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Jeff Balis - The Producer Is Not The Director
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If you've been watching the show, then you know it has a habit of shedding light on some of our clumsier moments. While I have hyphenate-produced films in the past, "Stolen Summer" is certainly the most responsibility I've had on a movie set, and obviously it's the most public exhibition of my efforts. While there were many elements of the production that I had previously experienced either first hand or vicariously, there were quite a few scenarios I had never encountered before (e.g. lunch not showing up, a documentary crew on set, or an exec producer who likes to have more than one bathroom for the crew). The show has already established that I wasn't turning to Chris Moore for advice, so I was left in the position of making educated decisions in conjunction with the recommendations of the talented crew. I didn't have experience to turn to so I had to figure out some of this shit on my own.
One sort of philosophy I decided to adopt early was to slide as much creative "good" into the movie as possible without bringing an unacceptable level of risk to the production (as you can gather from the show, differing definitions of "unacceptable risk" are the source of great conflict). For instance, there is a lot of dialogue in "Stolen Summer," and I think it helps having moments in the film to open it up so, yes, I signed off on the dubious decision to shoot under the El. I thought it would visually enhance the film in a substantial way. I also pushed to shoot in a moving car, even though I've shot in moving cars before and I know what a pain in the ass it is. In retrospect, we probably shouldn't have shot under the El, but the moving car paid off beautifully.
In general, I lean towards the creative, and that is not always a good trait in a producer. I needed to have some more distance from Pete's vision, and I should have said "no" more often. I should have stuck with the six foot ladder at the beach instead of the jungle-gym we built in the water. Lessons learned. Maybe it's closet directorial aspirations or maybe it's my inability to keep my mouth shut about creative issues, but it's impossible for me to be solely an operational manager on set. I got into this business for the creative side, and that's where my heart is.
A strong creative opinion can be a problem on a movie set, though, because there is a guy with the title of "Director" who is hired to make the day-to-day creative decisions. Unfortunately, that doesn't make the opinions in my head evaporate. I'm not talking about the big decisions like casting the lead actors; I'm talking about those millions of little details that can drive you nuts: Do they have to be eating brisket for dinner? Shouldn't she say the line like this? Blah Blah. The problem is that some of these small choices turn out to make a real difference in the outcome of the movie. Sometimes you won't know until you're in the editing room or until you're seeing the film with audience for the first time.
The role that a producer has creatively over minutia depends on the particularities of the movie but, in general, it is an exercise in tongue-biting. One of the most important lessons I had to learn was to keep my mouth shut about miniscule matters of taste. Every tiny note I gave Pete diluted the really important ones, so I had to hold back ten comments for everyone one I gave. When I told Pete that I had ten times as many notes as I gave, he said he felt that I gave ten times too many. So for Pete and I, the ratio of ideas I had to what he wanted to hear was 100:1. Perfect.
The way it would usually work for us was as follows: I would see something that bugged me-a scene would look staged, or an improvisation was anachronistic, whatever-and I would evaluate if it was worth bringing up. If it was, I would pull Pete aside, and most of the time he would either ignore me, or say that he disagreed, and I would walk away miffed. Then, in a take or two, he would give the idea a shot. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't. As he walked back to the monitor, small smiles would creep across our faces because, as he and I both knew, we were keeping score. But it was in this way that Pete and I developed a style of working together creatively that I think suited us. It took us some time to sniff each other out, but by mid-shoot, we hammered out the kinks, gained each other's trust, and worked pretty well together. If we get the opportunity to make more movies together, we will have that shorthand to fall back on.
As frustrating as it is to have to keep 90% of your comments to yourself, there is also a certain liberation from not having to deal with the minutia. I don't have to bleed, sweat, and cry over how to make the end of the film tie up Joe O'Malley's arc-I can just give a note with some vague ideas how to maybe fix it, and come back in a few days and see it all better (if only...). The cost of this luxury, though, is that there are dozens of changes I'd like made in the shooting and the editing that I can't force Pete to make. I can suggest (and suggest and reiterate and suggest again and put it into every draft of notes), but it's hard to force the director to capitulate when it just isn't a huge issue. This is the best and worst thing about producing.
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