film could fit in one shipping canister (aka Goldberg Can). Over 90 minutes it would be 2 (Goldberg) cans and that would cost more money for prints and shipping! If the film ran over 90 minutes the cost of shipping the film to theaters would go up an additional 30% or more depending on the length. It did not matter if the film ran 91 minutes or 180 minutes a film over 90 minutes would ship in 2 Goldberg Cans. So to save money these companies made movies that were no longer then 90 minutes. I believe this was the case for "Prom Night". We know certain scenes were shown on NBC TV BROADCAST but those scenes never shown in theaters.

For all we know the original directors cut could of been 100 minutes or longer. I am sure the director knew his film could only be 90 minutes so what was cut was most likely his choice.

Today's films are now coming to most theaters in a digital format! (A HARD DRIVE) and length of a film is not a problem as it once was however the films are not better either. In fact most films today are too long..

PS I think the original intention of this film was not to have a majority of the credits happen during the opening scene. I have a feeling the film was meant to start with the scene with kids in the house and then credits were to roll shortly after the mother arrives at the home and finds out her daughter is dead. Then the credits would roll.

But to keep the running time to 90 minutes they resorted to plan B. That was to have credits rolling over the opening scene saving 3 minutes of running time.

This is only speculation

[–] renatom1 10 years ago

I kind of like the credits rolling in the beginning.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] bradleynath 10 years ago

I hope there is a longer cut it would be nice to see. The reason you mention provides a good excuse for it to be edited.

There's also tech spec as well, such as higher frames per second, what with film being 24 fps the lack of higher frames makes some scene not work, which is why its so slow and plodding.

There comes a time to put away childhood things. But some things just won't stay put!

[–] The_King_of_Cool 10 years ago

Or maybe it was simply done for pacing.

[–] engle_james 10 years ago

Another possible reason for movies to be as close to 90 minutes as possible was because they could be shown more times per day in a theater; if they're longer than 90 minutes, that can mean fewer screenings of that movie a day. I have no idea if that was a factor with this movie, though.

[–] orchidclub 10 years ago

I'm pretty sure those TV scenes were cut because they were stupid, pointless, and added nothing to the movie.

[–] massey7109 10 years ago

I agree, those tv scenes were definatley cut for that reason. The ones with Leslie Nielsen's secretary were Godawful WTF?

[–] bradleynath 10 years ago

Surely they would have thought to kill her? I mean why not? Its got a very low body count as it is and it plods along trying to be a murder mystery, it could have done with a few more kills thrown in. The overall mystery is blatantly obvious from the offset, it needed a major re write although I enjoy it none the less.