4 posts tagged “producer”
Had coffee with a producer from Hollywood yesterday. She and her business partner were up in the Bay Area scouting out how business is done around here. She has commitments from writers, talent and crew most of us can only dream about. We had a quick chat about the differences in culture between LA and Silicon Valley. What the money folks up here are looking for vs. what they look for down in LA. The basics of how Internet startups work. Stock option culture. Online distribution analytics. Stuff like that.
I know that Hollywood is in a world of hurt right now -- the ongoing actors' contract negotiations, the repercussions from the writers' strike, the tiny number of studio films being shot in LA. And of course, the valley has plenty of startups cropping up trying to deliver online video, but it's hard to deliver the goods without the goods. This is all adding fuel to the fire of LA and SF Dating Attempt 2.0.
BTW, that Churchill event regarding this issue that I told you about? It was sold out! This LA and SF thing is HOT right now.
Susan Ee
http://feraldream.com
Had lunch today with a friend of mine who also happens to have been the executive producer of a well known movie with William Macy and Alec Baldwin. I asked him if he would listen to a practice run of my pitch in a week or two so I can prepare for my pitch to Film Angels at the end of the month. Now I know that he's heard more pitches than he can stand and it would be a big favor to listen to mine. Before he could answer, his girlfriend happily agreed on his behalf, invited us over to their place and offered to cook. Thank goodness for sweet women. And on top of that, she's a fantastic cook. :-)
I expect to get slammed with tough questions during the practice pitch. But he's exactly the kind of person I'll be pitching to at Film Angels because not only has he been an executive producer, he's been a VC -- the exact same profile as the investors at Film Angels. I want to hear every tough question, every concern that might come up before I stand in front of a room full of guys just like him. He's already brought up a couple of points that I want to think about and that's a very cool thing to get that kind of guidance.
Susan Ee
http://feraldream.com
Got a call last night from a producer with several distributed features to his credit. He knows another producer who has a 4 picture deal with a distributor and wanted to talk to me about the possibility of having my feature be part of that slate. If the stars align, my budget would jump from 6-figures to 7-figures, with them bringing in the money and ensuring distribution.
Um... okay. Let's talk. :-)
Susan Ee
http://feraldream.com
A few weeks ago, I talked some folks into helping me shoot a 2-page thriller, “Psychopath,” that I wrote to test out the filmmaking waters. I had no gear but it turns out that in the tech-savvy area of San Francisco, finding someone with gadgets was not a problem. Practically everyone seems to have a camera and a mic.
Because my script was only 2 pages (which translates to about 2 minutes on screen), it needed some compelling elements. In this case, they were children, a mouse, and blood. I had vaguely heard that directing kids and animals is challenging at best and a disaster at worst.
What’s a film shoot without its challenges, right?
The first challenge came before the audition. Parents bombarded me with questions. I spent hours on email explaining that there’s violence but it’s probably okay for kids above 12. I gave up and sent my script out to every parent who showed interest to let them decide for themselves.
During the audition, the room was flooded with kids. I had scheduled auditions in 15 minute intervals but several families showed up with 4 kids. So it was hard for the little actors to focus. They giggled, they squirmed, they looked at me with blank stares. The older ones were better but clearly coached by their parents. In the end, I picked out two and hoped for the best.
On the day of the shoot, as I was driving to the site, I got a call from the little boy’s mom. Little Romario (6) was crying and refused to come. But, but… we couldn’t do the shoot without him! Could she please try to get him to come? Okay, she’d try but no promises. As I arrived at the shoot site, I got another call. No way was Romario even going to come for a visit. His brothers had been teasing him about being in a movie and he wanted nothing to do with it.
Now what?
We set up as if everything was fine. Why? Because we’d spent $50 to use the apartment clubhouse for the shoot and were expecting 5 crew members, 4 actors (minus Romario), a month of organizing and prep and we weren’t going to let Romario’s ten-year-old brothers bully us out of our shoot, dammit. So maybe the 2 minute thriller would now be a 1 minute experimental piece…
Luckily, Romario was a true artist – he had his attack of nerves before the shoot but in the end, showed up on time. He was amazing. And so was Cheyenne (12). I was blown away by how responsive they were to direction.
Their reactions look real, don’t they? That’s because they are. :-)
Top photo: they knew a man was going to yell but they thought he’d yell from across the room as described in the script. I secretly asked the guy to stand just out of sight from them and belt out his lines. The result was a genuine startled reaction.
Bottom photo: fake blood was dripping on her jeans and I caught her reaction through the scene.
Overall, it was a blast to work with kids!
