Steve Martin, the Duplass Brothers, and who says what's good!

I remember watching Steve Martin on Charlie Rose sometime last year promoting his autobiography. Right away, I was on the same page w/ him as he mentioned he enjoyed reading biographies but was always frustrated that important details would be glossed over. Say, in the case of an entertainer, it would be mentioned about some huge break or opportunity but never the details of how said "big break" came about. This has always been my beef w/ these such endeavors and I'm w/ Martin 100%. It's almost as if these folks want us to believe they were struck w/ lightning on Mt. Zeus and came as fully formed demi gods!

Martin went on to say he's frequently asked the question, "What's the best way to make it in the entertainment business?" He explains his answer is always the same, however none too popular. He speculates people want to hear, 'it's about getting the right agent' or 'networking and knowing the right people,' etc. His response is, "you have to be so good, you simply can not be denied!" This is so obvious in way, but it's a statement that really packs a punch...

Along these lines, filmmaker Mark Duplass was recently on David Branin and Karen Worden's show Film Courage, listen here http://filmcourage.podbean.com/2009/10/19/filmmaker-mark-duplass-on-la-talk-radios-film-courage/. Again Duplass makes a statement very similar to Steve Martin's, "Filmmakers should put all their time and energy into making good films!" He goes on to state in his theory that there is such a lack of really quality material, especially on the festival circuit that, "you can leave you film in a drawer and eventually someone will find it". Duplass continues to say that many big festival programmers he's spoken with over the years say they have trouble filling their 60 slots w/ really good short films. He goes on to say that many folks create these labyrinthine conspiracy theories about how you have to "know someone" to get into a major festival like Sundance. In his words, it's just an excuse to massage the battered egos of filmmakers whose films weren't good enough to make the cut and hence rejected from said festivals. Obviously, Mark Duplass and Steve Martin are on to something. Make sure you're damn good before you start shouting from the rooftops! But, there is a slight caveat here and that is: Who says what is and isn't good?

In the case of Steve Martin, there's no question he is and has been a huge talent for decades. His first film The Jerk was a huge, bona fide hit as well as being LOL, piss in your pants funny! But what about pre-jerk Steve Martin? The dorky guy who'd come on SNL in the '70's w/ the banjo and stupid looking rabbit ears? I've gone back and watched some of that stuff on youtube 'cause I was too young to see it live. Piss in your pants funny? Not so much, at least not to me. And what if a guy just like me was casting or directing The Jerk? Ya know, Martin's okay but I much prefer Danny Ackroyd or Bill Murray for that part... Would Steve Martin still ending up being a star? Probably, if not the Jerk, then another chance would've come.

Now, what about the Duplass Brothers? As Mark makes clear their film This is John (about a hapless fella played by Mark who has almost a personal crisis leaving an outgoing message on his answering machine,) getting into 2004's Sundance film festival absolutely made their careers. I've seen the film a few times on the DVD of their first feature, The Puffy Chair. It's funny, my girlfriend laughed out loud a few times at Mark's antics, I liked it... at about 4 minutes... the problem is the film's 8 minutes, and the joke starts to get a bit stale. Mark D so much as said the film was poorly shot, poorly lit, and sound was very dicey. I'll throw in I thought the film would have been much better shorter. Not exactly so good it can't be denied. Another short on the DVD, Scrapple, I think is a much, much better film. Brilliant performances by the two leads, funny, poignant, and real. What about the feature film itself, The Puffy Chair? In the Film Courage interview Mark Duplass said repeatedly that distributors, "loved" the film but didn't know how to market it. The film had a DIY theatrical release and DVD was through Red Envelope and Village Roadshow. Every time I heard people "loved" the film I had to cringe a bit. It took me three times to get through the film, and then eventually w/ the FF working through a big chunk of it. Mark Duplass is a funny, charismatic guy, but like nothing happens in this film for close to 40 minutes. We spend a good chunk of the film staring at a guy with short buzz cut and long beard, who's staring at a nature show about a Salamander or lizard of some sort. I'm sorry but a bunch of people sitting around blowing bong hits talking about "life" unfiltered through any artistic precision makes for a difficult viewing experience. As a matter of fact, some 10 years prior this was the punch line for the type of crappy film that was flooding Sundance in the mid 90's... A decade later this type of film would be at the forefront of the whole 'mumble core' movement. Bottom line: The Puffy Chair and it's ilk are hardly the kind of films that are so good they can't be denied.

Furthermore, in my view Alex Holdridge's In Search of a Midnight Kiss, Ben Cocio's Zero Day, and Unica's Blue in Green are much, MUCH better examples of the minimalist, character based material that folks like the Duplass Brothers and Joe Swanberg have vomited up over the years. (Sorry, Matt Dentler!) I'm willing to bet any amount of money that if the Duplass' put their DVD in a drawer and someone found it years later the reaction more likely would be 'oh, some guys just messing around w/ their camcorder' than 'oh my, I better rush this over to the Sundance, AFI, and MoMA!' As far as I'm concerned, an Oscar winning screenwriter from years ago said it best, "nobody knows anything" in this business. How true!

Where's that confounded audience part 2!!!

