The Michael Bay experience

Basically I am talking about this so I can be done with it and say, "read my note". When comes to film everybody seems to get convinced that they are an expert on it because they have an opinion. Some one was telling me that Transformers movies where garbage because they did not have good three act structure and that Michael Bay had no right to get behind a camera unless he was the head of some explosion shot.

Several people have gone on and on about how terrible a person MB is and just overall a famous person's son who "cheated" his way into the industry, blah blah blah.

You know what, maybe all of these critic's are right. I only know what my experience is and the little details about MB's personal life and what ever I could care less about.

2 things, one Michael Bay gave me a chance and I know that when I saw him at the wrap party for the Chicago Crew he was genuinely excited when I told him that myself and Rob got to work on the film for 11 days. He was excited to talk about the robots and the place that the film was coming from. He was talking to me not at me or over me. We had a conversation (Ian Bryce chiming in at the right spots) that if you heard it would sound like two geek's who loved Transformers as kids and got to see them come to life.

You may have to "run with a banana" on a MB set, but that is to me is an honor.

Besides I was in a Military Academy that was sponsored and run by JTF6 out of Panama, and a Heavy Industrial Painter's Apprentice I can work 99% of anybody I meet under the table. People complain because the can't handle the heat.

Yeah I know, it's not cool or whatever to be excited about working on a film, and I know the enthusiasm and a genuine desire to work my arse off on a set are usually looked down upon by all the cool kids because they are so "unimpressed by famous people".

For me I say "It would suck to not be excited" because that would mean I no longer love what I do and it is just a job. I have 3 jobs, and they will always be just a job. The first short film I ever wrote, took me 5 weeks dozens or rewrites. Josh(the director) and myself stayed up for 72 hours straight building set's and doing everything to make sure things where ready when the crew got there, during the shoot and after everybody left.

It was the beginning of my career and one of the best days of my life. I have been to Hollywood, I have sold everything for a film, I have been hung up on, blown meeting, and slept on the street for a networking opportunity. Yet on day 11 on MB set it was still like that first day painting sets and going over the script with a fellow film junkie at 2 in the morning.

I am not in film because "it's cool" or "it beat bar tending/or school". I am in film because I am addicted I love it it is part of what I am. Guess what, it's part of who Michael Bay is. When I met him and Ian on what Rob and I call "Day 0" I saw what I could become. The odds are good that I won't, that doing what I am doing now is as far as many people ever get.

The thing is I've already won, because I know that I am never going to stop. What ever the odds who ever tries to crush my career, or tell me I don't know how to light a shot, or my script "still needs work". It does not matter these are the same people who hate MB yet who have never Directed anything. When your talking in film, generally your not doing.

That said, I have work to do.

Originally posted on my facebook...

Be careful what you wish for.....contracts

Ok so the latest hurtle. "Two meeting's away from the money" is a great way to think of things until your actually getting close then you get to what I like to call "contract land".

What "contract land" or "contract hell" depending on how many you have to do is where your talking to legitimate persons with legitimate contacts to the money that want to invest serious amounts of cash into your property(script/production/whatever your selling).

Everything you do at this stage begins with the script, and how people percieve the overall viability of your property. Basically," will it sell". If they think yes then your in a great position, because what happens next is you actually get to do an initial pitch to the money yourself. Keeping in mind that often their are many many many "middle men(or women)" that you have to got through. As a producer your actually a middle person yourself.

As a rule the money does not like to talk to the talent at all except in social situations ie wrap parties or awards shows. Why you ask? Because someone spending millions of dollars on something went to a business school and is concerned about the bottom line not which scene is going to be shot entirely with a steady cam. Creative people usually want to talk about "vision" and "theme". That is a huge waste of time in ANY meeting with money. Never bring the director/writer to an initial meeting with with the money.

How do you do this you ask? This is where contracts come in.

Wikipedia sources the definition of a contract as:

"...a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties with mutual obligations, which may or may not have elements in writing. "

But they are so much more. A contract is the thing that keeps people who are not lawyers honest. It's what gets people to do things that they have changes there mind about.

Let's say you have a very paranoid writer who also wants to produce a film(mostly because he should have the balls to be a director but wont put the work in, but I digress) and has been tossed around the industry so does not trust anybody. How do you get him to relax and keep him away from the money initially? By the way you want to keep this guy away from the money because his paranoia will be contagious and the investor will then get spooked and you'll have wasted a ton of time and hope for nothing.

