Daily summary of the life/movie world.
I can tell you that the qualities I look for in a 2nd AD apply to the 1st AD as well.
– A calm unflappable personality under extreme pressure
– Real attention to detail
– The ability to plan ahead and think on your feet if the plan falls apart
– The grit to do a great job when they are sick / exhausted / just had their car stolen / got yelled at by someone above the line or any number of other things that would put a regular person off their game
– Sense of humor – essential!
Wow, that’s incredible to think that less than a year and a half ago we had just crossed the 1,000 mark. Now here we are just after our 2 year anniversary and we’re approaching 3,700 film festivals and 250,000 filmmakers! The support and reception from the indie film community has been incredible. We would have never guessed we’d reach an audience like this in 2 years. We’re tremendously grateful to our users and to the community for all the support.
People have a tendancy to talk about technology too much. They try to overwhelm you with tech-gargle. You can’t get caught up in this. It’s all about the result.
It’s easier to worry about the tools. It’s hard to really talk about your skills and talent. What you are capable of. The tools will only take you so far. Technology will always have its limits.
What a joy it was to chat with the extremely talented composer David Buckley. You can hear his music every Sunday on the hit TV series “The Good Wife”. He was also the composer on the upcoming film “The Nice Guys”, directed by Shane Black.
To learn more about David, you can go to his website: http://davidbuckleymusic.net/
I would absolutely recommend this route for aspiring production designers. The lower budget world is where you learn to be resourceful, where you can somewhat safely make mistakes which can be recovered, where you learn the complete fundamentals of how a film is made. I try to approach every production—large or small–with a calm nature, and I think that comes from being in the trenches for so many years and learning how to adapt to in all situations. The biggest con to this route is that formal “union” filmmaking can be a bit jarring when you do finally make the leap to the larger arena—but once you learn those nuances, the process really smooths out. That is definitely one pro if you do start in the larger union world—you learn those protocols right away, so you enter the film world knowing how union positions are categorized and how the different departmental responsibilities are broken down.
Adam Kirley is one of the best stunt performers in the world today. He has performed in over 60 films in the last 16 years, including: Iron Man 3, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, X-Men: First Class, Terminator Salvation, and Munich. He was Daniel Craig’s stunt double in the landmark James Bond movie “Casino Royale”, plus a Screen Actors Guild and World Stunt Award winner.
There was a “Cagney & Lacey” episode in 1984 called “Heat”. It was about a hostage situation. The producer of the show called it a movie that was also a TV episode. I’m very proud of that episode because the director Karen Arthur won an Emmy for it. The first time a female won a Best Directing Emmy.
There was a scene where someone gets shot in the episode and instead of showing them get shot down, I focused on the reaction of the husband and let the sound of the gun and his face tell us what happened. That’s editing!
Acting was Michael Flynn’s second choice. Playing second base for the NY Yankees was his first. He soon learned that the Yankees would never come calling – then came the acting bug. An active Mormon, Michael served his mission in France with Mitt Romney of all people!
No matter the medium it’s all a delicate balance between style and craft. I put 100% into every project so they all require the same amount of blood, sweat and tears.
I’d say jumping out of planes is my biggest high risk and I do that for fun! There are different kinds of stunts at different risk levels. Certain people are better at certain things than others and I very much respect people who do the things I cannot. For example, I know nothing about car crashes and car stunts. There are experts in that area and I would defer to them as it is a special skill.
Matthew Toffolo's Summary 