Editing This Is Spinal Tap (section)

==Production==
===Background===
Michael McKean and Christopher Guest met while in college in New York City in the late 1960s, and they played music together. They worked with Harry Shearer and Rob Reiner on a TV pilot in 1978 for a sketch comedy show called ''The TV Show'', which featured a parody rock band called Spinal Tap. During production of that sketch (while being burned with oil from an on-stage effect) McKean and Guest began to improvise, inventing characters that became David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel.<ref name="ReferenceA">From the Criterion Collection DVD Commentary</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://flavorwire.com/481555/christopher-guest-on-the-real-inspiration-behind-this-is-spinal-tap |title=Christopher Guest on the Real Inspiration Behind 'This Is Spinal Tap' |date=October 9, 2014|access-date=August 10, 2018|archive-date=August 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810144511/http://flavorwire.com/481555/christopher-guest-on-the-real-inspiration-behind-this-is-spinal-tap|url-status=live}}</ref>

Guest had previously played guitar under the name "Nigel Tufnel" on Michael McKean and [[David Lander]]'s album ''[[Lenny and the Squigtones]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/467150 |title=This Is Spinal Tap |website=Turner Classic Movies|access-date=August 10, 2018|archive-date=August 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810141806/http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/467150%7C0/This-Is-Spinal-Tap.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Development===
The entire film was shot in Los Angeles over a period of about five weeks on handheld 16mm cameras. The visit to [[Elvis Presley]]'s grave was filmed in a park in [[Altadena]], with a mock-up of the grave site. The band sings "[[Heartbreak Hotel]]" because that was the only Elvis song for which producer Karen Murphy could obtain rights.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Rob Reiner procured $60,000 from Marble Arch Productions to write a screenplay with McKean, Guest and Shearer, based on the Spinal Tap characters. They realized after a few days of writing that no script could capture the kind of movie they wanted to make, so they decided instead to shoot a short demo of the proposed film. They shopped the demo around to various studios but had no takers, until television writer-producer [[Norman Lear]] decided to back the project, providing them with a budget of $2 million.<ref name="Turner Classic Movies">{{cite web |url=https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/467146 |title=This Is Spinal Tap |website=Turner Classic Movies|access-date=August 10, 2018|archive-date=August 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810142047/http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/467146%7C0/This-Is-Spinal-Tap.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Olson |first=Christopher J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yUdODwAAQBAJ |title=100 Greatest Cult Films |date=2018-04-12 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-1104-9 |language=en}}</ref>

Virtually all dialogue in the film is improvised. Actors were given outlines indicating where scenes would begin and end and character information necessary to avoid contradictions, but everything else came from the actors. As often as possible, the first take was used in the film, to capture natural reactions.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Reiner wanted to list the entire cast as writers on the film to acknowledge their contributions, but the Writers' Guild objected, and so only he, Guest, McKean, and Shearer received writing credit.<ref name="Turner Classic Movies"/>

Veteran documentary cameraman Peter Smokler worked as cinematographer on the film. Smokler had great instincts for camera placement on set, according to Reiner, and is responsible for the film's handheld [[cinéma vérité]] style<ref name="Turner Classic Movies"/>—although the cinematographer did not understand what was supposed to be funny about the movie.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> With Smokler behind the camera, the film was shot not as a feature film, but as a documentary, without a script or traditional shooting schedule. So much footage was filmed (over 100 hours) that it eventually required three editors to complete the film.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Inspirations for the film included the documentaries ''[[Dont Look Back]]'' (1967), which was made about [[Bob Dylan]], and ''[[The Last Waltz]]'' (1978), which was about [[The Band]].<ref name="Turner Classic Movies"/> The scene where Spinal Tap becomes lost backstage was inspired by a video of [[Tom Petty]] at a venue in Germany, walking through a series of doors trying to find the stage, but ending up on an indoor tennis court.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://people.com/celebrity/this-is-spinal-tap-turns-30/ |title=This Is Spinal Tap Turns 30: The Bands That Inspired the Classic Film|newspaper=Peoplemag |access-date=August 10, 2018|archive-date=August 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810174134/https://people.com/celebrity/this-is-spinal-tap-turns-30/|url-status=live}}</ref> Rob Reiner also went to see the English heavy metal band [[Judas Priest]] in concert as part of his preparation for the film. He later said, "It physically hurt my chest. The reverberation in the hall was so strong that I couldn't stay there any longer."<ref name="mastropolo">{{cite web |url=http://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2014/08/05/judas-priest-interview-redeemer-of-souls-rob-halford-tipton-faulkner-spinal-tap/#sthash.l0w4o4nf.YhqbnrCM.dpbs |title=Four Decades of Hellfire with Judas Priest (Interview) – Rock Cellar Magazine |date=August 5, 2014 |website=Rockcellarmagazine.com |first=Frank |last=Mastropolo|access-date=November 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160221154255/http://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2014/08/05/judas-priest-interview-redeemer-of-souls-rob-halford-tipton-faulkner-spinal-tap/#sthash.l0w4o4nf.YhqbnrCM.dpbs|archive-date=February 21, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> According to Harry Shearer in the Criterion edition DVD commentary, keyboard player [[John Sinclair (musician)|John Sinclair]] had just returned from touring with [[Uriah Heep (band)|Uriah Heep]] when principal photography was about to begin, and told them how they had been booked to play an Air Force base. They subsequently used the story in the film.

In post-production, Christopher Guest was very concerned with the verisimilitude of the finger positions on the band's instruments during the concert scenes, and even re-shot some footage after the movie was edited to ensure their hands appeared in sync with the music.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

The character of Jeanine, David's disruptive girlfriend, was added during the production to provide a storyline to the material—in part to mollify studio executives who worried the movie would be plotless. Actress [[Victoria Tennant]] was briefly considered for the role, but [[June Chadwick]] won the part, thanks to her chemistry with the cast and her improvisation skills.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="Turner Classic Movies"/>

[[Robert Bauer (actor)|Robert Bauer]] played the same character, Moke, in another Reiner movie, ''[[The Sure Thing]]'' (1985).