It’s an unwritten law in film that Hollywood tends to break with increasing regularity: never remake a classic. So when it was announced that a remake was in the works for the 1980 Academy Award-winning film Fame — a beloved musical drama that encapsulated the harsh reality of the New York City High School of Performing Arts — fans took to online message boards in a fit of rage. “Is nothing sacred?” asks one vexed devotee on the film’s IMDb page, another scornfully retitling the film “High School Musical: College”.
Having yet to see the re-imagined version of Fame, I can’t honestly reassure fans that their fond memories of the original will remain unscathed come September 24th, the film’s release date. However, I have had the opportunity to talk with someone who can; the film’s director, Kevin Tancharoen. While Fame might be his first feature, Tancharoen had a lot of promising things to say about his approach to remaking a film that he, like the aforementioned fans, holds dear to his heart.
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CUT PRINT REVIEW: With Fame being your debut feature, I think it’s fair to say you’ve really jumped straight in the deep end by remaking a classic. How did you prepare yourself for such a huge undertaking?
KEVIN TANCHAROEN: Well I was a pretty big fan of the original film, so I had a pretty good idea of how I could have seen a remake of Fame being possible. I think a mistake would have been to do a direct remake; you know, have another Coco and recast Leroy and so forth. We didn’t want to do that, we wanted to make a completely new experience while keeping the integrity of the first film. So in preparing for the movie – I come from background in stage direction, so the prep time involved in those kind of things is so extensive because once you press go, you can’t press pause and you can’t stop it. You really have to prepare for everything. With the movie, I just kind of utilised my background in stage preparation as much as I possibly could. So when it came time to film on set, everything was very composed and everyone knew what was going on. We also had a very detailed shot list. I didn’t feel too uncomfortable with this movie because I knew all these characters and I grew up in this planet of performing arts, so hopefully I was able to bring that onto the screen.
Kevin Tancharoen (right) on the set of Fame. |
CPR: So what did you say to convince the studio execs you were the right man to helm this remake?
KT: I went in there with a lot of concerns at first. I said to them that I know the musical genre is extremely popular right now, but that Fame was such a different kind of hybrid. It wasn’t really a musical, it was a drama at the end of the day with a musical component attached. All the musical numbers really elevate the storyline and emotional arch and I thought that was very unique. I also believe that the aesthetic of this film — the rawness, realness and grittiness of New York city – as well as the authenticity of the school was something that needed to be seen again. So I told them that was something that has to come across in this film and that we have to tell some real stories here, not cartoonish characters. Let’s make them real and not apologise for them. Let’s make this a dramatic film with some heavy musical components in there.
I also told them when it comes to the style of shooting, I am not a big fan of the MTV generation’s aesthetic style of cutting or filming, where it’s more like coverage. There are a lot of times where I feel like a musical number is done where a person who walks into a room and says “get me six cameras — put one on wide, swing another back and forth on a crane, another one on a dolly, one guy each on hands, feet and face – and we’ll cut it later”. I don’t think you get the best of the best with that. I really got my influences from the way Bob Fosse [All That Jazz], Stanley Donen [Singin’ in the Rain] and Busby Berkeley [Babes in Arms] shot a lot of films, where everything was very composed, crafted and storyboarded. I wanted to go back to that single camera style of shooting when it comes to the musical numbers. So with all of that kind of opinion, and background, I think they really thought I’d be a good fit.
CPR: Did Alan Parker [the director of the original Fame] offer you any help or advice on how to remake his film?
No he didn’t, but I know that we had his blessing. I know the producers had worked with him previously on a movie called The Commitment, and they called him tell him that they were going to remake his movie, and he was happy about it! He gave us all his blessings, and just let us do it!
CPR: I hadn’t seen the original until just recently, and my first impression was ‘Breakfast Club’ meets ‘American Idol’. Am I onto something with that comparison, or does that just make you angry?
KT: [Laughs] Yeah, no it’s funny you should say that! That’s a good comparison. ‘Breakfast Club’ is one of my favourite movies of all time. I thought it had a very authentic useful voice to it that rang so to that generation. I hope that we can do the same thing, but also have the spectacle that performance movies have. A big movie for me in that sense was All That Jazz.
CPR: Your film arrives just after the phenomenon of teenage musical dramas, epitomised by High School Musical. Is that the kind of audience you want your film to attract, considering the themes explored in the original were often quite mature?
KT: Well I think the High School Musical kids have grown up. So I definitely think it’s time to give them something a little edgier and mature. You know, some real storylines that have some dramatic elements to them. There are a lot of kids out there who like these kinds of movies, but I don’t think that means we have to give them simple storylines. I want to give them a little bit more emotional texture.
CPR: I noticed that film has been classified PG in the USA, so will it still deal with confronting issues like sexual abuse and suicide?
KT: Yeah! All of those issues are still in the movie!
CPR: Really!? How’d you get away with that?
KT: I don’t know! But that’s the thing – it opens up the door for more people to see it, so I’m all for it.
