Match Director's Blog

मैच news 2009

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Fri, 29 May 2009 04:03:00 +0000

More (true) stories from the wild world of commercial production.

Scene 1 - Overheard on set

ACTOR: I was at Sly Stallone's house last night.
ACTOR 2: Yeah, you were a caterer at Sly Stallone's house last night.
ACTOR: At least I was at his house.
ACTOR 2: SERVING HIM DINNER!

Scene 2 - Overheard in Make-Up

MAKE-UP: A girlfriend of mine made a lot of money selling her panties on craigslist.
ACTOR: What do you mean?
MAKE-UP: I mean every day for a month, she would take her panties off at the end of the day, and put them in an envelope.
ACTOR: No.
MAKE-UP: And mail them.
ACTOR: No way! That's disgusting! (pause) How much money can you make doing something like that?
MAKE-UP: A lot.

Scene 3 - On set

1ST AD: Can you come dust off this guy's feet?
MAKE-UP: I don't dust feet!
1ST AD: You need to dust off his feet.
MAKE-UP: Well I'm not going to.
1ST AD: Well it's your job.

Scene 4 - In Holding

PA: So this is a Vick's commercial.
ACTOR: Yeah. Nyquil.
PA: And in the commercial, you... what do you do?
ACTOR: I sleep.
PA: (who has been up since 4:00 in the morning) That sounds like a good job.
ACTOR: It is.
PA: What was the audition like?
ACTOR: It was like, 'OK, lie there, and sleep. OK, now twitch your finger. Not so much. Good. Now drool.'
PA: Wow.
ACTOR: Yeah, I nailed it. (pulling on his sleep-mask) Hoping this thing goes national.

OTHER NEWS
The 48 Hour Film Project starts tomorrow, with 63 New York teams working through an adrenaline and coffee-fueled weekend to turn in their Scorsese-esque masterpieces on Sunday afternoon. If you're in the East Village, come join us for the drop - off party

DROP OFF EVENT
Sunday, May 31, 2009, 6:30-9:30p.m.
Village Pourhouse - East Village
64 Third Avenue at 11th Street
NYC 10003

Films will be screened on June 5, 6, 7 at NYU's Cantor Film Center.

AND FINALLY
Yours truly will be on NPR tomorrow at 11:55am-12 noon ET on the The
Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, the NYC NPR affiliate. You can listen live online at www.wnyc.org

Imma be on the radio, byatches! For five whole minutes! I spent a half an hour today thinking about what I should wear. I asked my friend about it and he said, 'It's the radio, jackass' so, Garfield pajamas.

David

२००९ Update

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Stories from the wild world of commercial production.

Scene 1 - Overheard on walkie talkie:

1ST AD: Can you bring Pete to set?
2ND AD: Which Pete?
1ST AD: Pete to set, please.
2ND AD: Which Pete?
1ST AD: Um, hold on. OK, Pete S.
2ND AD: Which Pete S?
1ST AD: Bob, just bring him.
2ND AD: Bring who? Which one?
1ST AD: How many Pete S's-
2ND AD: There are three!

Scene 2 - Overheard at the craft-services table:

ACTOR: I'm gonna be RICH!
ACTOR 2: No, you're not gonna make shit, because you waived your residuals.
ACTOR: What does that mean?
ACTOR 2: It means you're not gonna make shit.

Scene 3 - Witnessed on set - a narrative

Place: Outdoor corporate plaza in Westchester.
Time: Early morning

The whole shot is this insert shot of a spilled coffee cup on the sidewalk. That's the shot - the spilled coffee, the coffee cup, and a guy's shoes - that's all we're going to see, so we're waiting for the actor to get the right shoes on. Now, the Art Department has spent an hour and a half on the coffee cup and the spilled coffee, but we need the shoes to complete the mise-en-scene, so we're set up, thirty people standing around, waiting for the actor to get out of wardrobe, staring at this coffee cup, and we're all very proud of how good it looks, how artistic, how REAL.

In walks the park janitor. He stops. He takes in the scene. He sees all of us, sees the coffee cup, looks at all of us again, looks back at the coffee cup. He rolls his eyes, and you can almost hear him thinking out loud. 'I mean, I know I'm the janitor, but are you people really that helpless? It's one coffee cup. NONE OF YOU knows what to do? NOT ONE OF YOU is willing to get his hands dirty? Do I have to do EVERYTHING? Fine, I'll clean it up. If y'all are just that BAFFLED, if you're just that HELPLESS, I'll pick up the stupid coffee cup.

The janitor makes his move.

Poor guy didn't stand a chance. Thirty people said, all at once, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa!' and six people instinctively stepped into his path, to block his movement, to physically restrain him if necessary, to prevent him from touching anything.

As they're carrying him off, he's shouting it's his job to keep the plaza clean, and "The coffee's not even HOT any more!"

Funniest thing I saw all day.

But I digress...

Some of you know I'm producing the 48 Hour Film Project in New York this year - it's a great project - I've done it six times as a director/actor etc and it's a great creative experience - really gets the juices flowing. It's a mad, mad weekend, but at that cast party is the most well-deserved beer you will ever drink.

Details below:

Registration is now open for the New York 48HFP, the first and biggest timed film competition in the world
May 29-31, 2009
http://www.48hourfilm.com/newyork

Make A Film in 48 Hours!

The 48 Hour Film Project brings filmmaking teams together to make a movie from scratch. Each completed film is guaranteed a big-screen screening in front of a full audience at NYU's Cantor Film Center.

To be part of the 48HFP, you must register online at:
http://www.48hourfilm.com/newyork/

The winning New York team will compete against other films to represent New York at the 48 Hour Film Project's Filmapalooza – our international screening and awards event. This year Filmapalooza is at the NAB Show in Las Vegas in April, 2010. International winners screen at Cannes.

Entry in the project is first come, first served, and last year we had to turn folks away, so enter today!
http://www.48hourfilm.com/newyork/

Questions? Email New York Producer David Stott at newyork@48hourfilm.com
We look forward to seeing you.
Happy spring,

David

Dave Weighs in on The Clone Wars, Now That It's Too Late

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 18:01:00 +0000

In sheer story-telling terms, maybe the Clone Wars are best left in the past. Unexplored. Undisturbed. As a piece of dark history, a reference to former greatness, the Clone Wars were fascinating.

PRINCESS LEIA: Years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars.
DAVE: Cool. I wonder what that's all about?

As a flesh and blood prequel, tv show, book, video game and screensaver, the Clone Wars are crap. Maybe it’s just the execution – we'll never know - it never had a chance to stay in the dark because of the big mega-load shit-ton of money to be made. How long can the precepts of story resist that kind of cash? Current estimates put the value of the Star Wars franchise at a skillion dollars. What human being could resist?

Hence Jar-Jar.

