![]() However, one could also assume it could be meant to be sung at an ex-lover, showing them that they’re “still standing” and still surviving without them. It is said that John and his lyricist Bernie Taupin wrote this as a “reaction to still being relevant and successful in the early 1980s, post-punk and with the New-Romantics creeping in”, although this has not been confirmed by either Taupin or John, but makes sense when looking closer at the lyrics. The track consists of Elton telling his doubters that he is still relevant and “still standing”. ![]() It’s a great example of how we adjusted the elements within the film to keep the idea of this fantasy together within the film.“I’m Still Standing” is the second track from musical icon Elton John’s seventeenth studio album “Too Low for Zero”, released in 1983. If it’s his fantasy, do we just change it to a classical version of Rocketman? This is a great idea, but I have to go and use the same material and I had to reedit it to that music. I edited it to that music, but as we were going through the editing, we had a suggestion that maybe classical wasn’t the right way to go. We got a real orchestra in and he played it in sync with the music. Originally, that was shot much longer to a real classical piece. Every single song in the film, Elton as a little boy is imagining he’s conducting an orchestra in his bedroom. I worked with the composer and Dexter to add a score in between those pieces so we had the idea that it was a musical fantasy rather than reality. That involved cutting down the sequences between musical scenes but working on the transitions so you never felt the film stopped when the music stopped. This happened from “The Bitch Is Back.” It was much longer in the original version and we needed to cut it down because it was more of an introduction to the film rather than a music number by itself. They had to be adjusted and cut down, so they didn’t outstay their welcome. ![]() The real work was to focus on between the musical numbers, but also the numbers themselves. It was a musical with a heightened reality. In an early version, we settled into those areas where he was a child for too long. The difficulty with editing that was identifying those elements. The most difficult thing about it was that the film had beautifully realized musical sequences and in between, we were telling a colorful kitchen sink story about Elton growing up and becoming a young man. Every sequence within it we treated differently stylistically and editing wise. I think about it a whole rather than each particular sequence as a song - even in a film like this which is like a slightly twisted musical with fantastical elements. People who don’t remember the video just think it’s fun. People who remember the video, think, “Oh wow this is great.” We put him into the same background. In terms of editing, it was complex because you had to get it right. We had all the shots, and we shot Taron very precisely doing exactly the same actions as Elton did in 1983 and we did it shot for shot. I took the best bits and cut the music a bit. We realized we didn’t need the full three minutes of it. We got the original dailies that they shot in the ’80s and rather than just have the same video, I did a re-edit. We researched it, and we asked the director of the video for this. The idea eventually came from a producer who loved the idea of Cannes, but rather than going there, getting the original video and putting Taron into it. We couldn’t decide what the best ending would be. It’s less of an editing problem but more of a filmmaking problem. When we screened it, people didn’t like it very much. I put it all together and it was actually very difficult to do. We ended up shooting that sequence with a crowd and it was very elaborate. We ended up storyboarding and decided “What if he doesn’t go to Cannes and just bursts out into an auditorium?” There was a great idea that he would dance on top of people’s hands and carry on singing the song. We played with different ideas for the ending. We were going to wait for the weather to get better and decide if we really needed it. We weren’t going to get it at this time of year. They had decided to not shoot that sequence there. By the time, they were filming - around this time last year– the light and weather had changed. We were going to do the elaborate dancing and go on the beach. We were going to go to Cannes and reshoot the “I’m Still Standing” video completely from scratch.
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