The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hey y'all. Billy's new documentary on Dennis has just been released and it's a doozy! He's taken 3 years worth of interviews to get comments on DW from many folks who knew him best, even got some people you wouldn't expect to talk DW. Here are the details:

DENNIS WILSON FOREVER: Interviews with the People Who Knew Him Best
A film by Billy Hinsche

After three years in the making, this powerful documentary on the life of one of the most interesting, creative, and lovable members of the Beach Boys, Dennis Wilson, is now available on DVD! Dennis Wilson Forever was produced and directed by Dennis' brother-in-law Billy Hinsche, who shared many years on stage with Dennis throughout the most memorable times of his professional career.

Filled with fascinating, funny, outrageous anecdotes about Dennis the surfer, drummer, race car driver, songwriter and friend, the film is an insightful, honest, loving look at the incredible life of the legendary Beach Boys drummer as seen through the eyes of those who knew him best; containing over thirty different interviews with family members, close friends, fellow musicians, co-workers, admirers, and members of the Beach Boys past and present. You will be moved to laughter and tears while hearing about some of his many adventures and how he inspired and touched the lives of those with whom he came into contact with over the years.

This full-length feature film includes vintage black & white photos and footage of Dennis and the Beach Boys of 1974. The soundtrack incorporates Billy's song "One in a Million" (written for Dennis) into the body of the film.

$30, plus $4 for shipping and handling U.S./$6 s&h international. More info at http://www.billyhinsche.com/DWforever.html .

90 min. long (approx.), rated PG.

 :drumroll

I'm so happy I think I'm going to pass out!

Quick, someone grap the smelling salts!

2 Things I'd like to know:
- Is it playable on European DVD-players?
- Is it a DVD-recordable or a factory pressed one? Cause no matter what's on it, I'm not paying 30 bucks for a DVD-recordable...

I don't know the answer to your first question, but my advance copy is a DVD-R.  So...i guess i don't know the answer to your second question, either...

Shelter, I checked on your questions about DWF.

1. It is a region 1 disk, but will play on most computers regardless.

2. It is a DVD-R. Billy is putting this project out himself, so that's the format he's limited to.

Um, yeah... But my computer seems to have a "dvd region protection" which only allows me to change the region settings 5 times. And I've already changed it four times, which means that if I play this DVD on my computer I won't be able to play DVDs from another region than region 1.

So unfortunately I can't buy this DVD. That's a shame - I was really looking forward to watching it, but I'm not buying another DVD player just for this one.  :-\

Have you ever tried hacking your DVD player?  Many, if not most, can be made to play any region with a code entry on your remote.  The website videohelp.com has a searchable database for hacks.  Just look up your model number to see if they've got one in their archives.  Even if you don't get this particular DVD, it's good info to have.

Wow, thanks a lot! I've found the code for mine!  :-D

Guess I'll get the DVD then  8)

I wonder, did he get Mike Love's take at all?

Yes, he did -- a bit, anyway.

Thanks for the info.

I've released a few CDs of my own bands myself, but I had them factory pressed... It's really not that expensive... I recall it was about 1200 euros for 500 CDs including jewelcases, booklet and back cover. DVDs will probably not be that much more expensive. So if you sell them for 30 bucks each, you have to sell just about 50 DVDs to get the money back that you're put into having them factory pressed.

I have two problems with recordable CDs and DVDs:
1. I don't download or copy music or movies because I don't want to pollute my collection with recordable discs with homemade covers. Call my crazy, but I'm a purist when it comes to that.
2. Recordable CDs and DVDs have a life span of just 3 to 7 years. Then the data just 'falls off' and you can't play them anymore.

I don't think your crazy.. I agree with you on that.. Thats why I hate this iTunes thing.. and the songs are pretty expensive considering you dont get an actual object you can hold with a booklet and cover etc.. and its only in 120 kbs from memory.. I mean what a rip-off in my opinion
Whats the life span of a factory pressed CD then?

I'm not sure about that, but the first generation of factory pressed CDs (25 years old now) seems to be still playing. Most experts estimate they have a life span of about 100 years.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the big difference is that factory pressed discs have tiny little holes while recordables have reflective and non-reflective parts.

Wow. I was kind of kidding, but that's cool.