Your write a contract that the writer/producer signs that basically states that you won't leave him out and won't let him cut you out. So by nature of the contract if you go to the money and leave him out of the process he can sue you. Now actually enforcing that is very difficult to do even if the violation or "breach" of contract is obvious and blatant. The reality is that at the end of the day everybody wants to do business and nobody wants to get screwed. You establish your relationship with the talent early on and in writing then everybody gets to relax and just do business. Nobody has to worry about getting left out.

Now you go to the investor, you pitch the project. They either say yes and set up another meeting to discuss terms of the investment or they say no and you go to lunch early.

This is also where "Two meetings away from the money" comes in again. You still have to wait.
Many investment firms at this point will run a "due diligence" check. Which is basically where the do a sort of "corporate back round check" on you and your company. They go to see who has done what. If you've been convicted of securities fraud or bank robbery they may immediately bail. By contrast if you've got a dozen DUI's they may not. It just depends, mostly they want to know that your not running some sort of scam and that you are who you say you are. Often these meetings are facilitated by some sort of middle man that you've met somewhere coffee shop/gym, friend of a friend, so your being vouched for. So due diligence does not always happen. Especially now, when you might be dealing with a company that is owned by a famous rapper so the have a few felonies in their pot.

Mostly just go to the meeting being as ready as possible, go in ready to answer any question and treat each meeting as though you where getting the money that day.

NOW, having said that. I treat every meeting seriously but I also don't get over excited. Yes my pulse always races and I always am a little nervous. Which is good, but you should not go out and quit your day job until the check clears in your bank account.

Vocabulary: Producing

Ok so through out the last year or so I have heard a bunch of terms that are not in a normal person's dialog and was lost when I initially heard them. Once explained they made sense, now I will share some of these with you. Also, I hope to be able to do this more and more.

"Above the Line" : Is a term that refers to a line in the physical budget of a film in which all the people above that line are making points(or a %) on the film in addition to the pay rate they receive. All of the producers, the director, and major actor's are found above the line.

"Below the Line" : See above the line and this is everybody else on the film. The Gaffers, the assistant Directors, the Best boy, key grips, make-up, ect. All the 9 to 5 people so-to-speak who simply get "paid".

"Signatory" : A person(usually a producer) who is responsible legally for all of the Union contracts that are signed for a film. A SAG signatory is the person who is liable in the Screen Actors Guild contract that is signed with the film for example. The directors union, down to the teamsters all have to have this person in order for them to work on a project. Which is why it is usually the supervising producer who is the signatory.

"Letter of Interest, Intent/ aka Promissory Note" : This is a tough one because like all good legal speak in contracts it is subject to interpretation. "Letter of Intent" is the easy one to explain because it has been the standard for a long time. It has been said to me that "Letters of Interest" are now replacing these because of so many liability suits that have been filed. Either way the point of an "L.O.I." is that you have a physical document showing a persons intent to work on you project.

EXAMPLE: You have an actor friend who has some small notoriety but has not blown up yet. Your a producer of indie films and know that this actor is perfect for your next role. So you get the actor to sign an L.O.I. and now you can go to investors and say that the actor(one of the only times it is appropriate to name drop) has signed an L.O.I. Hopefully this is enough to convince them to give you money. Especially if the actors last project does better than expected and now they are a name.

Promissory notes are something I got from real estate which refers to intent to sell. Intent to work.
This is the Wikipedia definition.
A promissory note, referred to as a note payable in accounting, or commonly as just a "note", is a negotiable instrument, wherein one party (the maker or issuer) makes an unconditional promise in writing to pay a sum of money to the other (the payee), either at a fixed or determinable future time or on demand of the payee, under specific terms. They differ from IOUs in that they contain a specific promise to pay, rather than simply acknowledging that a debt exists. In common speech, other terms, such as "loan," "loan agreement," and "loan contract" may be used interchangeably with "promissory note" but these terms do not have the same legal meaning. Whereas a promissory note is evidence of a loan, it is not the loan contract, which would contain all the terms and conditions of the loan agreement.^[1]

Guarantee (filmmaking)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Pay or play contract)

Not to be confused with Pay to Play.

In filmmaking, a guarantee is a term of an actor or director's contract that guarantees remuneration if, through no fault of their own, the artist is released from the contract. Such an arrangement is known informally as a “play-or-pay” contract.

Many stars insist on guarantees in their contract due to the major time commitment agreeing to appear in a film can mean. For example, Kurt Russell's decision to appear in the film Soldier, for which he was paid $15 million, was a total commitment of 18 months, during which time he was not able to appear in another film. If the film were cancelled, or if he were replaced (but not if he withdrew of his own accord), Russell would be paid $15 million, or a large part of that fee, to compensate him for clearing his schedule.