A Holiday Story

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:11:00 +0000

I had a busy fall. I spent a month on Martha's Vineyard in a cottage with no heat, working days on an indy horror movie, holding the boom pole over my head, watching the director shout instructions like "Fear! Fear! Panic! Scream! Smile! You suck! Your boyfriend's dying!" then I came back to the city to resume my work in tv and commercial production, which consists largely of driving the director around the city until 4 in the morning, from bar to bar, so he can play his guitar in front of a live audience. Oh yes. 4 a.m. I also bought him socks.

But the best story I've heard on set this season was told to me by a fellow PA named Kevin. Kevin works in production for the money, has no aspirations to direct, and in fact does the job only to pay the rent and to afford an occasional night out with his girlfriend. Kevin is an imposing figure, 6'3", 250. Heart of gold, but very no-nonsense. In his own words:

KEVIN: So I'm working this job, and the Production Coordinator comes up to me and says, 'Kevin, you have to walk this dog. It's the agency dog. The client is very adamant that the dog gets walked five times a day. It needs to be walked now.' I look at her and I say 'fine.' I figure, I'll take a break, walk the dog around the block, visit the park, have a smoke, take my time, no problem.

'And,' the Coordinator says, 'you have to pick up it's crap.'

DAVID: And?

KEVIN: And I said 'I'm not doing that.' And she says 'You have to do it. It's the law.'

DAVID: So? Did you do it?

KEVIN: I didn't. And here's why. If I pick up that dog's crap, I will be known for the rest of my life as 'the guy who is willing to pick up that dog's crap.' I am not that guy. Not for a dog that I don't know personally. If it was my dog, fine, that's the law in New York, you pick up after your dog, but I'm not picking up this spoiled puppy's doo doo, I don't want to be that guy.

DAVID: I don't blame you.

KEVIN: But that wasn't the best part. The best part was this other PA wannabe director was standing right behind me, the words weren't even out of my mouth, when he jumps in with 'I'll do it!' and goes off and happily picks up the agency dog's crap for the rest of the afternoon.

DAVID: No kidding.

KEVIN: They will always ask you to do something terrible, and the terribleness will expand exponentially until you draw the line. You draw the line too early, you're out of a job. You draw it too late, you have no soul left. Balance, Dave. It's the only way.

HOW TO MAKE A FILM IN 48 HOURS

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:53:00 +0000

WEEKS LEADING UP TO 48HFP

Dave: Well, our girlfriends dumped us, our best friends moved to California and the four editors we know are all busy that weekend. Should we do it anyway?
Kyle: Who's going to write?
Dave: I can write.
Kyle: Shoot?
Dave: Me.
Kyle: Edit?
Dave: Can't your new girlfriend edit?
Kyle: She does it professionally.
Dave: Great.
Kyle: She'll be twirling fire at a rock concert that weekend.
Dave: Oh.

WEDNESDAY – 2 days before the contest

Kyle: Are we going to meet to talk about this stuff?
David: I’m playing StarFox.

THURSDAY – the day before the contest

Kyle: Are we going to meet?
David: Later.
Kyle: We're running out of time, aren't we?
David: The Land Master isn’t going to pilot itself, Kyle!

FRIDAY - ONE HOUR BEFORE THE CONTEST STARTS:

Kyle: Should we meet?
David: Probably. Dr. Andross wants to rule the Lylat system, but he just doesn’t have the resume or the political experience to head up such a diverse- Star Wolf, you cock!!! (throws the video controller across the room, pause) What should our movie be about?

FRIDAY - ON THE TRAIN TO THE KICKOFF EVENT

Kyle: You know what movie is really good? Oceans 12.
David: I think we should shoot the whole thing in the subway. That way we won't have to light anything and we might finish early.
Kyle: Shoot on the subway? Isn't that illegal?
Dave: No.
Kyle: Are you sure? You hesitated.
Dave: It’s not illegal as long as you don't put down a tripod.
Kyle: I'm pretty sure it's illegal.
David: Hey, I got a call from the organizers. A camera crew is going to be doing behind the scenes work. They might follow us around.
Kyle: Won’t they get in the way?
David: Probably.

FRIDAY - AT THE KICKOFF EVENT

The guy shooting behind the scenes footage is practically begging for volunteer teams.

GUY: Can you help us out? Please? We really need people.
Dave: Sure.
GUY: Awesome. (turns on camera) So, what makes your team so special that we should follow you around?

LATER

David: Like he’s doing us some big favor.
Kyle: What’d you say?
David: I said I didn’t have an answer to that question.
Kyle: Well I talked to Luis. He said it’s definitely illegal to shoot in the subway.
Dave: He's just saying that.

LATER - SIX FORTY FIVE

Kyle pulls ‘Suspense/Thriller’ genre out of the hat

David: Perfect – we can do our Oceans 11 on a subway type thing.
Kyle: If it were legal to shoot in the subway, which it isn’t.
David: Who are you going to listen to? Me or Luis?
Kyle: Well, Luis is older, and he knows more.
David: Oh.

SEVEN O’CLOCK

Character, Prop and dialogue are announced:

Character: Thomas Ellison, a former attorney
Prop: A string instrument
Dialogue: “I cancelled my plans for this.”

EIGHT O’CLOCK

Kyle and David meet up with Ryan. They spend the next six hours hashing out an outline. All agree the scenes should be improvised.

MIDNIGHT

Script is done. All go home to toss and turn.

SATURDAY
EIGHT IN THE MORNING

Cast and crew assemble. Lots of new faces. Ryan Homchick, fresh off ‘The Seagull’ with Diane Wiest and Alan Cumming, is quite an actor.

Bianca Marroquin, fresh off a starring role on Broadway (Roxie Hart in CHICAGO) is quite an actor.

Ruben Flores, good friend of Bianca’s. Astonishing comic chops.

Brian Athey, ‘The New Kid.’ Extraordinary musician. Even better than Kyle on the guitar.

Michael Lane, neighborhood chum. Couldn’t be more likeable if he tried.

TEN IN THE MORNING

David: OK, everybody. We’re going to shoot all of this on the subway. Don’t worry. If the police come, I will handle it. Thanks for trusting me, LUIS. But first we’re going to rehearse in the park.
Luis: What are you going to say to the police? What if they take our tapes?
David: Are you the director?

ELEVEN IN THE MORNING
Shooting in the park, ‘rehearsing.’

TWELVE NOON
Shooting in the park, ‘rehearsing.’

ONE IN THE AFTERNOON
Shooting in the park, ‘rehearsing.’

Kyle: Maybe we should just use this footage.
David: I don’t know, I really wanted to do this scene in the subway.
Luis: So we could reshoot the last three hours of stuff, or spend the extra time editing.
David: OK, everybody, that’s lunch.

THREE UNTIL TEN IN THE EVENING
Shooting goes really, really smoothly. Very little time is spent on the train.

