Wizard of Speed & Time Subject: Mike Jittlov Summary: Lecture at MIT Date: 19 Feb 90 22:45:28 GMT Organization: a Mike Jittlov Fan Some notes and observations from two Jittlov talks at MIT on 2/17/90. He led off both talks with a showing of his first short, "Good Grief." The next thing that came up was (not suprisingly) the Richard Kaye controversy/disaster. According to Jittlov, Kaye (who ironically played the evil producer Harvey Bookman in the feature length _The Wizard of Speed and Time_) has basically stabbed him in the back. Jittlov says that Kaye took out a $1 mil life-insurance policy on him (Jittlov) without telling him. It then goes on and on. Jittlov said that at one point he was putting $4000/month into their company, only to find out that Kaye was taking it out to pay alimony and personal expenses. Jittlov claims that they had problems signing a distribution deal because, without Jittlov's knowledge, Kaye was demanding 20% of distribution fees plus a $5000/month "consultant's" fee. Things of this sort go on and on. Jittlov says lawyers tell him he could probably win a civil suit against Kaye, but it would take over 3 years and $75,000. Jittlov also said that he will get "not a dime" from the video release of _Wizard of S&T_. However, he did remix 8 mins of his own music back in, added some footage, and took out 3min of what he (Jittlov) considered offensive. He told the audience that he found the ethnic humor distasteful, but Kaye persuaded him to put it in. Regarding the remake of the _Wizard of S&T_ short, he said he tried to find Toni Morrison but was unable to, and when Paige Moore (a former Miss Virginia) showed up, they felt she was perfect. He says Ms. Moore is now an executive at some TV commercial production company. Jittlov said that Kaye wouldn't even give her a videotape of the movie so she could show it to people when auditioning. Jittlov said that there are only 5 prints of the movie in existance and that he was able to buy two, leaving only 3 distribution prints. So if you've seen it, consider yourself lucky. Some musical notes :-) "I've Got a Place" was not used with the _Animato_ clip that's in the movie because Petula Clark (or whatever company) wanter $12,000 in rights fees. Also, Jittlov said that he wanted to spend $25,000 and have a completely original score (composed by him and John Massari (sp?)). Kaye overruled him and they ended up spending $5000 for stock music, mostly from _Yogi Bear_ and _Huckleberry Hound_, although the Jittlov music is still in in many places, and 8 more min were put back in the video release. The leather outfit Angelique Pettyjohn wears in the "unknown producer" sequence was designed by her, and that fact duly receives a line in the closing credits. Also, there is a _Star Trek_ poster of her in the background of her character's office from her appearance in "The Gamesters of Triskelion." Jittlov said that there are many subliminals in the movie. One of the more obvious is in the sequence where the wall-walking on the side of the "Infernal Revenue Service" bulding is being filmed. Twice, when Jittlov's fet hit the wall, there is an animated flash. One flash reads: "The American Revolution was fought over a 5% tax....Do you know what your money buys? Do you care?" and then to prove he doesn't really take subliminals all that seriously, the next flash reads: "Is it a subliminal if it's this hard to read?" Also, in the long chain of people being electrified by the bike, the sparks around the last woman say "Deven loves (her name)" and hearts, as those two people met and were married during filming. If you noticed streaking on the screen during the sequence where Jittlov hands the "corrected Wizard prints" to the transfer tech, it is because the lab lost part of the negative, and they had to splice in a work print. Jittlov says he feels that the movie is only 70% done - there should be 50 more effects in that he didn't have time to do, but he says he'd need a year and $100,000 to fix it. He talked a bit about the SF movie he had wanted to make, called "Speed." It was to be about a molecular biologist who discovers the difference "between what we are and what we could be." One part of his script involves stopping someone "with a 40000 IQ while he's traveling from Toronto to San Francisco in 6hrs....on foot." He said he recently was able to send his mother on a trip to Alaska by selling a lot of old things he had - like an unopened model of the Addam's family house (got $750). He also bought an Amiga 2000 computer [too bad Commodore didn't have him do their commercials]. Well, this is long enough for now. Perhaps I'll post more later. Finally, his address (clearly visible in the movie) is Mike Jittlov 902 Maltman Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90026 He said that he IS listed in the LA phonebook and doesn't mind hearing from fans and friends.