This is a follow up to my post on finding your (confounded) audience. So, I suggest you read this first http://thenightstalkintippytoe.blogspot.com/2009/10/wheres-that-confounded-audience.html before delving into this. I made reference to the fact that I'd always been suspicious of the whole DIY model because invariably every success story I was aware of had a huge leg up from traditional media sources... that is until I heard about the success of INK. Now, I will amend that a bit because there have been some successful DIY cases before INK such as Lance Weiler's The Last Broadcast, which was made and distributed entirely in the digital realm and supposedly has grossed 4 million. As well as Four Eyed Monsters by Arin Crumley and Susan Buice which made use of video podcasts and sophisticated online marketing techniques to drive their film to financial success. You can get details on how they did it here
http://powertothepixel.com/news/arin-crumley-susan-buice-at-power-to-the-pixel-in-london

Now, the reason I can relate to INK, is because it follows a more traditional model. (I was also a huge fan of Alex Holdridge's In Search of A Midnight Kiss, which I thought was a much better film than all those mentioned thus far. However, because it was released by IFC Films and got an Ex Lax release it didn't catch fire like some of these other films did.) Crumley and Buice were essentially able to build and cultivate an audience thru their video pod casts in 2005. Weiler now refers to himself as a "story architect" and was and is able to incorporate audience interaction in his work, much like the 4 Eyed crew did w/ the podcasts. At one point one of the fans who'd shown up at a screening of 4 Eyed literally said, "it doesn't matter how the film is because I'm so invested in these two from the podcasts." The film literally takes a back seat to the shill!!! This is somewhat troublesome to me, but on the other hand, what's the alternative?

I suppose we need to go backwards a few decades. In the early to mid 80's when the whole video revolution really started to take off, there was such a demand for product that some amateurish producers were making a nice living off their back yard epics. As the story goes if you had a slasher flick, tits and tires, and/or combo of all the above that was of even a modicum of quality you were able to put a down payment on a house! By the time I got into the film game in the mid 90's the market had matured quite a bit, but some SOV (shot on video) films were still doing well. But, primarily it was all about the Indie lottery sweepstakes: make a scrappy Indie, get into a quality festival, sell said film to distributor, get an agent, start writing scripts and making films for the big boys... You know the films and filmmakers: El Mariachi, Clerks, Slacker, Laws of Gravity, Following, etc. etc. Despite what any filmmaker would tell you about the "indie lifestyle" and the passion etc. the fact is everyone was shooting for this goal. And in accordance, there was an explosion of films and filmmakers wanting to get in on the action. And in response to that you had a plethora of film festivals sprouting up all over the country to accommodate all these budding filmmakers.

By the time we get to this current decade, and all that hedge fund money sloshing around wall street starting to fund Indiewood, and all the XL1 and Panasonic dvx 100's flying off the shelves, and the wanna be Coppola's, and all the film festivals you get the pretty clear picture there's a major glut of product. A MAJOR GLUT OF FILMS AND FILMMAKERS! Of course, a lot of quality films have made it through the festival/indie distributor pipeline, but more and more quality films were getting shut out of the party. Or, even worse, if you had a quality film that got into a top notch festival, because of the glut of films, the distrib's can afford to make paltry offers. Filmmakers were and are being forced to take the bend over deal. My friend Jonas Ball's (he played Mark Chapman, Andrew Piddington directed) film The Killing of John Lennon being a prime example. The film was made for about 1 million, took several years to shoot, 10x better than the Jared Leto crapfest Chapter 27, but got a weak deal from IFC Films, lousy one week in LA and NYC, on to ppv, vod, dvd, etc. etc. Doubtful the filmmakers will see a dime! And it's a very common story. In my own case, my film The Real Casino http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000R900PO/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used has gone similar travails in the distribution game. After airing on IFC/Bravo, PBS, and a bunch of festivals I signed a couple different deals. One w/ a really lousy rinky dink outfit called Sub Rosa Studios or SRS Cinema. They specialize in cheesy horror titles and although they did a great job w/ the DVD cover art, have yet to see a dime in close to 10 years. The other deal w/ a company called Hypnotic /Wellspring media which was an online division of Universal and turned out very nicely as they sold the film consistently to overseas outlets. Then they sold their library to Shorts International which has been a complete fiasco. I did get a small advance when they re-upped my deal a year and half ago, but I'm still waiting to go on itunes after 18 months and have yet to get a sales report! Not an unusual story.

This leads us back to importance and power of DIY distribution, which just a decade ago felt like a desperation move that signaled your film just wasn't good enough to be picked up by the big boys! Now, it's become almost a necessity. And my main beef w/ the whole DIY is it invariably involves a whole lot of gimmickry that starts to subsume the film itself. Many times it involves the idea of interactivity and approaching the medium as a video game of sorts. Bring the audience in to enhance their experience. If you don't like the scene where Tommy D (Joe Pesci) in GoodFellas get whacked, change it! How 'bout when Charles Foster Kane won't back down to Boss Jim Gettys, just click another option see how it changes the film. I think you get the drift. The fact is all this stuff starts to take us away from the main objective of the Indie filmmaker: to make quality films that you can't just go see at your local multiplex. Of course, we have to find new and innovative ways to connect w/ our audience, but first we have to create something worth seeing!

Having said all this I intend on adding some new scenes to my doc Warriors of the Discotheque: The Starck Club Documentary. First I'm going to put the scenes on http://www.youtube.com/user/jfa42 and let my audience vote for which ones they want. Gotta get w/ the times. Of course I still plan to put in the scenes I think are best.

