Reader of the site Koen Brouwers recently had some email correspondence with Gavin Bowden, director of Funky Monks and Deep Kick. Here’s what Gavin had to say regarding the possibility of extra footage, and where the masters ended up.

FUNKY MONKS

Unfortunately, and as I remember, there really wasn’t any significant Performance footage that was left out. The original budget was so small and film costs high that I simply couldn’t afford to cover every track, so I decided very early in the production to cover a limited number of tracks and stick by that plan. Which was tough to do, but I think it paid off in the end, even after Warner Bros came up with more money. Too late anyway as the band had finished all the basic tracking in about a week! But choosing the songs early certainly gave me complete editorial control later. The original edit was 70 mins but Warner Bros execs made me cut 10 mins simply to make the video cheaper to distribute, as a 70 minute film would have required a longer (90min) VHS tape. That was heart-breaking. As this was all made before digital and non linear editing, there was only one version that could be completed. But in the end the film benefited from this old rigorous technology as it protected it from people nit-picking it and demanding trivial changes and wanting to see options. Besides the 10 minute length limit there were no changes to the edit. Which in today’s world would be impossible. Yes, every track would have been covered but the character of the film would have been lost.
All the negative was transferred to 3/4” tape for online editing. Who knows where those tapes and neg is today. I read a story last year about how it had been kept secret that the Universal film vault had burned down and innumerable music masters were lost for ever. If I remember Warner Bros used to store music video masters and elements in these vaults, so there is a reasonable chance that everything went up in smoke. (Editors note: the RHCP have not been named as an artist affected with that fire, and Warner Bros. are not owned by Universal, so their masters could still be safe.) To this day all I have is a store bought VHS copy.

DEEP KICK

The Deep Kick documentary exists as an unfinished edit. The record company might still have all the footage, 35mm, super 16mm, some 16mm and some super 8mm. Plus all of the 3/4” film transfers. It was edited on an Avid and the edit still exists as an Avid output - So not great quality and without chunks of sound that were to be added later I imagine that the band will have no desire to release it ever. For one the album was not a success and the film could do little to disguise the there were issues in the band. So consequently the film lacks the energy of Funky Monks and struggles to show the creative spirit of the band. I think you will find that that period of the band’s history has been Pretty much edited out of their history and forgotten. So little chance of the film being resurrected. Secondly the film was shot on film. The cost of completing it now, if the elements could ever be found, would be prohibitive - I’m sure if enough people felt it would make tons of $$$ then I guess it might be a different story. But I think it would open such a can of worms that no one would want to be involved with overseeing it. Unlike Funky Monks, Deep Kick is a victim of its size, over ambition and poor timing In regards technology. Had the dailies been transferred to a digital format in HD then it would be a very cheap and relatively simple job to finishing It off. I thought it might be interesting to recut the film and include present day interviews of the band truthfully talking about what was going on at that time. That could be interesting The film includes some bizarre narrative scenes and is visually very textured so it could work well that way. Instead of just being a forgotten relic. Maybe someone could suggest that. It would bring it life. But again commercially it could be a risk. One of those maybe best forgotten projects.

Thanks again to Koen and to Gavin.