NINE IN THE EVENING

Luis: Kyle, look. In David's room, there are 18 cords plugged into one socket by a clever system of surge protectors. David has also plugged two additional 1K lights into the same socket. (Pause) He expressed some surprise when the fuse blew.
David: (entering) Can you believe this?
Roommate Sarah: The way our apartment is configured, the breaker box is not in our apartment, but the basement apartment, where the box is hidden behind the neighbors’ refrigerator.
David: Cool. Can we get them to open the box?
Sarah: Well, their English is poor and they don't know how a breaker box works, much less that their fridge is concealing it. And they might be unenthusiastic about inviting strangers into their home at 11 at night.
David: Oh.
Kyle: What are you going to do? You have to start editing.

David powers his editing suite by running an extension cord from the kitchen into his room.

Luis: Good solution. Great thinking. I’m going home. I’ll be back at seven in the morning. You must lock picture by seven in the morning.
David: Piece of cake. Why don’t you give me a challenge?
Luis: It’s illegal to shoot in the subway.
David: You’re just saying that.

ELEVEN AT NIGHT
Dave and Kyle, Editing.

TWELVE AT NIGHT
Dave and Kyle, Editing.

ONE IN THE MORNING
Dave and Kyle, Editing.

TWO IN THE MORNING
Dave and Kyle, Editing.

TWO THIRTY IN THE MORNING
An actor who shall remain nameless drinks a bottle of tequila.

Michael Lane (aka Drunk Actor): Can I watch?
David: Watch the extension cord.
Michael Lane: Huh?

Michael Lane trips over the extension cord.
All three computer screens go dark. The hard drives power down. The CPUs power down.
Kyle and David stare at the screens, willing them back to life.

Michael Lane (aka Actor Who Drunk Too Much): Whoops.

THREE IN THE MORNING
Dave and Kyle, crying.

FOUR IN THE MORNING
Still crying.

FIVE IN THE MORNING
Still editing.

SIX IN THE MORNING

David calls Luis.

Luis: You’re done already?
David: Sort of.
Luis: What happened.
David: Well, the movie needs to be three minutes long.
Luis: How long is it.
David: It’s longer than three minutes
Luis: How long is it?
David: The movie is forty-five minutes long.
Luis: So cut forty-two minutes.
David: So, I don’t want to let you down, or Bianca or Brian or Ruben or Ryan, or the other guy who worked so hard yesterday-
Luis: Kyle?
David: Is that his name? Yeah. I just can’t do it anymore. I haven’t slept – I can’t see straight – I got it down from 180 minutes to 45 minutes.
Luis: You have an hour to cut forty-two minutes out of the movie.
David: I’m going to sleep forever. Good bye.
Luis: Pack up your stuff. We’re coming to get you.

NINE IN THE MORNING

Brian and Luis arrive and carry David on a gurney to the car.

TEN IN THE MORNING, LUIS’S HOUSE, NEW JERSEY

Luis: So, let's see, how do you edit? Are these the right buttons? Oh yes, I remember. Let's see, we can cut this out, and this out, and this.
David: I'm awake.
Luis: We don’t need this shot, or this shot, or this shot.
David: I don’t think all of us need to sit here and watch you edit.
Luis: And this, and this.
David: You guys can do music for the opening, can’t you? And I can work on this.
Luis: But you’re so tired.
David: I hate you.
Luis: You should rest. (pause) You’re going to thank me for this.
David: This really isn’t funny.

THE NEXT NINE HOURS…

are a blur. Cuts are made, music is composed, more edits are made, DVDs and data DVDs are burned, we send Brian off to the train with the DVD. He almost misses the train. Kyle, Luis, Bianca, David and the guy who filmed us all weekend pile into the car at 6:15. Luis drives like a madman towards Manhattan. The Holland Tunnel is closed except for one lane. The clock is ticking. We get into Manhattan. Canal street is completely clogged. Brian calls from the drop off spot, Fontana’s (a bar).

Brian: (on phone) I turned in the DVD, but she says we have to have all the paperwork here, too. In the next eight minutes.
David: We have the paperwork here. The traffic is terrible.
Kyle: What a shame.
David: Hey Kyle.
Kyle: What?
David: You are the smartest, funniest, most talented person I know. I really admire you.
Kyle: What do you want?
David: You’re also in the best shape.
Kyle: So?
David: So how long will it take you to run the last ten blocks to the bar?
Kyle: (pulling on his running shoes) In this traffic?

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Kyle saved the day.

Now you can make ours.

WE ARE IN SCREENING GROUP D

Our screening will take place Thursday, June 26th, 9pm
Place: Landmark’s Sunshine Cinema, 143 E. Houston St., New York, NY
Notes: Tickets can be purchased at the door half an hour before the first screening. Tickets will sell out, so be sure to get yours early.

Here's the link. Tickets are $10.

http://www.landmarktheatres.com/tickets/

Hope you can make it --

David and the Match Crew

David J. Stott
Match Production Team
david@matchproductions.com
917.596.4155

BACK IN THE CITY

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:16:00 +0000

(this post rated R for language)

At the end of February I returned to the city after a three month break in Richmond, VA. There were some highlights - Bucka Watson went a 55.66 in the 100 fly, I got to know my nieces, I got to visit with my brothers and my family. I got to see a number of old friends I hadn't seen in a while.

The hard part was that my brothers are doing great. Big houses, nice cars, loving spouses. While I was home I was living in my mom's basement (to the delight of some of the swimmers I coached) and was preparing to move back to New York without any job prospects.

But the big city is where the art is, so I went back, and now I'm here, and it's a good fit. My little production company has just enough clients that I can pay the rent, and I'm working hard.

One of the first things I did when I returned to the city was I called or emailed everyone I knew, trying to reconnect with old friends. I found a new place to live, my new roommates are great, and last week I was fortunate enough to have dinner in New Jersey with some good friends, and Ciaran Hinds was there. Ciaran played Julius Caesar in HBO's series, ROME. I am an enormous fan of the series, so I didn't say much during dinner (I listened). But after the evening was over, we were getting a ride back to New York from our gracious host, and I asked Mr. Hinds what the best part of being on the show was. I figured, I tell people I had dinner with Julius Caesar, I ought to have a story to tell.

His story was a good one. He was in the middle of this multimillion dollar production and during one scene, his character, Caesar, has a seizure.

CIARAN: The director said to me, 'do whatever you want, but stay in the light' because they had set up some lights for me that were supposed to be on me at all times. If they weren't on me, you couldn't see me, and the shot would be ruined.
DAVID: OK.
CIARAN: I said to the director, 'My eyes are closed.'
'I know,' the director said. 'Just stay in the light.' So I'm supposed to have do this with my eyes closed, and act, and be spontaneous, and HAVE A FUCKING SEIZURE, and at the same time, I'm supposed to stay in the light. A few inches this way or that and I'll ruin the shot.
DAVID: (breathlessly hanging onto every word) What did you do?
CIARAN: One of the actors I worked with, simply put out his hands, cradled my head, and said 'I've got you, guv.'

