The Development Executive - How to Play Nice with Others…Especially Execs

The Standby Painter - Yes, We Did!

The Casting Director - Aloha Casting…

I arrived on Oahu last week and hit the ground running. Casting on location is always a challenge. First of all, unlike Chicago, Baltimore, New York City or London, I have never been to Kailua, HI and so I didn’t have any idea of what I was getting into with available talent, local idiosyncrasies and the way things work here. I assumed that things would take a little more time and it would take me a few days to get myself organized. I was right about that!

At baggage claim, I was greeted by one of our P.A’s; he picked me up and took me to the car rental company, where I am given my Toyota Yaris. I did beg for the Jeep, but that was $400 more per month and since production was paying for the car, I got acquainted with my new ride. Let’s just say everything is MANUAL on the Yaris except the transmission. It gets great gas mileage, but sadly the “tire pressure” light and “maintenance required” light came on two days ago and I had to return the car. The nice man at the car rental company upgraded me, no, not to the Jeep, which I did beg for, but a Toyota Carola. This car has automatic locks and windows and a Panic button on the key ring – just in case.

So, I arrive at the Production office and am greeted with a big hug from all and basically told “get to work!” which is why I am here. And so, I did. The great thing about casting a film on a location with very few productions going on is that most actors are aware that there is a production coming and I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of emails I was getting from actors requesting information. I cast five roles in Los Angeles and there are about 30 roles to cast in Hawaii. The Director has written the script with some of his friends in mind to play some of the roles. His friends have never acted before and while I am totally open to the idea, I also want to audition actors who are here (who are SAG) who may also fit the bill and give the Director options. Although, I know where his heart lies creatively (this is a local story) and he will probably go for the people he wants that he had in mind when he wrote the script, it is my job to find the best actor for the role. I won’t put up too much of a fight about it. It is his baby after all and I am here to give him options. I don’t dictate. Unless I think there is a clear error in casting then I let the Director or Producer know, but ultimately it is not my decision.

Friday was more of the same. Figuring out how and who to reach out to find actors. There are two main agencies on Oahu, one manager and a few modeling agencies and a sprinkle of agents who are trying to start a talent division. There are 600 SAG actors in Hawaii. I have an assistant who has cast on Oahu before and she gave me the heads-up on who is who and how things work here. Firstly, no one submits on Breakdown Services. I put the breakdown out anyway, as you never know who is reading it. I emailed the breakdown to all of the talent reps, put a notice on Craig’s List, and found some local acting coaches and acting websites where I was able to get the word out and get good advice on casting here. So far everyone has been helpful and the one thing about actors is that they will find you, even if their agent doesn’t think of them for the film, they will figure out how to find you. The UPM also knows a lot of local actors and has been a great source of information.

By yesterday, I had had three casting sessions and seen about 50 actors. I have gone to one high school and I have appointments with drama teachers around the island to find some of the younger actors I am looking for. Sadly, in the public schools budgets have been cut and music/drama programs seem to be the first to go. I have found the local theater company that specializes in Hawaiian actors (non-white) and as I have a lot of roles for Pacific Islanders, I am hoping to also find actors there.

The only roadblock I have experienced, is one of the agents here has not returned my phone calls and she has many of the actors I am looking for. I have seen many of her clients, because as I mentioned they find me. Apparently she was confused as to why I didn’t just send her the breakdown and not to everyone I can think of…Anyway, be that as it may, and I am sure she will get over it, I am here to hire actors and make the Directors vision a reality.

Next up, street casting and finding background/extras. Also I am looking for pregnant 17-21 year olds! My assistant is in charge of that but I am helping her out while I am here for the next few weeks to make sure it is going smoothly. A Gynecologist did call me yesterday afternoon to tell me she knew a girl who would be interested in being in the film. This job makes me laugh sometimes…

The Producer wants me to workshop with some of the less experienced actors (friends of the director) who may need a few pointers on acting. So, I have some time scheduled over the next few weeks to talk about acting and introduce the craft and talk about what they should expect when they get on set.

All in all, the hardest part about this job is being away from home. My partner adopted a female Golden 2-year old this week. A car hit her, just as Austin was, and the adoption agency was desperate to place her with us. How could he say no? Anyway, Zsu Zsu (I call her Zoo, even though I have not met her yet and Steve wants to re-name her) is now assimilating while I am away from home. Don’t get too used to my side of the bed! Off to the beach, it is Saturday after all…Aloha!

Tags: Movie, , Director, Television, Movie

The Production Manager - The search continues…

First off apologies for the delayed posting, I’ve had a few family things to take care of.     

