FEAST OF FRIENDS

PRODUCED BY AND FEATURING THE DOORS


Feast Of Friends
FILMING DATES: March - September 1968 (See Below)
LOCATIONS: Various U.S. Locations (See Below)
SOUND: Babe Hill
EDITING: Frank Lisciandro
DESIGNER: Paul Ferrara
LENGTH: Approx. 40 Minutes

In early July 1967, UCLA filmmaker and photographer Paul Ferrara unofficially begins his career with The Doors during a chance meeting with Pamela Courson, snapping photos of her as she models for Ola Hudson's new clothing shop in Los Angeles. During the shoot, it is explained to Paul that Jim Morrison, her boyfriend, is in an up and coming rock band and that a steady photographer is needed, someone unlike the various photographers the magazines are sending out. Paul explains to Pam that he has his own previous history as a classmate of Jim Morrison's at UCLA, and the meeting is quickly arranged.

An agreement is made that Paul will snap photos of the band during a performance at the Anaheim Convention Center on July 15th, and the negatives are to be developed and dropped off at The Doors office. Soon after, Paul is offered the job and the opportunity to design what would become The Doors official concert book and tour poster. He would also be given a share of the profits, and as The Doors in-house photographer, he will be put in charge of providing magazines and publications with the promotional photographs requested for use in the articles they are writing. Through to March 1968, Paul Ferrara produces hundreds of photos of the band in session and in concert.

In April of 1968, the concert book and Light My Fire tour poster are completed, and Paul approaches Ray Manzarek with the idea to film some of the chaos that is happening during the concerts. With Ray's approval, he begins an experiment with 16mm black and white film. The test proves a success, and shooting begins for what would later become Feast Of Friends.


Filmed mainly in color, the 16mm footage is shot with an Arriflex camera and occasionally an Eclair. Under the supervision of Jim and The Doors, Paul begins to piece together successions of footage on a 16mm Moviola in an experiment to see how things look in sequential order. The film is processed at CFI Laboratories in Los Angeles, and short test screenings begin in the rehearsal space under The Doors office on Santa Monica Boulevard. The test proves another success, and shortly after, Paul's longtime friend Babe Hill comes to live in California, where he joins the film crew as an assistant and is quickly shown how to record audio using a Nagra. He is also taught how to switch out film in a changing bag, allowing the crew to film continuously. Babe's first known recording session takes place in April, 1968 at Westbury Music Fair in New York. He can be spotted throughout the production footage in backstage, performance, and travel scenes.

As filming continues into 1968, more crew members join in the production. A not yet famous actor Harrison Ford, another friend of Paul's, works as a grip and occasionally a cameraman for the crew in May and June. By July, The Doors upcoming performance at the Hollywood Bowl ready to be filmed in its entirety and recorded with professional sound by Bruce Botnick and Paul Rothchild in the Wally Heider remote truck. During this time period, fellow UCLA classmate Frank Lisciandro enters into the production as a Hollywood Bowl cameraman and film editor. David Thompson and Steve Wax, also of UCLA, assist the crew as cameramen at the Hollywood Bowl. The final day of shooting takes place on September 1st in Saratoga Springs, New York, by which time UCLA classmate John De Bella has also joined the crew on the road as an assistant and cameraman. As The Doors board a plane to London for their first European tour, the film crew returns to Los Angeles. Throughout the 1968 North American tour, an estimated 50,000 feet of performance and backstage footage is shot for The Doors still unnamed documentary.

In 1969 a series of concert cancellations take place in the fallout from an alleged exposure onstage by Jim Morrison at a performance in Miami on March 1st, and The Doors management puts an end to the production. What has already been pieced together is titled Feast Of Friends in a quick decision made by Jim Morrison, who reuses the title from his UCLA student film. In the course of a few days, the entire production is halted. The crew is re-hired privately and moves on to film Jim Morrison's movie script, The Hitchhiker.

In November 2014 Feast Of Friends is officially released to the public for the first time on Bluray and DVD, with bonus features including extensive portions of unused filmwork from the original production. Various alternate portions of filmwork can be seen throughout The Doors official promotional videos released throughout the 80's and 90's, and large portions of the filmwork are now featured in the 2010 documentary When You're Strange by Tom DiCillo. In 2012, The Doors release a new edit of the Hollywood Bowl performance on Blu-Ray and DVD.

A very special thanks to Feast Of Friends crew members Paul Ferrara and Frank Lisciandro for contributing their time and efforts to this page!

Credits:
Paul Ferrara - Designer/Cameraman
Babe Hill - Sound
Frank Lisciandro - Editor

John De Bella - Assistant/Cameraman (Saratoga Springs)
Harrison Ford - Assistant/Cameraman (Various Performances)

Hollywood Bowl:
Bruce Botnick - Audio / Wally Heider Remote Recording Services
Paul Ferrara - Center Seating Area / 16mm Arriflex
Frank Lisciandro - Stage Foot Area / 16mm Arriflex
Paul Rothchild - Audio / Wally Heider Remote Recording Services
David Thompson - Stage Area / 16mm Arriflex
Steve Wax - Seating Area (High Speed Camera) / 16mm
Soundtrack:
Strange Days
Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor (Background)
Wild Child
Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor
Moonlight Drive
Five to One
Not To Touch The Earth
Poetry (Jim Morrison)
Dahomey Dance (Ray Manzarek)
Arthritis Blues (Robby Krieger)
Ode to Friedrich Nietzsche (Jim Morrison)
The End (Live at the Hollywood Bowl)
Neptune, The Mystic (Gustav Holst)

DATES & LOCATIONS