Ciaran worked on Rome for six months. 100 million dollars were spent capturing his portrayal of Caesar. And that was what he remembered: an act of kindness in the middle of all the craziness.

Pretty cool.

The next day, I got up at 4:30 a.m. to work on a McDonald's commercial, and I was proud to be in show business, a business with such a rich and historic heritage, where such moments of kindness can be found daily amongst the daily barbarity of life.

I say it was barbaric because I was working on a fucking McDonald's commercial, trying to get people to stop walking down the street in the middle of Chelsea. Now, you ask people nicely, and explain you're filming, and you're trying to get a shot off, and some of them will hear you out, and graciously slow down. But when they hear it's for McDonald's, they tell you to go fuck yourself and stomp you in the face with their steel-toed shitkickers.

If you've PA'd and tried to lock up a set before, you know what I'm talking about. Legally we are not allowed to stop anybody from walking down the sidewalk. It's a public sidewalk. Our job, however, is to persuade people, as politely as we are able, to please hold up for the next thirty seconds so we can get the shot off without a bunch of random people walking through the shot.

Go ahead. Try to convince an angry half-blind 80 year-old Polish woman to please not walk her dog through the middle of the McDonald's commercial. When you realize after repeating yourself six times that she doesn't speak English and wouldn't care even if she did, well, then you're in the club.

Conclusion: some days you're the king, some days you're the serf.

P.S. On set the next day I was in charge of ice. My job was to stop it from melting. Sweet.

Why The Da Vinci Code Sucked

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 04:52:00 +0000

1. Tom Hanks’s ludicrous haircut.
2. Tom Hanks and Amelie had no chemistry at ALL.
3. Tom Hanks and Amelie had no opportunity to establish any chemistry. The movie starts and immediately we’re off to the codebooks.
4. Paul Bettany is poorly cast. He flagellates himself convincingly, but he isn’t scary. A meathead should’ve played that part.
5. Alfred Molina’s costume was hilarious. Hi-larious. Nobody cared when he got shot. We were all like, ‘good, you deserve it for dressing like an asshole. (yawns) Maybe the movie will end soon.’

But the biggest problem the movie had was a little thing we like to call exposition. Once upon a time I moved to New York. Once upon a time I did some acting. Once upon a time I learned from an acting teacher (who was a boor and had no bedside manner whatsoever), three very valuable lessons. One, don’t talk on the phone onstage. The phone should not ever be allowed to be more important than the action on stage, the action that is taking place between two human beings onstage at this very moment. This is why we go to see live theatre, to see two people trying to get along and failing. Onstage. Right in front of us.
2. All you can do is go after what you want. You can’t pretend to be sad, or glad, or mad, or pretend to have a limp, or a lisp, or a Southern accent, all you can do is BE the guy (or girl). BE there. Show up for the scene.
Number 3, exposition is for assholes. You’ve all seen exposition in a bad movie or play or in the Da Vinci Code. Books can get away with it – in books sometimes you look forward to it – when Dumbledore finally explains what the fuck is going on, we welcome it. I ‘m not sure why it works in books, perhaps a topic for another essay, but it works in books.
It does not work in theatre. It does not work in film, it does not work in Da Vinci Code, The Movie.
What is exposition, exactly? Exposition is the ham-handed introduction of information into the story or situation that the audience does not give one single crap about. Example: If, in the middle of his monologue, Hamlet said, "To be, or not to be. That is the question. I like lima beans. Also, I can remember the time when my cat Mittens got stuck up a tree. Plus, I like whales."
These questions all fail the 'Who Cares?' Test. Who cares? Nobody.
Tom Hanks expositioned himself through this entire movie, and the blame for this should be laid at the feet of Akiva Goldsman.
Horrible Exposition: "So then the knights templar gathered up the jedi knights and slaughtered them, executing Executive Order 66, which the emperor had dreamed up long ago, in preparation for this very day, should it ever become necessary. Plus, I like whales."
Better: "You can’t say that with perfect certainty, Teabing, because you’re forgetting this other piece of scholarship."

See, it almost works when Tom Hanks and Ian McKellen argue out the exposition, because it gives the actors something to do besides feed us information. The great Suzanne Shepherd (Karen’s Mom in Goodfellas) once told me, 'we do not pay you to give us information. We pay you to tell us a story. We pay you to have an opinion about the things that are coming out of your mouth.' So when Tom Hanks gives us all this shit about the Knights Templar and it’s academic, and he doesn’t care, then we don’t care. I know he has to say it to advance the plot, but the man who wrote A Beautiful Mind ought to be able to figure out a better way to do this. Shame on you, Mr. Goldsman. Shame on you, Ron Howard, for letting him get away with it. Shame on you, Mr. Hanks, for letting them get away with it.
Shame on you all. These are basic lessons that I learned within a year of moving to New York. Tom effing Hanks and Ron effing Howard should have memorized this rule – it should be obvious to them. They are Masters. They are afforded the mind-numbingly awesome privilege of getting to tell stories in the grandest way humanity has ever devised. All the time, 24/7. I do it part-time. I’m a dilettante. I do it on nights and weekends, and I know better.

Disclaimer. Making movies is hard. Trashing movies is easy. Making a movie takes years of planning and financing and a dedicated team of hundreds to produce. Trashing a movie requires a pencil and a bad attitude. Everyone I wrote about here is more accomplished than me. But they should know better.

P.S. What also sucked – at the beginning, Mr. Hanks is giving a speech, and he asks for answers from the crowd: no crowd in the history of crowds has ever given answers as fast as that crowd did. Crowds take some time warming up to you, especially when they're reacting to questions posed by a known expert. Take some time, Ron Howard, establish the scene. Make it real. Real recognizes real.

Be a Movie Star!

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:59:00 +0000

Ever want to be that guy that walks towards the camera, confident, cocky, utterly unperturbed as a building blows up behind him?
Perhaps you’d like to be that funny, comedic, perfectly casual guy who spouts off a hilarious one-liner right before a building blows up behind him?
Perhaps you’d like to blow up a building?
Thanks to Match Productions' ‘Repeatable Explosions Technology,’ you too can go be on a 'real' studio lot, with a 'real' building and a 'real' gas-ball explosion, just like the one Bruce Willis jumped in front of in Die Hard 1 - yeah, the one where he jumped off that building named after that Japanese warrior or something, and it blew up right behind him!
We’ll send the limo to pick you up, let you camp out in a movie trailer while we do your make-up, and even have a few fans on hand to bug you for autographs before your big scene. Then the cameras roll (only the best for you, my friend – we use 70mm film to capture your great moment) you’ll blow some shit up, maybe say something witty, and then go get high on speedballs in the Viper Room! Yeah!
You get 3 days and 2 nights at the Four Seasons Hollywood, five-star accommodations all weekend long, plus liveried limousine service and Zagat-rated catering. Price: $100,000. Couples packages also available.

