The Hollywood Career Coach - 7 THINGS JON HEDER NEEDS TO KNOW TO RUN HIS TV SHOW
September 10, 2009
Hi there,
ANOTHER FUNNY MAN STEPS INTO THE BIG LEAGUES
I read in the NY Times about Jon Heder (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1417647/) (Napoleon Dynamite, etc.) getting a contract to develop 100 episodes of a TV series for Comedy Central. (Starting with 10 episodes, of course.)
I’ve never met him and don’t know any of the parties involved, but what I do know is this:
He has no idea what he’s in for
HOW DO I KNOW?
In the NY Times article Jon said: “They kept asking me “Are you you ready for this?” I said, “I’m like, ‘Should I be?’ I haven’t thought this through.”
This heart-warming exchange demonstrates a common and dangerous dynamic in Hollywood.
FIRST:
A team of smart executives recognize a major talent and make a deal for the talent to take an ambitious and smart next step.
THEN:
While they actually do know the traps, obstacles and banana peels that will likely challenge this creative genius, they are unwilling or more likely unable to articulate, prepare or arm their bold adventurer for his or her journey.
INTO THE WOODS
I’m not saying the creative genius isn’t ready or shouldn’t embark on this journey into the deep dark woods of TV production. And I’m not faulting the execs for their vision, their deal or their last minute warning/trepidation.
This dynamic is happening all over Hollywood whether it’s Burbank, Studio City, Culver City, Television City or Manhattan Beach.
A GREAT TEAM IS A GIVEN
And I’m not talking about the creative vision, great jokes, characters, stories or dialogue. A great team will be assembled to support that part.
IF OTHER DYNAMICS DON’T SCREW IT UP
But it’s other areas, rarely discussed or mentioned in Hollywood television circles, that can make the difference between a synergistic, creative/production team and a cluster-f*ck of meetings, notes, headaches, delays, overages and disasters.
LOUSY LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Have you been there?
I have.
I know there are seven areas where Jon will be challenged as a creative leader of a show (and probably you and your creative team will too)
SO, HERE ARE . . .
THE SEVEN SKILLS of A Successful Showrunner.
1) How to select, manage and empower a writing/creative team.
2) How to navigate, manage and appreciate your teams of executives.
3) How to collaborate, negotiate and get mentoring from your Co-executive Producer.
4) How to win respect, favor and autonomy from your network/studio President.
5) How to get the best from your actors and keep them working for you rather than the other way around.
6) How to develop loyalty and respect from your below-the-line crew and keep them motivated to solve your innovative creative ideas.
7) How to develop a unique leadership presence that is true to who you are, but helps you establish, develop and maintain your power and authority all the time: even when you don’t know what they hell you’re doing!
YEAH, OBVIOUSLY
In fact, these are old problems and old complaints. But what’s new is my approach to developing CREATIVE LEADERS that can solve these problems and stop them from derailing a show in production.
HERE’S HOW WE CAN START
In future articles I’ll discuss each area individually with specific tips to help any creative leader develop their ability to manage the many-headed monster that is running an ongoing TV show (or any large creative project.)
See you soon.
David
PS: Here’s the link to the NY Times Article about Jon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/arts/television/10heder.html
PPS: For more details about my work with showrunners go here:
http://hollywoodcoaching.com/newshowrunner.html
AND: For a video clip of me talking about leadership development and the TV industry go here:
http://tinyurl.com/dltr4c
Tags: Oscars, Movie Bloggers, Filmmaking, Film, Movie
The Production Manager - Modern Technology
September 9, 2009
Yes I know, I missed posting my mid week rant last week but with good reason. I, The Production Manager, was working. Yes I know, working. I almost can’t believe it myself. So I finally have some valuable information to impart.
The project, as the best of them do, started with an unexpected call. In fact it was the first voicemail I heard getting off the plane from the UK. What a welcome back!
The company is based out of LA and they found my details on the internet. It’s pretty brave of them to go with someone they’ve never used before nor had recommended but they lucked out as I’m pretty good.
It was a short project and new for me in several ways, firstly it was not for broadcast or online rather it was a series of interviews for a photography exhibition, secondly it was shot in studios in New York and I haven’t had the pleasure of working in studio for some time. The biggest deal with the project was that we were shooting on technology I’ve never used before; RED One.
For those who aren’t familiar RED One it’s a tapeless camera. It’s currently the new buzz camera and will set you back somewhere in the region of about $40,000 to buy.