Where's that confounded audience?

Remember the Led Zeppelin song The Crunge from Houses of the Holy where Bonham whispers at the end of the song, "where's that confounded bridge?" I've been reading quite a bit over the years about how vital it is for Indie filmmakers to find, create, bolster, and maintain an audience for their films (Do It Yourself- DIY)! It's obvious on a certain level, but for years and years I thought this was a lot of bunk!!!

Many folks like to point to The Blair Witch Project as an example of homegrown, DIY marketing to help create a mega hit. Of course, there was a lot more to the story. TBWP got it's start as a series of 10 min. segments on IFC, not exactly cable access. The first segment aired on John Pierson's show Split Screen in 1997 on the 10th episode and included the set up of the phony history of the witch in Maryland, the lost footage from the missing film student's, etc. This was a cliff hanger episode, which lead in to the next season, starting w/ episode 11 in Spring of 1998 which included snippets of the "found footage". I watched that episode and the whole season because I directed a segment for said show entitled The Real Casino which appeared on episode 18 of the same season. Anyhow, I was impressed with eeriness of the 'found footage' which ended up becoming the backbone of the feature film. Almost a full 7 months before the film got into Sundance, or had a website, fans were bombarding the http://www.grainypictures.com/ website message board w/ millions of hits. Of course, the film got in to the little festival called Sundance, (John Pierson was on the board at Sundance) and then got picked up by Artisan and the rest is history...

Once someone examines this history it starts to become clear why this isn't exactly DIY marketing. When you first hit the light of day on a cable network that was a subsidiary at the time of GE/NBC and get into a major festival it starts to look a whole lot more like traditional use of media, but dressed up as something brand new and cheery. And the fact of the matter is no matter how many examples people trot out about how the 'net is gonna be the great equalizer, how people are gonna be able to sprout up out of Peoria, and all points beyond, to market their film to the audience and create the next Blair Witch. The fact is when you investigate further you see the use of traditional media, and huge corporations always seem to be in the mix. One need not look any further than the new Paranormal Activity to see the fingers of traditional media creating a hit. No matter how hard some may try, the fact is you really need the big boys and traditional media to help foster a huge hit. I believed that because from empirical evidence it was true. Sure, there were films like The Last Broadcast or the whole mumble core movement, but the fact is those films didn't make a dent in the mainstream consciousness.

However, ten years after TBWP one film has begun to change my mind... A little film from Denver, CO called INK!!! http://www.doubleedgefilms.com/ Here's a film that did get into a quality fest, The Santa Barbara Int. Film Fest, but rather than ride the fest circuit forever and hope for a decent distribution offer, the filmmakers took the bull by the horns and actually used DIY to create and foster an audience! Rather than sit here and explain everything they did, it'd be easier to go here and read for yourself... http://doubleedgefilms.blogspot.com/ I can give a basic brush stroke look at it. The filmmakers were very wise in creating some buzz at a major festival first, then coming back for some home cooking and building an audience in their home town of Denver. They organized a theatrical run that lasted something ridiculous like 20 straight weeks, WOW!!! Then they used that success to slowly invade LA, first at the Egyptian theatre, then at Holly Shorts festival at Laemmle Sunset 5, where yours truly's film Warriors of the Discotheque: The Starck Club Documentary www.createspace.com/273024 screened earlier that day. Then after a few successful solo screenings they secured a one week run... Again w/o a distrib. w/o a huge pr firm, w/o major media! This has truly been DIY!

This is the first film I've come across that's made me truly believe that we don't need the big boys to actually get our work out there and be seen. But, not only be seen, hell I can put my work on youtube for that. It may be possible to even make a living selling our work to that audience we found, created, and fostered over time....

Btw, you can help bolster me up here www.createspace.com/273024

or here http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000R900PO/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

The Starck Club Documentary Saga... or how Warriors of the Discotheque came to be...

When I was just wee, young lad just out of High School my parents had separated and moved to Dallas, TX. I worked at a Chicago style pizzeria in North Dallas and not long after heard about a new club on the Northwest edge of downtown called The Starck Club. I decided one night on a Thursday after work to take a trek down there and see what it was all about. The address was 703 McKinney and I found the street and kept an eye out for 703, 400 block, 500 block 600 block but no 703. All I saw was a dirt road going over a RR tracks heading underneath the freeway. I kept going round and round and it was finally nearing 2am and figured what the heck, I might as well. (I discovered later there was a much easier way to take the Commerce exit off of I35 Steamons freeway.)

I drove on the dirt road, over the tracks, under the Woodall Rogers freeway and boom! Here it was! The Brewery building and the white curtains, the bank vault door, and transformed to a whole new world! This is a bit a metaphor for how the documentary on this legendary club came to be as well. I found myself going to this club every weekend. I was originally from NY and had been to Europe so it’s not like I just fell off the turnip truck, but this place was like nothing I’d ever seen before or since for that matter.