Why We PA

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 02:18:00 +0000

We just want to be a part of something that people will see. That’s why we take shitty jobs as PAs on the set of a Snickers commercial. “I worked on that” we say to each other. Or, if you’re an actor, “I read for that.” In associating ourselves with a commercial about a candy bar, we are simply trying to matter. We simply want to participate in something that people have heard of. We, like everyone else, want to be thought well of, and we want our parents to think that we’re doing OK at upholding the family name. I call my Dad whenever I’m on the ESPN set and Jim Kelly walks by. I tend not to call when I bomb thirty auditions in a row. They only notice when you nail one, anyway. “I loved the A&E spot! LOL!” is what I hear from my friends. But the A&E spot isn’t enough. I’ve been in NYC almost five years, and that’s all the tape I got – the rest is indie junk you've never heard of, and never will. And I only got A&E because I knew the director. Sure, maybe I was even ‘great in it’ (your words, not mine) but that was one day of work after five years of trying. What about all the other days I’m sitting here making things people are never going to see? Or the days I’m sitting here making nothing at all? It wears on you. I was lucky to get A&E. It’s all f***ed up.

We are participating and enabling these shitty projects and harmful commercials, perpetuating the evils of the west so that we can one day be in control of them. When we are in control we will either make family films or Girls Gone Wild, and you know what? They pay about the same. Girls Gone Wild probably pays more. Why do you people buy this crap? You hate Simon Cowell but you ALWAYS tune in to see him. What kind of message are you sending us?

When You're 18: Transformers vs. Gobots

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 02:09:00 +0000

When you’re 18, you have no idea how difficult it is to contribute to popular culture. You are simply a consumer – that’s all you’ve been your entire life (your summer working at Baskin Robbins notwithstanding). I remember in college mustering healthy amounts of disdain for my writing teachers who had ‘failed to make it’ and who were making their livings by teaching instead of going on book tours and selling book rights to their novels for gobs of money. Oh no. Not me. Not gonna happen to me. I wasn’t going to settle for mediocrity like they had. At the time, my goal was to write a book a year, and I did, more or less, during my college years – I finished my third novel in the winter of 95.

I went to grad school right after college and my disdain for my superiors grew. When they didn’t like my writing they ‘didn’t get it’ and I quickly decided it was difficult being the smartest one in the room. I had heard that geniuses were often misunderstood, but here was proof. I was used to it, sure – I had been a highly successful student, all A’s in my creative writing classes and the fact that I put stock in those grades was proof that I was woefully ill-prepared for a life in the arts.

When you are 18, you are consuming more popular culture than you will ever have time to again. I bought hundreds of CDs with my paychecks working at the golf course, I was reading 50+ books a year, I was watching movies every weekend, every night during the summer, and endlessly I would discuss with my friends what song/band/movie/TV show was cool and what wasn’t. In fact, we were so convinced of our 18 year-old opinions that I wouldn’t even call them discussions, since most them sounded something like this.

ME: Transformers are awesome.
DANNY: Yeah, dude. So are Gobots.
ME: Oh my God. You like Gobots? You’re a fag.

‘You’re a fag,’ or ‘you’re a retard’ were phrases that often ended our artistic conversations.

I think about Transformers vs. Gobots now, in the wake of the release of the Transformers movie. Transformers were then, as now, the superior of the two products – they had better characters, better toys, better cartoons and we happily made fun of anybody (see above) who took the position that Gobots were the superior race of shape-changing automatons. I think about it now, and all I know is that both franchises made lots of money. Gobots weren’t as popular, but they were popular enough to keep thousands of people employed to manufacture, market, produce and sell a line of cheap Hasbro toysand a weekly television show. What I would give to be Executive Producer on one of the shittiest cartoons in the history of Saturday morning.

At least it got made. At least it saw the light of day.

ITVF RED CARPET

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:23:00 +0000

(l-r) Annah Boyer, David Stott, Shannon Chirone, Michael Schreiber, Brooke Chirone, Katie Schneller, Bob Schreiber.

THE MATCH TEAM GOES TO HOLLYWOOD

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:18:00 +0000

So, everything you’ve heard about LA is true. All the girls are skinny and ‘beautiful’, the sun is always shining, most of the people are fake. Well, I don’t know if fake is the right word, but in LA you will be rewarded more for the appearance of success than anything resembling, I don’t know, loyalty? Once in a while you will be required to back up the appearance of success with tangible results, but since nobody knows anything, everybody gravitates towards the people who look like they have it all figured out. Make sense?

Last Wednesday, with great trepidation I prepared for my first LA meeting at The Orlando Hotel. I sweated everything, what to wear, how early to get there, what I would drive... And once I got there, what was my strategy? Would I hang back and listen until I was up to speed on the game, or would I charge into the fray, spitting business cards and HOT4TEACHER postcards?

I Google-mapped The Orlando, left twenty minutes early, drove across town, my mind racing. I arrived, found parking near the hotel, stepped up to the doorman wondering if I should have rented a Ferrarri to make my grand entrance. Yeah, that actually crossed my mind.

The doorman opened the door for me. I made my way to the reception desk. I was smooth. “Hi. I’m here for ITVF.”
“Who?” the lady at reception said.
“ITVF.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“The Independent Television Festival,” I said. “The PilotMaker Luncheon?”
“Oh, that,” she said. “It was cancelled. Like an hour ago.”
“Oh,” I said.
She paused. “Welcome to LA.”

My friend Shane (who very generously let us crash on his floor for the week) put it this way: it’s a sunny town for lots of shady people.

Which is not to say we didn’t meet a lot of stand up folks. It’s just that EVERYONE is in the film/tv biz. If you go to a party, eight out of ten of us are writer/directors. The ninth is a producer who just got into writing/directing, and the tenth is stoned.

TOP 5 TRIP HIGHLIGHTS:

#5 At the UNC-Hollywood cocktail party we saw Eva Marie Saint and met the director of The Break Up and the Chairman of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
#4 At Friday’s red carpet we saw Nicholas Cage’s son and wife (ex-wife)? Rumor has it the red carpet was for Nick, but he didn’t show. (We asked the photographers to get some pictures of the Hot for Teacher cast. They kindly obliged.)
#3 Saturday we got a pitch meeting with one of the execs at Current TV (Al Gore’s TV channel). We pitched them a show about the NYC off-off Broadway scene which they liked (and may buy.)
#2 We learned how to be TV executives: Take lots of meetings. If Steven Spielberg comes in and pitches you a show about mud, you say yes. Because if you don’t, and it’s a hit, your boss says, ‘Steven Spielberg brings you mud, and you say “no”?’
And if you say ‘yes’, and it’s not a hit, you can always say, ‘what, I’m gonna say no to Steven Spielberg?’