In some ways it’s just the same as a regular camera, you have a DOP who sits behind it and says things like, ‘That looks great Chuck’ to the gaffer and it comes in boxes and the crewing company don’t seem to feel that shipping the equipment to or from you is their responsibility.
Its biggest difference is that rather than shooting everything on a tape that is labeled, numbered and ferried to an edit suite for digitizing this camera comes with hard drives, backup drives and a guy named Keith to ensure the smooth transition of the data.
I’m not sure I really believe in this tapeless workflow. So much can go wrong and with the number of inexperienced people on productions these days in a bid to curb spending it’s a recipe for disaster. I fully expect tales of RED One lost footage woe to surface in online forums in the next 6-12 months. However it’s important not to fall behind with modern technology so I’m glad I got the opportunity to work with it.
The shoot actually turned out to be great and I came away feeling I’d done a good job, that I’d had a good time and learned something too. To be honest I can’t say I’ve felt like that on a production I’ve worked on since I don’t know when.
To compound this point, the almost job offer from the woman who was so very excited about bringing me on board never materialized. An email from me to her nudged out that someone else she knew was available and I was back of the line. By way of compensation she told me, Scripps had said good things about me, as if that’s enough to make it ok. Well, it’s always nice to know you’re well regarded out there.
Tags: Movie, Film Industry, Film Blog, , Oscars
The Manager - Are you protected? Why Everyone Needs A Lawyer.
September 8, 2009
As it’s the day after Labor Day, after which the town (typically) swings back to action, I thought this would be a good opportunity to talk about why everyone — even managers and producers — need a lawyer.
Now I know this might sound shocking, but not everyone in this town wants to play nice. Especially these days, the sole goal of buyers is to get the most they can out of a project/writer or producer and pay as little as possible. In fact, buyers are using the current economic situation to take a very hard stance against paying what was once customary fees and they are getting to pay next to nothing.
This is why you must have a good lawyer to represent you. Let your lawyer be the bad guy, let him/her fight back for you, so you can remain neutral and just work on the creative side of the project while your lawyer fights it out with the buyer.
In fact, this just happened to me.
As a manager, I work every day with an agent and a lawyer on deals for my clients, fighting the good fight on behalf of my clients. But recently I was negotiating a feature deal for a project we are producing when I realized the buyer was taking an incredibly hard stance. I needed to stay on the creative side and remain on good terms with the executive on the project.
Thus I got my fabulous lawyers involved and let them fight it out with the buyer. This way I was able to stay friendly with the executive while our lawyers duked it out.
And once we had reached an acceptable compromise where everyone was more or less happy, we were able to move smoothly forward to working on the project since there was no bad blood between us.
IMPORTANT NOTE: While there are a lot of great lawyers, there are some shady ones as well. So make sure you are hiring a lawyer who has a good reputation and will fight for you. Never be afraid to ask for references! And if you need some references, just email me and I will be happy to provide some.
Tags: Director, Filmmaker, Movie Bloggers, Movie Theatre, Movie Blog
The Standby Painter - Lights, Camera, …Uh Oh
September 7, 2009
Lighting can make or break a movie faster than anything else. Before the actors even speak, before the plot thickens, the lighting says it all. Even the most brilliant set design, painting and decoration can be lost under the flattening glare or murky dark of bad lighting. That’s why it …
Tags: Film Blog, Movie Blog, Actor, Filmmaker, Movie
The Editor - Learning From The Greats
September 4, 2009
Some of you know that I teach at USC’s film school. The students here are pretty awesome. But our faculty is truly tremendous as well. One of the reasons why I’m happy to have given up a huge chunk of my editor’s salary to come here is that I get to learn from lots of people who know way more than I do — editors like Robert Jones and Kate Amend, for instance, as well as theorists and great production designers and directors.
One thing that I’ve heard a number of times is that our students just don’t seem to know movies that are older than five years. I’ve heard that from a number of faculty who bemoan that people who love film and want to make film seem to know so little about what’s come before.
I’m going to agree and disagree with that.
First — the agreement. I think that our editing is informed by what our lives have been like and what input we’ve had in our lives. I think that editors should be seeing theater, going to art museums, travelling to other cities and countries so they can experience the way other people think, reading great books and — yes — seeing movies outside of their general life path.
So, I agree, we should see all kinds of media — including the ones that we aren’t always familiar with (this includes surfing YouTube and Vimeo, and exploring new media installations).
