You always hope when you land and walk in that the crew you have hired are as pleasant as they seem to be on the phone, since you’ve hired sight unseen, based on recommendation, resumes, and phone calls. So far, so good….everyone seems to be what I thought they were.

So far, the challenges on this film are not normal ones. In indie film, finance is usually your largest obstacle, and you are constantly shifting pay dates, or contract sigs, or deposit schedules to fit around when the finance is coming in piece by piece by your 17 sources that are coming in to put the movie together. This one, on the other hand, went in fully financed. Even stranger, the financier didn’t want to give the money on a cash flow schedule, he just wanted to turn it over to production. So, we have the cash in the bank to make the picture.

Here’s where it gets weird. Michigan’s rebate can not be applied for until you are financed. So, once we were financed we put the application in. However, you can’t spend any money until it goes through the treasury and gets the official stamp of approval. Which can take up to 3 weeks. Now, we have people on the inside getting it approved much quicker, but we still don’t have the official stamp. Which means we can’t spend money.

However, we are on a strict production timeline. This is a movie which involves a ton of kid actors. And kid hours get far more limited during the school year, so we have to shoot out before school starts (at least all the kid parts) There is no pushing dates. It would make the movie unshootable. So, we have money, and can’t spend it. But need to spend it. So, this has become a mess of extra paper work having everyone start working without actually “starting working” Production office space, living arrangements, everything. We can escrow monies, just not draw down on the escrows.

Making a film always feels kinda like getting onto Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross. You close your eyes, run as fast as you can, and believe the obstacles will go away when you need them to.

The Basics:
Title: Home Run Derby.
logline: Two former professional baseball playing brothers take out their sibling rivalry through coaching little league teams. a definite Bad News Bears-y kind of movie.
Director: Oz Scott. Yup, the guy who directed Bustin Loose. Awesome.
pre-pro: June 14
prod: Aug 2
back home: Sept. 25

This was an interesting experience in film coming together in a way I’ve never been a part of before. A private equity financier came to us with the idea to do a baseball movie. So, we wrangled writers, brainstormed ideas, and had the script written from scratch with the movie already being financed. No director or actor contingencies. In independent film, it’s normally the other way around. You find a script you like, do some development with the writer. Chase down a director. Go through the excruciating process of attaching actors who mean something to financiers. THEN the money shows up.

So, once again friends, join me on the journey that is producing a film outside the studio system in a city I don’t know. I can’t wait!

Email 1: (name and location redacted…not a terribly unusual email)
To Whom It May Concern,
Would you please kindly forward this to Mr. Mickey Rourke – thank you so much.
Hi Mickey!
It’s (name redacted) from (location redacted). Saw your performance tonight in: Iron Man 2 – you were great!
I love seeing you back on the silver screen Mickey – you have such a gift…God Bless You with continued success and keeping “in touch with Him.” Sincerely, (redacted)

Ok, ok…not bad. Until the follow up was email #2:

To Whom it May Concern,
Would you please kindly forward this p.s. email to Mr. Mickey Rourke…thank you so much.
Hi Mickey,
It’s me (name redacted) from (location redacted) with a p.s. to my recent email I sent you.
I just read you’re going to do a movie called, “St. Vincent.” Interestingly enough thats the name of the church I go to at least for now. We had a deeply devoted priest named (redacted) who recently was moved “elsewhere”. A number of folks were upset – someone even wrote to the editor of our (name of local paper redacted). I wrote to our Archibishop (name redacted) stating how wonderful his homilies were. Perhaps the latest priest brought to St. Vincents wanted “the show” himself – who knows. Anyways if Father (name redacted) turns up at another church near by I’ll probably switch. Personally, I don’t buy everything about the Catholic church but I do love receiving the Holy Eucharist weekly…
Anyways, I also wanted to mention if you’re not involved with someone and would care to meet – my phone number is: (number redacted). I’d even understand if we met and you felt more comfortable with wearing a “disguise” – fine as long as I know who you were and you’re not hiding under some blanket… Have a great day Mickey – if you’re in town you know the weather is going to be cold tonight. – (name redacted)

and that, my friends, is the definition of awesome-sauce.

This year I did not have a film showing. I debated whether or not I should go. We looked at the calendar, pushed things around, and decided yes. I should.

Now, I have parts of Sundance I love. I’ve been coming to Park City since, I guess, 2004. Of course, in 2004, I only came here mistakenly. I was in Salt Lake City shooting a film (Go Figure), and on a weekend, we decided to head up to Park City to ski. Now, at the time, I was bound and beholden to the House of Mouse, so things like Sundance weren’t on my everyday radar. But, low and behold, I drove to Park City on Saturday morning, got stuck in the traffic, and stayed and played with friends all weekend.

