A version of this was originally posted on cpluscomedy.com in 2020.
In an age of isolation filled with seemingly endless shows and movies, it could be tough to figure out what shouldn’t be missed. When it comes to remakes, the decision can be made swiftly. But what if a remake does what the original movie couldn’t – on a bigger scale but with throwbacks to the style of the original?
Enter VALLEY GIRL. This new version of a cult classic is updated with the shimmering sights and spirit of the 80’s yet carries its own flair. I spoke with the movie’s director Rachel Lee Goldenberg (BETWEEN TWO FERNS! A DEADLY ADOPTION! MAN SEEKING WOMAN!) to talk about capturing the essence of the original version while also trying to make her own.
Since you’re not able to go out and show the movie, what have you been doing in this time isolation in order to prep viewers for the movie?
Rachel Lee Goldenberg: This is sort of the beginning of it. I posted the trailer on my Instagram. I feel much more comfortable and excited about movies and still learning about promoting them. This is the new adventure for me to do all this on this side of things.
This has to be new territory for you. I wouldn’t know how to juggle that coming from a world that’s like working with Funny or Die or a bunch of TV shows [as you did].
Rachel Lee Goldenberg: It was definitely a new and fun challenge. Although my background is [in indie film]. I made a bunch of like low budget genre films also, and it was actually surprisingly similar to a lot of my peers given that just with a little more money and a lot more music.
I read somewhere that you were 23 when you got a movie and it was $100,000 to direct. Was that like a movie musical or was that a musical on, on the stage?
Rachel Lee Goldenberg: That was a wild Christian musical that was sort of a jumping off of the success of High School Musical called Sunday School Musical. And it was a lot of fun, but I’m very picky. I would not recommend anyone try to make a musical for $100,000.
What was tough about it now looking back that you’ve done a Valley Girl?
Rachel Lee Goldenberg: Everything. We shot it in 12 days. We shot Valley Girl in 31 days, which is still much less than most bigger budget musicals do. But the 12 days is truly a challenge where we would shoot a musical number and still have another eight pages of dialogue to shoot that day or something. Then, because the dancers are expensive and because we can’t pay actors for rehearsal, so people are learning the dances the day before or the day of -- or occasionally as -- we’re shooting.
Luckily with Valley Girl, we had proper time to create the dances, to create the choreography and to have dancers put it on and show it to me before the cast even had to start learning it. And then they had time to learn it. When we were lucky, we get them into the set early. They can practice on set for a while before. It was a very, very different process. Much more official and the sort of run and gun version of “Oh, do you know the dance? Okay, great. Okay. Moving on.” I guess that ‘s what my first musical was.
I understand how music videos work, so I can only assume that you shot the musical scenes, kind of like a music video. By that I mean was there music in the background playing where people lip syncing? Or was it live singing?
Rachel Lee Goldenberg: It was a mix. So the majority of it, the actors create demos and then go back and forth on those.
And then once we’re happy with them, we have actors come in, record their vocals in the studio, and use that recording on set. So they would sing along with their own vocal on set that was playing either in their ear or out loud, depending on the sequence. In post, we’d go back and have them rerecord based on takes if there was any little timing things we wanted to fix. But there are a few points that were recorded live and we use the live recording, just for the more emotional moments. ...
On top of the music, the choreography, the movement within the music has to be something that can convey any type of emotion when we can’t always focus on the face cause they’re singing. With Mandy Moore, how did you work with her in order to make everything look good on camera so that it didn’t look like you were just a camera and a tripod pointed in one direction? How did you guys work with the choreography on that?
Rachel Lee Goldenberg: Yeah. Collaborating with Mandy and working through the choreography was one of the most fun parts.
It was important to me to have all of the numbers convey the emotion they were supposed to convey and feel different from one another. It didn’t just feel like we’re going to just go crazy dance sequence now. It felt like a sort of organic part of the story and whatever emotion the characters are going through or feel in the movie, try to convey that the song and the choreography are working together to do that.
For example, we talked about the Valley language versus the Hollywood language, because they’re sort of the two sides in the movie. Because the Valley is so much more about people wanting to be like one another but wanting to fit in that was much more instinct and having bigger groups, doing things together to sort of convey that they’re all wanting to be very similar.
