Coffee and Celluloid » Career

Being Hollywood and Fake Interviews

Joey — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:59:57 +0000

First off, Oscars. Slumdog – woo! Though no surprise there. It is sad, though, that for a film that swept the Oscars it hasn’t even broken the $100 million mark, which means most people haven’t seen it.

I thought the actual Oscars program was well done. Hugh Jackman was great and it was nice that he played to his talents. My favorite moment had to be the little bit of Cloverfield that was snuck in. I forgot which award it was but instead of playing the movie’s theme (probably didn’t have one) they played Roar!, that awesome (and only composed song) during the end credits of Cloverfield. Yes, I know, I’m a film geek.

And here’s a video that explains what Ben Stiller was up to (via Leo Laporte on Twitter).

But back to what I originally intended to blog about.

So two weeks ago I did the Hollywood thing. I flew from Miami to LA in the morning, went to a screening, then hoped on a plane the next day and went right back.

Each year the Film School puts on a screening in LA of some of the best films that came out of the school the previous year. I happened to produce one of those films, so I thought it would be worth it to go.

That and it was a good excuse to see all my friends who are now out in LA. It was a lot of fun and great to see everyone, but at the same time it was a hard dose of reality. All of my friends are interning at production companies 8-10 hours a day. Even if I did stay longer we couldn’t really have done anything since they had to go to work.

So basically I came, I saw, I went. But before I went, I stopped at the Starbucks near my friends’ place (they live in Burbank). As I was walking in this cute girl asks if she could interview me for Extras. Sure.

They wanted to get my thoughts on the octomom. Oh, and just to clear something up – by ‘interview’ I mean they told me everything to say.

“So what do you think about the mother with the octuplets? You’re outraged, right? That’s going to cost a lot of tax dollars to raise those kids. So just say how it’s going to cost a lot of our money to support those kids.”

I give the best performance I can muster, but if you want to imagine my acting style think of Patrick Warburton.

“Great, great. Let’s do that again, but with more energy.”

I was on Extras that night, two Wednesdays ago. They also had me read for a Valentine’s Day segment they were producing, which was by far my favorite.

“Okay, I need you to look in the camera and ask, ‘I’ve been in a relationship for a long time. What can I do with my girlfriend to mix things up?’ (BTW, I have no girlfriend).

Unfortunately this didn’t air, but at least it made my favorite story of the week. I went and got my Espresso Truffle, and when I came back out they were interviewing two women from Idaho. I guess they rely on tourists to be suckered into doing this.

Once their interview was done we all ended up talking afterwards. Then I left, saying I had to go see my fake girlfriend.

To cap off the trip, I finally got to use a Dyson AirBlade at LAX. It’s the coolest hand-dryer ever, ranking (in my hand-dryer rating system) just above the Xlerator. What can I say, I like dry hands.

Reassurance (And Why I’ll Remain Behind the Camera)

Joey — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:11:30 +0000

If you survived the 2 years in Film School, you’ll do fine in Hollywood.

Said by Ali Bell, visiting alumni.

Sorry I can’t write more, I’m in the midst of a perfect storm and potential breakdown (Update: storm has passed).

But on another note, I should probably remain behind the camera:

“I’m here with my mom actually who’s up here for homecoming, we we came to the marketplace to kinda hang out. I mean it’s always fun, it’s kinda cool to see local venues and stuff.” says Joey Daoud, a FSU Film School Student

They actually recorded that on-camera, but for some reason it never aired. I guess I was too articulate for them. I did, however, warn them that I was in fact dragged to the marketplace against my wishes.

And to show how small a film world it is, I found out the person interviewing me is the girlfriend of one of the actors who’s been in many, many films.

Oh, and new Watchmen trailer:

Film School Grad in Hollywood Reporter

Joey — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:25:08 +0000

Ali Bell, 30

vp production and development
Montecito Picture Co.

