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Michael, how did you first get the biz bug? I got the photography bug first and it led to cinematography. I suppose I got tired of pictures that didn’t move. I was also a drummer in high school and the drumming became editing. Around that time I was also seeing foreign films which, in 1961 in central Illinois was life altering. My world bubble was popped when I saw that people lived very differently around the world. I experienced the power of cinema. As for the business of entertainment, I was 13 and had a band. It was my job to get us gigs. I went to the school board and said that I wanted our band to play the big dance at the beginning of the year. I told them we cost $75 total. They said, "too much, we don’t expect a big crowd". (This was a 6-man band mind you!) So, on the spot I said, "well, how about this? You don’t pay us anything if no one shows up but otherwise we get 75% of the door. No risk to you." They agreed. That night over 1200 kids showed up at $1 each. My musicians became the highest paid players in town and everyone wanted to be in my band. I became a producer on my first percentage deal. I started as a cameraman and edited as well. Then started making my own little films. After a while I came up with bigger ideas that had to be funded and so I had to raise the money, and had to hire everyone, and oversee the project. I stopped shooting and became a producer and director. As the projects got bigger and more frequent, I stopped producing and directing and became an executive producer. I got further away from actually the hands-on of making films. So in the last 10-12 years I’ve taken what I’ve learned on the financing/marketing/distribution side and have gone back to directing and producing my own projects. With miniature DV cameras you don’t have to beg and grovel and convince someone to invest in your project. You can make whatever you want. It’s an exciting time. What was the governing plot point, if you will, that sent you to producing? If you want something done, do it yourself. I suppose I was too impatient to wait around for someone to invite me to make a project so I initiated things one right after another. I would have loved it when I was first starting out to have someone raise the money and just let me do the filmmaking. I did once meet a guy who said he’d be the money-raiser and I could be the filmmaker but after a few months he couldn’t raise any money. What I learned was that he wasn’t able to communicate what the project was about well enough and why it would make someone their money back. So I had to go out there and raise it myself. That was my rite of passage and I became a producer. A producer’s job is to get it done, pure and simple. If you’ve got a film or video or television program that simply MUST be done then that’s your motivation. Sometimes it’s about creating something that has a strong social message and sometimes it’s about telling a wonderful story. I have always failed to see the glamour part of it or care much about that. It’s really a terrific acknowledgment if you are able to make filmmaking a livelihood but it certainly isn’t a get-rich-quick business for most of the filmmakers that are making between 2000-3000 indie features a year and heaven knows how many shorts. But these are not commercial projects and are made for other reasons. Basically, when I look at a new project I ask myself if it contributes to our understanding, or to our humanity in some way. Does it empower the viewer? I won’t do something that doesn’t meet that criteria which narrows the choice considerably. When you are looking for a script to produce, what grabs you first and best? A well told story. Engaging characters that I care about. A breakthrough idea. Something that I learned and what others to know about. In general terms, not necessarily specifics, as I know that there is often a non-disclosure agreement, how do you arrange your financing for the projects you do? I work around the edges of the industry. When I worked within the industry for pay cable broadcasters or video program suppliers and distributors they financed the projects I produced or executive produced. I could green-light projects and write checks. Not so as an independent producer. Where I had been a buyer, I am now a seller. As an independent filmmaker, the financing comes from private, non-industry sources. Of course you also try to pull other pieces together from foreign sales, broadcasters, ancillary rights sales and even, especially in Europe, various funds. The more complex and expensive the project, the more pieces you need to put together the budget. Even then it doesn’t guarantee you can get all the money together at the same time. What are the pitfalls along the way for say a writer who wants to produce his or her own work? It probably makes a lot of sense for a writer to also direct his or her script than produce it. The writer is the first to clearly visualize the story and if she or he can also talk to actors and a crew, they can make their own money. (Some writers work better alone and in this case they should not attempt it. They have to be good social communicators.) If you want to direct and can write, this gives you leverage and a pathway into directing. A producer moving into directing is much harder because a producer (except in episodic television) doesn’t create or write the story. Do you get involved in the actual filming, pre- and post-production, or do you limit yourself to the acquisition of properties and funding? I’ve worked on many sides of the business. I’ve shot some shorts, and done a lot post-production during my pay-TV and commercial days, and I’ve