And our number one trip highlight:

HOT FOR TEACHER star Michael Schreiber arrives at the Saturday night screening whacked out on Pseudophed. Michael borrows my festival pass (retail value $150) to grab a drink at the bar. On his way back ‘a cute girl who looked like Penelope Cruz’ asks if she can borrow his pass for a second. He says yes. He hands it to her. She puts it around her neck. We never see her again.

Welcome to LA.

We had a great trip, did lots of networking, and we’re glad to be home. HOT FOR TEACHER will be screening in New York City on Thursday, August 30, at 8 p.m. And in Richmond, VA either on September 15 or 22 at The Byrd Theatre, late afternoon. Hope to see you soon.

GOOD NEWS - ITVF

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:17:00 +0000

Dear Friends of The Match,

Hello, hello! It's been awhile! A number of you have been asking for news about the Match, the Match premiere, life in general. We must confess we've been waiting for a bit of good news. After some dark winter months (more on that later) we do have some exciting news to share. The pilot we shot in Richmond last summer has been chosen as an official selection of the 2nd annual Independent Television Festival presented by Comcast (www.itvfest.org). The festival will take place in Los Angeles at Raleigh Studios July 27-29th. The Match Team is going to LA!

We had over 100 people contribute time, energy and hard-earned cash to the production and we'd like to thank you all again for your support.

We are hard at work nailing down the time and place for the Richmond and New York screenings (really!). It's looking like September will be a good month - people will be back from out of town trips and the smell of school supplies, back to school sales and number 2 pencils will be in the air.

We'll have a new and improved website in July - check out www.matchproductions.com after July 15.

Thanks for your patience! Go Match!

Warm Regards,

The Match Team
Brooke, Katie, David, Gladys and Karen

www.matchproductions.com

INTERNS shoot

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 01:06:00 +0000

With blistering speed, 5 Guys + 5 Gals Productions polished off a dandy of a
pilot shoot in two short days. Highlights included a room full of Bubble
Fun chewing hotties, Bob telling me that 'I was a pretty good DA, but it
would take some time before I got up to his level' and Sri flashing Kyle,
twice.

And the Oscar Goes To:

ANNAH, for securing our location and helping out with the building guys.

DAVID: (to building guy) Do I need to sign anything?
BUILDING GUY: Yes. Here.

(BUILDING GUY hands David a binder full of permission and insurance forms)

ANNAH: Do you need me to sign anything?
BUILDING GUY: This isn't my real job, you know.

And the Oscar Goes To:

MICHAEL, for getting up at 4 a.m. or something to make it to Saturday's
shoot.

MICHAEL: Boy, I'm tired. Are we done yet?
DAVID: No, we still have to shoot all the shots you're in, and everyone's
staying late to accommodate your schedule.
MIKE: Oh. (pause) Thanks, Luis.

And the Oscar Goes To:

KYLE, for bringing Netta.

KYLE: Can I see your boobs? I haven't been laid in a really long time.
SRI: Sure. (flashes him)
KYLE: I love you.
SRI: You should.

And the Oscar Goes To:

KATIE, for being with us despite a bout of Rheumatic Fever.

SHANNON: Katie, can you be in this scene?
KATIE: No - I can't act.
SHANNON: You can't act frustrated? You're a stage manager.
KATIE: Oh right.

And the Oscar Goes To:

BEN, for finding a place to buy a camo hat, on a Saturday, in six seconds
flat

DAVID: So, you'll be in a room full of hot chicks, taking pictures of them,
and they all want you.
BEN: Hmm. OK. I can do that.

And the Oscar Goes To:

LUIS, for putting up with the rest of us.

LUIS: Can I help out with THE INTERN shoot?
DAVID: I don't know. Do you have any sound equipment?
LUIS: (drives up in a Jeep filled with his stuff)
DAVID: Oh. (pause) Sweet.
BOB: You're much more laid back than Glen. And much more Mexican.

And the Oscar Goes To:

BROOKE, for doing a thousand little things I didn't see, and for throwing a
hell of a wrap party

BROOKE: I know it's last minute, but everyone's coming over tonight.
MICK: Cool.
BROOKE: We'll probably watch the dailies for six hours.
MICK: Cool.
BROOKE: And you have to cook hamburgers in the rain.
MICK: (long, long pause) Cool.

(Props to Mick for being such a great host.)

And the Oscar Goes To:

SHANNON, for co-writing, co-producing, and for talking me out of my
super-stupid 'white on white' production/costume design

DAVID: Sweetie? I'll be gone for two hours in the middle of everything on
Sunday.
SHANNON: Good.

Later,

DAVID: How'd it go?
SHANNON: Much smoother after you left.
LUIS: Much, much smoother.
BOB: You left?

And the Oscar Goes To:

BOB, for knocking the tampons out of Kyle's hands, PRECISELY onto the desk.

BOB: I'm a little worried.
DAVID: Why?
BOB: Now that I'm running the camera, this scene is going to look better
than everything you shot.
DAVID: I'll risk it.
BOB: (to all) OK PEOPLE - LET'S GO - TIME IS MONEY - WE'RE PUNCHING OUT.
SHANNON: In.
BOB: WE'RE PUNCHING IN. (to Shannon) What's that mean?

Good times, my friends. Next up will be 48HR, June 15 (Friday) to June 17
(Sunday). Look for an email soon about our pre-meeting. Until then.

D

Scene 47

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 15:58:00 +0000

The pilot epsiode (including 'next week on the Match') is 52 scenes. Some of those are a single shot, others are 3 pages long. Of the 52 scenes, 51 were shot in Richmond this summer. The remaing scene is a critical one, scene 47, wherein we learn why Mr. Thompson left his law practice.

The challenge - shoot outside an NYC courthouse, arguably one of the most famous halls of justice in the world, and shoot the scene in post 9-11 NYC when city security is at its height, without getting a permit.

No big deal, right? People do it all the time.

Still, the idea of the cops showing up and confiscating our camera halfway through the shoot,gives me nightmares. It keeps me up most of the night before we attempt our little guerilla filmmaking black-op mission.

Our plan was simple: rehearse ahead of time, hide the camera, and pretend the cast and crew don't know each other. So we'll act out the scene without revealing the camera to get a master shot, and then (and this moment is critical,) we'll break cover, reveal the boom pole to the world and run the scene five times in a row without stopping to get all the coverage we need. Hopefully we'll be gone before the cops can mobilize.

After all, if you 're just pointing a video camera at some people on some courthouse steps, you can get away with calling yourself a tourist (and our cameraman had a CA driver's license). But once you pull the boom pole out, you acknowledge that you sort of know what you're doing, and you darn well know you're supposed to have a permit.
These are the things I lose sleep over.

We're supposed to shoot Saturday morning - the forecast is heavy rain - I call the actors and Gladys and Brian on Friday night and tell them we're on stand by for Sunday, our back up day. Shannon and I go to a Halloween party Friday night and don't feel guilty about staying out late.