Second — the disagreement. It’s my observations that our students at USC do know other films than what’s been released in the last five years. For the first week of classes I’ve always asked my students to fill out a questionnaire. One of the questions says “List your of five or six favorite films (recent film, old film, it doesn’t matter):” Here is what this semester’s students have come up with, in alphabetical order. [Note that these are undergraduates and graduates. Films with a number after their name were named by more than one student.]
(500) Days of Summer
2001: A Space Odyssey
400 Blows
Adaptation
Aladdin
American Beauty (2)
Apocalypse Now (2)
Atonement
Babel
Back to the Future
Best In Show
Big Lebowski
Bonnie & Clyde
Boogie Nights
Bourne Ultimatum
Boyz ‘n the Hood
Breakfast Club
Brokeback Mountain
Casablanca
Casino
Chaser
Children of Men
Citizen Kane
Collateral
Contempt
Count of Monte Cristo
Dark Knight
Die Hard (2)
Distant
Do The Right Thing
Edge of Heaven
ET
Fistful of Dollars
Fountain
Ghostbusters I
Ghostbusters II
Godfather I (2)
Godfather II
Godzilla
Gone with the Wind
Halloween (original)
Happy Together
Head-On
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Ikiru
In The Pool
Inner Tour
Internal Affairs
It’s A Wonderful Life (2)
Jaws
JFK
Jurassic Park
Kid
La Jetee
Last Emperor
Layer Cake
Little Miss Sunshine
Lost In Translation
Lucky Number Slevin
Maison de Himiko
Matrix Reloaded
Memento
Midnight Express
Monsters, Inc.
Moulin Rouge
Nosferatu
Notorious
On The Waterfront
Orlando
Predator
Punch Drunk Love
Rachel Getting Married
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Rambo: First Blood
Rear Window
Schnidler’s List
Seven
Singing In The Rain
Slumdog Millionaire
Star Wars IV (2)
Star Wars V: Empire Strikes Back
Stranger Than Fiction
Summer at the Grandfather
Sunset Blvd
Taxi Driver
Terminator 2
Time To Leave
Tokyo Story
Top Gun
Total Recall
Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Up! (2)
Walkabout
Wayne’s World
The Wrestler (2)
X2
Yojimbo
Zoolander
And while it is true that there are many recent films, there are also an extraordinary number of classics. How do you account for YOJIMBO, CITIZEN KANE, LA JETEE and WALKABOUT if you feel that students watch only from their own experience? And while you could attribute cinema studies classes to the number of foreign films as well as SUNSET BOULEVARD, CONTEMPT and HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR, notice that these were films that they listed as among their favorites.
The point is that a lot of you out there aren’t ready to drop $50,000 a year on a film school. I’m sympathetic. Really. And though not going to a top film school like USC, NYU, UCLA, Columbia College and the like means that you won’t get to take classes from all of the awesome faculty that I was talking about up at the beginning of this post, there is something to be said for the ultimate film teacher — film.
Go and watch CASABLANCA for its use of lighting to show character. Watch LA JETEE to see how voice over and still images can tell a story. Look at DO THE RIGHT THING to see how you can create a compelling shape to your story. Look at THE LAST EMPEROR to learn how to center a character in the midst of a complex canvas. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
In fact, you could do a lot worse than setting up your own film school viewing schedule courtesy of Netflix. Go through each of the film listed above and learn while having a great time. It’s not a chore. It’s what we do.
===========================================================
The Final Cut Pro Users Group is in the midst of two great ventures. The first is the latest in their international series of SuperMeets, where you’ll get to hear top people in the post production field tell you stuff that you really want to know. If you’re in the vicinity of Amsterdam on September 13th, (at IBC) you’ll want to spend an evening with these crazy editor types. For more information check out the Supermeet page at the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group page. There will be talks on color grading in 10 minutes, Blu-Ray authoring in Adobe CS4, and much much more.
Secondly, FCPUG puts out a pretty awesome magazine which is distributed at their Supermeets. But what happens if you can’t get to those events. Well, they’ve figured out how to help you. You can download a PDF of the 117 page magazine for the low low price of FREE. Just click right here and you should get it.
==================================
And, just because this post has been rather FCP-centric, I wanted to let you know that Avid is going to be announcing some new stuff on September 10th and you’re going to want to pay attention to this. Especially if you’re a student. I can’t talk about it yet, but let me say that, as an educator, this is something that I’ve been shouting about for several years.
Tags: Film Blog, Filmmaker, Television, Movie Blog, Hollywood