Not everybody can trace their film career to their mother’s love of John Singleton’s “Boyz n the Hood.” “It was a combination of the acting, the cinematography and the way my mom was so rocked by the experience,” Bell says. After film school in Florida, she set her sights on directing but segued to producing after working as a marketing and creative exec at Nickelodeon Films and Heyday Films. For two years she’s been at the production company headed by Ivan Reitman and Tom Pollock; Bell is responsible for projects like “Underage” and “The Occupants” for Warner Bros. — as well as bringing in the upcoming Fox Atomic comedy “The Post Grad Survival Guide.” “My job is to go out and find new writers or directors and guide them to get their movie or passion project made.”

THR Next Gen 2008: Film

Yes, that “film school in Florida” is FSU. Ali Bell graduated in the class of ’99 and she’s actually paying a visit to the Film School this Friday to talk to my soon-to-graduate class.

I also thought it was funny that the Next Gen in New Media only had four guys (though twice as many as Legal).

Burn Notice – On-Set and Production Assisting

Joey — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:17:27 +0000

At the beginning of the summer I had mentioned how I stumbled on the set of Confessions of a Shopaholic and through a couple degrees of someone who knows someone, I was put in touch with the Location Manager of the show Burn Notice and invited to come out to the set. This is what happened.

I showed up to the Burn Notice set, which is in a convention center they’ve converted to a soundstage (Marley & Me was filming in the other half). The building looked normal until I rounded the corner to find a huge sea of production trailers, along with random fragments of sets I recognized from the show.

I met Melanie, the Location Manager, and she brought me inside. The first hall was filled with department trucks and a giant set building workshop.

Going through to the other side was the sets – Michael’s mom’s house and his apartment, complete with a giant cyclorama of Miami.

Melanie introduced me to the Assistant Directors (ADs), who then asked if I wanted to be a Production Assistant for the day. Um, sure.

Unlike Film School where we’re lucky if we have four working walkies, wireless communication was so abundant on set even I got a walkie with a head piece, along with a few sides.

In fact, there’s so many walkies out that each department has their own channel (production team, art team, grip and electric, etc.).

I was stationed near a side door and basically had to yell out whatever the first AD said – the usual cadence stuff. “We’re going for picture! Quiet on set! Rolling!”

Between setups I could roam around, observe, and talk to people.

Honestly, I felt like I was right back on a film school set. It felt so familiar. The only difference is more people and larger production.

The set was run the same, the process was the same, the equipment was better but still the same. They even fell behind schedule, just like us. Okay, there is one major difference. Craft services is amazing and even has a waffle making station.

While the crew was setting up for a shot, I started talking to the First Assistant Director. She asked what I wanted to do, but answered it before I could get a chance. “Direct, of course.” Well don’t I feel like the typical film school guy. I said yes, but I also like producing, which seemed to be a different reply than she’s used to.

With each department I did notice something very interesting. As the positions got higher, so did the age. With the camera team, the Second Assistant Camera was young but still in his thirties. The First Assistant Camera was older, followed by an even older Camera Operator and then a graying Director of Photography.

This can be seen in the Art and Production departments as well. Of course the writer/producer for the episode, who was pretty much chilling near video village on his Blackberry all day, was in his 20s. I want that job.

Another interesting dynamic was how each person only cared about their department and nothing else. One of the ADs caught me looking at the lighting set-up for a scene, and asked what I was looking at. When I told him the lighting, he responded, “So now you want to be a cinematographer?”

The few times any of the Assistant Directors asked for something over the walkie, I was pretty quick to respond – something I thought that went with the job. But apparently this was above average performance, because by the end of the day they asked me to stay on for the production of the entire season at $125 a day.

Tempting, yes, but returning to broken equipment and scarce walkies, along with the occasional making of movies, won out.

More pictures here.

Schadenfreude!

Joey — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:34:44 +0000

A while back I mentioned how I was sort of fired/not re-hired to run the on-campus TV station. Another person wooed the new president with her ideas of new TV shows and contests yet lacked any knowledge on how to actually do that.

Well, I just found out that she was fired. Schadenfreude!

Geoffrey Gilmore and the Creature from the Black Lagoon

Joey — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:04:20 +0000

So right before I went off on documentary making adventures, Mr. Gilmore and I had a rendezvous back in Tallahassee.

