Another Year....

Lucky Money Toad

Another Year and, no, not the Mike Leigh kind I hope, although it was probably the most profound film of 2010. 

Actually I was thinking about that film the other day and how – despite the synopsis – it was really about Lesley Manville’s character, Mary. Another year older. Another year alone. Another year of desperately looking for Mr. Ideal (and with her options becoming less and less ideal.) Profound, and heartbreaking.

For an actor, however, the arrival of another year is about staying positive. On New Year’s Day we rush to read our astrology forecast, seek out messages in fortune cookies, tarot cards, runes, hold onto our lucky numbers, lucky jewelry, lucky audition outfits, lucky Chinese Money Toads….anything to keep our energy up and our attitude optimistic.

Because no profession brings more rejection and uncertainty than acting.

It takes, on average, about 10 years of hard slogging to support yourself as an actor.  Sure, some are seemingly overnight sensations, especially women and especially in television, but those with staying power took a long time getting on anyone's radar.  Matt Damon waited 10 years between his on-screen lines (with Julia Roberts in Mystic Pizza) and his breakout role in Good Will Hunting (which he co-wrote with Ben Afleck). Harrison Ford waited 11 years between working background on Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round and his starring role in Star Wars. He credits his success to simply outlasting all of the actors who rode into Los Angeles on the same bus. 

In other words, successful actors commit to the long haul. Most who get into this business don’t do that (which is why you can’t draw many conclusions from the earnings averages at SAG-AFTRA.)

Why does it take so long? It takes a long time to find the training that works for you, to discover your type, to decide what kind of acting you want to do, to figure out the audition process, to build your reel, to make connections. Most of all, it takes a long time to find that one role that is exactly right for you, that defines you as an actor. Do any of us remember Harrison Ford in The Conversation? Or William Shatner in Judgment at Nuremberg? And those were critically acclaimed productions. Humphrey Bogart appeared in more than 80 films; I recognize the titles of only about 20.

I am now into my fifth year, not counting my four years as a television producer. What I’ve learned is that there are no shortcuts, so pocket the money you would spend on one-off workshops and seminars that promise the key to success, and instead put it toward the best acting classes you can find. Insist on feedback when you train. Look for stage work.  It gives you an opportunity to be bold and teaches you the arc of a storyline. Make friends in the business, develop relationships. There are lots of nice people here.

Matt Damon has said that every actor is one role away from being a star (in fact, he said the doorman at his hotel is one role away from being a star.) In short, a lot of success looks like dumb luck. So, prepare and prepare, audition and audition, and wait for dumb luck….whenever it comes.

Filmmaking: Big Topic, Small Budget

Viewing good films is not only a way to study acting technique but also to see ways to handle a big genre on a small budget. Lonely Are the Brave, for example - a film of which Kirk Douglas was immensely proud - is an example of how to make a Western with one horse, one jeep, one star (Douglas), a handful of fine actors who were relative unknowns at the time (Carroll O'Connor, Walter Matthau, Gena Rowlands, George Kennedy), one jail set, one house, and lots of open (and free) desert.

Directed by Volker Schlondorff

Another example is now in theatres: Diplomacy, a riveting French-German film about the faceoff between Raoul Nordling, the Swedish consul general in Paris during World War II (played by Andre Dussollier) and Dietrich von Choltitz, the German general charged with destroying Paris before the German infantry retreated across the Rhine (played by Niels Arestrup, a favorite of mine). The acting is superb, it is wonderfully directed by German filmmaker Volker Schlondorff, and the plot illuminates a historical event that I didn't know much about: that Paris - the Louvre, Notre Dame, Place de la Concorde, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, everything - had been extensively wired with explosives by the Germans in August of 1944 and had come within a hair of being utterly destroyed.

It helps to base your film, as this one was, on a successful dramatic play. But look at how this film was made: one old tank, most of the story shot in one hotel room, a handful of interiors/exteriors shot very tight, panoramic shots over the rooftops of Paris (so modern cars and the McDonalds signs don't show), army uniforms and period clothing for civilians, and (inexpensive if not completely free) archival WWII clips. No budget-busting CGI that I could detect. No cast of hundreds (we don't do thousands anymore). "War" is conveyed with smoke, lights, and sound effects, and the audience buys it.

So, how do you tackle a genre film on a small budget? Focus the plot on the personal. Not the cattlemen's range war but the individual rebelling against a changing world. Not the Battle of the Bulge but the faceoff between two strong personalities and a critical decision that could change the course of history.  It can be done, and done well. Films like this one prove it.

Pirate Me!

You have to have a touch of the wanderlust in you to be an actor - travel is frequently part of the job, after all - but if as part of your travels you happen to wander into an old film location, so much the better. I often seek them out: the LA river bed where the giant ants hole up in Them!, the old train depot in New Jersey where they filmed The Station Agent.

The Caribbean island of Dominica

Last week my dear husband and I went farther afield to Dominica (pronounced Doh-meh-nee'-kah), the volcanic island near Barbados where many of the scenes from the Pirates of the Caribbean films are shot. What an unbelievably gorgeous island. It rises from its black sand beaches more than 4,000 feet, all tropical rainforest with streams and waterfalls at every turn. Breathtaking.

The next in the Pirates series - Dead Men Tell No Tales - is now in preproduction. Lucky the actors who get to leave gray skies and brown trees and work there.

