Film Courage: Why do you say the movie business is a weird business?
R. Ellis Frazier, Director, Producer, CEO at BADHOUSE Studios: Well yeah, among other things.
It's a business that people really, really, really, want to be in it
and be successful at it and make a living so it attracts interesting characters a lot of the time
it attracts people that risk takers it attracts people that let's be real can't
always be conforming into a corporate environment they wouldn't do well in there it's not always
they wouldn't do well because they didn't want to do well so sometimes this data wouldn't do well
because people would have a difficult time dealing with them so you're dealing with people
that really really want to make this thing work but it's very difficult to make work so when you
get into it and there's people around you
trying to make their film careers work trying to make their movie and television careers work
you get people that take that just will do strange things and stab you in the back stab their friends
in the back snitch people out. There's a lot at stake because the rewards are amazing it's the
best business in the world and not everybody can be in it so once you get your foot in the door
and you can feel yourself maybe slipping maybe not going as way it's supposed to you can people
can hold on super tight to try to stay in the business to try to make it not my fault this I was
told this this guy told me to do this and you know all this different stuff and so it's that and it's
also a little weird because it's just it's just a a business that not everybody can would want
to be in it's just it's although the glamour parts cool glamorous and red carpets and everything else
but when rubber hits the road it's a lot of disappointment it's a lot of rejection it can be
incredibly hard work sometimes for little or nothing as you're establishing yourself
and you're dealing with interesting characters it's I doubt it's like selling insurance like
you're gonna look at insurance salesman and the manager and the regional manager I mean
you get some people from the drug world you get people from criminals you get people that are
come in that made money in some other field and just come in and want to do this and so
it's it brings people from all different areas and all different walks of life and so
maybe weird is not the the best term but it's you it's interesting for sure not for the faint
of heart you have to be tough as nails to be in this business I say that people in film business
are some of the most some of the best employees you'll ever have
in any work because you can't make mistakes it's one of the one of the one of the only
one of the only professions where you cannot make a mistake and you walk around knowing I can't make
any mistakes I can't make a mistake it's oh that's okay no you lose your day you can't lose your day
you can't lose your sun meaning the sun light you can't mess something up and hurt an actor
you can't you there are no mistakes and so you you approach every day with that in mind so everything
and of course mistakes are made but you still have that mindset no mistakes and you live with that so
and there's also the element of wanting to be agreeable and easy to work with but knowing
that some things on the surface are not what they appear to be and to watch your back but
keeping a smile on your face yeah being agreeable it's a it's a big deal
most of what I when I interview people especially actors to come down to Mexico it's all temperament
to me I mean I'm sure they can get I'm sure I can get them to where they need to be performance wise
but temperament anything see it's not like I said before it's not like we're calling somebody to
go to North Hollywood and they live in Burbank you have to take them there and host them there
for three weeks a month two months any piece of their personality that's unmanageable will come
out in those three weeks believe me it's going to come out you need to make sure these people
have that kind of are stable in that way and not gonna and there's ways to tell you can just you
can just talk to them about things and and and see and let them know look it's things are not
gonna go perfect they're not but how you deal with that can you can you adjust can you pivot
are you going to be cool are you going to make a nightmare scenario for everybody are you going to
call your manager and say that this guy didn't give me there was my yellow candy wasn't there
and these this is a nightmare and this is and then create that toxic energy inside the set so
how people people's temperament is everything to me because you have to live with them I
can put you on a plane where you wouldn't want to be with somebody for three hours
much less three weeks and and the you have to really kind of be able to know that and so
I have a very calm demeanor all the time I'm cool about stuff all the time I can adjust and
pivot but dealing with people that are bullies and things like that can be really really problematic
and they in in the end they end up costing money and and causing problems all around
so so we learned to kind of look for that first even before the talent and then we move to
can you do it suppose someone's easy to work with what about trust factor how do you determine that
trust as far as although there's many levels of trust just maybe trust
in terms of I guess there's probably different layers of it so trust being on the set trust
having them as someone you would continually call back okay trust in your quote unquote and for lack
of a better term sorry inner circle yeah you one thing you learn in film is that you gotta keep
your film circle relatively small but I have built over time people that I genuinely trust
and but it takes a little bit of time and you need to see them in various situations
everything's going smooth you don't know whether or not you can trust them in a jam
anybody that's done any kind of decent number of independent films has been in a lot of jams
and it's how you deal with that and you watch them and you you analyze how they deal with
that and at the end of the day are they trying to be toxic and turn everybody against everybody
or at the end of the day are they having a drink and saying that they
sucked but I think tomorrow is going to be better I’ll take the guy who says
I have the drink with and tomorrow's gonna be better with the less talent
over the other guy or girl that is causing the problems you have to realize we're in where we're
in you're basically in a foreign country you're very vulnerable you can't have revolts and strikes
and things like that this is very dangerous and so you you you can't even and you can't have
people walking off you have somebody that your sound guy ah forget about this I'm walking who's
gonna do the sound I mean you can find somebody but you see what I'm saying you have to be able
to trust that people are gonna put the movie first and not make it about them all the time you know
so I think so I think that trust in that way and just and just time you have to have been through
things with people so that you understand how they'll react and and you can trust them to be
there in when things get a little chaotic and they'll keep themselves centered and
focused during that time because chaos working within chaos is something you must learn to do
and pressure high pressure chaos and pivot be able to we're gonna shoot here okay but
the car's not here turn around shoot the other way until the car gets here
so you have to be able to pivot without saying I can't believe the car's not here this is
like you just got to just figure it out and just keep moving so you find people that will do that
crew we have now will 100 do that they pivot without a problem so I have tons of trust in them.
What is one thing no one told you about the film business which you
learned from observation or experiences later on?