Flash forward to years later and I'm a filmmaker and working screenwriter. I'd read about a guy from Dallas who'd directed a film called TV Junkie that won some accolades at 2006 Sundance film festival. In an interview w/ the filmmaker, Michael Cain, mentioned he was working on a project about the legendary Starck Club. Having had a little bit of heat myself as I was hired to write a script for Joe Carnahan (Narc & Smokin' Aces) I figured I'd reach out to Mr. Cain and see if I could some how become involved. After several calls to an associate of his in LA where I was residing, nothing much transpired... It was a lot like that dirt path w/ the RR tracks seemingly leading nowhere.

Then a couple years later, I was surfing the net doing a little search on google for the old Starck Club and boom! Lo and behold there was a litany of sites devoted to the old club, one was Sherry Martin's Myspace page Starck Club revisited, as well as a page on a disco site. It was then that I realized rather than the usual drudgery of writing a script, raising money, then making a full length feature film maybe the way to go would be a documentary! It was September of 2008 when I officially embarked on the making of Warriors of the Discotheque: The Starck Club Documentary. The first person who officially came on board was Director of Photography/ Producer extraordinaire Taylor Wigton. We'd discussed at length the look, feel, style and significance of the Starck doc. When we were discussing all this the economy was starting to seriously unravel and it was our supposition that in many ways it was the attitude of the go go 80's and what happened in Dallas w/ the S&L crisis and so forth that set the seeds for what we were experiencing now. We wanted to draw all sorts of parallels from the widespread use of anti- depressants, to music, to Architecture. There are hints at these things, but time and money have limited us from the full treatment (you can help that by going here:) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002OSWUA4 or here www.createspace.com/273024. I was waiting on a chunk of money from a script I wrote years prior, see here http://www.b-independent.com/production/things-alexandre.htm to start financing the full feature film. After coming out of a special WGA screening of Burn After Reading Taylor suggested, "Why don't we just start shooting people here!" Brilliant, I thought, let's just get the ball rolling. He was able to secure great equipment like the Panasonic HVX, lighting gear, and sound for minimal costs.

All the while I was reaching out to people involved w/ the club and hopefully get some low hanging fruit in the form of some Starckers here in LA. I hit the jackpot w/ connecting w/ David McDonald, a former bar back and waiter, he also has come on board as a producer. Then came Luis Barajas, founder of Detour magazine and current owner of Flaunt magazine, and he gave us some pure magic. Add to that Taylor found Mina Chow a Prof. of Design & Architecture at USC and is an expert on Philippe Starck's work, through another shoot he was working on. We were able to keep adding folks like Michael Moore who was Starck Club's house photographer and several other interviewees as well as still photos, stock footage, old post cards and flyer's etc. And before you know it we had a trailer up within 3 months of starting on the film, and that when some problems started.

It was always my intention to reach out to Blake Woodall, the founder and owner of the Starck Club. I started by scouring his company's site Vent a Hood which is a family owned and operated business by the Woodall family, of course there was no email address to work with. I then realized Mr. Woodall went to SMU and thought I hit the jackpot when I discovered there was a Blake Woodall on the alumni board, but who knew, there's more than one Blake Woodall. I guess it was his cousin. Indeed he forwarded my email to THE Mr. Woodall, who according to an article in the Dallas Morning News http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-starck_30met.ART.Central.Edition1.3cc8951.html deemed it too amateurish to respond to. But, what I discovered in my research was that Blake Woodall had been approached many times about films about the Starck Club, usually w/ hat in hand looking for money. I wanted to come to him w/ something on the table besides talk!

Then, the seemingly perfect situation presented itself. As I was searching festivals to submit my short film to I realized the timing was excellent to screen at the legendary USA Film Festival in Dallas. Going on it's 40th year, it's not only the longest running, most established festival in Texas, but one of the best in the US. It is one of only 60 or so Academy accredited Film festivals in the world, (this is how AMPAS determines the Oscar category for short films, designating the winners for certain festivals.) I sent the film and heard immediately from the fest director herself Ann Alexander as she loved the film and absolutely wanted to screen it. She also went as far as to offer to contact Mr. Woodall and honor him at the festival in conjunction with our film, but also try and secure an interview with him so we could cut it into the documentary! Now what I didn't know but what we both suspected was that Mr. Woodall was already in cahoots w/ Mr. Cain. Right after my trailer came out in January '09 Mr. Cain put up a page on imdb touting his new film Starck the documentary. But, still Ann Alexander and the USA FF does carry some weight, so I figured we might at least have a chance... And then what? Nothing! Rien! Uggatz!
This whole situation leaves me w/ more questions than answers: such as why did Mr. Cain wait until my trailer came out to announce his documentary? How can Mr. Cain make a film without a Director of Photography, an editor, grips, assistant directors, etc. etc. To date none of these key positions have been filled according to imdb. Why did Mr. Woodall wait until after the 25th anniversary of his club opening came and went to get involved in some kind of film commemorating the club. If he was so keen on the keeping the image of his club alive why wasn't he more proactive in getting something off the ground instead of waiting until some guy 1200 miles away did the exact same thing! Why after 4 plus months have we not heard or seen anything on The Starck Club Project? No footage for a teaser, at least something? You see aside from being a filmmaker I'm also a huge fan of the club, and given all the photos, footage, and archival material that was availed to Mr. Cain I'm betting he can come up with a really, really good film. Certainly, one that maybe much better than mine, and I would be the first one to stand up and applaud them. What irks me is I suspect there may be a very good chance that there's nothing there other than some good press releases.