The beach is indeed black

Will "Before I Disappear" be as good a film as "Curfew"?

I'm drawing up my grocery list in preparation for a day of cooking turkey, but I just saw that Shawn Christensen's film Before I Disappear is opening this week and I had to say a few words. I saw his short film Curfew, which won more than 40 film festival awards before taking the Oscar for short film in 2012. It was very funny and clever and an example of what a writer can come up with if his take on life is prefaced with "What if....?"

Before I Disappear is Curfew taken to feature length. Here's the gist: "At the lowest point in his life, Ritchie gets a call from his estranged sister, asking him to look after his 11-year-old niece, Sophia, for a few hours." (The film actually opens with Ritchie in the bathtub cutting his wrists. I will say no more.)

Christensen has added a few name actors to the feature, like Ron Perlman, but he still stars himself as Ritchie and has retained Fatima Ptacek as Sophie. I actually thought Ptacek was the weakest link in the short, because she seemed too much a show-biz kid, too much 10 going on 30. We'll see how she does in the feature.

The big question is, can you expand a short, snappy comedy and still make it work? We'll see. So far the feature has won 12 festival awards and the critics are mixed but generally positive. A lot of those who saw the short can't wait to see it. Me included.

Christensen graduated from the Pratt Institute in New York with a bachelor's degree in illustration (of all things.), but is proving to be a natural screenwriter, actor, and director....an immense talent who is going to have a long and successful career in film. Whether it's writer, producer, director, star, or all of the above...who knows? But you are going to see his name a lot.

This Vampire Film Has Me Intrigued

I haven't watched a vampire film since Count Yorga, Vampire scared the bejeesus out of me as a kid by letting the vampire win. (What fun is that?) But what I've read about A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour, has me intrigued. This sounds like a brilliant twist. More later when I actually get a chance to see it.  As I said, lots of good films out, and women filmmakers!

In Praise of Small, Funky, Creative, Inspiring Films

After starting off the year with the usual over-the-top CGI Superhero flicks designed to attract the easily amused, this has become a phenomenal year for small, funky, creative, inspiring films. My husband and I would rather eat popcorn in a movie theatre than dinner in a French restaurant, but over the summer there were weeks when we stayed home. Now there are so many choices!

The 2014 Oscars are shaping up to be a real horserace, although if Michael Keaton doesn't win the Best Actor Oscar for Birdman I'd like to see the performance that does! (More on Birdman in a separate post below.) Check out Naomi Watts both in Birdman and St. Vincent, where she does a brilliant comic turn as a pregnant Russian prostitute.

Has Filmdom discovered that a fine small film can turn a tidy profit with much less financial risk?

A Suggestion for Marketing via Social Media

Arlan Godthaab, Vampire Hunter

A Los Angeles actor friend, Arlan Godthaab, posted photos yesterday on Facebook from "I Had a Bloody Good Time at House Harker," a horror-comedy now shooting in snowy Wisconsin, with a cast that includes Jacob Givens, Derek Haugen, Noel Carroll, and Keely Gelineau. These were interesting shots that not only made me want to learn more about the film but also got me thinking about how actors and production companies use social media to publicize their product. His is one way, and it’s a good one.

Yet most production companies, even the big ones, don’t yet get social media. Filmmakers trying to break into the business have enough on their plate just trying to figure out funding, casting, logistics, lighting, shooting, and editing. Marketing is rarely in the budget, so they don’t even think about it. They should. They have a whole team on set that can help get the word out about their production, but often the best most young filmmakers can do is set up a Facebook “fan page” and then ask everyone to “like my page.” In an incentive-based culture, that’s rarely effective because everyone is thinking, “What’s in it for me?"

Every person over age 3 has a cell phone with photo/video capability, and nearly everyone under age 80 has a Twitter account and Facebook page and more. (Judi Dench tweets, for heaven sakes!) Actors WANT that production still of their big scene. They WANT to tell people about the terrific new film they’re working on at the moment and the great production team that's creating it. They want to post it to Facebook, upload Vine videos, and tweet the news out to everyone they know! It’s part of driving down your IMDb rating and driving up your Klout number, which is why stars large and small are being advised to do it. These days a few savvy producers even consider an actor’s social media presence when casting their films…and say as much in the breakdowns!

So let me make a suggestion, maybe even a few….

Small production? Don’t have a recognizable star? Designate someone who's good with a cell phone camera to take production stills throughout each day’s shoot. (A production still is one with the camera and crew in the shot that tells everyone “See, I make movies!”) At the end of each day have them review the photos, adjust the sharpness and pump up the saturation with a cell phone app like Camera+, and then see that every member of the cast and crew gets at least one flattering shot of themselves to use on social media. (And “flattering shots” should be the instruction to the photographer.) Later, when you get to editing, have someone grab interesting screen shots from your outtakes and, again, email them to cast and crew who are in those scenes. You can also use all of these shots on your film production website and social media sites (and, yes, you should have all of those), make them available to the designer creating your poster, and use the outtakes in producing your trailer.

Work with your cast and crew to help shape the message and get lots of free and positive publicity (which helps in building audience anticipation and winning awards.) Talk to them. Get everyone pulling together.

Arlan, my best to director Clayton Cogswell and the whole Good Cops Entertainment Team at #HouseHarker. Looking forward to seeing the film.

Still photo by Jacob Givens from "I Had a Bloody Good Time at House Harker."