 

But to follow on from last week’s posting I had the pleasure to experience a very different type of interview. After fruitless applications, a rather prestigious network contacted me regarding a position I’d applied for several weeks earlier.

To begin with, I wasn’t even sure that networks still respond to online applications but it just goes to show that you never know which applications will be the ones to get you the job.

So I was invited for an interview on Monday and it couldn’t have been more different an experience to the ones I described last week. Even preparing for the interview felt more serious as I realized there was the chance I’d actually be judged on my ability to do the job rather than my ability to schmooze the interviewer.

And I was, I was interviewed by HR and then separately by the two VPs, one male, one female thereby screwing my theory that men go with their gut and women ask questions – although the woman did have the prepared questions.

Fortunately realizing this would be a serious set up I was able to prepare answers to the questions I knew they’d asked. A friend who worked at the BBC many years ago and who coached me for a particularly tricky BBC interview explained to me that everything you need to know about what you’ll be asked in the interview is to be found in the job description. Everything they’re looking for, they put in there and it’s your job in the interview to demonstrate how your experience fits into that. Now that’s pretty tricky to do off the cuff so I always recommend prepping your answers in advance and practicing so they sound more natural (I know that sounds goofy but it works).

The only question that I was unprepared for was actually the simplest question: Tell us about you as a person. Coming from a different country I don’t have the same framework to assess what sort of answer they might have been expecting, in the UK it is certainly common to make some self deprecating comments that would make everyone laugh and show the interviewer how humorous and easy going you are. In the US however, I just don’t know what self deprecating humor may come across as and with health, dental and vision at stake, I didn’t want to take any chances so I make some noises towards TV shows I liked and we moved swiftly on.

Now I’m sure you’re wondering whether I did indeed get the job or not; sadly that’s not something I can answer yet but I did get invited back for a second interview so I must have done something right!

 Ahaaa, and before I forget I promised to mention and post a link to media-match.com who are a pretty good job posting website. Where they’re a bit better than the likes of mandy is that once your resume is posted it’s possible for employers to look you up.the reason I know about them is their sister site in theUK productionbase is the place everyone in the UK gets their jobs through.

Tags: Film Blog, Director, Filmmaker, Movie, Movie Blog

The Showrunner - Film, Television and the World Wide Web.

This past Monday showbizzle.com, the digital showcase and destination website I created with my daughter Lindsey, finally re-launched.  I knew that mPRm, the Hollywood-based PR firm headed by industry veteran Rachel McCallister, had put together a fairly tight press release being sent out to various bloggers in the ‘trade press’ …

Tags: Movie Blog, Hollywood, Filmmaker, Film Industry, Movie Theatre

The Genre Director - INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS IS QUENTIN TARANTINO’S MOST MATURE WORK AS A FILM MAKER. QUENTIN IS THE CHAGALL OF GENRE…

By that I do not mean visual phantasmagoria, rather the way he mixes the thematic cocktail. An unconventional combination of ideas which is constantly interesting with each new painting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A week ago Quentin had invited the surviving members of the Grindhouse Gang - LA WEEKLY reporter Scott Foundas, directors Richard Rush, George Armitage, Alan Arkush, Lewis Teague and myself to a screening at his house. Missing was Bob Clark, killed along with his son by a drunk driver just 10 days after the Grindhouse Gang’s last dinner in 2007. I recently directed a re-imagining of Bob Clark’s PORKY’S franchise. In tribute to Bob, Quentin first played the original theatrical trailer of PORKY’S, followed by trailers from the other directors early work. Ales were uncapped and the main feature rolled.

The film starts in 1941, the year my father was shot down over France, parachuting into a field surrounded by German soldiers. (There is a small point to this family history) The officer in charge actually addressed him with the famous cliché: “For you the war is over.” My father dug tunnels for the Great Escape. The escapees drew lots for their order of exit. He drew ninety something. Halfway down the tunnel he heard gunfire, just after number 73 ran into the woods. The thwarted escape was just as well perhaps, because Hitler ordered 50 recaptured officers to be shot. So I am steeped in World War Two lore. It’s been a fascination of mine - and the baby boomer audience - since childhood, as we wonder how we would stand up to the perils that faced our fathers. BASTERDS will entertain not only Tarantino’s youthful fan base but an older generation as well. It will have a special resonance for European audiences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But I’m not a WWII purist, satisfied only by the authenticity of KANAL, A BRIDGE TOO FAR, PRIVATE RYAN etc. Like KELLY’S HEROES, war movies can be wacky fun and this one certainly is. To get the full benefit of any Tarantino movie, you have to enter his alternative universe without reservation. So to the nay-sayers who quibble too long/too episodic/too fanciful/too much chat, etc., I am tempted to say eat shit and die; but instead I will suggest they are missing out on a delicious post modern layer cake full of quirky characters, surprising plot developments, and wry asides running the gamut from WWII cliché to riffs on the etiquette of strudel and the power of cinema.

