October 2011
3 posts
Green.
Did I mention we were Greenlit?
Thank you. Thank you.
Isn’t it awesome how “Green Light”, as in, “we now have the go ahead to give you a bunch of money so you can go make your movie” has become a verb? And that this verb can now be used in past tense?
Well, after literally 11 months of haggling, preparing documents, presentations, numbers and proposals, after...
Week.
What a week. Whirlwind. Madness.
The Studio honchos we’re working with for our Documentary film brought us in to meet with them and have a “general” meeting. A “let’s get to know each other” meeting. Ever the cynic, I’m hanging in there with a 50/50 banner in my head but it turns out I might’ve been a tad off. The “general” went very...
September 2011
12 posts
Committee.
Dreaded words when dealing with a studio…
“Tomorrow the head of production and the committee will analyze the project towards its ‘greenlight’.”
We will be there with bated breath.
More tomorrow.
Adios R.E.M. →
From “New Adventures In Hi-Fi”. One of the most beautiful songs in their long arsenal.
Option.
An option agreement.
That’s sort of a commitment to buy something when you really don’t want to buy it yet but might so “I will pay you something so I can actually pay you more later”. You BUY the option to BUY. Weird?
Not in Hollywood. For some people here, the sign of a good producer is the following words:
Free Option Screenplay.
I still think it’s a stupid...
Drive.
Loved “Drive” by the way. But the amazing, glaring reviews it’s getting are a little exaggerated if you ask me. People must really be craving sordid, empty characters like this.
Movie I loved this year?
“Beginners”. Very underrated if you ask me.
Lot.
Unless things actually got personal and purposefully damaging or hurtful, there’s one thing NOT to do while on a Studio Lot if you’re a director. If you’re a director who was politely “removed” from a project that is. And I really mean this:
Don’t scream from across the lot towards the producer who had to make the very tough business decision of pursuing a...
Actors.
I had a boss once who said all actors were prostitutes and that they were there to be mistreated. That it was then, when pushed, when they performed at their best. You can argue that’s why most of the bigger names will stick to the same directors more often than not.
That’s why directors are so important to getting cast for a big project. (Whatever your definition of “Big...
Darkness.
Humans feel comfortable thinking in round numbers. The number ten contains in itself a duality: everything and nothing, life and death, the number one and the number zero. Most landmarks are measured against this number, a multiplication or a fraction of.
As such, today’s tenth anniversary of September eleventh is deep in every way possible. I will leave it for each one to reflect (and...
Submission.
Almost there. Almost there.
Anybody say Per Diems? On a 16 week shoot? On what should be a small budget?
Delivering this budget proves to be a little bit nerve-racking. I SHOULD be able to make this movie for 40% less than what I’m delivering in the budget. But the main issue is TIME. I have to cover my ass. Also the ass of anybody else involved. It’s also a tricky subject matter.
...
Numbers.
This week has been all about a budgets.
We’re trying to schedule and budget a documentary project that falls under what is named “Verité” style of filmmaking. It can also be called “observational”. This means, we don’t really know what the hell will go on and when and for how long. It will depend on the characters. It’s a little disconcerting if you must...
THE WAIT
It’s been a while. I know. I thought writing here while busy would be easy. It isn’t. And then I thought the opposite would be easier -as in, when things were not as busy- would be easiest. It wasn’t. Truth is, Deadpan was started for a reason. And it must continue.
The biggest motivational hurdle here has been what has been happening since the last almost 2 years now. That one...
February 2011
0 posts
Actors
So last year I posted that our actress was being elusive because of the inefficiencies of my co-producers. Well, six months ago we got the actress and today, not five minutes ago, we just confirmed our male star in the picture. I plan to include very soon a recap of this whole process which has been draining and amazingly frustrating but which is starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.
...
January 2011
2 posts
2011
What’s up!!
Let’s assume that 2010 was a blur, a thick, smelly seaweed in our diving mask.
Bring it on 2011.
First update of this decade: The male actor curse. We have a movie ready to go, that’s been trying to get an actor for 5 months.
Soon, very soon, more.
Packaging Fees
It’s hilarious how nobody really has possession of what they’re offering in this town. It just happened to us in 2 projects. Our period piece and the thriller we’re working on, both from different angles, have this as their underlying, sometimes surprising driving force. For months, we have been moving a thriller script that we were able to position in the market and with a...
Dealmaking It
Back and forth, back and forth. Negotiations are always tough when both parties want something specific that’s right square in the middle of both parties’ interest. If you add to that the fact the the other “party” negotiator is a very smart and savvy but also very Russian producer, then you are going to in-communication central. Man is it tough sometimes to make people...
Confirmations
I have been trying to reach somebody at CAA for 2 days now. Sundance has most of the film people sequestered. Regardless, the waiting continues on most of our fronts.
So mostly, much to my chagrin, I have to deal with the legal proceedings, stemming from an older project these days. We are also writing a pilot and somehow, somewhere, don’t ask me why, thinking about developing a TV cooking...
Weeks
The way this works, is that shooting a movie is actually starting to feel like the easy part of the process. It shouldn’t, but it is.
All morning today dealing with our legal advisor on how to approach a deal we have with our “co-producer” on our historical period film. We still believe that he can deliver the goods (cross our fingers) but we also have to deal with the demands...
Big Top Pee Wee.
Oh Hollywood, you complete me.
A 2 hour roller coaster ride.
Yesterday I go to the world premiere of the new Pee Wee Herman show. As I’m excited, about to enter the show, I get a text message from our director on our thriller project (who’s co-producing and is the contact with our main actress) saying that her lawyer send the Letter Of Intent (necessary to close the financing) for...
Coffee
Yes, coffee shop posting today as we are in waiting mode on a number of things mentioned earlier and I needed to “de-hunker”.