acquired a lot of programming. My career roughly breaks down to a decade as an independent filmmaker in San Francisco, a decade in New York as an entertainment executive in programming, distribution and marketing, and a decade as an independent again in Los Angles and now England. I am taking what I learned on the inside about the business and marketing side and applying it solely to projects that I want to do. Most are very small and end-run kinds of projects. No sense banging your head against the wall with high budget projects that probably won’t get made when digital video is widely available. Do you have any particular preferences as to what you will or won’t do, or insist always happen? No rules other than I will know it when I see it. A project feels right and is either for me or not. It should contribute somehow to the benefit of those that see it. I have pretty high standards about what I’d like to make and that limits the possibilities. I was just going through the paper today and of the dozens and dozens of new movies out there, only one or two even appeal to me. As you get older, movies have less relevancy in your life, which is too bad. Movies are made for younger audiences. I wouldn’t get out of bed to work on most of the movies that are being made these days. Did you have any particular educational background that helped you along the way in this profession? The educational process continues. I am always learning new things and trying to see the future as it unfolds. I am usually ahead of the curve which is a curse because I have a lot of explaining to do. I was the first to use the paint box on television, I had to convince National Geographic to enter the home video business, I produced a video-to-film feature in 1986. I like to try new things and learn by what happens. Sometimes its very successful, sometimes it’s a big, big flop. Also, I have a publishing company that publishes ‘how to’ books about filmmaking. This keeps me ahead of the curve because I seek out information that I want to know. I publish these books for myself; to fill in gaps in my own knowledge. The books are successful because they also fill a need for other filmmakers all around the world. What have you produced so far? Short comedies and dramas, live variety-entertainment television programs, PBS documentaries, pay television segments, political campaign commercials, home videos, music documentaries, infomercials, an animated feature, digital movies, books, audio cassettes, websites, and even a board game. A lot of stuff but it’s no big deal. The principles of manifesting all these media products is the same: development, production, manufacturing, distribution. Get any of the steps wrong and you stumble. Should a writer try to develop character quirks or set a mood in a scene when it’s written, or is that the province of the director? The writer can provide as much as possible in the text. The director may or may not use what is written when it comes to a character quirks or expressions of the writer’s scene. The actor often discovers and presents something more interesting that the director will use. What do you see yourself doing ten years from now? It would be to live and raise my family in a stone cottage in Cornwall by the sea. I would like to produce and direct films, publish books, and work in media education. I would like to run my company virtually with associates throughout the world. But I don’t have to wait 10 years. I’m doing that now. What do you believe is the main responsibility of a producer? The producer is the father (or mother) of the project. He or she protects it and nourishes it and oversees it from conception throughout its life. The producer brings the resources together in a way that the results will, hopefully, be greater than the sum of all its parts. Everyone will stand back and say, "magnificent". Do you have a philosophy that guides what you do, and if so, will you summarize it for our readers? Go get ‘em. Profound, eh? I write this at the end of my books and say it at the end of my seminar. Basically what I am saying is to go out there, learn what you need to know, have fun, get it done with integrity, and make a contribution with the limited time you have here. Seize the moment. Don’t complain about how hard it is, just do it, a step at a time. Do you have any advice for writers, producers, actors, directors, etc., that you would like to share with us? We are all very unique and have our own special skills and insights. Whatever you dream up is possible and supportable. What do you think the next major trend in film will be? The computer allowed writers and publishers to have the capital equipment to self-publish (desktop publishing) their own books and magazines. Shortly thereafter computers with even more storage and memory allowed musicians to write and record their music on home studio equipment and release it to the world. We are finally at the same point with digital filmmaking. For a small investment, an auteur can have all the tools to create movies or whatever other form of moving picture that they want and DVD and web streaming to distribute it. Of course it means that the auteur has to be a Renaissance man or woman, and that’s the rub, because few people can do it all. (There’s a reason Hollywood features have 100 people standing around!) Digital filmmaking means that you can just go do it. You can get it done and you don’t then have to convince anyone that you have a good idea. It’s going to be a very exciting time. Thank you for your questions. People may visit www.mwp.com for information about our "how-to" filmmaking books and our film projects.
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