What I do know is Warriors... is on a pace to get to 10 festival screenings by the end of the year, and possibly finish the feature length doc by this time next year! We started at the USA FF, then were a part of Palm Spring International short fest, Holly Shorts at Sunset Laemmle 5 in West Hollywood, coming to the legendary Anthology Film Archives in NYC November 25, to Byron Bay as part of Queer Fruits FF in Australia, December 30, and waiting on St. Louis International FF, Margeret Mead doc fest in NYC, Miami Shorts Fest, Reel Affirmations in DC, and lastly the big daddy of 'em all in January! Also, instead of waiting until the fest run is done to release this on DVD I've decided after an astounding test on ebay, in which quite a few dvd's were sold we will be available on Amazon now http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002OSWUA4 and can be ordered here! https://www.createspace.com/273024
more links...


http://hollyshorts.bside.com/2009/films/warriorsofthediscothequethestarckclubdocumentary_hollyshorts2009

It's also playing at New Filmmakers in NYC November 25th more info. here...
Fall Schedule

www.filmradar.com/interviews/item/hollyshorts_filmmaker_interview_warriors_of_the_discotheque_the_starck_club/

Making a Real Mob Epic!

My film, Back Home Years Ago: The Real Casino, aired on WTTW, Channel 11, Chicago's PBS affiliate, on January 7, 2000. It eventually came out on DVD in late 2003 http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000R900PO/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used and started as a commissioned segment for John Pierson's show Split Screen on the Independent Film Channel and aired on the 18th episode of the second season, the same season The Blair Witch Project first saw the light of day. But, my connection to this material goes back to the mid 1980's. As you'd guess from the title my film is about the real people who formed the basis for the Scorsese mob epic, who were originally from Chicago, as well as Milwaukee. I spent a significant amount of time in both cities, Milwaukee because I attended Marquette University, and Chicago is where I lived after I graduated. I worked in the restaurant business in both towns and gravitated to Italian eateries because my maternal grandfather was from Napoli. I first heard of Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal (Robert DeNiro in the film) when I was working at a Chicago style pizzeria. He was never referred to by name, but was simply called 'the guy'. 'The guy' is coming out with his bowl picks. 'The guy' knows if the quarterback is on coke, he knows about crooked zebras, doped up horses, the way the ball bounces on a certain court. Flash forward ten years and I heard these almost exact same lines coming out of Joe Pesci's mouth in the film Casino when I first saw the film in a suburban Chicago theater. Pesci's character, Nicky Santoro, was based on a man named Tony Spilotro, who was from Chicago, and who I would learn later I had an indirect connection to. By this time, I had made the plunge into filmmaking and had completed my first, albeit no- budget, feature film. In the spring of 1996 I purchased John Pierson's book http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0786882220/ref=ase_allenrichards/102-4434436-5971326?v=glance&s=books.

I was enthralled as it seemed here was a guy who championed the kind of films I wanted to make. I digested the book fully and made mental notes about Mr. Pierson's likes and dislikes, and particularly his sense of humor. I was already in the midst of my second feature, In Hock And Staying There, taken from a chapter of said book. About a year later I found myself in the upper midwest, as I had to leave Chicago for reasons I won't mention here. Anyway, I decided to pick up Nicholas Pileggi's book Casino, as I had done with Wiseguy, to compare the source material with the movie. GoodFellas was one of the reasons I wanted to become a filmmaker as I was electrified by it's reality. These were the kind of people I really knew from the restaurant business and was blown away by the veracity of it, as well as the South Ozone Park, Queens, Brooklyn, and Long Island locales. I'm from New York originally. When I read Casino I was surprised by the fact that I actually knew, or knew of, many of the real people who formed the basis for the picture. It didn't register when I saw the Scorsese film because all the names had been changed due to legal purposes, but I remembered the way Pesci described 'Ace' (Rosenthal) in the film. At the same time I had completed my first very raw, rough cut of my second no- budget indie and was summoning up the courage to send it to Mr. Pierson. I saw that in a deal memo included in the book, the address and phone of Grainy Pictures, Mr. Pierson's company, was included, and lo and behold it was his current phone number. So I sent my meager film, which was somewhat similar to Chris Smith's film American Movie, another Pierson acolyte, with a hand written letter that was as witty and humble as I was able to muster. In April of 1997, exactly one week to the day I mailed my package, Mr. Pierson's voice was on my answering machine. No shit! In my short career as a filmmaker this kind of thing never happened to me. Unfortunately, he liked my letter more than my film, but he mentioned the possibility of me doing something for his new show Split Screen. I was juiced and immediately started to think of ideas. Around this time Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy came out, of which Mr. Pierson was an executive producer, and was savaged by a local critic. I thought it would be fun to turn the tables on the film critic and make them justify both their qualifications and opinions, and in the process of writing my pitch I went after the goddess herself, Pauline Kael. Big mistake! Not only is the bulk of the film work John represents review driven, he also happens to be a big fan of Kael's work. (Not me, I can't think of a critic who was more wrong about more great films and filmmakers than old Pauline. Championing people like Brian DePalma and Walter Hill at the expense of filmmakers like Ingmar Bergman and Stanley Kubrick.) Anyway, back to the drawing board, and that's when I realized I should pitch this Casino idea. Bingo! I heard back from John that summer explaining the show was on hiatus but he liked the idea for the second season, Spring 1998. In the meantime I spoke to one of the show's producers, Howard Bernstein, to get a feel for the show, and what kind of money we're talking, $2,500 to 5,000, and then put together a budget and sent it out as well as a sort of treatment.

