puredrifting
Major Contributor
Hi Adam:
In case you are like me and always forget to check your PMs, I just PM'd you.
Thanks,
Dan
In case you are like me and always forget to check your PMs, I just PM'd you.
Thanks,
Dan
"Corrado" - A production blog
- Thread starter taormina
- Start date
- Status
Charlie Anderson
Not so clever
PL mount and Zeiss Superspeeds are the win right there, you won't regret that move at all.
However with a LetusExtreme? Hmmm you'll have to think about that one, I would personally go with a P+S Technik if you can afford it, but you're looking at a 8:1 price ratio with ethe P+S to the LEX respectively.
However with a LetusExtreme? Hmmm you'll have to think about that one, I would personally go with a P+S Technik if you can afford it, but you're looking at a 8:1 price ratio with ethe P+S to the LEX respectively.
mentatDUKE
Veteran
It's interesting you recommend the P+S, Charlie. Is it really that much better? I thought it had been surpassed by all the third generation adapters (image quality, light loss, etc).
Why do you recommend the P+S?
Why do you recommend the P+S?
Charlie Anderson
Not so clever
I just really really like the look it produces. I've never used it personally (althought that might change in a few weeks) but there's a rental place not too far from me that I want to test my M2 setup side by side with my Zeiss lenses
Slimothy
Veteran
I've worked with almost every adapter out there and I'd have to agree with you here. It is a lot more robust and it looks great, but I've really never been terribly disappointed with any of the more popular adapters out there that I've used.
taormina
Hates to Rent
All seems well on the location front. It seems like I'm getting the mansion and the warehouse after all. All these location people have these pie in the sky "wait and see" philosophies and they seem to never take the bird in the hand. But it looks 99% I'll get my locations.
My latest source of angst comes from our friends at the Film Actor's Guild (ha - Team America, World Police, my fav). Seriously, SAG is a pain in the ass.
I filled out agreements, forms, memorandums, you name it. The package I mailed back to them today weighed 2.05 pounds by the mail store's scale.
SAG wants to know everything about your production. You'd think they'd be real horny over the budget, but they only supply one sheet you must fill in to substantiate your budget. They mainly want to know:
SAG is so outdated and antiquated that fillable pdf forms are like science fiction to them. You literally have to fill the forms in with a black pen. Need two copies? No worries, man - just fill it out twice!
There are two HUGE issues I had with the modified low budget agreement. Or any other SAG theatrical agreement for that matter. Now before I rant, I must tell you: There's nothing you can do about it. Bigger producers than you or I have taken on the socialist juggernaut of SAG and failed. If you want to make a movie in this country, you gotta use them.
Or go nonunion, which is a great way to fill your movie with nobodies and virtually guarantee you'll never get distribution.
So back to the two big issues:
1. They want a security deposit. A big one. See, the Film Actor's guild knows you're a dirty, rotten producer who overworks the poor proletariat actor. They know you are always cheating them on meal breaks, working them too late, or too early, and withholding their residuals like the bourgeois scum you are. So the want some cashola to make sure you don't run too far.
How much? I was told two weeks salary for all the actors. Dude, that's over 50K. So I said, fine - I'll prepay everyone. 'Cause to be perfectly honest, I didn't plan on that large of a deposit in my budge, dude, so could you hook a brother up?
So anyways, they said my deposit would be much less if I prepaid, and I'll wait and see what my options are.
When do you get it back? Four weeks after submitting the final cast list to them. Nice.
So I'll try and make it as small as possible and go from there.
2. They want first security position in the title to the picture. 'Cause you're an evil thief, and you might rip off an actor for his residuals. What pissed me off the most here is they are more or less putting a lien on my movie. They do it for everyone, so I'm trying not to take it personally, but I still do. It's just that I worked for years to come up with Corrado. It's my story, it's my idea, it's my execution, it's my everything.
I feel like these parasites are riding on my coattails.
The reason they want this is to enforce residual payments. See, when your flick is done Theatrical, when it goes to DVD, then pay per view, then cable, then finally to TV, the actors continue to receive residuals. By having a security interest in the picture, they create an agreement that gets passed onto each phase, and revenue is generated almost in perpetuity.