Studios are reluctant to agree to guarantees but accept them as part of the deal for signing major talent. They also have the advantage of enabling a studio to simply remove a player under such a contract with few legal complications.

That last one I have heard a bunch but had to look up myself.

That's it for now.

Notes from the Budget: Producing

For the last few months I have been endeavoring to get a film made that has a current budget of $15 Million. One of my big problems is that this is not enough money, people are actually afraid to invest in the project because the current budget is too low.

When me and my team sat down and looked at it we thought that it should be around $40-$45 million dollars. The producer/writer who ones the rights to the project whom we would be partnering with has had a very hard time with this. He keeps saying to me "I just don't think it will cost this much..." and then we go down a list of ways that we can save money above the line . Which is fine, I don't have a problem with saving money on a project.

The issue is that in him having an issue with it he is making it harder for me to do my job and negotiate with the people who actually will be signing initial checks.

Because the budget is presenting differently then what I am selling them on because the will not agree to a smaller budget.

This is a hard thing for both the Producer/Writer whom I am working with to grasp because, "I am so used to doing independents that I...". Yes, this is an independent. So yes, he is still working on an independent film. It's just not an art house indie that is going to festivals. This is an indie with a budget and a real plan for distribution.

So through much negotiation I got the Producer to agree that the budget can be modified down much easier than up and that having "too much" money is not a bad thing. It seems that this would be intuitive but he is coming from the point of view that if the numbers are too big it will scare people away. I can understand this but I wholeheartedly disagree. The numbers signify intent. If some investor can't afford the budget then we really should not be talking to them anyway. In my mind either you believe in the project or you don't.

Some indie films are art-house and tailor made for the Lifetime network. Some are made for everybody and belong in 3,000+ theaters. This is the latter, it's one of the human interest character stories that people will love that is a sports movie. It has tons of Oscar potential and is in the boxing genera.

Having gotten through all of that, now we are just negotiating about getting the budget reworked to reflect the numbers we want and we get hit with something else.

The Producer/writer calls me and tells me that he has an offer on the table from a hedge-fund.
They want to give him $6 Million for 50% of the points and then he has to go get another 6 for a locked in budget of $12 mill.

What does all this mean:

That basically for half of the rights on the gross profits from the film(half of the ticket sales, dvd, ect) they will give the Producer/Writer half the budget. Now he still has to come up with the other six million dollars to meet the budget. BUT! He can't get more that six million dollars. Which is really really bizarre to me. It sounds like they are going to screw him out of 50% of the rights to this thing. So now I have told him to take the deal because we can't beat the time frame of comming up with 6 million in less than two weeks. Talking to one of my partners in my company, it was addressed that someone needs to warn the Producer/Writer of this thing that he is getting screwed and how.

That seems to now be my job, but I don't completely feel that he should not take the deal. This producer/writer has been trying to make this movie for 12 years, and has sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars into this project. He need's to count his losses at this point.

But if he takes that deal we are out of it. There was a possibility of us being the second drop and now that is not the case. My two other partners want no part of a second drop on this project if the 6m for 50% deal is signed. I agree, it seems like a really bad deal. Hope to talk to everybody tomorrow and see if this situation can be salvaged.

Some of my work...

Directing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNN6bMfUmJQ

You win some and you loose some....

When it comes to writing scripts there is a lot of advice out there. For me Blake Synder's "Save the Cat" is the screen writer's Bible/Handbook. I reference that book all the time and will continue to do so for years.

Here is the long and short of this post. I got fired from a writing job a few minute's ago. No matter what the circumstance it always sucks to get fired.

The reality is that I was doing ok and could have finished the project on time with what they wanted. The project was 3 weeks behind when I came on board, I got almost no producers' notes and stayed up for 36 hours writing the first draft to meet a deadline that was not my doing. I did the same thing with the second draft after getting a brutal critique from the professor. Oh, yeah I should mention that this is a short film project for a film school. My room mate asked me for help and so I tried.

The worst part is that I feel like I let my friend down. She had faith that I could write the hell out of this thing, and I apparently couldn't.

The best part of all of this is what I have learned.
I am reminded of how many no's I got producing for Josh. How many times people at different office's didn't even want to talk to me and some how I would get people that I had no right to talk to. Persistence, in my dad's words "keep on, keepin on".

