Editing Stop Making Sense (section)

==Production==
The filming of ''Stop Making Sense'' spanned four live shows at the [[Pantages Theatre (Hollywood)|Pantages Theatre]] in [[Los Angeles]] between December 13 and 16, 1983.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Doherty |first=Thomas |title=Stop Making Sense |url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/1212389 |journal=[[Film Quarterly]] |volume=38 |number=4 |year=1985 |pages=12–16 |doi=10.2307/1212389 |jstor=1212389 |access-date=December 21, 2020|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Initially, three nights were booked but a fourth night, December 16, was added for additional filming. Although the film was originally recorded using analog techniques, it was later transferred and then digitally edited and mixed using a Sony PCM-3324 24-track digital recorder.<ref>{{cite news |last=Blake |first=Larry |date=October 1985 |title=Film Sound |pages=122, 125 |work=Recording Engineer |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-Recording-Engineer/80s/Recording-1985-10.pdf |access-date=March 25, 2023}}</ref> Demme has stated that one night of shooting was dedicated almost entirely to wide shots from a distance, to minimize the intrusion of cameras on stage. Demme had considered additional shooting on a soundstage made to recreate the Pantages Theatre, but the band declined to do this, as they thought the lack of audience response would have hindered the energy of their performance. Before the shooting of the movie, Byrne implored the band to wear neutral-coloured clothing so the stage lights would not illuminate anything too distinctive. However, Frantz's laundry had not come back in time for the first show at the Pantages, and so he wore a turquoise-colored polo shirt for all three nights for continuity.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pareles |first1=Jon |title='Stop Making Sense' Is Back, and Talking Heads Have More to Say |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/09/arts/music/talking-heads-stop-making-sense.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=September 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230909094335/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/09/arts/music/talking-heads-stop-making-sense.html/ |archive-date=September 9, 2023 |date=September 9, 2023}}</ref>

Demme also considered including more shots of the audience reacting to the performance, as is traditional in concert films. However, he discovered that filming the audience required additional lighting, which inhibited the audience's energy. This in turn made the band feel insecure and thus led to "the worst Talking Heads performance in the history of the band's career". The only direct audience shots in the film occur at the very end, during "[[Crosseyed and Painless]]."<ref>{{cite web |title=Jonathan Demme – On Stop Making Sense (2007) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS-FHFV7IbQ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/pS-FHFV7IbQ| archive-date=December 12, 2021 |url-status=live |website=YouTube | date=April 26, 2017 |publisher=Reelblack |access-date=December 1, 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

The big suit that Byrne wears during "Girlfriend is Better" was partly inspired by [[Noh]] theatre styles, and became an icon not only of the film – as it appears on the movie poster, for instance – but of Byrne himself. Byrne said: "I was in Japan in between tours and I was checking out traditional Japanese theater – [[Kabuki]], Noh, [[Bunraku]] – and I was wondering what to wear on our upcoming tour. A fashion designer friend (Jurgen Lehl) said in his typically droll manner, 'Well, David, everything is bigger on stage.' He was referring to gestures and all that, but I applied the idea to a businessman's suit."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/2980989/stop-making-sense-anniversary-david-byrne-jonathan-demme/ |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |first=Melissa |last=Locker |title=David Byrne and Jonathan Demme on The Making of Stop Making Sense |date=July 15, 2014 |access-date=April 9, 2018}}</ref> [[Pauline Kael]] stated in her review: "When he comes on wearing a boxlike 'big suit' – his body lost inside this form that sticks out around him like the costumes in Noh plays, or like [[Beuys]]' large suit of felt that hangs off a wall – it's a perfect psychological fit."<ref name="kael">{{cite magazine |first=Pauline |last=Kael |author-link=Pauline Kael |url=http://www.davidbyrne.com/archive/film/Stop_Making_Sense/s_m_s_press/s_m_s_pauline_kael_nyer.php |title=Three Cheers |date=November 26, 1984 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |publisher=NYP Holdings |access-date=October 10, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304123806/http://www.davidbyrne.com/archive/film/Stop_Making_Sense/s_m_s_press/s_m_s_pauline_kael_nyer.php |archive-date=March 4, 2016}}</ref> On the DVD he gives his reasoning behind the suit: "I wanted my head to appear smaller and the easiest way to do that was to make my body bigger, because music is very physical and often the body understands it before the head."

The film was conceived with the intention of only filming the concert, with no plans for cutaways to interviews with the band members, or the use of split-screen. The band reflected this was a wise choice in hindsight: the mockumentary ''[[This Is Spinal Tap]]'' was released in the same year, with Weymouth remarking the film would have inevitably been compared to ''Spinal Tap'' had they taken that approach.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Skinner |first1=Tom |title=Talking Heads were wary of 'Stop Making Sense' film being "too Spinal Tap" |url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/talking-heads-didnt-want-stop-making-sense-film-to-be-too-spinal-tap-3765641 |website=NME |date=June 14, 2024 |access-date=14 June 2024}}</ref> 

The film's title was derived from a lyric in the song "[[Girlfriend Is Better]]."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://davidbyrne.com/explore/stop-making-sense/explore | title=Stop Making Sense &#124; Lyrics and Credits &#124; About | date=February 19, 1984}}</ref>