I understand why they want to do it, but their language is offensive. For example, the security agreement reds " Production company, herein after known as debtor"
Debtor? F&ck you you socialist communist pig! This is my gig, you leeches!
Anyways, that's the latest. Paperwork and more paperwork.
My latest source of angst comes from our friends at the Film Actor's Guild (ha - Team America, World Police, my fav). Seriously, SAG is a pain in the ass.
I filled out agreements, forms, memorandums, you name it. The package I mailed back to them today weighed 2.05 pounds by the mail store's scale.
SAG wants to know everything about your production. You'd think they'd be real horny over the budget, but they only supply one sheet you must fill in to substantiate your budget. They mainly want to know:
- Who will be in your project. Names, social security numbers, and agent phone numbers, please. If you don't have all this yet, then list all the roles in the project.
- Who wrote the script, providing chain of title documents like form PA from the copyright office.
- How many shoot days and who is working on what days
- How much everyone is being paid
SAG is so outdated and antiquated that fillable pdf forms are like science fiction to them. You literally have to fill the forms in with a black pen. Need two copies? No worries, man - just fill it out twice!
There are two HUGE issues I had with the modified low budget agreement. Or any other SAG theatrical agreement for that matter. Now before I rant, I must tell you: There's nothing you can do about it. Bigger producers than you or I have taken on the socialist juggernaut of SAG and failed. If you want to make a movie in this country, you gotta use them.
Or go nonunion, which is a great way to fill your movie with nobodies and virtually guarantee you'll never get distribution.
So back to the two big issues:
1. They want a security deposit. A big one. See, the Film Actor's guild knows you're a dirty, rotten producer who overworks the poor proletariat actor. They know you are always cheating them on meal breaks, working them too late, or too early, and withholding their residuals like the bourgeois scum you are. So the want some cashola to make sure you don't run too far.
How much? I was told two weeks salary for all the actors. Dude, that's over 50K. So I said, fine - I'll prepay everyone. 'Cause to be perfectly honest, I didn't plan on that large of a deposit in my budge, dude, so could you hook a brother up?
So anyways, they said my deposit would be much less if I prepaid, and I'll wait and see what my options are.
When do you get it back? Four weeks after submitting the final cast list to them. Nice.
So I'll try and make it as small as possible and go from there.
2. They want first security position in the title to the picture. 'Cause you're an evil thief, and you might rip off an actor for his residuals. What pissed me off the most here is they are more or less putting a lien on my movie. They do it for everyone, so I'm trying not to take it personally, but I still do. It's just that I worked for years to come up with Corrado. It's my story, it's my idea, it's my execution, it's my everything.
I feel like these parasites are riding on my coattails.
The reason they want this is to enforce residual payments. See, when your flick is done Theatrical, when it goes to DVD, then pay per view, then cable, then finally to TV, the actors continue to receive residuals. By having a security interest in the picture, they create an agreement that gets passed onto each phase, and revenue is generated almost in perpetuity.
I understand why they want to do it, but their language is offensive. For example, the security agreement reds " Production company, herein after known as debtor"
Debtor? F&ck you you socialist communist pig! This is my gig, you leeches!
Anyways, that's the latest. Paperwork and more paperwork.
taormina
Hates to Rent
Side note:
The script for Corrado continues to open doors.
I'm not there to defend it, but during casting, it goes off to a whole bunch of agents who read it. And it holds it's own.
Tip: I have not included my name on the script because I want real feedback. Hardly anyone knows I wrote it that reads it. There is no cover page.
Here is Wisdom: Agents do not give compliments to be nice. Either they like your stuff or they hate it. Mostly, they hate things, or everyone would have their script produced.
Here are actual quotes from e-mails I've received back from agents:
"A couple questions as I looked back at the script last night - very well written.
Who is playing CORRADO?
Who is playing JULIA?"
"Cool! FYI, I had him read the script last night and he loved it."
