Yeah, I admit it. I was the Production Designer on this ultra-low-budget film... and the first few minutes of Helicopter footage are the best moments in this entire film. As opposed to most other PM films, this had little preproduction time. Rick (Pepin)& Joe (Merhi) heard that the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas was going to be torn down, so we rushed over to shoot there in order to incorporate the demolition of it in the film... but it ended up being delayed by Las Vegas's Building & Safety! Other problems we had... somehow we ended up with less than half the "extras" that we needed to fill in the audience for the fight sequences, and then a key (expensive) scene involving the villain being thrown off the Sand's top floor Penthouse didn't work out because of the bad weather... and Red Horton, our Stunt Coordinator refused to do the jump because of the wind. It eventually snowed. Sooo, all of my Art Department's budget that was spent on replicating the overhanging Portaco in the front of the hotel and the rental of dozens of huge "air bags" went down the toilet. We did end up shooting Red falling through the Portaco "set piece" I built (with the uncredited & UNPAID help of Grand Master Set Builder and Special Effects Artist, Gary Kennedy) but Don "overload" Power screwed it all up by using WAY TOO MUCH flash powder and smoke... so that it overexposed and burned the film. You couldn't see a bloody thing on the dailies except a giant WHITE FLASH! Gee, Thanks a lot Don! Sooo, don't bother watching this, unless you're totally BORED and there's NOTHING else on the tube.
Review of To Be the Best