Phone call early today specifying that our actress finally signed her Letter of Intent. We should be receiving it today. And that is only the end of a first stage. Now, the investor must lay down the offer and we must then sit down with the rest of the team to...
The Waiting
The waiting and hence the drama continues on some of our fronts. On the one hand, things are finally going smoothly with the actress we want for our thriller. We’re getting an L.O.I. from her and it seems the investors are all in place to get things going and for all I know, May is starting to become a hard date for us in terms of the shooting. That’s good.
However, our deal with the...
E.P. Credit
Another day of what seems like progress on some fronts. The drama yesterday unfolded with the actress (her lawyer actually) in question finally agreeing to issue us a Letter of Intent by Tuesday. This is a huge step for the project. Now the financier of the picture has agreed to make a formal offer to her as well (below or above her “quote” I’m not sure yet) but everybody seems...
Quotes
So the main actress’s lawyer calls and says, “Listen, we totally want to do this movie, we are discussing it with her agents (who for some “F”ing reason haven’t read the script even though our actress has) and we have her manager on board.
“She totally wants to do the film.” -Mentions our Director who gave her the script and is actually her friend.
...
So then I come home after a day of bullshit calls...
Lex
Legal proceedings. You call yourself an independent film producer?
Get used to them.
Haiti
Everything feels very insignificant and meaningless today. Please pray, think, love, chant, donate, wish, cry or simply dedicate 5 seconds of your day today to Haiti in whatever form you want. It’s needed. It’s horrible and here at Deadpan I’m in shock at the magnitude of the event.
Wanting
What I want, is for the independent production of films to be about something else than just banking. I want it to be about the creative process of the films as well. I want it to be about all the good things that evolve around this beautiful craft of ours. NOT about always having to think like a freakin’ Wall Street whiz kid; because I’m not.
Tall order. Right?
Contact
Finally, at the end of the day, when you get aggressive, shit happens in Hollywood. Sometimes I wonder if this is not the ONLY language people speak in this town. At least in the independent level. Jesus. Our co-producers finally admit they’ve been slow and have dropped the ball on a number of fronts. Thank you. Long time coming. Now we’re firing a director we hadn’t even hired...
Earthquakes
Tumultuous days in Deadpan’s office.
Where do I even start!?
The year begins for us with our main proposed actor “passing” on our offer to be the lead in our comedy. This certain “wizard” apparently has other plans with his career and won’t be leaning towards our comedy. Too bad, I think it would’ve been awesome with him, but we have to move on....
Sheets
2010, it opened with a yawn. What’s up with everybody taking long freaking holidays when it matters the least?
So I’m negotiating an urgent contract with a big sales company and I’m told the following:
“Yeah, our lawyer is in Australia, you know, it’s summer down there, so the holidays are longer. He will be out of pocket until January 15th.”
Twenty points...
Big Papa's best of the Decade list. →
Deadpan’s Hollywood favorite critic. The best of the very, very few that actually matter.
Twenty OH Nine.
So long to 2009. A year caught in the infamy of a crisis that ground so many things to a halt. Here goes to a 2010 that hopefully will come with people ready to do shit. That simple. We know what we’re doing. Let us do it.
2009, I will NOT miss you.
Happy New Year!
December 2009
20 posts
Music, in movies.
I’ve been talking to my potential music supervisor. Apparently, if I want to use a Led Zeppelin song (any song) I will need to dish out up to $800,000 per song. Right. Like I’m going to do that. Depending on how interested they are in the project, they could maybe go for less than 600K, but in any case, it won’t be less than that. I wonder how much those car commercials paid for...
Oh yes, the passion. →
T.G.R.
So you wake up one day and decide you want to make a movie. A comedy. An awesome script, written by people who have a track record who tell you they can get a certain cast. My company sees the potential and we say yes. The story takes place in 2 specific European countries and it so happens that we have very good relationships in both. Up to there, all good. It looks like a slam dunk. A “no...
Deadpan's Best Movie Of 2009
Michael Haneke’s WHITE RIBBON.
It’s been a while since a movie left me this perturbed and enthralled for so long. I dream about it.
Back in the USS A
Crazy week indeed. Frrrrreezing temperatures in Europe, crazy schedules, lost flights and suitcases, panels and roundtables, tours and studios, casting calls, late-night, hungover 3 hour budget discussions; all, I would love to say, in good fun given the spirit of the season, but in reality, it got a little stressful. On our way there, we missed a connection and had to have been in the studios...
“Avatar: and of all the cool songs in the world you could’ve picked for the...”
– DJ Nic Harcourt’s Twitter.
Ebert's best of 2009. →
Europa
Deadpan is in Europe and will be reconvening with you, my hopefully devoted followers about these proceedings here shortly. It’s late. A lot of business tomorrow. Will update soon.
Deadpan Trip
Yep, Deadpan Hollywood is taking the show on the road. Was invited to speak on an international panel in Europe AND I will be having a bunch of meetings over there with our co-producers and our writer for the comedy who lives in Europe as well. I will be updating with goodies soon.
We have things going on, and right now everything is in pre-christmas standstill, BUT, we now have our casting agent...
Distances
Traveling to Europe this weekend for no other reason than to quell our partners there. You see, this comedy we’ve been working on now for months and months came into being because a European group stepped it up and made us a firm offer to finance up to 30% of the film’s budget. That was August. We had the impression that that would be the hard part of the deal. Our American...
UK's "The Guardian" list of top 10 KEY films of... →
This list and its approach, I thought were very smart.
A Prophet
Could it be that Jacques Audiard is the next real amazing French director for the 21st Century? ”A Prophet” is THAT good.
The Constellations →
I’ve been LOVING this new band.