Sean Reid, Filmmaker: Everybody else is just focused on making the project.
The AD is focused on everybody making the project. You see the difference?
Film Courage: You have a special approach to the way you look at production or screenwriting?
Sean: Part of it is and I’ve learned this and I think I’ve got to be able to articulate it
through working with Jeff Gordon at the Writer’s Boot Camp is the idea
that the tools that he designed were ultimately designed if you used all of them
to be able to give yourself the full 360 view of a project.
One of the things that I felt and when I look at the production process and prepping for production
is how many times can I circle a project? How many times can I look at it in a different way?
Because if I can look at it in those different ways then I can be prepared for all of the things
we were talking about, these scenarios that can go wrong and I can prepare for those scenarios
because I’ve looked at it and there’s different ways so if I fall behind I know what my plan is.
If we have to cut some scenes, we’ve already talked about the scenes we need to cut.
Anything that I can do to anticipate the possibility of something going wrong
and plan for that it then the likelihood of something that I didn't plan for the more
likely I will be prepared for because I've eliminated all of those other things right
and if I think that I've gotten everything figured out well that means I probably haven't but it's
just that idea of every time I do a shot list with the director and we do it in a different program
and we go through the list and we think of it a different way and then I go and I sit with
the effects guy and I ask him how is he going to do it and then I ask the production manager how
they're going to do it and then I take all that information I bring them all together again and
then ask them how they're going to do it that's how you get cohesion that's how you get a unit
and that's how you get everybody on the same page and that's also as an individual how I
become a master of the material even if I didn't write the material right because now I may know
the material on some level better than the writer does because I've broken it down in different ways
so yeah that's the 360 theory of production in writing sure how many times are you usually
circling the screenplay in terms of before you even get it to some of the production well
like like as a writer for me it depends like I've written half hour pilot things where I've only had
a week to write it so I've circled it once because I got it written right or something like zebra
what I've been working on for years and years and years I've probably circled it six or seven
maybe ten times where I've written broken it down tried to do something new and then gone back all
the way through the process again even slashed my favorite things and now I'm doing it again
just a new having new ideas because that's the key is if you're willing to eliminate
things it was the worst thing in the world if you like cut something out of script then
you have no idea what to put in it right because you don't have any new ideas to to
entertain that part of it or to fix that to have a solution or to come around to it that's part of
what screenwriting and production are ultimately it's it's it's problem-solving right it's it's
solutions and it's it's also creating problems for characters and solving problems for you
and why work 10 years on something to become a better become a good enough writer to be
able to handle the material and know that I wasn't willing to let it go to somebody else
but also it's also because it's historical some of the material wasn't available either
like documentation what I had to actually research and learn about it so as that grew I've been
able to get further along on it that's why I'm like in the next it has to be done in the next
six months now and Sean we'll see if I don't get distracted I get distracted I get distracted with
other people's things and I'm 110 type of person so it'll be hard for me to write something for
you if I've got a do a call sheet tomorrow so it's kind of those types of things too
what do most people think is a producer's job and in fact it really entails something very different
it's an interesting very very very interesting question I've had a lot of thoughts about it and
my view of what a producer is is someone who actually is the
as the director is the head of the artistic side of the production the
producer is the head of everything else and how that comes together how that can come
together depends on the scope of the producer a producer like myself I think can influence
the mood and feeling and tone of the entire production by just
simple selection of what the call sheet is or simple selection of what the food is or simple
communicate how they choose to communicate with their staff or how they handle problems right so
if you're someone that is there to communicate and is there to actually be an agent to
I don't know amplify what's already being done that you really that that the the
really no one's really going to care about how hard it was to make it all they're going to care
about is how good it is but all of those things to get it to that point people need to feel good
to do good things so if you don't put them in a position to do their best their absolute best
at all moments in all times you're failing as a producer if they don't have the time if they
don't have without a conversation if if I tell you that you're not going to have the time and
you still decide that you want to do it that way and you make the decision as a director to do it
that way then we've had a conversation but you got to have that conversation and you got to be able
to have the difficult conversations and you've got to be able to make decisions like firing people
and not be worried about it the movie is the most important thing and if the movie's the
most important thing you're doing that genuinely from your heart then you will do it with the best
intentions and you will do it with the best for the people are on that set and for the people
and for the people who are actually going to see that movie so being a producer in a lot of ways
is communication I think it's all communication all communication I think it really is it's it's
