Red Ruination Blue - a production blog

I'm not allowed to talk right now. I feel like I might burst. Sorry to lead anyone on.

I just had a great conversation with a guy by the name of Fred Specktor. He's an agent at CAA for some people you may have heard of:

Famke Janssen
Morgan Freeman
John Hurt
Jeremy Irons
Gene Hackman
Danny Devito
Helen Mirren
Dan Aykroyd
Geoffrey Rush
Laura Dern


I can tell you definitively none of those people will be in the movie (too bad!). What I cannot reveal is the purpose of why we spoke. It will all come out very soon.

Wanted to give you all another installment in the surreal world of Adam.
 
Interesting, somthing bigs going on then?! If no one he represents is going to be in your film, i'm guessing he wants to rep you? Im looking forward to hear whats going on! Plus, if you want to burst...its fine.. we wont tell anyone:cheesy:

David.
 
I worked with Gary Sinise on George Wallace (12 yrs ago)? A dedicated pro that was a joy to be around. Talking with him convinced me to retire my hammer and saw, and learn the craft of acting,. Best decision I ever made (career wise). It would be great if there is a place for him in your film Adam.
Al Cacioppo
 
nitrouspro said:
I worked with Gary Sinise on George Wallace (12 yrs ago)? A dedicated pro that was a joy to be around. Talking with him convinced me to retire my hammer and saw, and learn the craft of acting,. Best decision I ever made (career wise). It would be great if there is a place for him in your film Adam.
Al Cacioppo
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That's really good to know.....he does seem very genuine!
 
Nathyn said:
What's Laura Dern and Dan Aykroyd up to now days?

-Nate
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I don't think Aykroyd is up to anything. I think Dern just won a Golden Globe for something but I don't remember what. She treated me really coldly at a party once when I was talking to Ben Stiller. She kept looking at me with the "what the hell are you doing here" uppity look the whole time.

There's no love lost between us and therefore I don't care what she's up to! :)
 
Do any of you really know what it's like to try and attach major talent to a film?

It's hard, man. Like the hardest part besides raising the cash.

Making this film is exponentially harder than Corrado. Honestly? If you read the Corrado part I and II threads you'll be unequipped to make a film like RRB.

The level of talent required to make this type of film is huge. You're looking at A/B listers for sure. Real actors.

Some if it is easier than before I made Corrado. Some of it is relationships, which are somewhat easier.

This morning, I spent some time on the phone with Tom Jane. I'm considering him for the lead. He more or less suits what I'm after. He's actually the least recognizable actor in my lineup, believe it or not. I got a hold of him through Sizemore, who set it up.

Surreal to pick up a phone and call him. He's repped by CAA so the likelihood that I could ever speak to him directly is.......let's see....carry the one.....ZERO.

Problem is, he just got signed onto a new HBO show called HUNG, which shoots through the summer. We're going to see if we can make it work but no guarantees.

I was on the phone with the manager of another huge actor today as well. An Oscar winner. That was brutal, No contacts here, just cold calling. And it was hard. I actually had to give the guy the guy the smackdown. He called back later to apologize for not taking me seriously. He looked up my credits and saw that I had directed a feature and called back to grovel.

It was rich.

Yep - getting big names is tough. And making RRB is the hardest thing I've done in my life.

It could not even have been spoken of before Corrado. Corrado made it possible for me to be in this position, but COrrado is childsplay compared to this.

These guys are basiclaly sneering at a 2.5M budget. Forgive me for laughing next time I hear one of you wants to make a $5K film or even a $50K film. Even at this budget I'm given short shrift, sometimes!!!!
 
Hi,

Congratulations on everything so far with Corrado, and I wish you all the best with this project.

You mentioned you were at a party with Ben Stiller once, that's pretty cool, was that through Corrado or something else? I'm sorry if you mentioned it already in one of your threads, there are a lot of pages.

Sounds like getting a star is incredibly tough. Being on the other side of the world I have no idea what this is like yet. But I can imagine.