In my treatment I explained who the real people were and their characters in the film. I was able to interview a man, who we'll call Mr. B. (Frank Buccieri, he passed awy in '03), whose brother was the basis for the composite character Remo Gaggi, the mob's top boss in the film, and who in reality, along with his brother, were Sam Giancana's right hand men. They were the muscle. Mr. B. also got 'Lefty' (DeNiro) his job at the Stardust casino (Tangiers in the film.) Also, I was able interview a good friend, whose restaurant I made a commercial for, Mike G., and whose first cousin was part of Tony Spilotro's (Pesci) crew and who grew up in the same neighborhood as 'Lefty' and Tony. The Grand and Ogden neighborhood in Chicago's northwest side. Also, I spoke with a good friend whose family was close with the Spilotro family and close to Alan Dorfman (Alan King). I tried to get some friends in Milwaukee to talk as well as the top boss in that town was a man named Frank Balistrieri, and who also served as the basis for the other part of the Remo Gaggi character. The actor who played Remo (Pasquale Cajano) actually looked almost exactly Balistrieri. I had worked in several places that were ghost owned by 'Uncle Frank' and started at Marquette right as the real trials began in Kansas City in 1983 and knew several of his relatives. But, alas no one wanted to talk. I also sent the detailed budget which came to about $3,500 and waited to hear back as fall turned into winter, and then I got a call after the holidays in January of 1998 from Mr. Pierson himself. It was a great conversation as I also discovered what Kevin Smith meant when he said John could slip into his deal making mode. He explained that Universal Pictures released Casino and while I could use fifteen seconds of free footage under the fair use clause in copyright law I had to be very judicious with the footage. He also gave me the number of Eureka Pictures, where the show's production office was located in lower Manhattan, and told me to hammer out the money details with Howard. I would soon discover a few things about Mr. Pierson's mode of operation, first I definitely got the feeling Howard was good cop to John's bad cop. And secondly, and most importantly, John's wife Janet was definitely an equal part of the show. At this point I had addressed everything to Mr. Pierson exclusively, I guess it was my chauvinistic ways, and I would learn later that this was a big mistake as I didn't even realize it was Janet I was talking to half the time I called Grainy's upstate office. It wasn't until I had already shot and half edited the piece that I fully realized her huge input into the show. ( This makes The Village Voice's Amy Taubin and her criticism that Split Screen was male- centric all the more ridiculous, I told John I should have done that critic piece.)

Anyway, the time came to haggle over money and even though it was pretty much agreed the budget was in the $3,500 area, I realized I had some problems with my crew. I had planned to use some guys in Chicago who I'd shot high profile (Christine Hefner, President of Playboy) wedding videos with and I figured they'd be jacked to finally do something cool as they were both film school grad's. These jagoffs couldn't be bothered so now I had to pay a sound and camera guy as well as hotel and expenses (remember I'm up in the frozen tundra now.) Combine this with the fact that Mr. B. wanted a little a tribute for his time and this budget started to expand, however I figured I'd be all right as I'd spoken with another filmmaker who had contributed to Split Screen and had been given five grand. I figured old Marty was worth at least that much as how many times do you get to look over the shoulder of a world class filmmaker and compare his film with the reality it was based on. I mean Casino is still his costliest, most ambitious project (logistically at least) to date, (not any more w/ Gangs of NY and The Aviator) and what's an extra fifteen hundred to capture this rare opportunity. Wrong! After faxing the updated budget to Howard I called the next day to see what he thought and John immediately stepped in to set the record straight. "Look, I already sent a check for $3,500 that I'm ready to cancel as this thing is getting to be too much of a hassle. We have a lot of filmmakers doing alot of good pieces and this isn't going to change the world. If you want to make it work for that by all means and if this works there will be other episodes, and if it turns out great maybe we can revisit the money issue. I certainly hope you won't blackmail me with the episode after you've shot it 'cause like I said there will be more episodes." Well, I felt like a kid who just been sent to the principal's office, which was a joke John would use later as I would find myself in his dog house a few more times. A few days later the check would come with a note from John saying, "don't spend it one place." Now the reality hit me, I mean here's a guy who's never met me in person (which is still the case) and he's just sent me a check for $3,500. How many times does that happen, let alone from the guy who wrote Spike Lee a check. I was in pretty good company.