Wow! A Dennis doc - that is freekin' great!! I'm in the UK, is it due a release on DVD there does anyone know? Is this very much a small independant, hard-to-obtain thing, or is it getting a full-on proper DVD release? I cannot wait!!! Especially looking forward to Mike Love's comments - i wonder if he'll come across as sympathetic and pleasant as he did when talking about Dennis in the 'Endless Harmony' doc? (Incidentally, does everyone here know about the recent passing of Dennis' 3rd wife i.e. Mike Love's daughter? Very sad.)

I'm pretty sure it is to be purchased off Billy Hinsche's site and it's only a CD-R. And I believe it is Dennis' 5th (or 4th - whichever way you want to look at it) wife Shawn Love. And I'm pretty sure she passed away a few years ago (around 2003 from memory).

Shawn Love died in 2003 from stomach cancer, that's what the news reported.

Yes, Billy is selling it directly and it's not available anywhere else.


It's a DVD-R. There's too much data to fit on a CD-R.  :-D

That's v disappointing re it's rather limited release. Not in that i'll have trouble obtaining it, but in that it won't likely reach a wider audience,
I read an old thread on another site that mentioned Dennis' wife dying, hadn't known about it until now. On the site the guy was saying how Mike Love had turned down all offers to help pay for her medical care, despite her pleading with him to do so, you know, what with him being her dad and all... Actually, while i'm no Mike Love fan sometimes these stories about him are just too awful to believe and this one ranks amongst those. Surely he aint THAT much of a sod....?

Mike would've needed his name on three or more songs to be able to afford his daughter's medical care. So its Brian's fault.

Ok, maybe I've gone too far...

That was very wrong, but very funny! Actually i blame Bruce - that murdering bastard!

I thnk he paid a settlement with the mom back in 1965 under the terms of which that he leagally would not be seen as her father. Never heard that she even approached Mike after Dennis died for any reason. The story is most likely false as you said.

Btw anyone have his The Road Well Traveled DVD it's sold out now?

Oops. My mistake. Of course I meant DVD-R.. just wasn't thinking straight

FWIW - I ordered mine on Tuesday, and got it yesterday(NV to MA).  So I can verify MFM Productions is "on the ball" mailing these things out.

Actually, DVD-R's can have a 100 year lifespan, per this site:

http://timefordvd.com/tutorial/RecordableDVDTutorial.shtml

I'm not sure how true that is.  I do know that silver CD's and DVD's can fail, too.  It depends on the quality of the media used for any format or pressing, as well as storage and handling.  The only CD's I've ever had that rotted were all silver bootlegs.  So, I don't think going to a silver plant necessarily guarantees better results, particularly if you're going to a small-run commercial plant that maybe doesn't use the highest quality media or best techniques.  Heck, even large commercial DVD runs have had problems.  So, if Billy and Co. are using good media, I don't think their DVD-R's are necessarily going to be inferior to a silver DVD.  Plus, you can always put a copy on your computer or back-up hard drive if you're really concerned about losing it.  I also suspect Billy is going to be losing money on this project regardless of how many he sells or what kind of disc and packaging he puts out; it's mostly a labor of love.

I don't remember seeing this mentioned before, so I apologize if this old news:

Dennis Wilson Documentary to Premiere on Flasher.com (http://www.smileysmile.net/index.php/news/dennis_wilson_documentary_to_premiere_on)

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2215515,00.html#article_continue

I'm surprised Billys work has not got more comment here. Watched a few episodes and its good IMO.

 :3d I bought it and have watched it. My favorite parts would have to be any time Dean Torrence speaks about Dennis. You can really tell they were close friends. I especially love Dean's comments at the end on what would he say if Dennis showed up. That alone is worht buying it for.

I think that the strength of DENNIS WILSON FOREVER (and what makes it worth watching) is that  it's quite intimate. There seem to be very few allusions about Dennis and his life.

I very strongly doubt that tale is true. I've been told that Mike was very, very distressed when Shawn died.

Did he ever privately admit she was his daughter?  On the "Wouldn't It Be Nice" BBC special from '03 he denied it and said the court ruled she wasn't.  I'm wondering if privately it was a different story?  Man, one look at her picture and I was convinced!  Of course, even if he never admitted it even to himself, he could still be very distressed over her passing, considering how young she was and how much she wanted to be proved his daughter.