Some of the Nuts & Bolts of the experience are that I learned:

• When you take over a writing project get as many notes from the Producer as to what he want's BEFORE you write one word of the script.
• Have your team of readers ready, that is, people that you trust that are not connected to the project to read your work and give you feed back.
• When you get a hash critique there might be more to the story.
• When dealing with a harsh critique there is a technique to dealing with it.

1. Read the notes, then respond naturally as though you where talking to that person. Write it down but DO NOT SEND IT! To anybody, this is about coping and learning.
2. Give it time and don't write anything for a couple of days. Keep thinking about the project and let yourself have time to reflect on what each point of the critique actually meant.
   
3. When you do go back and finally get ready to write it should be a couple of days later, and your mind set should be humble, hungry and ready to meet the challenge.

That's what becoming a better writer seems to be about, taking the hits and learning.

Having said all of that I will connect the two scripts to this post and let you guys judge for yourselves.

Insanity, it's business!

One of the best days on any shoot I have been on ever! Last night was so amazing. We didn't get started until after 10pm and then we shot a bunch of footage until after 2am. I didn't get home to sleep until after 3:45 am. Then up again at 6:35 to see that Rob left my coach and got to his day job on time(he's awesome after everything last night he wakes up and drives an hour and a half to get yelled at all day in the photo-lab at Wally World. AKA Wal-mart.

The shoot started out normal and we where getting the shots we wanted. The only bad part is that it was freezing cold. So we decide to try and find a place that was open and try to thaw out while planning what we would shoot next. Then Spiro suggests that we go a friend of his place called "the Joint" and we decide to check it out.

At first it seems like the guy at the door is not going to let us in then he finally gives in and as soon as we get in the place Spiro goes straight to the back and right up to the owner, who when he seems him gives him a hug like a long lost relative and Rob and I are introduced to Stan and his associate Paulie. The nicest guys in the world, Stan grabs us a couple of beers and we go to separate lounge so we can hear each other over the band.

For the next 20 minutes the four of us talk shop about the site, Stan of course understands the merit of what we are doing and starts telling us of all of these other events that he would like us to film that he is apart of.

We tell him our going rate $$$ and he likes the price. At this point Rob and I are really pumped, it's just par-for-the-course for Spiro and Stan.

The next thing you know we're are filming in the bar! Stan gives us the green light to film some raw footage for our opening for the whole show right then and there! So of course we put Stan in the shot next to the best looking blond in the room!

I know I am forgetting stuff but it was all good and a crazy gorilla shoot. We had the band get in on it "Vangando" that's there name. They we're really good to work with and some of the other patrons of the bar to fill up the shot. By the end of it I am getting handed business cards and shaking hands(getting um....very affectionate hugs from some of the women). As it turns out one of the cards I got was from the General Manager of the biggest night club/bar in the city. He handed me his card between takes and was like "We should talk, we gotta work something out" and began selling me on how great his club was.

I can't believe it, earlier that day we had tried to deal with the business office of a well known but smaller club and they sent me a curt email stating that they where "not interested".
Now usually I am not offended by rejection emails, but this one was really cold. Then the same day we get a Club that is so big I had not tried them yet because they are so intimating, and then they came to us.

It would seem that the moral of this story is that no matter what happens keep shooting. If you keep at it, and you have the right team together. Eventually they will come to you.

I should say that by "keep at it", I mean all of it. Specifically shooting though. Rob said something on the way back to my place that struck me as very profound.

He said "I love working with you" and I of course tried to respond with a similar platitude, but Rob being the mind that he is took it a level deeper and explained further.

He said "I love working with you because things get done. I worked with a way bigger company, more people and it was a whole lot of talk."

Rob explained that the ratio of talk to actual filming for the resources they had was ridiculous.
Something that both he and I learned early is that if you want to find success you have to keep filming, you have get on a set or whatever in pre-prod. Most important is to keep shooting, that's it.

FINAL THOUGHTS: on last nights shoot

I am sitting here in my apartment, with no real good prospect for what I am going to eat today. Not a whole lot of hope that I will be able to pay rent (and I am 1 month behind) this week. I can't seem to go back to sleep so I am tired. Most of all I am content, it's strange, it's some kind of strange monster but it is mine.

Many of you may not know this but I am a man of a certain faith, I've prayed about this specifically the night before. This was more then I asked for and more then I dared hope for, but I had faith that it would be taken care of. Do what you want with that, to me it's just giving credit where it's do without shouting about it in the courtyard of some church/synagogue/mosk/temple. He gives to me and I am grateful.

Hmmm, I wonder-maybe now I can sleep.