We left for Chicago the last weekend of January 1998 and I brought down three other guys: A camera man, a sound guy, and a friend who served as a P.A. These guys were pretty white bread and wouldn't know the difference between a 'made' guy or a cable guy, and they would be a good barometer for what the normal audience reaction would be. On the first night we shot an interview with my friend Mike G. who regaled us with several mob stories about Tony Spilotro and some of the big bosses like Jackie Cerone, whom he didn't care for much. One particularly harrowing story was about Mike's cousin Leo who was part of Tony's crew and got into an argument with his brother in their father's bar, he went out to his car, got a gun, and shot his own brother. The bullet severed his spine and after living in a wheel chair for several years he finally died. Leo didn't spend a day in jail as his father was heavily connected, but when the stuff hit the fan, as documented at the end of Casino, Leo did fifteen years for Spilotro, otherwise he'd have wound up in a car trunk. After the interview I'd asked the boys what they thought and they were definitely blown away. I knew I was on to something. We went on to the hotel where Allan Dorfman (Alan King) was gunned down and continued interviewing these friends of mine who had grown up around the film's major players. We finally got to Mr. B. Before the interview he said, "Now Joe, I want you to understand I always tried to save guys from their own stupidity. But, if a guy was stupid I had to get rid of 'em. Capiche!" Given the fact that I had known Mr. B.'s daughter for a number of years it wasn't until much later that I realized this little comment was for my benefit. I must also say that Mr. B's brother was one of the most feared guys in Chicago mob history, as he was Sam Giancana's personal henchman. As a matter of fact, it's rumored that Giancana would never have been killed in 1975 if Mr. B's brother were still alive (he died in 1973 of cancer) as the fear of his wrath was that great. Between the two brothers, they probably accounted for personally putting away more than 50 guys. That's a lot bodies in car trunks. On the way home we stopped in Milwaukee to shoot some footage of the east side, the Italian- American community where I worked while in school, and expound on the Milwaukee connection to the film. Alan Glick (Kevin Pollack) first approached Balistrieri for a loan from the central states teamsters pension fund in order to buy both the Fremont and Stardust casinos. Balistrieri, as well as the bosses in Chicago, Kansas City, and Cleveland really controlled the teamsters and they all conspired to skim the casino's dry. Balistieri also had a funny connection to the film Donnie Brasco. The real FBI agent Donnie Brasco was a guy named Joe Pistone and he had infiltrated the New York mob and tried to do the same to the Milwaukee boss. He tried to convince him to go in on their night club operation in Florida, but somehow the beer city don found out that he was working for the 'Gee' and just pulled out of the deal. In essence the Milwaukee mob was even smarter than the New York mob. Go figure.

Anyway, it was time to edit and as you could probably imagine this piece might be a little longer than the five minutes that was usually suggested. The first cut I sent to John was a little shy of twelve minutes and in a note I said this was the cut I wanted to go with. (I'd sent a real rough twenty minute piece to Howard just to show them the footage.) I got a message on my machine from John and could tell he was real irritated and called him back ready to get another dose of his candor. He said he just got back from the road, so he was a little cranky. ( That season was the one in which the Split Screen crew traveled in an RV looking for indie stories around the country.) The bottom line was seven minutes period, end of story. I was starting to get the feeling that if John were to update his book I'd be under the chapter entitled 'Amongst Jerks'. I just couldn't seem to help myself as I went way out of my way to get these guys on camera, and I guess it's in my personality that if you give me an inch I'll take a mile. Real endearing quality. Anyway, the sobering time came to add up the receipts and see how much I actually spent. Not only did I exceed the $3,500 I spent a grand total of $5,700 as I shot a lot of Super 8 footage of the Grand and Ogden area that Mike G., Tony Spilotro, and 'Lefty' Rosenthal were from as well as the hotel where Dorfman was whacked. I had that footage transferred at Super 8 sound in Burbank,CA to Betacam SP and it wasn't cheap, but it also added quite a bit of texture and production value. I edited the piece at SPNN, a local cable access center that had just upgraded their editing suites to include cuts- only Betacam SP, which is the format I'd shot my inter- views with. Unfortunately, the cuts- only format didn't provide cg for lower third captions to mark who was who, so when the time came to online the footage on Grainy's avid they provided the lower third captions, which was another source of irritation to the Split Screen folks. I was getting to be a little too high maintenance. In subsequent conversations with John he said I would probably air on the 17th or 18th episode sometime in May. The opening episode was slated for April 6th, 1998 and I was hoping to get on that one, but it wasn't to be. In the course of our conversations another problem arose. In my piece I would inter- mittenly appear to explain who was who. For instance, Tony Spilotro was the real person, Nicky Santoro was his name in the film, and he was played by Joe Pesci. I felt the material needed a guide to explain the significance of the people and real locales. John made the comment that some people in the office felt I was in it too much, and Howard had said something similar re-iterating that John was the host. Fair enough. I completed the version that aired as it came in at 7:21 and sent it out with plenty of time to spare.