"All I can say about the script is WOW!!! This is going to be an amazing piece of work!!!!"
Just so you don't think I'm blowing my own horn, let me tell you why I included these quotes (by no means all of them):
You either need two things in Hollywood -tons of money or a great script.
It would sure be nice to have both, but in the absence of tons of money, a good story is the only lure I have to get name actors. And even then, I've been rejected a few times. But it is still better to have low pay and a good story than a big budget piece of ****.
You want a big budget piece of **** - go see it at the movies. You'll have your pick of flicks like that.
The script for Corrado continues to open doors.
I'm not there to defend it, but during casting, it goes off to a whole bunch of agents who read it. And it holds it's own.
Tip: I have not included my name on the script because I want real feedback. Hardly anyone knows I wrote it that reads it. There is no cover page.
Here is Wisdom: Agents do not give compliments to be nice. Either they like your stuff or they hate it. Mostly, they hate things, or everyone would have their script produced.
Here are actual quotes from e-mails I've received back from agents:
"A couple questions as I looked back at the script last night - very well written.
Who is playing CORRADO?
Who is playing JULIA?"
"Cool! FYI, I had him read the script last night and he loved it."
"All I can say about the script is WOW!!! This is going to be an amazing piece of work!!!!"
Just so you don't think I'm blowing my own horn, let me tell you why I included these quotes (by no means all of them):
You either need two things in Hollywood -tons of money or a great script.
It would sure be nice to have both, but in the absence of tons of money, a good story is the only lure I have to get name actors. And even then, I've been rejected a few times. But it is still better to have low pay and a good story than a big budget piece of ****.
You want a big budget piece of **** - go see it at the movies. You'll have your pick of flicks like that.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Adam, I love reading what you're doing, and I mostly agree, but I gotta say this: you would be a fool to prepay anyone, and especially a fool to prepay your entire cast.
If you prepay, you lose all leverage. And there are two people who can absolutely royally totally and thoroughly screw the production over: a runaway director, and a problem actor. Since you're directing this yourself, you've got one of those under control -- you would be well advised to keep the others under control. Good luck.
If you prepay, you lose all leverage. And there are two people who can absolutely royally totally and thoroughly screw the production over: a runaway director, and a problem actor. Since you're directing this yourself, you've got one of those under control -- you would be well advised to keep the others under control. Good luck.
taormina
Hates to Rent
True, Barry, when phrased that way.
SAG only wants the funds to be in "Escrow" (i.e. in the hands of the agents, and not necessarily the cast member). So prepayment is technically inaccurate. The agent then has a legal, fiduciary responsibility to dole out the money per the shooting schedule and SAG rules - payment at the end of each week.
Secondly, Sizemore's agreement is pay or play. It is virtually impossible to get an actor his size hired by a producer my size without a pay or play agreement.
I'm not talking about paying the entire cast up front, I'm really only talking about paying the three big actors who represent $90K of my $110K cast budget upfront.
Why:
1. Because most of them will demand it.
2. They are big enough and well known enough not to screw me over
3. If they act like divas and become problems, they would probably do so whether they've been paid or not and still screw up my shoot,
4. The biggest reason: The pay is nothing to these guys. The rates I've got them for are a tiny fraction of what they normally get. If they want to make themselves into a problem - let me tell you the prospect of their paycheck isn't tying them down. These guys would walk away from any money I owed them if they felt like it.
My biggest fear right now is that they would get a much more lucrative offer than mine, and simply not do the production. They could just return the money.
Tom, for example, just booked another movie as a lead. That's his second lead in two months. Kinda scary, because I happen to know what he is making on those shoots. Waaaaaaaaay more than what I am paying.
If there was a schedule conflict between my gig and a real paying gig....ooooh. I shudder at the thought.
What makes me feel better about it all is that I bought his time already. Just the other day his agent told me "You've paid your money - he's yours!" In response to a scheduling conflict where he was supposed to do a table read for a part he was offered or go to lunch with me.
He is in fact going to lunch with me instead of that other deal.
Either way - you pays your money, you takes your chances!