In Hollywood, the punks can’t ever be in time together. That just didn’t feel like the right tone for me. They have sort of more specific, I’d say more movement than choreography, so that they’re still participating in the musical, but they’re not all dancing in time.
Each number, I sent Mandy references of the kind of thing that I wanted, but I didn’t have the musical language [to show it]. We would work together to maybe say “something like this music video,” or “I’d love this number,” or “ it should feel like in Greece when they do this, but what’s the more modern version of that?”
Or she would take all jumbled ideas and sort of put it onto dancers and present things and we’d go back and forth and figure it out. Then it would change again. And often when we get our location, she’d come into location with me and we’d walk through. [We would] design each number for the location and spot in a movie like you were saying shooting it was a whole new adventure of figuring out the best way to bring that same energy that the actors and the music and the choreography has to the cinematography.
During “Kids in America,” there’s a part where we’re supposed to be just with Julie cause she’s having a tough time and she’s going to this crowded party. And we did one long take of her in slow-mo where she’s seeing double time and the camera’s slow-mo so that we’re kicking her through and people are sort of dancing and moving around her and she’s in her own world -- isolated.
Storyboards are a huge part of different directors. Some people use them, some people don’t. For you, especially this giant musical, did you decide to go with the storyboard method on top of going to location and planning things out meticulously?
Rachel Lee Goldenberg: Actually I don’t like storyboards that much. And when I’m feeling sassy, [Werner Herzog] has a quote [I like to say]: “storyboards are for cowards.” That’s maybe a little more extreme than how I feel. I love shot listing and I worked with my cinematographer, Adam silver, and we shot with the entire movie.
We had an idea of the types of things we wanted. Part of what I love about filmmaking and shooting things live action is that the energy and the feel and that you’re creating it live. Storyboards feel rigid to me. Where when you come on set and feel what’s working and have an idea for a shot and then you get to pick the right ones because it wasn’t exactly what you thought it would be.
Or realizing that they’re unique to replicate a shot list and have a whole new version that’s going to serve that scene. That is the fun for me. I feel like storyboards sometimes feel more confining than creative.
I was watching the trailer for this version of Valley Girl. As most updates to films usually are, it seems like it’s a -- I don’t want to say a better movie -- but it seems like it’s a better movie than the original. Obviously, the original was made 40 years ago at this point, but this seems like it’s going to be on a more grandiose scale. I’ve never seen the original, but watching the trailer, it just seems kind of bland. And the, and the jokes are already up front. [Your version] just feels like it has more of a mission because it starts with Alicia Silverstone [saying] “I gotta tell you this story of how I met this boy, and you’re going to like it” to her daughter.
Rachel Lee Goldenberg: You have to watch the original. It’s amazing. It’s got charm and punk edge that’s just so special and so cool and so unusual. I talked to now, of course through the process of making this, so many people who [love it too].
It’s like when they saw that movie felt like they were in on a secret. You know, cause it has this sort of punk edge and Nick Cage’s performance is incredible. It’s truly the defining performance. So quirky and special. Obviously this is a different type of movie. What was nice for me is that because Valley Girl is so special and specific and such a cult classic, I didn’t want to remake that. What made me feel like I had permission to do this and feel great about it is that it’s a whole new idea because it’s musical. Taking this thing that’s this weird, cool, special film and then saying, “okay, what would that look like as a musical? And framed for today?” Framed like you mentioned, with Alicia Silverstone in present day.
How to sort of reimagine that? And also it lend itself to a musical because the original has an incredible soundtrack and it sort of broke a bunch of songs and bands and was huge in its time in terms of the music. And so we were able to use some of that music from the original, it felt like a natural fit to bring into a musical level. We were able to use like Modern English’s “I Melt With You.” Sort of bring this spirit of the original. I spoke to Martha Coolidge, the [original] director, and she was just saying how shoestring a budget they were on for that. I felt lucky. She said they obviously shot on film that often times they would get one take.
They just didn’t have that much film. And so we definitely didn’t have some of the same constriction that she had. but you know, it’s sort of nice that it can stand on its own as the homage to that with being its own thing.
