A lot of you have written to me asking how you can get a copy of Brandy, the film Ed Burns made before hitting it big with The Brothers McMullen. The answer, unfortunately, is - you can't. But I do have some information about it that will hopefully satisfy your curiousity, at least.
Recently, I corresponded with Dick Fisher, the man who helped Ed Burns make Brandy and The Brothers McMullen. Dick handled the technical end of the filmmaking: cinematography, co-producing, editing. Like many of you, I was insanely curious about the origins of Brandy. Dick was kind enough to set the record straight regarding this short film.
According to Dick, Brandy was entered in the Independent Feature Film Market (IFFM) as a "work in progress." The IFFM is an annual event in which low-budget filmmakers try to attract investors for films that have not been made yet, and distributors for films that are already completed. For the "work in progress" category, filmmakers show potential investors an example of their work - up to 20 minutes long. Burns and Fisher showed a clip and made the entire rough cut available to interested parties.
"In other words," Fisher told me, "there exists [only] a video rough cut of the finished film. Since no investors were forthcoming, the sound mix, music, negative conforming, printing, etc. were never completed. The film was always intended to be a feature and was never presented as a short feature."
Undeterred, Burns and Fisher set out to make another movie that "hopefully would not have the problems we perceived in Brandy." That film was The Brothers McMullen (and you know the rest!).
The arrangement was simple: Ed wrote, directed, and provided all film stock. Dick provided all production services such as the camera, lighting equipment, and so on. "We used my car for transportation and, along with his parents' home, we used my apartment and the apartments of friends for locations. The film was processed and transferred at DuArt Labs on my company, Videography Productions, Inc. account. [Burns'] father reimbursed me for that expense after the film got into Sundance. Likewise, Good Machine, which is widely credited with producing the film, came on board as sales agents only after the film had been accepted by Sundance."
Dick says that he had a good time working on both movies, and he is proud of the work he and Burns did.
The February 1998 issue of Premiere Magazine had a small article about Brandy that is also enlightening:
So if you are clamoring to get your hands on a copy of Brandy, you are out of luck. Although I'm sure we'd all love to see it (perfect or not), no director should have to release a film that he/she feels is not up to personal standards.
I'd like to thank everyone who has written to me about this matter. I hope I have been able to clear things up. Special thanks to Dick Fisher for his helpful information on this movie.
For more information on Dick Fisher go to this article at Filmzine.