Now 2008 and 2009 I didn’t go. My business partner and I have been so all consumed with the day to day running of the business that taking a week in another city…even when it was work…seemed unfathomable.

So this year, I was back. In the couple days leading up to leaving, my asst and I spend time everyday making sure I’m on all the party lists I need to be on, and planning out my schedule. Now to those of you who don’t do this, what you have to know is that doing the party scene at these festivals is 1. necessary and 2. exhausting Especially if you are like me, and want to go to films in the morning too.

So, a typical Sundance day goes something like this: Up, showered ready and primped for the whole day by a 9am screening, noon screening, lunch meeting, afternoon cocktail party, second afternoon cocktail party, often a third afternoon cocktail party, late afternoon movie, dinner meeting, drinks meeting, sometimes an evening movie, premier party, event party, house party.

did I mention it’s exhausting?

but my favorite part is the films. The fact that I get to spend a week seeing 3-4 films a day is a film geeks dream come true. Were they all good? No. Were there enough that were good to make it satisfying? Absolutely.

So, as I came home, drained….but having reconnected with colleagues and friends from around the world, I can say that the lost sleep and exhaustion was worth it. Being surrounded by a group of people passionately pursuing their dreams is enough to recharge me.

Oh, and it’s super pretty, too.

Meh *shrug*

There we go. Now, with that out of the way, I want to progress into the real reason for this blog, which is that there are a TON of reasons to actually be interested in Avatar as a movie. And as a studio movie. I’m only going to touch on my top two, but there are so many…

Interesting thing #1:
Fox isn’t banking on this as an opening weekend hit. I get “the lowdown” on what is going on in the marketing department there, and they are far more concerned with what the drop-off is going to be between weekends, and what the online chatter is (92% positive after seeing the movie, FYI) They are looking at this as being a longevity hit in the theater, rather than opening and making huge numbers.
Why it’s interesting #1:
In the independent world, this is something that we constantly struggle against with our distributors. How do you build a word of mouth that translates into a return in the box office? Because of what Avatar is, Fox is willing to bank against what we always tell distributors about a film…if people like it, your box office will follow. So, if a big budget justifies that strategy, how do we convince them that on smaller budgets, the same leap of faith is a good bet on small movies.

Interesting thing #2:
Avatar is at 84% on rotten tomatoes. Out of those, most of them talk about the spectacle, and put the story at (as best) pedestrian and previously done.
Why its interesting #2:
The split between independent and studio movies is becoming wider and wider. Studios can absolutely do things that independents can’t. The technology invented to film Avatar is certainly one of them. However, independent film has to find where the holes are in the studio system, and create product to fill those holes. and that should begin with story. Independents need to raise their own bar in regard to telling stories that are new, compelling, driven, and told creatively. We need to become more vigilant in only producing movies which have a script behind them which is flawless, and demand performances that illuminate those ideas. I have heard repeatedly from independent producers “well,the script is better than XXX XXX, which made $YYY YYY” That doesn’t matter! The script has to be better than good. It has to be amazing! We are plugging a hole here. You don’t do it with putty, you do it with cement.

I think with any movie that studios put out, we, as independent producers need to look at it with an eye towards what it says about the business and the audiences. Just enjoying it as a film is not enough.

While disappointing, a festival is not the endgame on this film…theatrical distribution is.

And so we forge on.

Now, for those of you who don’t know…for the past 5 or 6 years, if you were in Sundance (as a feature), you knew a week or two before. Calls were put out, and you were asked not to tell anyone, so you didn’t tell anyone except the publicist you were hiring (who immediately started positioning you for feature articles), your sales agent (who began positioning you to distributors), your principal cast and all their reps (so they could make plans to be there), and your principal crew. So, essentially…everyone. The couple weeks before the official Sundance announcement it was an open secret about who was going and who wasn’t.

but now, with the big push to take Sundance back to an independent festival, and keep it out of the hands of the agencies and studios…no one knows. A couple of things have gotten out. From what I know, 2 features know they are in, a couple filmmakers who have had films there before have gotten the gentle “no thank you” call…and that’s it. The rest of us will ACTUALLY find out when the rest of the world does.

And it’s killing me.

Sundance isn’t the be all, end all, on the festival circuit, but for a film like ours, it’s probably the best positioning. We are a truly independent production, funded through private equity, starring a great cast who fell in love with the project, and helmed by a first time feature director. It’s dark, and funny, and we have great response from the industry we’ve shown it to.

So, we would normally have heard by now. Either way.