Saturday afternoon, the forecast looks good, I call everyone and tell them we're a go. We're to meet at the Starbucks on the corner of Court and Joralemon at 8 a.m.
It's daylight savings time - hopefully no one will show up at 7 a.m. by accident.

At 7:15, I wake up, shower, put on my costume. Shannon helps me lug the equipment a few blocks to Starbucks. The phone rings. It's Heather: she slept through her alarm, she's coming as fast as she can. At Starbucks Shannon orders a Grande Vanilla Latte and a pumpkin scone - I don't fel like eating - I have OJ. I'm getting nervous.

The phone rings. It's Tara and Jeremy. They're running a few minutes behind, they're coming as fast as they can.

Outside the neighborhood is waking up. More people = more potential bystanders = trouble.

The phone rings. It's Gladys and Brian. Thye're waiting for a train, they'll be there as soon as they can.

Now everyone is late (we would have been late, too, if we didn't live right around the corner) and the only one we haven't heard from yet is Tony. I assume we'll have to do the scene without him.

Heather shows up first, then Gladys and Brian, then Tony, who apologizes, the 4/5 train wasn't running.

Tara and Jeremy arrive - they look great - all the actors do - they've chosen perfect costumes.
The team is ready.

Gladys and Brian and I scope out the set. It's still a pretty quiet morning, but a police van is parked fifty feet from where we want to shoot.

We try to recon nonchalantly and mostly succeed. I point out where we'll be, just between the 4th and 5th column on the courthouse steps. Brian nods. We run back to Starbucks to tell the others we're ready. The group heads over, the actors take their places on the steps. Brian pretends he's a tourist and Gladys signals us to go. Shannon watches the cops like a hawk. It's still not totally obvious what we're doing, so we act out the scene and get the master shot.

I walk over to confer with Gladys and Brian. Master shot's in the can, I look at Gladys. "Well?"
"Let's do it," Gladys says, with the air of someone who knows she must jump off a cliff, and doesn't see any sense in waiting.

We pull out the boom and we all run up the stairs, camera and mics blazing. It occurs to me in this moment that I have a number of responsibilities:
1) I wrote the scene - if it sucks, it's on me.
2) I am in the scene - if the acting sucks, it's on me.
3) I directed the scene. Gladys and I work closely on the scenes where I appear, since she can see what's happening (and she knows what she's going to need when she sits down in the editing room) but I blocked it, I instructed the actors, so if the story isn't coming across, it's on me.
4) I am producing, so if the cops give us a hard time, or take our tape, or take our camera, or get any of the actors in trouble, or they shut us down, then I've wasted the morning of all these generous people who have decided to get up early on a cold, blustery Sunday morning and help me tell my story.

I try to forget all this is happneing and just be present, just be there, just be in the scene.

Match Teaser

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 14:33:00 +0000

Here's our teaser. Hope to have the pilot done by Christmas!

EDITING

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 17:09:00 +0000

So now we’re editing. Gladys has the lion’s share – I’m doing scenes 1-12, she’s doing 13-52. We’re discovering where our holes are, what we should have done better. We're discovering that we're not as great as we thought we were. We're discovering that the back slapping and joyous yelps of glee that we uttered at the wrap party when we finished shooting were just shouts of triumph that we had made it through the week. Turns out, we're not so goddam brilliant.

In one scene there’s dust on the lens. We knew it when we shot it, but the day was going so well, we were supposed to be way behind and we were actually getting ahead and it would have derailed the whole production to stop and do the shot over and it felt great to say, 'naw, we got it, we’re moving on, we’re rolling baby!”

We should have stopped and done it again. Coulda shoulda woulda.

The name of the game is coverage. Coverage. I read a review a while back and some famous film director was lamenting the fact that directors don’t make films like Hitchcock anymore. Hitchcock , so the story goes, had every shot planned out in his head: he knew precisely how it would all fit together, in fact he shot it in such a way so that it COULD ONLY be put together the way he wanted it, thwarting the suits at the studio, defying them to make sense of it any other way.

OK, yeah, sounds great, if you’re a genius. If you’re not a genius, and most of us aren't, it turns out you shouldn't pretend to be Hitchcock, or use his methods, because you never know. You never know what might inspire you in the editing room. There are so many decisions to make, thousands upon thousands – why not give yourself as many options as you can?

That’s why we shoot: to give the editor as many options as possible. The film’s written three times, right? - blah blah blah - you've heard this all before.

THE SHOOT - Part 5 - Wrapped

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 18:11:00 +0000

The last night we had a wrap party hosted by Amy and Dan Ludwin (their daughter Caroline was one of our extras). We watched dailies, cackled like kids at every single little brilliant thing we had shot (warning: the dailies always look great). We stayed up until 6:00 a.m., someone barfed in the sink and Greg wrote the Ludwins a hilarious thank you note that I never saw. I’m sure we kept them up way past their bedtimes. For most of the world is was a school night. For us the work was DONE.

Highlights:
Chris Ceraso’s wonderful turn as the Headmaster.
Elaine Bromka as the hilariously uptight music teacher.
Kyle Masteller and the toke 'em up posse
Michael "I'd be happy to direct you" Schreiber
Bob's performance art
Greg and Brooke's love/hate relationship
All of Julie's Eve Ensler moments
Emily fainting
Annah's banana
Kurt's gas can
Dawn's 'Kick Me' sign

The actors take a funny script (it better be funny, or tightly drawn, or SHORT, otherwise why are you wasting all these people’s time?) – the actors take it and make it better – they, what else – give it life. That's a rule: trust your people. Work with people who are great at what they do and create an environment where they can give you everything they've got. The production, to be efficient, requires intolerably long hours. Do everything you can to fill those hours with trust. You want your people taking risks. Keep them laughing between takes. Care for them. They are surrounded by people who do not nourish them. Care for your people and they will give you their best.

THE SHOOT - Part 4

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 18:10:00 +0000

I didn't keep a diary during the shoot because there wasn't any time for it. But we were sufficiently organized that when one of our stars had to fly back to New York for 24 hours in the middle of the 6 day shoot (and we had already moved her scenes around 6 or 7 times to try to make all of our lives easier) nobody panicked. Shannon figured out the flights and when she would have to leave and when was the earliest she could be back and we made it happen.

When Tony got sick and couldn't make the trip to Richmond, we called off our search for a Richmond courthouse and decided, we'll shoot the courthouse scene in New York in September. The courthouses up there look bigger and more imposing anyway.

The biggest rule of all - follow this one and people will like working with you - don’t keep anyone waiting around unnecessarily. Arrange it so that people arrive when they must and can leave as early as possible.