Good luck.
 
ChrisHurn said:
You mentioned you were at a party with Ben Stiller once, that's pretty cool, was that through Corrado or something else? I'm sorry if you mentioned it already in one of your threads, there are a lot of pages.
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This was a random encounter at a charity function called Friends of El Faro. He was there talking. I just started talking to him. Nice guy, very approachable. Then his wife showed up (another actress, don't remember her name), along with Laura Dern and her boyfriend at the time. He's that black singer dude who had a lot of hits, kind of a folk singer of sorts and I don't remember his name either. He was a cool cat.
 
Yep, $2.5M is considered a very very small budget in Hollyweird.

I worked on the music score of "The Nanny Diaries" last year (Scarlett Johansson, Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney, Alicia Keys), and its budget was $20M, which became $25M by the time it was done. That's *still* considered low budget. These days it seems medium budget starts around $40-50M, and high budget is probably $100M+.

But - if RRB is a success, you'll be offered more money next time, and if that one's a success you could find yourself in the territory where A-listers will be calling *you* (if they can get *your* number). The budget money's just empowerment. The real deal is the success of the project. That's also the hardest part, unless you're as wicked brilliant as, for example, the Coen brothers...

By the way...I'm no expert - just that guy a couple of stools over at the bar who won't shut up : )
 
Ted Spencer said:
Yep, $2.5M is considered a very very small budget in Hollyweird.

I worked on the music score of "The Nanny Diaries" last year (Scarlett Johansson, Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney, Alicia Keys), and its budget was $20M, which became $25M by the time it was done. That's *still* considered low budget. These days it seems medium budget starts around $40-50M, and high budget is probably $100M+.

But - if RRB is a success, you'll be offered more money next time, and if that one's a success you could find yourself in the territory where A-listers will be calling *you* (if they can get *your* number). The budget money's just empowerment. The real deal is the success of the project. That's also the hardest part, unless you're as wicked brilliant as, for example, the Coen brothers...

By the way...I'm no expert - just that guy a couple of stools over at the bar who won't shut up : )
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No,please don't shut up - wise words for sure!

True, is empowerment. As the budget goes up, the production costs don't rise in proportion (unless it's an effects heavy pic), and most of it is above the line. So yeah, big stars are going to cost big bucks!
 
I read the Corrado I (I'm assuming it was Corrado 1 it was the 232 page "blog") but didn't see the Corrado II. Anyone have the link to that? I would like to read it. I'm new here BTW and despite the the moniker am actually more of a film guy these days, but I like to keep abreast of what's going on.

I'm actually enamored of 35mm anamorphic myself and have 2 small sets of Lomos (all my equipment is Commiecam) in both Oct-19 mount and Oct-18 mount. The Aaton Penelope should be a very good choice if you're planning on doing a lot of hand-held work and decide on going the Techniscope route. MYSELF, I really like the ascetic of anamorphic scope, the bokeh, the sharper image even on faster stock when pushed a stop or 2 (I'm actually planning on 5279 which has a bit of grain to begin with, or 5260 if I can find some at a good price) so I'm with you. the BEST image possible in 35 would be anamorphic and all that space gives you so much composition possibility.

I'm working on putting together everything for a feature I intent to shoot on 35 anamorphic myself, a little horror picture (apparently from some of the things I've been hearing, they're not quite as dead as one might imagine) so I found your posts on 35mm interesting, though I'm still trying to figure out how you managed to spend 35K on a short you already had film (at least I'm assuming you had the raw stock since you said you got it out of your garage) and a camera package for, even with post unless you went buy the book and hired locations, paid actors, had more than a few shooting days ect. or is that , like Corrado, this "listed' price. Just curious.

I am glad to hear you are at least being able to speak to some A-list talent through your contacts, even though it is, none the less, difficult to deal with trying to get the people you want interested at that level, but then again Hey, if it was easy, EVERYONE would be doing it, right?
 
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