it's it's all communication essentially I think it's being the communicator I think on some levels
being the communicator not the communicator not the director is a communicator for the artists
the producer is a communicator for everybody and the director can say the production designer
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and then but the caterer doesn't care about that the caterer
just needs to know where they want to put it and whatever and if people seem to happy around them
so they're not everybody on the set's following the director but everybody on the set is following
the producer what do you see a lot of first-time producers get wrong it's much more important to
be and be doing the things that need to be done to help your production than looking like you're
doing the things that make your production redone in other words if if I really need an extra person
to run back and forth between here in the dressing room that's what I really need I don't need
a bts crew if we need b or if or understanding what the priority is at the moment a lot of about
a set is and this is something we didn't get to talk about but I think that the reason one of the
reasons I'm very passionate about production in so many different ways is also because of
having been a first ad because a first ad gets to everybody else is focused on making the project
the aed is focused on everybody making the project see the difference that all those people
and what they're doing like being in the eye of the storm on the set when you're just literally
in that position where you're watching everybody else do what they're doing and making sure they're
not tripping over things and no one's yelling over somebody and everybody's going over and the
dp can it can talk to the everybody just can hear each other it's not too noisy and are we getting
things done and then getting to that point are we ready to take that shot and listening to everybody
making sure that they're in creating that rhythm that rhythm is a heartbeat and the faster and the
better you get that then everybody just listens to that heartbeat they don't listen to what's going
on in their heads they don't care about what's going on they just focus on what they're doing
and when they can walk out and they can have a good meal and they can whatever and they can joke
and laugh and they go back in and they're not distracted again you're gonna get the best work
and if you don't and if you don't keep them there for 13 14 16 crazy hours I also don't
work more than usually don't shoot more than 10 to 11. 12-hour days are unusual for us we don't
like to do that we want to shoot i'd like to shoot tens you're shooting 10 maybe it's a 12-hour day
but you're really shooting 10 hours so it's it's because you're more efficient that way and it's
not necessarily you have to do one take because I don't necessarily have to do that but those types
of things really make a difference in terms of the the subtlety of the psyche of what's going on
and how that by osmosis literally can be seen on screen and less room for any kind of air accidents
arguments all of it all of it it's just it's just you get all of these
people who could be going in completely different directions and you get them all going in the right
direction and keeping them in that direction and when they're not focused being able to be
be the person who's willing to go in and say focus up whatever that is
because you're not worried about how they I don't care about how you feel
right now I care about the movie so it's not about your feelings I'm sorry your feelings are hurt but
it has nothing to do with that we're all here for the movie are you here for the same thing
it comes really easy when you got the same thing and we're all thinking about the same
thing it's hard to argue it's we're only arguing for it we're only advocating for
the movie everything else should become secondary
in a good way go home see your family take care of your loved ones don't sacrifice your life
don't be the perpetual bachelor cuddle with your cat yeah cuddle with god whatever get a cat
play tennis go for a run do something right what's your favorite film about the film industry
narrative good question not documented narrative there are many and I love things about it and of
course mine redemption is about the Hollywood industry on some level too but I would have to
say the bad and the beautiful just because I think it speaks so much to me about what it's like to be
a good person in Hollywood and what it's like to be a bad person in Hollywood and that it's
always been more important to me to be a good person in terms of my intentions about my art
and what I'm doing it for because why would I what would be the point so if that meant I was going
to have great Hollywood success as some people thought I was early or if it just means that I'm
an independent producer who's still working which is still the best thing ever then then
that's all it is and I still try to maintain that because it's like having humility and love for
what I'm doing I think is the most important thing and I think that's what's keeping me young
so I think I'm going to stick with that one and that movie teaches me a lot about
all the kind of negative thing the trappings of producer life and at one point that character Kirk
Douglas's character is asked and I'm not exactly quoting it but to have movies whatever your name
is you have to have humility I mean just the character simply asks do you have humility and I
would ask do you have humility enough to sacrifice what you think for the best of the project
and that's the character asks the Kirk Douglas character this yes do you have humility
yeah do you have enough humility to just be doing it for the project not for your ego
that's so as a producer I think that that's like having as little ego as possible
is one of the most most incredible and most important things that producer
the more you can operate that way I think the better that you'll do and what is his response
as the character he doesn't answer because obviously he doesn't have humility he's not
the character that does he's stomped on his best friend they made a movie together he
can't even get any work anymore he's one of these people that just really has stepped over body
after body I'm gonna have to go back and watch it again now make me want to watch that that puppy.