First, to belay any doubts I had when I ended my last recount of our adventures, he did remember me. Joining him was Julie Le Brocquy who produced Osama, an amazing film I saw back in High School.

The Film School was hosting its annual Gala and graduate program graduation, where they screen the 4 graduate thesis films, so Geoffrey was one of the distinguished guests. We also screened Ballast, which is a story worth a separate post.

There was a lot of driving around, some cool (free) lunches and Julie was super cool and super European, which makes her even super cooler.

The highlights? They actually had nothing to do with films or screenings. Frank, the Dean, wanted Geoffrey to have a little relaxation, so we all went to Wakulla Springs – one of the largest freshwater springs in the world and the shooting location for cinema gems such as Creature from the Black Lagoon and Tarzan.

I had never been there before but it was absolutely beautiful. It was also a spoiling first time venture since we chartered a tour boat with only 8 passengers, so I was free to roam to any side to snap some cool pics.

The other highlight? Taking Geoffrey and Julie to the mall. With monopoly money being worth more than the Dollar, to Julie and her Euro, everything in America is practically half off, so she wanted to buy some gifts for her son, whom I became a size model for.

Nothing eventful happened, I just like the image that I’m walking around a clothes store at the Tallahassee Mall with the Director of the Sundance Film Festival.

5 Ways to Become a Future Hollywood Power Player

Joey — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:35:07 +0000

While doing some film book browsing on Amazon, I caught the release of The Hollywood Assistants Handbook and ordered myself a copy. It wasn’t long before everyone in school was reading a copy. After all, we’re filled with FHPPs (that’s Future Hollywood Power Players for you film muggles).

If you want to work in the entertainment industry, especially the business side, this should be in the top 5 books to read. It’s quick, entertaining, and pretty informative. Like everything you read, you’ll need to filter out the eyebrow raisers from the head-nodders, but this has more good tips than bad. Here are 5 to get you going on your path to a HPP.

10-20-10 Rule – One popular entry level job is a Script Reader, where you read through the piles of scripts producers receive and decide if it’s worth their time to read. I’ve always wondered how anyone could go through piles of scripts (most of which are terrible) and no go insane. Here’s how. Read the first 10 pages, skim for 20, and read the last 10. Brilliant.
Write thank you letters after you interview, and especially after someone does something for you. No email, a handwritten note.
You’re not curing cancer. If a job nightmare occurs, just repeat that to yourself.
If you get some crazy request from your boss, the hotel concierge is your friend. Just tell them your boss is a guest and hand over the task.
Intentionally mess up. Yes, screw something up. Nothing big or disastrous. Why? To move up. You want to be a little forgetful or undependable so you don’t become indispensable to your boss, because then you’re stuck forever. Your boss will want you to move on to bigger and better things so they can replace you.

Like I said, not everything in the book might be a great idea. I’m even cautious of some of the things I mentioned above. But it’s definitely worth a read.

Interning and Secrets

Joey — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:51:03 +0000

To continue my tail of un-hiring woes, we must first go back a few months to the first time I drove Geoffrey Gilmore around.

As I said in summation, driving Geoffrey around brought me a lot closer to Paul Cohen, an independent distributor¹ who is the business side of show business in one man.

I guess I did a good job with Geoffrey because Paul really seemed to like me. Over the next few months (the Geoffrey chauffeuring was back in February), we met and had coffee a few times and finally had a ‘thank you’ dinner.

Paul moved to Tallahassee not to leave the business but to move to a less expensive town, so he’s starting up a new distribution company in conjunction with the school to serve as a learning environment for the business side of filmmaking.

He asked if I wanted to intern and work on distributing and marketing real movies. How about ‘yes.’

So to skip a bit, and because we’re under non-disclosure agreements so I can’t talk about it much, there’s about eight of us interning, working in a separate building virally marketing the Germs biopic What We Do Is Secret.

You can see some of my handy work if you search for the What We Do Is Secret group on Facebook (over 400 members) as well as some write-ups on music blogs.

