R. Ellis Frazier, Director, Producer, CEO at BADHOUSE Studios: Don't get sucked into people's
own agendas of what they need. You just make sure that you
serve the product, you serve the movie always.
Film Courage: I heard you say in another interview that a common thing for a lot of filmmakers,
actors, screenwriters is that they think their first film is going to
set the trajectory for the rest of their career. They maybe get a lot of praise,
they walk the red carpet, people are emailing and you think that it's
up from there and that it's actually very humbling to see that it's not?
Frazier: Yes, I do. Certainly I was humbled, our crew was humbled (our group). The first one we did
had Andy Garcia [La linea a.k.a. The Line movie, 2009] in it a whole bunch of people there's red
carpets, there was premieres, there was all kinds of great screenings and everything else and the
Weinsteins are calling you, the agencies are calling you and you realize that
we're not given in this world and this universal film that we've decided to be in
there is no stability in it I mean there's no the trajectory is what it becomes and
you have to make it. It never goes to easy street and we were doing a lot of things
trying to thinking that we were trying to get this bigger film made it's just
you're going to do this one the size and the next one's going to be the next size well it
turned out the next one was half the size and then the next one half the size of that. So
that is my filmmaking journey. It doesn't go like that, it's all over the place and I realized that
we can go back to the original idea which is just to keep working and not let anything get in
the way not let all the needs to set things up here and set things up here and raise all this
money let's find a way to just keep making films and add value and so my trajectory went through
this kind of organic film school because when I was with the first film I didn't really
understand much about what was going on there was a bunch of experts around me that knew everything
and they said you're the big boss and so you go over there and you get an assistant and do all
this different stuff and it was really cool but I didn't if I i didn't know everything that was
all the the different machinations of what was happening and it cost us frankly if I would have
known that now i'd have been like wait a minute you don't need that and this and that you could
just have that why are we paying for all three but I didn't know any better and so so the the
you know I I wouldn't change a thing I learned so much now I can do everything now I know
about all the different elements of the film business it's funny sometimes we do
production services you see directors come in and they don't know these things they don't know
but they just say I just want this and it's like oh okay but you don't need that but but I want it
because they say we want it and everything else but now I know what we want and need
it I can distill it down to what's on the screen because at the end of the day if you want to
keep your budgets at the level that you can keep working consistently in independent film you have
to just worry about what's on that screen because what's behind it may not it might not always be
very pretty to watch the sausage being made but as long as we get what we want on the screen
then that's what matters as long as we get into the edit and we can have everything we need that's
what that's what counts and so we do sometimes smaller films now we do a little bit larger films
and we can do them all and we're comfortable at all budget levels and sometimes it's about the
expectations that people have and the optics you need to create for a client which is all money I
tell them that too I said if you let us do it and you're not worried about it then we can do it for
less if you're there watching us everything is going to be a little more because it's our job
to make sure that the optics are are correct and you have a certain type of experience that you're
expecting and you said you had people maybe well-meaning in your ear saying it needs to
be this way and so maybe more money was spent or things were done in a different way how much
exposure to the industry did you have growing up you said you lived in la briefly or I did I had
almost none just especially not production I had been on working for a guy by name Ronald Shusett
for a while who's the writer producer of alien total recall minority report and I was on the
development side with him and working with his management to get some projects off the ground
but as far as onset production it was just this huge mystery to me and it feels glamorous
it's like you're on set and all these things are going on and all these people with the headphones
and and they're calling you sir and it's it's really intoxicating but I but so but I had
really no real idea of what was what was going on other than the basic leadership stuff okay I
make sure that everybody's paid and things of that sort but as far as
knowing that the intricate details of production I really didn't know much at all and and
and but you need to know you need to know a lot because if people will tell you you need this
kind of camera and you need these things with the camera you and this and that and this and that
and you're doing a shot that could be done on sticks with a doorway dolly
and you don't always need everything they're talking about you need so in order for you
to be able to look at them squint out and say please don't tell me you need that because I know
we don't need it I know exactly what we need and we can just do it like that so this is
part of that learning process over failure and all the things that you
learn through a trial and error and failure frankly and so for a first film a director
producer may have to take it a little bit and nod their head and then maybe after what third film
they can have that conversation yeah first film is you're nervous half the time you just
it's a lot of pressure to direct a film and it's more pressure than I think people
are think it's going to be I've seen it drive people literally crazy and they just
go crazy and just start doing crazy things and saying crazy things and I'll tell you you know
once you get that through through that process then you at least you can get through it that you
can get through it emotionally and you learn a lot from that and your second third projects yeah then
you can start to tell people hey I know what we need I know what we need I know we don't need that