SAG only wants the funds to be in "Escrow" (i.e. in the hands of the agents, and not necessarily the cast member). So prepayment is technically inaccurate. The agent then has a legal, fiduciary responsibility to dole out the money per the shooting schedule and SAG rules - payment at the end of each week.
Secondly, Sizemore's agreement is pay or play. It is virtually impossible to get an actor his size hired by a producer my size without a pay or play agreement.
I'm not talking about paying the entire cast up front, I'm really only talking about paying the three big actors who represent $90K of my $110K cast budget upfront.
Why:
1. Because most of them will demand it.
2. They are big enough and well known enough not to screw me over
3. If they act like divas and become problems, they would probably do so whether they've been paid or not and still screw up my shoot,
4. The biggest reason: The pay is nothing to these guys. The rates I've got them for are a tiny fraction of what they normally get. If they want to make themselves into a problem - let me tell you the prospect of their paycheck isn't tying them down. These guys would walk away from any money I owed them if they felt like it.
My biggest fear right now is that they would get a much more lucrative offer than mine, and simply not do the production. They could just return the money.
Tom, for example, just booked another movie as a lead. That's his second lead in two months. Kinda scary, because I happen to know what he is making on those shoots. Waaaaaaaaay more than what I am paying.
If there was a schedule conflict between my gig and a real paying gig....ooooh. I shudder at the thought.
What makes me feel better about it all is that I bought his time already. Just the other day his agent told me "You've paid your money - he's yours!" In response to a scheduling conflict where he was supposed to do a table read for a part he was offered or go to lunch with me.
He is in fact going to lunch with me instead of that other deal.
Either way - you pays your money, you takes your chances!
mentatDUKE
Veteran
Adam, this is the best blog on the Internet. I had no idea about all the SAG red tape. Assumed it was a simple web form or something. Especially SAG-Indie...
We're developing a comedy feature right now and are debating whether or not to get name actors since some indie comedies have no-name actors (Napoleon Dynamite, Clerks, Swingers, Office Space, Everyone We Know, etc). Maybe that's the exception to the rule though, so we are thinking of following the Corrado model. Non-SAG actors is another story. I think all the actors in the list above were SAG, so maybe that answers my question.
Looking forward to your reveal of how you raised the money. That'll pretty much determine whether we use "nobodies" or not.
We're developing a comedy feature right now and are debating whether or not to get name actors since some indie comedies have no-name actors (Napoleon Dynamite, Clerks, Swingers, Office Space, Everyone We Know, etc). Maybe that's the exception to the rule though, so we are thinking of following the Corrado model. Non-SAG actors is another story. I think all the actors in the list above were SAG, so maybe that answers my question.
Looking forward to your reveal of how you raised the money. That'll pretty much determine whether we use "nobodies" or not.
Luis Caffesse
Admin
This had me rolling.
We recently had to deal with SAG (not anywhere near to this extent, it was for a short film) and I was kind of surprised at the low tech nature of all their paperwork.
You hit the nail on the head when you said that fillable PDF files are like SciFi to them.
I can only assume that will change in the near future.
I hope.
taormina
Hates to Rent
Duke - All in good time, my friend. All will be revealed - I promise.
Luis - what makes it even more insulting is that some of the forms you must fill out are like 100th generation copies - they're almost illegible they've been copied so many times.
It really makes SAG look bad / antiquated.
Oh yeah, and the security agreement forms had to be filled in quadruplicate - yes, four times of filling out a good two pages of info on each. ;-(
Luis - what makes it even more insulting is that some of the forms you must fill out are like 100th generation copies - they're almost illegible they've been copied so many times.
It really makes SAG look bad / antiquated.
Oh yeah, and the security agreement forms had to be filled in quadruplicate - yes, four times of filling out a good two pages of info on each. ;-(
siniarch
Veteran
Well, I hear with the economy sagging that they were going to try to make you fill out those forms about 12 times. You know, just trying to create jobs and such. Perhaps even make it a mandatory union form filler.
Someone that doesn't write by hand too quickly but NEVER, and I mean NEVER, makes spelling mistakes. And who is required to take a 5 min break between each 4 forms he fills out.