By this time I'd subscribed to IFC and watched, and taped all the episodes for that season, episode #11 which had been the follow up to the Blair Witch footage. The previous season's last episode included the set up for what became The Blair Witch Project in which they set up the phony history of the witch in Maryland, the lost footage from the missing film student's, etc. I watched that episode and was im- pressed with eerieness of the 'found footage'. But, there was one segment that totally blew my mind and left a bad taste in my mouth about the entire show. It was called 'The Girl with the Red Sweater' and was directed by Marina Zenovich. It was this lame six minute segment about this guy named 'angry man' whose film screened at Slamdance and during his screening he spotted an attractive woman in a red sweater in the audience. The segment follows him to LA as he is obsessed with this unknown woman in the red sweater, and pleads that he's a nice guy and just wants to talk to her and if she sees the show call the Split Screen offices. Here I was trying to bust my ass to get these mob guys to talk about the real people who formed the basis for a $50 million Scorsese epic and it seems like all I'm getting is flack about money, time, etc. Meanwhile this idiotic blather about some bimbo in a red sweater is airing in the first episode. I watched that whole season and was generally impressed with the show, with a few exceptions. It finally came time for my segment which aired on episode #18 on Monday, May 25, 1998. There were a few problems: It was airing smack dab in the middle of the Cannes film festival and also conveniently fell on Memorial day. Great tv watching time, regardless it went very well. John gave me the best intro to any of the pieces thus far, as this segment originated in Kansas City. John stood outside the Villa Capri, which is where the bosses actually divided the skim from Las Vegas, also well doc- umented in the movie. But, before my segment aired there was another average piece about two films called 'Half Cocked' and 'Radiation' (which screened in 1999's Sundance.) It was by a husband/wife team named Mike Galinsky and Suki Hawley and was about the filmmakers traveling with a band in Spain, shooting a film by day, then screening their previous film at night after the band played. It may have been a good idea on paper but it was pretty mediocre tv, and without being too negative or hyper critical, this is what I was bending over backwards to make room for. (This filmmaking team went on the make the brilliant doc Horns & Halos, which is by FAR the best thing they’ve done. A GREAT film!) I was a little irritated, but as John had previously made clear it was his show and I was not changing the world. Anyway, luckily for me the show would air again in August on Bravo on IFC Friday Nights. I checked the Grainy Pictures website to see if there was any comment on my piece on the web board. No such luck as the web site had been totally consumed with everything Blair Witch. I should say right here and now that I was not a huge fan of the film although I appreciated it. Most importantly, if John did not get a piece of TBWP pie, he should. Everyone, particularly the folks at Artisan, are quick to take credit for their brilliant use of the internet in their marketing. Bullshit! John Pierson is really the guy who de- serves the credit.

The project first aired in late 1997 and again in April 1998, from that time until the Haxan folks finally got their site up around November of 1998, when they got into Sundance, Grainy Pictures site was the only place you could go to for Blair Witc hype for a solid six month period to the tune of a half million hits a week. Artisan didn't get involved until well into 1999 after they bought the film and the cat was way out of the bag amongst what would become the core audience. Having said all that I was to get one more eye opener in my Split Screen saga. As the second season drew to a close with episode #20, a filmmaker living in my neck of the woods did a piece on a man named Al Milgrom. Who you say? He's a local arthouse programmer. My D.P. on The Real Casino also shot this piece and told me not only did this filmmaker get a full $5,000, but also a full eleven minutes for this segment. (Which was pretty good by the way.) This same filmmaker has gone on to do four other segments, at $5,000 a pop, that have been about the Billy Graham holy filmmaking team, the real field of dreams where the Kevin Costner film was shot in Iowa, Jesse 'the body' Ventura, and a segment that aired in 2000 about a Donna Reed film festival somewhere in the midwest. Actually all pretty good segments, but not exactly changing the world either. I went on to edit a full version of my segment which came in at just shy of thirty minutes and screened at New York City's Anthology Film Archives in June of 1999, and a twenty four minute version of the film which will air on the aforementioned Chicago PBS affiliate, WTTW, in January , 2000. I sent the longer version to several festivals including Slamdance, SxSW, NYUFF, and the CUFF, but to no avail. I also sent several pitch's to John about story ideas, including an idea to do a story about the making of a new film about Gordon Parks which is being produced by Denzel Washington and St. Clair Bourne, but again to no avail.

I wrote a script entitled WiseAcre which is about my experiences in the making this episode for Split Screen, it's more like The King Of Comedy than any of the mob films out there as it's about an obsessed filmmaker who will do anything to make it, including sidling up to the mob to make his breakthrough project a reality. To date it's gotten initial interest from Oliver Stone, Harvey Keitel, and Regent (Gods and Monsters) and I'm still trying to get names attached. In the end, I was thrilled to death to work with someone of John Pierson's stature, as he was the first person to give me a break and legitimize my career with some fin- ancial backing and national exposure. In return, I think I gave him a pretty damn good piece, for a damn good price, in which we see a real side of life a lot of people only know from the movies. It's not as if you can just roll out of bed and decide, "hey, I think I'll interview some mob guys today." I just wish the people at Grainy understood, and appreciated, the kind lengths I went to in order to get them this segment.

Epilogue
The Real Casino is on DVD now from Sub Rosa studios and can be found at netflix
http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=60034168&trkid=97413 and was also licensed by TF 1 who co-financed Casino for a special edition release in 2003
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00008JNDP/171-2225583-1597827 The film went on to almost double it’s budget from licensing fees thru TF 1, PBS, cable sales, Airlines, vhs and may make much more money if a deal goes through that may include it on a special edition DVD from Universal. Joe went on to direct several other shorts and is pitching several scripts in LA.

The film also aired on shortstv in France and at some point is due to come out on itunes...

John Pierson took a break from Indie film and spent time in Figi, his experience ended up being documented by Hoop Dreams director Steve James. Reel Paradise, the resulting film, was at Sundance ‘05 and will be at SxSW and will be coming out in 2005. He cuurently teaches at UT-Austin while his wife Janet runs the SxSW film festival. Hopefully she'll single handedly put an end to the intolerable mumble core movement that started there. We can only hope!

Why Cocksucker Blues Matters!

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