and you learn to listen to people around you that you trust and make sure that you
don't get sucked into people's own agendas of what they need you just make sure that you
serve the product you serve the movie always and you just keep that in mind
always serving the final product you serve the final edit more than you do getting all this
crazy outside coverage that that you'll never need so but that comes from experience
and it has to be a full process meaning through the edit because the edit
editing is the most important thing I've learned is editing because what that teaches you is what
you need and what you don't need I don't know if you just watch a cut of your film
six months after you shoot it you don't know how they made those decisions to get to there if you
sit there with the editor okay we're going to go from here geogra-create the geography of the room
we're going to get cut into coverage and what is the point of the film we're going to have to
the shake hands let's get that on an insert or a special and then you cut
back out to the geography if you when you edit you learn that so when you're in there filming
that that's what you need and so you don't have to beat up your actors with something on some shot
list or a lot of storyboards that maybe somebody might have done for you you can just say I got
it and a lot of people will thank you for that is there a way to handle agendas with finesse
yeah well I personally have a very calm directing style and producing style
I don't get banana shape but you try to listen to what they are saying and you listen to it
and then you have to just say well I just we don't need that or we do need it if they have an agenda
meaning if they're thinking hey this is going to be a shot for my reel as a DP or something
I want the shot for your reel too if we can afford it and if we have time and if
it makes sense other than that we're going to have a shot for the end cut of the movie
and and so you just have to be firm but if people look at you and you're talking to them they'll
know if what you're talking about or not it's very hard to look at somebody and say hey I know that
we need this and that and that and this or this shot and this and that and I look at him and say
no we don't we don't need it and we've got everything we need on the scene
I know you want the big boom up dolly down cross over push in I get I want that too but
we got to move on so so you just be kind about it I don't yell or anything like that but you must
assert your authority on a set because there's too much going on to not have a clear line of
authority and so I make sure that I do that with kindness but with but I'm relatively firm about
it do you think the agendas are stronger in Los Angeles or in Mexico or they're different agendas
this is an opinion very much stronger in Los Angeles you know
when you have American crew I’ve done scenes here days of filming here it's a very very
different thing you get people that are very much concerned about how they're going to look
be perceived be blamed things of that sort and they'll you'll hear a lot in the states of
hey this is going to have my name on it so it's gotta I don't feel comfortable
with this my name's on there as the gaffer so I need to make sure that the lighting's right
i don't find that in Mexico at all and I've worked with a few crews there
they it's just the work ethic is a little bit different they defer to the to the director
I think a little bit more but then look if you're going to build a career in la you've got to get
a real you got to get a bunch of different stuff going on and it's important you you have to keep
your the quality of your work a certain level and you have to keep your reputation as somebody easy
to work with at a certain level and that your work is done well you can't well that gaffer completely
messed up the lighting then you may never work again or it might be difficult to work again so
so there's a lot more pressures I don't blame them for it it's but it's but it's different and and
I do when you're a gaffer or whatever has their own website in their own real that's like okay
that's but that shows that look that's what they're kind of supposed to do
they're supposed to get themselves out there but when you're talking about because all this is
fixed with a lot of money if you have a huge budget then you can have those people
but when you're when that you're going to be in the trenches of an indie it's going to get sticky
that everything's not going to go perfect then you have to loyalty and
loyalty to the project and the product has to take precedent I have a saying
and that's that I always protect the film over protecting myself
I protect the project that means I gotta take a lot of crap sometimes a lot of abuse
but it has to always what I'm doing has to always serve the final product and if I have
to take a little bit of someone yelling at me whatever the case is then I'll take it
I find that sometimes in la there's a lot of fighting and bickering sometimes I'm not saying
all the time but sometimes and they just people are upset and disguise yelling at this guy and
this guy and this that but another reason I think that is is because a lot of times you'll go on to
a set and the gaffer will never have work with the grip and the sound boom guy never worked
with the sound mixer it's like everybody comes in for like and then gets used to each other
in Mexico our crew is set we work together all the time so we it's like a shorthand so
so we know everybody's temperament and you you learn to weed out people that don't have
the correct temperament for what we're trying to do so once you do your tenth film or so
where you're where your where your weak points are and and then your strong points are so you say
you always have you always have the ability to do the film with just a very small core group and so
and that protects the film you let in certain films maybe in the states
one or two people go it's like the film can't be done that day what I'm saying we we can
switch out loot positions and places and parts so it all makes sense so yeah I mean at the end
of the day it's much different in my opinion much different from Los Angeles to Mexico but
it's just different it doesn't mean it's better or worse it's just different so but for the money
that we try to put everything on the screen so we just try to keep it as streamlined as possible.
Have you had setbacks in your career where you had to start from square one?