Which, as much as I know the reality of the situation, and the fact that we won’t know until tomorrow (or Thursday if we’re selected for screening but not competition)…brings up the nervousness and insecurities that are just beneath the surface. What if the film isn’t good? What if the performances aren’t what we think? What if, in strategizing to keep it out of the hands of most people until we can announce our festival premiere, we have created an environment so insular we no longer can recognize what the film is?

What if everyone I know is lying, and they’ve all heard about every other film except this one? Or what if they’ve already heard bad news about this one, but don’t want to be the ones to tell us?

And so, I understand that tonight will be a sleepless night for me, with a useless morning until 1pm PST, when announcements are made.

Wish us luck.

I Remember Andrea

When Andrea Wachner gets her invitation to the 10 year high school reunion, she makes the most logical decision she can come up with: send a stripper in her place.

Date:Thursday, November 19, 2009
Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Location: Cantor Film Center
Street: 36 E. 8th St.
City/Town: New York, NY
Price: FREE

This spring we ended up getting a ton of media coverage on the doc, including CNN, ABC, The View, even Glamour UK.

Here’s the Reuters story

Aspen, CO —–>Central Colombia—–>Vegas, NV—–>Paso Robles, CA—–>back to NY—–>VT——> finally home for about 6 weeks!

So for the next six weeks, I will be catching up on everything, including the blog. After all, since I blogged last we have:

1. started the festival submission cycle with A Little Help

2. sold off a project to get it into production

3. gained a reality television agent

4. brought on a small budget film with Pierce Brosnan attached which we are putting the finance together for

5. begun to regroup and plan out our next few projects

Much has happened, and much is happening in the time coming up, so I need to get caught up. Finishing a film is always a time to reassess and come up with the best attack plan for the next year or so. Onward!

And I like the option for all y’all to not know exactly which it is.

Right now I am thinking very deeply about being female in the industry, what that means, and what advantages it affords me.

You’ll notice I didn’t say disadvantages.

See, I don’t believe that there is a specific female disadvantage at anything (unless it is physically based. No, I can’t bench press what my male collegues can (but I can outrun them!)). It’s more that females refuse to understand their advantages, and use them to level the playing field.

I will say-unilaterally- you should always have (at least) one woman on the top level team. Why? Because it immediately breaks through the male dick wagging in a different way. It just…does. And if you’re going to call me sexist for saying that, well then so be it.

This is not my first industry I’ve been successful in. It’s not my first male dominated industry I’ve been successful in. It is, however, the first time I’ve been acutely aware of women crying out to be treated as equals. I don’t know if that is a difference in the industry, or in my awareness…I just know that I hear it now. And I hear it as grating nails on a chalkboard.

Wow! I get it! That sounds harsh!

Or, perhaps, it sounds just like most people hear those whinings.

See, I’ve never found any barriers based on that. But I’ve repeatedly seen women fall down because they won’t work 16 hour days for 10 years like men do. They have to take time out to put boyfriends in front of their work. And what is the dropout ratio of men vs women in the industry? Based just on my past experience with assistants and subordinates, I would always put my bet on men being in it for the long haul.

WAIT! Am I really being that harsh on women? Do I think we are destined to fail in the business world? No way. I just think we have to be realistic, because not being realistic hurts all of us.

Look around you at your 5 closest girlfriends. How many of them…honestly…if they married someone wealthy would want to leave the job they do? Or take it down to part time? or need to make some adjustments to schedule? Or take a lower paying job to do something more fufilling?  What about once they had a kid?

How would it change? Honestly? Not your idealized version of how it changes, but honestly.

We, as women, can stand here and say we are no different…but that’s a lie. It just…is.

These are realities that, as an employer, I deal with. And I have to place my bets on the people that make the most sense for me long term. Now, not that women don’t make sense to hire, but I (and they) have to understand the strategic advantages we afford.

Wait  a minute, Wait a minute, Wait a minute (as Eddie Murphy in Coming to America would say). Wasn’t this blog started out with the idea of “It’s more that females refuse to understand their advantages, and use them to level the playing field.”?

Why, yes! it was.

See, we have, overall, a way of breaking through barriers that men do not. A natural empathy that allows us to figure out other people’s needs. And, if you look at it, most of business is simply figuring out other people’s needs and meeting those needs. The cook that makes everyone forget they’re not eating steak because the stroganoff is so good is exercising the same skills that we can use in the boardroom.

And, women need to understand the dynamic we have with men. We are not the same. We can convince them, annoy them, press them, entice them, and beguile them in subtly different ways.

So, with all your intelligence and experience, take it and use it in your female way to get to the top.

Guys need you there.