The story is driven by two totally balls-to-the-wind performances that set the tone for the movie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brad Pitt‘s sadistic hillbilly commander, complete with gloriously fulsome accent, is a worthy addition to his gallery of oddballs, which best display his acting chops. The unexplained rope burn on his neck is a clever touch, prompting the audience’s subconscious to speculate on the cause, thereby deepening the character without spending any screen time on the subject. Quentin will probably tell you the backstory on the eventual DVD.

Christoph Waltz’s villain is as groundbreaking a piece of work as was Alan Rickman’s criminal mastermind in the first DIE HARD.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He does a daring high-wire act every scene, sometimes in three languages, always theatrical but never straying into camp, and is totally fascinating to watch. Till Quentin cast him, he was a well thought of German television actor. Now he is the beneficiary of a Cannes Film Festival Best Actor award. I wouldn’t be surprised if he got a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for a performance of such impish evil charm.

Martin Wuttke’s brings intriguing new flavors to the latest screen Hitler. The red lining to his cape in his introductory scene is another nice touch, immediately establishing that sense of grandiosity that all dictators assume.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For comparison here is the winner of the “My Cat Looks Like Hitler “ competition. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, there really is such a thing. Check out the site. www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com

Some critics are like eunuchs at the orgy. They can’t to it , so they bitch about people who can. Other critics have a blinkered vision that can only define an auteur’s work by what they have done in the past. They would criticize Picasso for daring to paint a Gainsborough. Get used to it, guys: every Tarantino movie is one of a kind, pushing new boundaries, breaking new rules. BASTERDS - as some have complained - is not an action picture, though the action, when unleashed in a blizzard of well framed shots, is masterfully staged. Unlike other disjunctively-cut/overly-telephoto action scenes of some recent movies, a clear sense of geography makes the BASTERDS action more impactful and involving.

BASTERDS is a unique subset of the Men on a Mission genre: World War Two Revenge Fantasy Black Comedy as devised by the world’s greatest authority on genre. It is a character based suspense piece, re-arranging some WWII Iconography in an entertaining way. Above all, it is a Tarantino dialogue piece, a cinematic play, with all the riffs and digressions that implies, climaxing in the best ending ever for a WWII movie. You get a sense of the fun Quentin was having in this teaser.

The assembled Grindhouse Gang loved the movie. (It got an 11 minute standing ovation at Cannes) Our applause did not last as long, because…we were hungry. We all went out for dinner, and bombarded Quentin with questions. His answers confirmed that BASTERDS is definitely a movie to see twice.

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS opens in the US on August 21. I’ll be there.

Tags: Movie Blog, Oscars, Film Blog, Movie, Film

The Standby Painter - The Political Thriller

Summer has begun!  It’s hard to believe I worked over the end of winter and all through spring, feeling the seasons slowly change under a haze of fatigue and long hours.  The people I spent twelve hours a day with are fading slowly from memory as I gear up for …

Tags: Television, Movie, Movie Bloggers, Filmmaker, Movie Blog

The Manager - There Is a Will There Is a Way: Find a Way to Make Your Movie

 

I am off to NYC tomorrow to visit my business partner and see him in pre-production on the set of our first movie and our first company producing credit.

I can’t believe this! It seems as if we have been building to this day for forever.  But in reality it’s only been three and a half years since we launched Tom Sawyer Entertainment.

And, yes, while it’s been a tough couple years between the two strikes and the recession, we survived and are making our first movie to boot!

In fact, I was recently speaking to an executive and telling him about our movie.  And he said the  nicest comment to me — whether it is true who knows but it certainly made me feel great:

He said that it took Scott Rudin four years to get his first movie made, and as it took us only three and a half we should be really proud!

The lesson to be learned here is not to give up hope when everyone is telling you no on your script and saying things like “well, in this economy…”  Movies can and do get made even in bad economic climates.

And sure there are considerations to keep in mind that will affect your film. Indeed, we went from a larger budget to a much smaller one in order to move forward.

But to be honest, we are now at a budget level that makes the most sense financially and will ensure the most lucrative backend for everyone.

In fact, we have an amazing cast, and I believe the reason we got our cast is because everyone knows there was no money in the budget for any egos.  Instead people are working on the film because of their love for the project thanks to the quality of the script and the people involved.

It just shows you that, if you have a fantastic script and are determined to make your movie, you can find the money and make it!

Production starts next week — keep your fingers crossed!