THE SHOOT - Part 3

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 18:09:00 +0000

Organize, organize, organize. Rehearse every scene before you shoot it. Direct the entire movie on paper. Know what every shot is going to look like a month before you shoot. If you are infinitely prepared you will be ready to take advantage of the wonderful improvisations your artists will come up with. We had two or three fabulous contributions come up each day – I can’t tell you what they are without spoiling the movie – but I can tell you they emerged because we were ahead of schedule and had time to shoot a few extra lines here and there when they raised their glorious heads. Good ideas can come from anywhere. Our sound guy provided the funniest improv’ed line of the film. Two of our extras came up with a shot idea that was as good as any we had storyboarded.

I subscribe to Robert Rodriguez’s populist approach to filmmaking. The days of the film auteur in the black turtleneck and beret are behind us. The Panasonic DVX100A is everyone’s friend. Final Cut Pro is easy to learn. For less than a few thousand dollars, anyone can do it now.

Can you do it well? is the question.

THE SHOOT - Part 2

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 18:08:00 +0000

A rule: if you’re going to produce a movie, get an AD or two who are absolutely first rate. Gladys and Katie did a lot of worrying so that I wouldn’t have to. Elizabeth (Mom) also did her fair share, getting people from the airport, taking people to the airport, arranging for all of the housing of our 15 New York actors including a number of highly accomplished 30-year veterans. Our goal was to provide them with an experience and a working environment that did not waste their time, that was top notch given our budget restraints. The meals that were provided were very good, the beds were soft and the pillows had chocolates on them their first night. I figure, you put Godiva on someone’s pillow, they know you’re trying to take care of them.

So Mom sorted that stuff out months ahead of time. I talked to Collegiate probably five months before we set foot on the campus. We talked to SAG probably two months out – they require all their paperwork to be done 30 days in advance of shooting.

Katie and Gladys made sure the location was ready to go. Alfred and Jim would light it. When the lights were in place we’d bring in the actors and block and rehearse (we’d rehearsed everything in New York a few weeks prior, so everyone knew what they were doing in the scene, why they were there, what they were trying to accomplish). Alfred would watch the rehearsal and figure out where the camera should be. Jim would tweak lights, Glen would find the best, least obtrusive way to record sound. That's another rule: if you're going to make a movie, find a great crew.

THE SHOOT - Part 1

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 16:52:00 +0000

August 10, 2006 (The Match shoot was August 11-16)

7:30 wake up and finish packing.
8:15 car arrives, takes Mike, Bob, Kyle and Dave to Manhattan. Driver takes the LONGEST ROUTE POSSIBLE, we arrive late.
9:00 long line at CC Van Rental. We’re at the back of it. Clock ticking. If we don’t get on the road soon we hit infamous Washington DC rush hour traffic, which pushes back our production meeting and location scout, and gets us to bed later than midnight. We have six very long, very tightly packed days ahead, and every hour counts.
The rest of the people in line at CC are doing the same thing we’re doing, renting vans for a day or week of production. It makes me feel very small. Everyone’s doing this. How can we possibly produce a show that stands out?
10:00 a.m. – we arrive at Shannon’s UWS apartment – cast is assembled. Most of us, Kyle, Michael, Bob, Brooke, David, Shannon, Katie, Gladys, have worked with each other before.
Julie, Greg, Paco, Emily are new but seem easy to get along with.
10:45 a.m. out of the Lincoln Tunnel
11:45 actors have to pee
12:00 we stop for snacks, gas, rest stop
2:00 actors have to pee again, and they're hungry – we have two vans – the production van goes ahead, forgoing lunch in order to beat traffic. The 'Party Van' stops for lunch. Somebody, upon hearing that lunch is on the company, orders a beer.
5:00 p.m. The production van beats traffic - we make it to Richmond - the producers take a tour of Collegiate School – everyone’s excited by the location – it’s a great looking facility. By 7 the Party Van has arrived and we all have dinner - Holly's there to measure actors for their costumes. Alfred and Jim check out and balance the Glidecam. Mom and Per have consented to us turning their house into a Hotel for the week - they make us a fabulous meal - in fact the food all week will be four star - actors get their housing assignments. Producers have one last meeting. Lights out.

August 11-16

Every morning would start the same. I would wake up before my alarm clock, flip out, eat an apple, and immediately have to use the bathroom. Nerves. I figure it will get better once I've shot all my scenes, then I can just concentrate on directing. Having chosen to take a part in the pilot now seems like a terrible idea - I should have cast someone else so that I could wear fewer hats on the project and concentrate on the work at hand.

But as we shoot my scenes I remember that I love this too, acting, and while in my dark hours I fear my decision to act AND direct has sunk the project (come on, I ain't Mel Gibson), looking back I think, generally, I held my own, and you know what, fuck it, I loved doing it.

Week 130 - SpikeTV Eats It

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Sat, 13 May 2006 19:33:00 +0000

(This episode rated PG for language)

Turns out one of the teams we beat at 48HFP was a team of pros from Spike TV. Their film starred Rob Schneider's daughter (the Richmeister, Makin Copies, etc). But they couldn't handle Bucky's power, baby! They won 'Best Film with Rob Schneider's Daughter In It'

But I digress. Announcement, people, announcement:
After three great years of corporate paradise, I have decided to leave my desk job to pursue writing and directing projects full time. My new email address is david@matchproductions.com.

I'd say 'take this job and shove it,' but my boss has been really nice to me over the past three years. Thanks, Peter!

Week 129 - VICTORY!!!

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Thu, 11 May 2006 19:28:00 +0000

(This episode rated PG for language)

Team Bucky Wilson brought home the bacon last night, winning triple honors at the 48 Hour Film Project, Best of New York. Our short film GREED won in the following categories:
Best Editing – Gladys Murphy
Best Directing – David Stott
Best Film – GREED

We beat out 41 other teams for the honor, so it’s a pretty huge deal for us. Our film will be entered in the international contest and will be included in the Best of 48HFP DVD. We were particularly pleased for Gladys, who put in the longest hours of anybody and truly did a remarkable job.

Thanks for your support!

David

Week 128 - We Made It: the Best of New York - 48 Hr Film Project 2006

david@matchproductions.com (The Match - The Director's Blog) — Sun, 07 May 2006 19:23:00 +0000

(This episode rated PG for language)

Team Bucky Wilson's crowd-pleasing Drama "GREED" has been selected for the Best of New York screening on Wednesday, May 10.
Join in the fun!
See us rip off Wall Street and Glengarry Glen Ross in less than six minutes! Our potty-mouthed ensemble makes corporate malfeasance look downright sexy. And Michael's hair! It looks fabulous!

Details:
BUCKY WILSON PRESENTS:
"GREED"
at the BEST OF NEW YORK, 48HFP 2006
TIME: Wednesday, May 10th, 7:30pm
PLACE: Slainte, 304 Bowery
(between Bleecker & Houston)
COST: Free
ALSO: Awards Ceremony... find out the Judges' picks (Best Film, Best Actor, etc.) Hope to see you!