(you will also have to pay his pension and such but also a Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Fund because with that job is not a question of if, its a question of when.)
This will improve SAG's image because no one will ever have to look at those forms but the Form Filler. It will also add prestige to your movie because the budget will be higher and your crew bigger.
Win Win.
Someone that doesn't write by hand too quickly but NEVER, and I mean NEVER, makes spelling mistakes. And who is required to take a 5 min break between each 4 forms he fills out.
(you will also have to pay his pension and such but also a Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Fund because with that job is not a question of if, its a question of when.)
This will improve SAG's image because no one will ever have to look at those forms but the Form Filler. It will also add prestige to your movie because the budget will be higher and your crew bigger.
Win Win.
HorseFilms
Look ma no hands
Damn! A wealth of information. I really appreciate your sharing all of this with us. Good luck, sir.:beer:
taormina
Hates to Rent
Barry brought up a decent point the other day about prepaying actors, and I still feel like I have some explaining to do. Not defending, explaining.
First, Barry is 100% right.
The problem lies with me. One thing I have never spoken of is my personality. Think of personality as the oven temperature in a recipe. If you mix all the ingredients together per a given recipe, but vary the oven temperature, you will get radically different results.
Just like I can tell you guys exactly how I do things, you may not be able to achieve the same results. Or you may do better. Who knows. The variable here is me, and Barry's comment reminded me of a personality trait that I have that I've never mentioned.
I am a risk taker.
I don't listen to reason. I plow straight through. I take risks, and live with the results. It never really occurred to me that Tom might not show up after being prepaid. I don't care for that sort of negative thinking and never entertain things like that.
I thought the US would be a better place to live than Canada. In 1998, I said to my wife, let's sell this dump, pack our ****, and go to California. I made some calls, and hooked myself up with a job. I really needed my first paycheck because we had no money.
About two weeks after I cooked up this idea of moving down here, we packed up everything we owned ina 24' U-Haul, towed our car on a trailer, and drove for five days down to California with my then 3 year old son and six month old daughter. I arrived in Palm Desert with $500 in my pocket. That and the contents of the trailer were all we had in the world. We stayed in a motel for a week while I worked every day. I got paid that Friday and we went and rented an apartment.
I suppose I'm just like my old man. Except he showed up in Canada right off the boat from Italy in 1967. Didn't speak a word of english and had $50 in his pocket.
That was it. So when I tell you guys I how I do something, normally there is alot of risk involved. Maybe more than you guys can handle, I don't know.
Everyone has their comfort zone. I don't really have one. But I will tell you this, I have trusted my instincts over the years and wound up making a lot of money as a salesman on commission. I haven't had the luxury of a steady paycheck in over a decade. I thrive on uncertainty.
I also trust in my Lord Jesus to provide. He has never left us starving. Mods, please don't erase that.
I've been so flat broke some times from the risks I've taken that we had to gather up loose change to go by bread. I know how to be poor, and it doesn't bother me a bit. I can survive.
This whole diatribe leads me back to prepayment of actors.
Now you all know I prepaid Tom before I even had all the money to make the movie.
Is that a risk? Sure. No money to make the movie, no movie gets made and Tom keeps the dough - no money back. For some people, that's unacceptable. That's why if you want to wait until all the stars align and all your ducks are in a row, you'll probably never do anything.
I prepaid him because I wanted access to him and his name to go get more money. This is a very risky activity, but hey man, it's how I roll. And it paid off.
You cannot, I repeat, cannot get letters of intent at my level (or yours) without flashing some cash. Talent WILL cost you money. Up Front money!
Funny, for my next movie, my agents are going to go get people attached with no money. We were just speaking of it today at lunch.
BUT YOU CAN'T DO THIS ON YOUR FIRST FILM! Cause you're a nobody to them, just like I was.
Read on to part two of this to learn my plan and how it worked.
First, Barry is 100% right.