A scene from Fame (2009) |
CPR: Teenagers today are obviously not the same as they were back in the 1980’s, so how have you made sure Fame speaks to today’s generation of teens?
KT: I went to a bunch of performing arts schools to interview a lot of teenagers and asked them what their obstacles were at the school, and how it carries out into the real world. The one thing that I was very, very adamant was really kind of showcasing this ‘old school’ mentality of fame. You know, where it’s more about hard work. Where it’s more about dedication and putting in the blood, sweat and tears to achieve the goal. Not where it’s simply putting the word Fame under a microscope and having that being the only thing that you strive for — to be noticed, to be famous. I definitely think that idea is really exploited as far as tabloids or YouTube go, or even those crazy reality shows where you can literally watch a train wreck unfold in front of your eyes. The idea of 15 minutes of fame is so relevant, because that kind of fame doesn’t last and it’s never real. I think that the fame that lasts is for the kind of people that put in the hard work, put in the dedication and really study their craft.
CPR: You mentioned that YouTube is a source of this ‘15 minutes of fame’ culture, but didn’t you also do some casting for the film using video sharing websites?
Yeah we did. I watched some of the stuff people sent through YouTube. I mean, you can use the technology correctly. What I was referring to more so was those viral videos. You know, where a guy is in his bedroom complaining and crying about Britney Spears and all of a sudden he’s so popular. So it’s more things like that that are… quite funny… [laughs]
CPR: It’s definitely refreshing to see a musical drama come out starring teenagers who are not already superstars; there are no Zac Efron’s or Miley Cyrus’, for example. I’m assuming that was deliberate?
KT: Yeah, we didn’t want to do that at all. That would have been a weird version of Fame. It was a reason of authenticity. The pure idea is that it’s about high schoolers and young people who want to achieve their goals and be successful. But if you cast superstars in these roles, you lose the authenticity completely. I wanted people to get to know the characters as they watched the movie and grow with them, instead of walking into the cinema and seeing your superstar on the screen as you already having some preconceived idea about them. That was a very important thing to me; the fact that you could take these unknown characters and introduce them to the world though this movie makes it that much more grounded.
Kevin Tancharoen directs |
CPR: With the original Fame winning 2 Academy Awards for sound and music, do you feel pressured to achieve a similar level of success?
KT: Oh definitely, I mean, that pressure’s always been there. All you can do is try to make the best version you can, and not compete with it. Because if you try to compete with it, you’re doing the wrong thing. But if you try to make the best version you possibly can, you can only hope to achieve the same success.
I think if we set forth and said “Ok I think we have to win two Oscars”, there’s no way we’ll win them. It’s just the wrong way to go about doing it. I think you have to walk into the situation humbled knowing that it will never be that good.
CPR: Wasn’t the original also nominated for an Oscar in the field of editing?
KT Yeah, I believe it was. The thing that was so great about the editing of the first film was the fact that it was an ensemble movie, yet you were able to track each of the characters and follow their storylines in a unique way where their storylines elevated each other, without having them actually talk to each other. That was something very unique about the first film as well that we tried to do in this one.
CPR: Something I find interesting is that you’re dealing with a 30 year old franchise, and yet the film is geared towards people who are half that age. So I’m guessing that a high percentage of those who go see this movie won’t even realise there was an original Fame. With that in mind, do you think you could have made this film without having it fall under the Fame franchise? That way, you could have avoided the unfair expectations the come with remaking a classic…
KT: Yeah, I think we could have done that. You said it right, I mean, we are really looking to inspire a whole new generation. But I think what’s so cool about this is that the demographic is so wide; you have the fans of the original film, fans of the TV show and even the Broadway musical. So why not have them come to the movie with new generation as well?
But, you know, this is still Fame. I mean, we have definitely included some of the stuff from the original. We’ve included ‘Out Here on My Own’ and we’ve included the ‘Fame theme song’ in the end credits. We also did our own version of ‘The Hot Lunch Jam’ in the movie. So we definitely gave a lot of nods to the original.
CPR: Coming from a background in theatre and music videos, what’s been the biggest lesson you’ve learnt from your transition to feature filmmaking?
KT: Oh wow, I mean there were a lot of experiences on set and a bunch of lessons that I’ve learned there. But I definitely learnt how to work with actors a lot more on this movie. Everyone on set are such professionals, I ended up learning so much from all of them. I also think that the collaboration process is such a unique experience for me and I think that this was the best one that I have ever done.
CPR: Now that the film has been remade, is there any chance we’ll the Fame TV series re-imagined as well?
KT: I hope so; I definitely think people are thinking about it!
AW: I read an article online saying Madonna was approached to do a cameo in the film, but declined because she failed an audition to be in the original. Is that true?
KT: [laughs] Yeah I read that too! You know, I had no idea she auditioned for the first movie. Yeah, I just had no idea. I thought that was a very interesting article cause I don’t ever remember hearing she got offered a role at all. I remember someone sending it to me, and saying “I don’t ever remember anyone talking about Madonna?” but it’s interesting that she auditioned for the first movie.
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Fame hits cinemas on September 24th.
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