Tags: Actor, Hollywood, Movie Bloggers, Television, Director

The Editor - How User Groups Can Help You Get Jobs

Late Wednesday night I got back from the June meeting of the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro Users Group which was, as usual, a blast. Let me tell you what was on the official agenda (and please stick around for my point which follows two paragraphs down).

Among the usual “Ask The Experts” and “Raffle” segments, were a number of presentations. Andy Neil gave a demonstration of the design capabilities of Motion, two people from Adobe discussed some of the new things in Premiere CS4.1 including the ability to do a simpler RED workflow and read VOB files directly without ripping (that last point is pretty cool, though I’m not sure how I’d really get much use out of ripping fully mixed tracks off of a DVD), Bruce Nazarian discussed some of the new developments in Blu-Ray that might make it even usable for most of us, and SmartSound’s Stephanie Joyce gave a demonstration of the new Sonicfire Pro Plug in for Final Cut Pro which actually is a major step on the way to simplifying and improving needledrop music.

But let me tell you about the things that were not on the agenda that were even more valuable.

I got to talk to Philip Hodgetts about how his program First Cuts can be integrated into the workflow of an editing room, despite its brute force method of determining editing points. Along the way, we had a great discussion about the various types of editing situations, editors and clients, and how to teach a new generation of editors who often have more to teach us then we have to teach them.

I chatted with a representative from, and got to see a demo of Veescope Live, a program which does live keying.

I got to talk with a woman who was an early proponent of digital editing in Los Angeles, who is now a farmer who has recently completed a film about a restaurant owner who has developed a clientele for locally-based produce.

In short, I got involved in a lot of discussions that were more about ideas and breaking boundaries, than about uses for Final Cut. I find that almost without exception, the real advantage to attending user group events, film festivals and other events has to do with what we call “the hallway.” That is, the interaction that takes place around the actual program, not during the actual program itself.

Those people who have attended the TED events tell me that the way in which the conference is set up encourages this very sort of “hallway.” There are a few short presentations and then a long time for milling about and chatting before the next talks begin. Then the cycle starts all over.

This is the great advantage of any user group — whether it is one devoted to Avid, Final Cut, Premiere, the RED, or a group of local basket weavers. It is the contacts and conversations that will provoke your mind and help you grow, and it is those very things which will make you more and more attractive as a filmmaking collaborator. It is more important that people learn to know you, than the fact that you can slam together an interview faster than the next guy.  Of course, comfort with the tools doesn’t hurt — it’s an important skill.  But even more important is comfort with people.

Years ago, editors were a curmudgeonly lot.  Many of us retreated into the loneliness of the editing room because many of us didn’t like the hyper activity and number of people in production. But those days are long gone. Not only are many of us having to do production and post-production, but even those of us who do only the lonely editing room work are still having to sell ourselves all the time. And that requires mad people skills. If you don’t have them, you should probably go into another line of work. Or you can choose to develop them. And user groups are a great way to do that.

I’m sure that you’ve got a user group near you. Most of the companies that make the products that you like to use have lists of them on their web sites Avid, Final Cut Pro, and Premiere (among others) all have active, thriving user groups. You owe yourself the opportunity to socially interact with the people who attend these events, and not just on The Social Web (I think Twitter and Facebook are really important, by the way. But they’re one part of the job you’ve got in finding a job.)

Some of the biggest events each year are the Final Cut Pro User Group Supermeets which have been at NAB and at Macworld and which attract hundreds and hundreds of rabid fans, who listen to people present, exchange tips and tricks themselves, and vie to win raffle prizes that can reach thousands of dollars. The next Supermeet is venturing a bit further afield and will be held in London. For those of you who haven’t been to one, I’m going to insist that you go. To be held on Thursday, June 25th, at the KensingtonConference and Event Centre in London, the FCPUG SuperMeet will feature speakers from major equipment and software manufacturers, filmmakers and a speech by Walter Murch on his work on “Tetro.”

This will be an event that you will kicking yourself in the butt for years to come if you miss it. And because it only costs £15.00 to get in, there’s virtually no excuse not to go (I will accept the fact that you won’t be in Europe as a valid excuse — that will be mine).

But if you’re anywhere near London around that time, I guarantee that you’ll have a great time meeting tons of great people.

And that is the real value of User Groups. It’s how we move forward in this Freelance Editor world of ours.

Tags: Movie Theatre, Television, Actor, Movie Blog, Film Industry

The Standby Painter - After the Wrap

Talk about an anti-climax.  I thought the film I was on was wrapped, at least for me, with only some pick-up shots happening on Monday of this week.  But at the last minute I ended up joining a small remnant of the crew for a night’s worth of shooting, and …

Tags: Film Blog, Movie, Movie, Oscars, Television

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