"Corrado" - A production blog

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Adam,

I now have a hilarious story.

When I first moved to California I was staying at a buddies house in Newport Beach. One afternoon we venture down to Balboa Penninsula, just to lounge at the beach for the afternoon and maybe get a drink. Well turns out there is a little production going on, with these greased up beautiful volleyball players. We sit at the pier for a couple of minutes just checking it out...watch the director meander over to the women, talk, walk back, under a towel and watch the monitor. Stop. Repeat.

Turns out that was you!

I cannot tell you how weird it was...when I realized that. So touchette my man. An inspiration now on more than one occasion!
 
Wow, I never knew they had a rivalry, but like you guys said it makes sense. Personally, I prefer Sizemore. Adam, if you can get him to act at the same level he did on Michael Mann's woefully short lived "Robbery Homicide Division" you'll have a great performance on your hands.

I loved that show, it had some of the best cinematography I've ever seen on TV.
 
Casting Couch!

Just joking. No, seriously.

I've got about ten small roles that I needed to cast. Some are featured extras, some are actors with one liners, etc. You get to a point where it becomes tedious to hunt these people down individually and find them. So you have to put out a breakdown.

A breakdown is issued by Breakdown Services. In the past, I've used Actor's access, which is the free version.

It goes like this. You fill in a breakdown sheet with all the roles you want sent out, name, age, description, ethnicity, etc. Then it gets put out. In the case of Actor's Access - all registered actors on that site see it and then they submit themselves electronically to you. There is a barrier of anonymity - they can only contact you using c-mail which is Breakdown's proprietary system so all these actors can't spam you with mail. They can't phone you either.

Here is Wisdom: Actors are dangerous zealots. They will find any way they can to personally get a hold of you and plead with you to give them the part.

So for Corrado, I decided to use Breakdown Express instead.

Breakdown Express sends a bulletin out to only registered agents and managers and only they can submit their clients to me for consideration. In theory, you don't have the hassle of dealing with actors until an audition.

Since I was having a problem finding my lead (problem solved, I think, stay tuned), I thought I would post a breakdown for Corrado's role as well.

In a little over a day, I have received 3000+ submissions for my roles.

You would not beleive the names that have been submitted for my consideration: a few examples:

1. Ken Kercheval
2. Armand Assante
3. Daniel Baldwin
4. William Mapother (Tom Cruise's brother)
5. Tony Curran
6. Jason Mewes
6. About a dozen, I **** you not, people currently on TV with IMDB scores of less than 2000, whom you know but I forget their names.

It rained, man. The degree of talent was staggering.

Also staggering was the degree of ignorance of my breakdown.

I clearly stated that the lead role of Corrado, for example, was to be a caucasian male, ages 32-42, capable of firearms use, and Italian looking. MUST HAVE IMDb STAR METER BELOW 8000.

About half the people actually read what I wrote. About half didn't. I received submissions from:

1. Women
2. African Americans
3. People in wheelchairs
4. Senior citizens
5. People that didn't look Italian at all, with red hair
6. Asians
7. People with star meters over 8000. Way over 8000. Way, way, over 8000.

What the hell are these people (or I should say, their agents) thinking? How can Corrado the Sicilian be a black man, a guy with red hair, a woman, or someone in a wheelchair?????

It's not the character I had in mind!!!! Now I did have another breakdown for a character called Jimmy Kim. He had to be Asian, Korean in fact, and all the submissions were asians. So that worked out.

But man, people see lead role and they throw themselves at it.

In fact, Armand Assante, we love you baby, but at 58 years old you are not the early thirties, fit, lean hit man you used to be.

But it's entertaining.

Also, you will field calls all day from overzealous agents. They'll call you and say something like "I have your Corrado. You have to look at such and such. He just finished shooting blah blah and is perfect for the role."

At first I was polite, but after the tenth call I started being honest. I'd put them on hold, look the guy up, and say, sorry, not what I had in mind.

Bear in mind they have already submitted their guy, and with the phone call and e-mailing, they are just spamming you with submissions to get their people in.

Also, besides that, about 20 actors managed to get a hold of my e-mail (not too hard) and e-mailed me directly. Annoying.

But it's a numbers game for them, and as long as they make movies actors will be throwing themselves at you.

I'm on the verge of getting a new, private phone number and new, private e-mail address.

Okay, I'm kidding for now, but this brings me to another point.

There will come a time in my career that I will not be able to maintain open communications with the general public.

I dunno when it's going to be, either.

It's hard to actually accomplish anything while receiving hundreds of e-mails, proposals, questions, phone calls, and mail even now. Don't think this is directed here - some of you have contacted me from this board and I'm not talking about you. Just people in general.

This is why it's so hard to break into Hollywood. The industry isn't hard to get into....the people are hard to get to.

****, I'm in the industry now. That part was easy. But the sad part is that if Corrado achieves any success, any money, any notoriety at all, I'll be forced to limit my accessibility.

So if I had a few dozen hit movies would I be as hard to reach as Spielberg?

Of course. There's a reason why you can't just call him. Or walk into his office, or send him an e-mail.

With Corrado, I have a steady stream of inquires daily. As soon as the movie is done, they'll probably stop.

With Spielberg, there's people that make a living out of trying to pitch him stuff. Hundreds of people.

I shudder at the thought. I can barely keep up with e-mail and voice mail response now. So much so that I probably appear rude or distant. It's not the case. There's just too much for one person to deal with.
 
I hate to echo what everyone has already said 100 times, but i want to say congrats for making it this far and a big thanks for letting us all follow your journey.

Your a big inspiration to me because it sounds like we have similar personalities/style.

