LUDIC LOG

Hi. I'm Peter Langenschild, and, er, I'm here to walk you through the audio commentary for "Third Date With Lori Pettibon". Thanks for buying this DVD! Settle back, and hopefully I'll be able to give you some insights into the behind-the-scenes action that will maybe let you appreciate the experience a bit more. Hopefully more than I did, ha ha.

Okay, this scene here sets up all the action. Ideally I would have liked to use a cell phone, but we were working on an incredibly tight budget. Later on you're going to see the car that I used for the big pickup scene. I had put in for a BMW or maybe something sportier, which I feel was a lot more in keeping with my character, but there just wasn't the money for it. Luckily the project was still be able to move ahead as planned. As it happened, Lori Pettibon didn't even have a car, which inspired my line about her being impressed by my not showing up on the bus. Which seems really awkward, watching it like this, actually. But it got a big laugh with the test audiences.

Lori, by the way, really wanted to do this commentary with me, but she, um, she had prior commitments, I think. She's a real sport. Very sweet. Very sweet. I had originally written the part with Lori's co-worder, Julia Tabor, in mind, but it turned out that she was unavailable. So, Lori came in at the last minute, and I think under the circumstances, she really came through like a champ.

This scene, the restaurant scene, was really supposed to set up the whole tone of the relationship. I feel like we succeeded there, for the most part. Although, obviously, there were script problems from day one. And I take total responsibility for that. Oh! This scene here? Where my credit card gets declined? Totally improvised.

This scene, at my apartment, I dunno. When we first ran through it, I didn't like it much. It seemed really clumsy and forced. But in retrospect, watching it all again, I think it works. It has a real dichotomy going in, this very Coppola-like juxtaposition of this sort of giddy, zany, almost screwball-comedy dialogue with these extended empty silences. If you look at it from a long two-shot, it's really almost like Ozu. It really improves with time. It does. Some of the best material is like that.

I had to battle everyone to get this scene in. The producers, the censors, the neighbors, even Lori Pettibon. Especially Lori Pettibon. Ha! No, I'm kidding. She's great. I'd love to work with her again. She's a trouper. But this scene, I mean, I think it really makes the whole thing. It's where everything comes together. And I know what a cliche this is, but I really think the nudity is necessary to the script. It's not gratuitous at all. It really plays up the difference between, you know, adolescent exploitation and real adult cinema. I mean to say, cinema for adults, not "adult cinema". You know what I mean. Anyway, a lot of people say that, well, I heard the critics, and I've got eyes. I was young, I was inexperienced, this was my first project of this nature. And I know it comes off as a little naive, a little rough, and, no, I don't think anyone was completely satisfied with it. But I don't regret ending it like this. Not one bit. I'd do it again. Particularly with Lori Pettibon.

Oh, uh, obviously I wanted this to go longer. But, you know. Cuts. I blame the studio.