Talk:Edward D. Wood, Jr.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Edward D. Wood, Jr. article.
Article policies
Edward D. Wood, Jr. is a former featured article candidate. Please view the links under Article milestones below to see why the nomination failed. For older candidates, please check the archive.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
Biography Portal
B This article has been rated as B-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
This article is supported by WikiProject Actors and Filmmakers, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed biographical guide to actors and filmmakers on Wikipedia.

Contents

[edit] Page-Related discussion

[edit] Featured Article?

I think this qualifies for a nomination for Featured Article, no? --CancerOfJuly

[edit] Barnstar?

Someone award Angry Candy a barnstar for the work done on this article. Best Ed Wood content on the web.

I'm not going to argue with that. I'm great and I deserve it. :D (Rob 10:14, 7 June 2007 (UTC))

[edit] NPOV

On the one hand, the article as it is doesn't really seem to be NPOV, blatantly calling his movies "awful" and his abilities "lousy". On the other hand, these opinions are almost universally held. But you can't take a POV expression and tack on a word or two before it to make it NPOV. What to do? --Furrykef 09:32, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

It'd probably be sufficiently fair to list what makes them thought of this way, and to note that they are generally considered so - David Gerard 11:30, Mar 18, 2004 (UTC)
I have been working on the NPOV problem, as have various bots and Wikipedians with an eye to NPOV errors. I think it's okay now, but peer review on this matter is very much encouraged. Angry Candy 13:21, July 28, 2005 (GMT)

[edit] Racism

I have a question/issue regarding the un-attributed statement, "Wood's dark side emerges in such sexual shockers as Raped in the Grass or The Perverts and in short stories such as "Toni: Black Tigress", which preyed on common racist fears. One might argue that Wood was writing for a specific market and that the content of these books are not personal opinion, but it is nonetheless true that most of his books did derive from Wood's own vices and views." (Emphasis mine.) This seems to be rather a bold thing to say, without any obvious evidence or attribution. In fact it seems to border on defamation, since it makes an absolutely factual claim: there's no uncertainty in how it's written, it flat-out calls Wood a racist. I think it should be toned down, or some sort of attribution should be added to justify the claim that he was, in fact, racist. I am going to comment out the above-bolded phrase in the article; if anyone can attribute the claim and wants to put it back in, it's fine with me. I have no love for the man, but I think the article is inappropriate currently. -- Kadin2048 18:40, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] NPOV in "Cult Status"

Re: section about pornography based on Wood's films. I believe there are word-choice problems with calling the porn films "paradoxical" (there is no paradox) and possibly with "ironic". The NPOV problem is with the phrase "sex scenes worked in around what little plot was in the original". Wood's films don't demonstrate a lack of plot in practice or reputation, and value judgment is implicit. In defense, it can easily be argued that Plan 9 and Bride of the Monster suffer from an excess of convoluted plot, and Glen or Glenda is as dense as any character study. These issues should be cleaned up, unless they can be defended. "Paradoxically", however, I am removing.--Chris Stangl

[edit] Critical Discourse on Wood

I understand this is a touchy page for NPOV, as Wood's reputation has been built on the popular belittlement of his films, and his place in history cemented by earning the Worst Director of All Time title by popular vote. An encyclopedia entry would be remiss not to acknowledge this, and I think the preamble amiably notes ("zeal and honest love of movies") other possible reactions to the films, but as early as Danny Peary's Cult Movies books, the films were being discussed as intentionally subversive, critical of government and social and gender constructs. Rudy Grey's biography is fairly impassive, but in interview has for years been exonerating Wood's talent. These minor anomalies don't need to be in the body of the article, but as it stands the article goes out of its way to say "his talent... so far not undergone any kind of critical re-appraisal", which is unequivocal. "Reappraisal", for that matter, needs no hyphen. Chris Stangl

[edit] Titles and formatting

Placing titles in two sets of single-quotes is wikimarkup for producing italics. Please stop switching titles to double quotes and/ or inserting punctuation into the marks. I know it looks proper on the editing screen, but it produces incorrect formatting in the article. Chris Stangl 18:06, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

Does the title "Wood Pulp:..." seem unusual to anyone else?

[edit] Re Baptist Funding and Name of Plan 9 from Outer Space

Specifically: "They also changed the name of the movie from Grave Robbers from Outer Space... ". Both the Wiki entries for Plan 9 from Outer Space and Ed Wood (biopic) state that, unlike what is shown in the Tim Burton biopic, the Baptist funders did NOT force Eddie to change the title from Grave Robbers... to Plan 9. Which ever is correct it should at least be consistent across the various Wiki entries.

I agree. From the page, "in this case, the Baptists required a member of their church to have a lead role in the film and demanded that all castmembers (including Vampira, Tor, 'Bunny' and Criswell) be baptised prior to filming. They also changed the name of the movie from Grave Robbers from Outer Space and removed lines from the script which they considered profane." This is contradicted in "The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood, Jr." wherein the Reverend explicitly states that Wood was the one who suggested his cast be baptised, and that no one in the congregation was aware that the name of the movie had been changed. Ormaybemidgets 15:57, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ed Wood-related discussion

[edit] Question regarding Wood's funding

You know, what I have often wondered is just how he was able to make so many movies, since they were artistic and commercial flops right from the first. How did he get the money for the later ones?

