Producing for Dummies

As I mentioned previously, the final impetus to my making this movie was the screening of Michael's film 'Crackpot'. That was Dec. 26, 2006. In early January I sent him the most recent revision of my script, and asked him what he thought a rough budget might be. Could it be done for less than $15,000? He thought maybe - "it’s possible, but only if you can get great deals on locations, props, etc." Sure, I thought. I can do that. No problem. More famous last words.

I asked Michael to direct. I was thrilled when he accepted, and we quickly agreed on a salary.

Let me just mention right here, I trust Michael not only as a talented filmmaker, but as a real friend. In spite of our 20+ year age difference, we have enjoyed a steady email correspondence over many years, and have exchanged many screenplay reviews with one another. He has always expressed a sincere interest in my extended family and our various escapades. Not only this, but when I needed someone to take my younger daughter to her high school prom - don't ask me how a beautiful, brilliant girl ended up with no invitations to the prom - Michael came through. That act alone made him worthy of directing my movie.

Back to January 2007. I had no idea how to make a movie, so I decided to just take it one step at a time. Michael certainly knew how to do this, so I figured I would just ask him what came next, every step of the way. As of today, with principal photography wrapped and editing underway, this has worked out pretty good so far, knock on wood. I also purchased a few books with titles such as "Producing Movies for Dummies".

I'm not exactly a dummy. I have a bachelor's degree from UCLA and two master's degrees - one from UCLA and one from UC Riverside. However, none of them are in Film.

Our first task was to put a casting notice in 'Backstage West', then to arrange a time and place for the auditions. We held the first round of auditions in a vacant rented office in Santa Monica., on Feb. 10.

Here is how we chose whom to audition. Michael and I went through each of the respondents and looked at their photos. We agreed 90% of the time on who we liked and who we didn't. This was completely based on the photos. We did not read the resumes at all. Aspiring actors, are you listening? We did not read the resumes. We had in mind very specific "looks" we wanted for each main character, and no amount of summer theatre, commercial work, bit parts in TV shows, student films, other indie films, etc. was going to make the wrong face look right. In fact, one particular Shore applicant had absolutely no experience except some stage work at his small town college. We didn't care. We liked the expression on his face in his head shot.

This was a non-SAG film, because I couldn't afford to pay the actors. We still received a plethora of applicants willing to work for no pay.

I set to calling the desired applicants and arranging audition times. I was a little nervous about this. What if they asked me a question I didn't know the answer to? I felt like a complete imposter - a math teacher posing as a movie producer. I was sure they would be able to sniff this out, like the smell of fear in trapped feral creatures.

"Do you have any sides?" the first applicant asked. I froze. What the hell were "sides"? Sides of fries? I decided it was best not to promise anything I might not be able to deliver. "No, " I replied to the first applicant, and every applicant after that. "I don't have any sides." I eventually figured out it had something to do with lines (of dialogue). So I was able to qualify my answer somewhat. "No sides. It'll be a cold reading."

The appointments were made. We were to see three Shores, five Cass's, three Lubitch's, two Jorge's, one Menendez, and one Handler.