THEY EAT YOU ALIVE

Many people asked how we got the rights for the music in Singapore GaGa with the budget we had, this is afterall a work carpeted with music. Most of the music was from the public domain and chosen because of that, but for works like “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”, it cost an arm, leg and more from EMI Publishing. But we had it good compared to what they had to go through for Mad Hot Ballroom. Lesson: don’t use other people’s music unless one can defend its free use. I learnt that making Crossings: John Woo and again with GaGa. And yes, we had to buy rights to perform 4″33′ of silence from John Cage’s publisher. Fortunately they gave a discount.
Mad Hot Ballroom article