His funding came from all manner of unconventional places. In Plan 9, for instance, he basically tricked money out of a bunch of Baptists and for other big films such as Bride he sweet-talked it out of various wealthy people who were naive to the ways of film production or were unfamiliar with his name and work. Much of his pornographic work was above board (since production companies weren't too bothered about quality in that sector) and people like George Weiss were able to produce things in the early days. Ed didn't have to drum up too much money don't forget - he was a master of economy! --Angry Candy 16:18, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Question regarding early footage

Ed was given his first movie camera on his 17th birthday: a Kodak 'City Special'. One of the first pieces of footage he shot was of a German plane crashing to the ground in his neighborhood, a piece he was endlessly proud of.

There were German planes making it to New York during World War II? I thought the USA shores were never compromised?
(Guess this is a long-winded way of saying 'source?') Vodex 10:42, Jan 9, 2005 (UTC)
The source of the German plane nugget was actually Nightmare of Ecstasy by Rudolph Grey. Admittedly, the book is almost completely anecdotal and filled with personal subjectivities (being part of the book's beauty). Grey's researh is pretty comprehensive though and he'd have mentioned it in the book if he doubted the information's validity. He also has a lot of original and rare Wood footage so he may even have a copy of said Kodak footage. --Angry Candy

Know it's kinda late to chime in, but it wasn't a German Plane, Ed Wood (supposedly) caught footage of the Hindenburg crashing.70.242.12.23 02:34, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

Impossible, the Hindenburg crashed May 6, 1937. Ed Wood turned 17 October 10, 1941. If somebody has the actual text from Nightmare of Ecstasy, it would make more sense to use the words from the book. It's possible Ed Wood may have had a copy of the Hindenburg crash, but it's quite outlandish to suggest he was there with a camera at age twelve. --Barrel-rider 08:47, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
    • How does that make it impossible? If he was 17 in October of 1941, 17-4=13, and the Hindenburg crashed in May, the year of Wood's 13th birthday. The math adds up.209.169.114.213 04:32, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

If by some miracle he did have Hindenburg footage, shot by himself at age twelve, his name would be in every article about the Hindenburg. Barrel-rider 07:20, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

This should probably be cleaned up. Now it says that Ed, at age 12, filmed the crash of the Hindenburg with a camera that he got for his 17th birthday. Lordz (talk) 12:08, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

I changed the date that he received his first camera to age 12 for now, because it is the only way possible he could have filmed the Hindenburg, also he does not show up in articles related to the Hindenburg because he filmed it before it crashed, but not the actually crash itself. Several hundred people filmed the Hindenburg moments before the crash. I could not find any verification for his age at the time so I am going to the library today to get the book: Grey, Rudolph Nightmare of Ecstasy. 1994. Feral House. ISBN-13: 978-0922915248. and check the age because I think it is most likly that originally it might have been misread as 17 instead of 12, or simply wrong in the book. There is also the third posibility that he did not record it with his camera. David Weatherspoon out.


[edit] Name

I think this article should go by either "Ed Wood" (no 'Jr.') or "Edward D. Wood, Jr.", as these are the names by which he is best known. "Ed Wood, Jr." is not commonly used and Ed himself mostly used it on novels.Rhindle The Red 01:31, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

  • This seems to have been resolved. Title of page now conforms to your latter suggestion. (Rob 10:18, 7 June 2007 (UTC))

[edit] RE: Transvestism

Dear editors,

Through this article, it states that Ed Woods was a transvestite. I am wondering if you have any clear citations of him saying so? I acknowledge that the quote RE Glen or Glenda is fairly indicative, but that too is uncited.

Am asking in reference to Mr. Wood's appearence on List of transgender people, which is currently being cleaned and cited. Cheers! Lauren♫/∆ 07:15, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] considered for walk of fame

i know hes like the worst director ever but a min ago i found something about him being considered for the walk of fame. im just going to find the thing right now. DeadWood 16:43, 26 August 2007 (UTC) Found it!!! http://www.brixhamheritage.org.uk/services/data10.htm its near the bottom page. DeadWood 16:46, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Movies

The "Movies" section has gotten overlong and filled with information best found on the Edward D. Wood, Jr. filmography. It needs to be condensed and focused on Ed's filming methods and/or Ed's relevant involvement. Less trivia. Rhindle The Red (talk) 19:20, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Glenda.jpg

Image:Glenda.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 14:44, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Shooting speed

The article says "While most directors film only one scene per day (or just a fraction of one in more contemporary pictures), Wood might complete up to 30 scenes." How many scenes are filmed per day is generally an issue of how much luxury you have to film the movie. Roger Corman is notorious for not being as leisurely as Ed Wood on some of his movies (see The Little Shop of Horrors), and I suspect anyone shooting on that budget shoots quite a few scenes a day. It's not most directors vs. Wood, it's people with large shooting budgets vs. people with tiny shooting budgets.--Prosfilaes (talk) 11:33, 27 May 2008 (UTC)