The problem lies with me. One thing I have never spoken of is my personality. Think of personality as the oven temperature in a recipe. If you mix all the ingredients together per a given recipe, but vary the oven temperature, you will get radically different results.
Just like I can tell you guys exactly how I do things, you may not be able to achieve the same results. Or you may do better. Who knows. The variable here is me, and Barry's comment reminded me of a personality trait that I have that I've never mentioned.
I am a risk taker.
I don't listen to reason. I plow straight through. I take risks, and live with the results. It never really occurred to me that Tom might not show up after being prepaid. I don't care for that sort of negative thinking and never entertain things like that.
I thought the US would be a better place to live than Canada. In 1998, I said to my wife, let's sell this dump, pack our ****, and go to California. I made some calls, and hooked myself up with a job. I really needed my first paycheck because we had no money.
About two weeks after I cooked up this idea of moving down here, we packed up everything we owned ina 24' U-Haul, towed our car on a trailer, and drove for five days down to California with my then 3 year old son and six month old daughter. I arrived in Palm Desert with $500 in my pocket. That and the contents of the trailer were all we had in the world. We stayed in a motel for a week while I worked every day. I got paid that Friday and we went and rented an apartment.
I suppose I'm just like my old man. Except he showed up in Canada right off the boat from Italy in 1967. Didn't speak a word of english and had $50 in his pocket.
That was it. So when I tell you guys I how I do something, normally there is alot of risk involved. Maybe more than you guys can handle, I don't know.
Everyone has their comfort zone. I don't really have one. But I will tell you this, I have trusted my instincts over the years and wound up making a lot of money as a salesman on commission. I haven't had the luxury of a steady paycheck in over a decade. I thrive on uncertainty.
I also trust in my Lord Jesus to provide. He has never left us starving. Mods, please don't erase that.
I've been so flat broke some times from the risks I've taken that we had to gather up loose change to go by bread. I know how to be poor, and it doesn't bother me a bit. I can survive.
This whole diatribe leads me back to prepayment of actors.
Now you all know I prepaid Tom before I even had all the money to make the movie.
Is that a risk? Sure. No money to make the movie, no movie gets made and Tom keeps the dough - no money back. For some people, that's unacceptable. That's why if you want to wait until all the stars align and all your ducks are in a row, you'll probably never do anything.
I prepaid him because I wanted access to him and his name to go get more money. This is a very risky activity, but hey man, it's how I roll. And it paid off.
You cannot, I repeat, cannot get letters of intent at my level (or yours) without flashing some cash. Talent WILL cost you money. Up Front money!
Funny, for my next movie, my agents are going to go get people attached with no money. We were just speaking of it today at lunch.
BUT YOU CAN'T DO THIS ON YOUR FIRST FILM! Cause you're a nobody to them, just like I was.
Read on to part two of this to learn my plan and how it worked.
Last edited:
taormina
Hates to Rent
Part Two. Lunch with Sizemore
OK, I'm happy to report that my plan worked. Not that it was devious or particulary intelligent, but I have my reasons.
I wanted to pay Tom in full beforehand so I could milk his name and have access to him. The only other choice was escrow, which is a fancy way of saying that you must pay the money anyways, it sits in an agent's trust account, and is doled out by the agency as the artist works.
You're given the actor's number a couple days before the shoot and that's that.
I wanted to have the agency feel like they were a little more indebted to me. I wanted to have all his contact info because frankly, he won't be at that agency forever.
Tom is rebuilding his career. He's working on a couple big features, and within a year or so will be back to $1M per film. And when his agency contract expires, he's probably likely to get snapped up by a Tier 1 agent like CAA or ICM.
So I desperately needed to build a relationship with him exclusive of the agency so I can call upon him if I need to. Prepayment was a gamble. They really only asked me to put the funds in escrow.
I figured if I prepaid, they would also get their cut before the movie was done. They'd have some cash to play with too.
Downside: He might not show, become difficult, etc. All the thing Barry said.
Well let me tell you, as soon as I prepaid, they were like - let's get you to lunch with him. Get to know him better.