Did you take any cues from any other movies of the era or any other, you know, romcom teen movies of the past couple of years? Mama Mia is probably the biggest movie musical of the past couple of decades or so. Did you take a look at that and Clueless? I’m getting a lot of Clueless vibes from this.
Rachel Lee Goldenberg: I didn’t specifically reference eighties movies. It was important to me that the period didn’t feel like a joke. That it was sort of standing on its own as emotional and grounded and not trying to do a specific thing. It’s just uniquely 80’s. But I referenced a lot of musicals. I would say like Moulin Rouge was a huge reference. That movie does such a great job, an innovative job of taking the form of the jukebox musical and making it feel special and curated and really re-imagining existing songs in a way that brings the musical to life. And that’s what I wanted to do musically: take these classic 80’s songs and not just do covers of them, but really find a way to work them into a story in a new, fresh and completely reproduced way. I also sort of stole from Grease. Something I love about Grease is how huge a cast of supporting characters there are that are just… there’s so many funny, comedic, specific [moments]. It’s such an ensemble of specific funny characters. We built that out so that our main characters can be really grounded and true emotional journey, but then have all the people surrounding them.
Speaking of the comedians, you came from Funny or Die, even though you were a White House liaison, what else did you do with Funny or Die?
Rachel Lee Goldenberg: I worked for Funny or Die for years, so I produced and directed tons of short form videos for them. I did a series called Lady Time and then, and then I spent a lot of time doing there, what we call the “White House liaison.” I did a lot of the political content there. That was part of Between Two Ferns with Zach [Galifianakis]. It was exciting for Funny or Die to support political causes that we cared about. And so I got to collaborate with the White House on initiatives they were bringing forward, like the Affordable Care Act or when they were doing some work for immigration or raising the minimum wage. We got to make videos that supported and worked in tandem with whatever they were doing.
You’re the first director I’ve ever spoken to. I’ve talked to a lot of standups. I’ve talked to a couple of music people. But you’re the first person whose pure job was to get behind the camera and say “action.” How did you manage time on this movie? Making sure that, like you said, shooting the music, and then also getting 18 pages of dialogue done. How does that work for you?
Rachel Lee Goldenberg: That’s something that my start in genre movies that really hone that skill. Because I have shot action movies and crazy genre movies in 12 or 15 days.
Valley Girl felt almost luxurious at times compared to that. For me, it’s about just making sure that I give time to the things that need the most time. When I look at a script and when I look at a schedule with the first ADA, I’m thinking of it from a creative standpoint of here’s the scenes that I really want to dig in and do here. The scenes that are going to need a lot of time, a lot of takes, a lot of coverage. Let’s make sure we never feel rushed during those scenes. And here are the scenes that […] I know a quick way to shoot that and not worried about it.
And then there are scenes like […] when they have their big break up fight. I scheduled that over the course of two nights, which is way more time than we gave an average for something just because I didn’t want them to feel pressure. I didn’t want them to feel rushed and I wanted everyone to know. Luckily, we actually did get in one night. But that feeling of everyone being at ease that we’re spending the time on the things that are important what’s important to me.
Now I do want to ask you really quick about A Deadly Adoption. That movie was shot for TV for Lifetime. And, what seems to be in the dark and no one knew about it. And then one day it aired and then you can’t find it digitally. You can’t watch it on Lifetime’s app. What was that like working with the Will [Ferrell] and Kristen [Wiig] in the guise of night?
Rachel Lee Goldenberg: Yeah, I love that project. The whole point of that project was for it to be a very specific Lifetime movie. And so the secret aspect was required because if press came or it became a bigger deal then it wouldn’t have felt like a Lifetime movie. It to be a thing no one knew about. And then there were just billboards [just like other] Lifetime movies. The secret nature of it was sort of an essential part of the process.
It was a very fun shoot. We’re spending a lot of time talking about time limits. I think we shot that in 15 days maybe. Will and Kristen were just a pleasure. This is a Will and Andrew Steele’s, the writer, this was their baby.
Follow Rachel Lee Goldenberg on Instagram. Check out Valley Girl today.