Oh yes, this internship also involves a trip to the Toronto Film Festival.

That means he buys films and releases them in theaters, on DVD, etc, with the idea being he makes more money back than the purchase price. ↩

How Obama Got Me Fired

Joey — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:41:48 +0000

Remember almost a year ago when I got that job to run the school’s TV station? Well that ended. I got fired (sort of). By 30 people.

For a little recap, I got hired as the General Manager of the on-campus TV station. The station was a mess – no consistent schedule, terrible PSAs played between films, lots of equipment that wasn’t allowed to be touched, and no online presence.

So I made the schedule consistent, with movies playing on the quarter hour and getting varied play at different hours.

I made a deal with the Film School to play old student films in between movies.

After months I finally convinced the Director of Student Affairs to restart original programming, and started recording lecturers who came to campus.

Only 6,000 students get the channel while 40,000 attend the school, so online content was a must. I started a YouTube channel and Facebook group to get things going.

I even got funding for a second channel to play documentaries and anticipated student programming.

So when I had to reapply it didn’t really cross my mind that there would be an issue. A new President and cabinet had been elected, so I interviewed with the new Chief-of-Staff.

What she would later call a thorough interview lasted about five minutes and were questions from a form that had gems such as “what’s your weakest trait?” (Giving people more credit than they deserve)

In Student Government world, once you get forwarded by the executive branch (Chief-of-Staff), the Senate Internal Affairs (IA) committee interviews you and forwards you to Senate, where Senate votes and you’re given the job.

So I was kind of surprised when I didn’t get a call from Senate to setup the IA meeting. It wasn’t long before I found out I wasn’t forwarded and instead it went to someone who’d been vying for my job for a long time.

The worst part was I found out from an email from the chair of Internal Affairs asking me questions about the applicant. The applicant who wasn’t me.

To skip the boring bits, the IA chair started investigating, talking to people, and learned that the job was much more technical than the description described.

He said he supported me, but for some unknown reason they still forwarded her. End of story? Nope, just getting started (just to clarify, the point of IA is to filter out candidates so Senate doesn’t have to. Senate is kind of a rubber stamp).

He still supported me, so at the Senate meeting that week, where she was supposed to be forwarded as the candidate of choice from IA, which he runs, he would speak out against her and say she should not be forwarded (it’s been years since Senate has not forwarded a candidate).

When Senate got started, the newly elected President (whom I’ve never met) gave a speech basically saying things need to change, old people need to go, and Senate should approve whoever he wants. Yes, this kind of defeats the purpose of checks and balances, but we won’t go there.

He was riding on the back of Obama’s change craze, even though I had only been there a few months and, you know, done a lot of change. Oh, he also said they thoroughly interviewed me. Again, five minutes. I didn’t even finish my cappuccino.

The candidate was brought up and questioned. They asked what she would do with the station. Here’s where we differ – she told them what they wanted to hear while I told what was realistic.

She was going to have three shows a week, contests, advertisers – a real NBC. Good luck with that¹.

They even had my adviser answer some questions. Sad to say, but he undersold what I did.

Even more sad was I wasn’t allowed to defend myself.

After about an hour of pro/con debate they went to a vote. Keeping with precedence (and not making a change), they forwarded her.

So I wasn’t fired, per-se. I just wasn’t rehired. By 30 people.

But as someone says, things work out. I have a new, better position now that would have required me to leave anyways. And could things really get worse than a room of people voting against you?

And for the record, I don’t hold this against Barack. Despite my grandparent’s wishes, I still like him.

My goals, if you were wondering, was a stronger online presence, some original programming, and more guest speakers ↩

The Return of Geoffrey Gilmore

Joey — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:59:16 +0000

I know I just finished writing about my adventures with Gilmore, but that happened a few months ago.

Well, Geoffrey is back and I’m driving him around again. I’ve gone up from a Dodge Caravan to a giant Suburban (9 MPG!).

Stay tuned, because more adventures are about to happen.

(And a shout out to all the film schoolers who’ve discovered C&C)