So we met for lunch today. It was Tom, his agent, my agent, and his assistant. We ate at the El Torito grill in Beverly Hills. We talked for about an hour about all kinds of stuff, about Ridley, about Blackhawk Down, one of my favs, about all kinds of things. He sat right next to me.
Then at the end, he said - hey, we should exchange phone numbers. And he said "Call me anytime you want. We'll talk about whatever - we'll have a ball" (verbatim)
Now the agents were kinda looking at each other.
There wasn't much for them to say. They couldn't well prevent him from giving me his #.
And I will take him up on his offer. I'll call him, hopefully earn his trust, and when I want to use him in another project, I'll just call him directly.
He's a great guy and we hit it of marvellously. And I just rendered his agents, past, present, and future -REDUNDANT.
Unless I somehow piss him off, I'll be able to just pick up a phone and call. No agent, no gatekeeper.
That was the method behind my apparent stupidity in prepaying. I think it was worth the gamble.
By the way I did the same thing with Joe Gannascoli. He's an e-mailer, though, and even though I have his cell # I just e-mail him. We've e-mailed several times, no buffer, no intermediary. He trusts me because i showed him the green, and now am legit in his sight.
Here is wisdom: Legitimacy is priceless in Hollywood.
And I'm getting it. I look down on my blackberry's screen, and look at my contacts. One entry catches my eye....
Sizemore.
There it is. Right on my phone.
Here is a pic from today. I'm the ugly one on the left.
OK, I'm happy to report that my plan worked. Not that it was devious or particulary intelligent, but I have my reasons.
I wanted to pay Tom in full beforehand so I could milk his name and have access to him. The only other choice was escrow, which is a fancy way of saying that you must pay the money anyways, it sits in an agent's trust account, and is doled out by the agency as the artist works.
You're given the actor's number a couple days before the shoot and that's that.
I wanted to have the agency feel like they were a little more indebted to me. I wanted to have all his contact info because frankly, he won't be at that agency forever.
Tom is rebuilding his career. He's working on a couple big features, and within a year or so will be back to $1M per film. And when his agency contract expires, he's probably likely to get snapped up by a Tier 1 agent like CAA or ICM.
So I desperately needed to build a relationship with him exclusive of the agency so I can call upon him if I need to. Prepayment was a gamble. They really only asked me to put the funds in escrow.
I figured if I prepaid, they would also get their cut before the movie was done. They'd have some cash to play with too.
Downside: He might not show, become difficult, etc. All the thing Barry said.
Well let me tell you, as soon as I prepaid, they were like - let's get you to lunch with him. Get to know him better.
So we met for lunch today. It was Tom, his agent, my agent, and his assistant. We ate at the El Torito grill in Beverly Hills. We talked for about an hour about all kinds of stuff, about Ridley, about Blackhawk Down, one of my favs, about all kinds of things. He sat right next to me.
Then at the end, he said - hey, we should exchange phone numbers. And he said "Call me anytime you want. We'll talk about whatever - we'll have a ball" (verbatim)
Now the agents were kinda looking at each other.
There wasn't much for them to say. They couldn't well prevent him from giving me his #.
And I will take him up on his offer. I'll call him, hopefully earn his trust, and when I want to use him in another project, I'll just call him directly.
He's a great guy and we hit it of marvellously. And I just rendered his agents, past, present, and future -REDUNDANT.
Unless I somehow piss him off, I'll be able to just pick up a phone and call. No agent, no gatekeeper.
That was the method behind my apparent stupidity in prepaying. I think it was worth the gamble.
By the way I did the same thing with Joe Gannascoli. He's an e-mailer, though, and even though I have his cell # I just e-mail him. We've e-mailed several times, no buffer, no intermediary. He trusts me because i showed him the green, and now am legit in his sight.
Here is wisdom: Legitimacy is priceless in Hollywood.
And I'm getting it. I look down on my blackberry's screen, and look at my contacts. One entry catches my eye....
Sizemore.
There it is. Right on my phone.
Here is a pic from today. I'm the ugly one on the left.
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Barry_Green
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I wish there was an "applause" smiley to insert here. Well done, Adam.
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