I really really look forward to reading the script when you make it available and will be in line if i ever get the chance to see this thing in theaters.

Keep it up man you got us all rooting for you, hopefully one day soon i will be able to follow in your footsteps.
 
This blog is priceless! Thanks Adam. Also, I love your writing style. Clear, to the point, and well-written (actual punctuation for readability!).

Again, thanks.

And now you see why production companies can turn into bureaucracies with so much overhead. We hire a woman to do nothing but fill out all that SAG paperwork! And I'm not even gonna start talking about phone calls...
 
This has been a fantastic blog ... I've enjoyed checking in every day to see the latest development. I've learned a great deal and look forward to other tidbits I can learn from your experiences. Like others, I am keenly interested in the upcoming information about how you raised your money ... but also am interested in the many other aspects, dealing with agents/insurance/actors/etc/etc. It has been eye opening, educational, and invaluable information.

So, when you finish Corrado, you want to produce my projects for me? :grin:

Seriously, thanks for the detailed info and keep up the great work! :thumbsup:
 
Hey Larry -

Ironically, I hate to produce. It's the one thing I've really proven that I am capable of at this point. Oh, I've directed small stuff, but not a feature. But by now, at this point, I've more or less done all the heavy lifting in producing a feature.

And I hate it.

I look forward to the day when I can bring my chair, my little french beret and viewfinder, and direct !!!! LOL!
 
Hi Adam. Thanks for all the info regarding the business side of things. I'd love to hear some insight regarding how your are prepping the more "technical" side of the production. How does one make the leap from shorts/commercials to a feature?

Camera/lighting tests on the actual locations?
Storyboards?
Director's notes?
Shot lists?
Rehearsals with the actors?
Sound tests?
Music tests?
Makeup?
Wardrobe?
Stunts?
etc

We now know what it takes to prep an actual production. Now how about details on prepping the film itself? The boring, less glamorous stuff.
Thanks again for all you've shared. You are truly an inspiration.
 
mentatDUKE said:
Hi Adam. Thanks for all the info regarding the business side of things. I'd love to hear some insight regarding how your are prepping the more "technical" side of the production. How does one make the leap from shorts/commercials to a feature?

Camera/lighting tests on the actual locations?
Storyboards?
Director's notes?
Shot lists?
Rehearsals with the actors?
Sound tests?
Music tests?
Makeup?
Wardrobe?
Stunts?
etc

We now know what it takes to prep an actual production. Now how about details on prepping the film itself? The boring, less glamorous stuff.
Thanks again for all you've shared. You are truly an inspiration.
Click to expand...

I'll go ahead and give this a shot...

The one thing I have learned as I've gotten into bigger and bigger productions is you cannot do everything yourself during production. You have to find a crew who is excellent in their work, efficient and who you can trust. You have to have a DP you can trust, a sound team you can trust, a wardrobe supervisor you can trust, makeup people you can trust, and the list goes on and on... Director's who try to micro-manage a production won't have the time they need to craft the story, that is why a great crew is so important.
 
I agree, Brandon. That sounds reasonable. However, I think during pre-pro, the director needs to meet w/ all these people and set the agenda, sign off on things, etc. 90% of a feature is pre-pro, right?

A director should indeed let go a bit during actual production, however.

My question is more, about how all this planning is being handled an managed, especially when the director is taking care of all the other business logistics that a UPM normally handles.


I ask because I'm trying to ascertain whether I'll need to hire an expensive unit production manager or if I can get away with doing the production stuff on my own. Help is always good but finding a producer you can trust and also has the know-how and social engineering skills is a tall order.

The issue is how to balance that with the craft of telling a story.
 
Brandon Rice said:
I'll go ahead and give this a shot...

The one thing I have learned as I've gotten into bigger and bigger productions is you cannot do everything yourself during production. You have to find a crew who is excellent in their work, efficient and who you can trust. You have to have a DP you can trust, a sound team you can trust, a wardrobe supervisor you can trust, makeup people you can trust, and the list goes on and on... Director's who try to micro-manage a production won't have the time they need to craft the story, that is why a great crew is so important.
Click to expand...

What happened to the Rebel Without a Crew Brandon we used to know?

=P
 
mentatDUKE said:
I agree, Brandon. That sounds reasonable. However, I think during pre-pro, the director needs to meet w/ all these people and set the agenda, sign off on things, etc. 90% of a feature is pre-pro, right?
Click to expand...
Absolutely. The film should be completely thought out, storyboarded, and ready to go so that by the time you get to production, it's merely a matter of assembling the film from the instructions you've already created. All those decisions need to be made beforehand, because when you've got forty people sitting around getting paid $100 to $5000 per day or more, that's a really bad time to be wasting time trying to figure out what you should be doing or how you should be doing it!
 
mentatDUKE said:
I agree, Brandon. That sounds reasonable. However, I think during pre-pro, the director needs to meet w/ all these people and set the agenda, sign off on things, etc. 90% of a feature is pre-pro, right?

A director should indeed let go a bit during actual production, however.

My question is more, about how all this planning is being handled an managed, especially when the director is taking care of all the other business logistics that a UPM normally handles.


I ask because I'm trying to ascertain whether I'll need to hire an expensive unit production manager or if I can get away with doing the production stuff on my own. Help is always good but finding a producer you can trust and also has the know-how and social engineering skills is a tall order.

The issue is how to balance that with the craft of telling a story.
Click to expand...

Of course, planning is HUGE (as Barry said above). I didn't mean to say you give up creative control, but decisions have to be made on-set, regardless of how well planned it is, and you have to trust those you've put in those positions. But yes, you have to have meeting after meeting with your crew before you ever go into production.
 
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