Film Courage: How does a movie producer view a screenplay versus how an actor, filmmaker
or writer views a screenplay?
Mark Heidelberger, Producer: Well since I’m not an actor or some of these other people,
I can’t necessarily speak to their process but I think a producer is probably a lot more
comprehensive in terms of when I look at a script I’m thinking about a lot of different…I’m
thinking about all of those things.
Specifically how they relate budget wise and also how the creative and the fiscal work
together so when I read the script I’m thinking about story, I’m thinking about the arc
of the characters, I’m thinking about the conflict, I’m thinking about why are we
telling this story but also who would I get to play these roles on this budget level?
What are some decent names, who am I picturing in this?
I’m thinking about…and I’m presuming in this situation that the movie is real,
that it’s not just a script, I’m not just reading it for fun but it’s like Okay we’re
making this picture.
Like this picture is funded Mark, read the script.
So I’m reading it and I’m like Okay how are we going to pull off that?
We need this kind of grandiose house or a good example would be there’s a project
I’m working on now called LI2 and very hopeful that we’ll shoot this summer.
The financing is getting locked down as we speak and it’s a very cool thriller about
these two helicopter parents, these sort of like wealthy parents.
They’ve got these two ten year old twins and the twins are kind of like…the parents
are finding them hard to tutor.
The boy’s got like a learning disability and the girl is kind of too smart for her
own good, too rebellious.
And they’re having trouble tutoring these kids and the kids have their own language
that they speak in when they don’t want the parents to know what they’re saying.
So the parents buy this advice call the LI2, it’s kind of like an Alexa or a Google Home
like these smart devices, it connects to the house, it can lock the door, it can open windows,
it can do all of these these kind of things, turn the light down, answer questions, whatever.
And at first the kids don’t like it but then it starts learning their language and
it befriends them and then the kids start liking it and it starts tutoring the kids
better than the parents can.
And eventually the kids start pushing back on the parents a little bit and it starts
overstepping its bounds and the parents are finally like “We need to get rid of this
thing.
At first it’s good but then it starts to take it a little bit over the line and by
this point the kids love this thing so much that they secretly get another one without
the parents knowing and it secretly remembers them, it’s mind is in the Cloud, it remembers
these two kids.
And the parents decide we’re going to send these kids to two different private schools
instead of together.
The kids instead of together.
The kids are like freaking out because they are twins, they don’t want to be separated.
So the LI2 starts planning with the kids to take out the parents, plotting with them to
get rid of the parents and it controls the house and it locks the door.
So this whole big…it builds to this really big climax.
It’s just a really big well-written script.
So I’m using that as an example because when I was reading the script and I was like
this is moving toward production, I’m looking at this and going this house is such a major
location.
We need to be…it’s like a character.
The LI2, the voice of the LI2, what it would look like, the lights on it, it glows or whatever,
is that going to be the practical effect, is that going to be a post-visual effect.
How are we going to pull that off.
The casting, you’ve got the two parents, you’ve also got the kids.
When are you going to shoot this thing because with kids you can only shoot so many hours.
So with their age group maybe you can get only 9 hours a day with them.
If it’s during a school year, you can only shoot for 6 of those hours.
The other three they are having to be schooled, the set teacher has to be schooling them.
But if it’s in the summer when school is not in (as long as the set teacher is on set)
we don’t have to burn shooting time with school.
Okay summer is probably a better time to shoot.
I’m giving you some examples but production design and I’m giving you some of these
things and I’m saying “We need this and we need to dress the kids room like this.”
There’s a very specific style, do we know somebody to keep this style, it’s very post-modern
I worked with another production designer that did this and wow!
Sound is such a big deal, I’m thinking of all these things as opposed to an actor reading
it.
Yes, they are considering story.
I think everyone with some sort of creative position is thinking about story to some degree.
But I think an actor is going to be much more focused on their role, the arc of their role.
And the cinematographer is going to be focused on, they are going to be reading it and seeing
something totally different saying “Oh well, so you’ve got a bunch of exterior night
by the pool.
Are we going to light the pool?
I see that shot that follows the them through the house.”
So they are going to want to talk to the director about how that…I’m thinking about all
that but are we going to have the budget for those kind of lights?
Creatively if we can’t pull something off, how are we going to be able to?
We can’t pull that off with the budget or there is some other logistical circumstance
that is going to make that unreasonable, what are we going to have to change to do that?
And I’m also a line producer and UPM so I’m breaking down the script and I’m thinking
about all of these things.
Okay we need a steadicam to pull that off.
So we really do get down to that level of detail to some degree but I’m thinking about
everything in one form or fashion as it relates to creative and fiscal and how those two things
work together.
I think writers are probably more focused on story and a lot of them not necessarily
on logistics.
When I talk to them I’m like “But how are we going to pull this off?”
And they’re like “Oh yeah?”
So from a producer’s perspective we’re thinking more about execution.
While I think a lot of writers they just tell the story they want to tell and they don’t
necessarily think about how it’s going to be done which is fine, you’re the writer
just get the story out but when it starts to be come real, then we’re going to have
to start approaching how we’re going to do it.
Sometimes some things for logistical reasons have to shift.
Film Courage: Do you think a lot of new writers don’t see that just yet?
Once someone has been in the game for awhile they can really scale things back to one room,
one town?
Mark: You know I find the writers that grasp it the quickest are multi-hyphenates who have
also produced.
Who have been involved in something other than…you know a lot of times writers, they
like locking themselves away in a room and just working by themselves.
They haven’t necessarily been part of the collaborative, creative process.
But the ones who have, the ones who have also director, and also produced and understand
the extengies of production, I think those people have a better grasp when I say “This
is going to be tough to do.
Here are some ways we might be able to do it given as an example I just recently budgeted
a script called NOT LONG TOGETHER and I think it’s fantastic and there was a scene in
it (one bigger scene) where the guy shows up, the woman is gone and there is an ambulance
and cop cars and there is a helicopter with a spotlight because they are looking in the
water and things and he’s like “Yeah, we’ll probably have to get rid of that.”
And I’m like “Well, there might be a couple of ways that we can do this, a couple of cop
cars, I know what they cost to rent or what ambulances cost to rent.
You can pay like $350 a day for picture vehicles, caution tape and a few background actors walking
through making it look busy” I said “You’re biggest issue is your helicopter.
But…we might be able to get a scissor lift and a 5K or something and do the spotlight
and then license the stock footage shot of a 4K stock footage shot of a police helicopter
and just cut to him.”
And they’re like “Yeah!
We can do it.”
Because the stock footage shot, you can license that for $150 bucks.
Go on Getty Images and you know?
We did and we were like “Wow, look at all these great 4K helicopter shots!”
Cut that in and you can have your helicopters and have a few cop cars and ambulances (whatever)
and it will probably cost us this much, we can do it for $1,000…however many thousands
of dollars.
And they are like “Yeah!”
So coming up with let’s say creative solutions sometimes it’s changes in the script, sometimes
it might not be how you’re thinking but here is another way we can do it and that’s
an example.
And he was like “Yeah!
This is awesome!
Okay, great.”