How to Make a Movie in Hollywood: the Abnormal Way

One of the most-asked questions about the business-end of Hollywood is -- how in the world do movies ever get made?? As the level of hoops to jump through grows, it's a question that gets asked even by professionals, who can see years pass before a film comes to life.

For Rob Hedden, the answer is simple. It happens because of a brick being thrown through his car windshield.

Four years ago, Hedden was chaperoning his son and some school friends, caravaning down the California coast into Mexico on a birthday trip. On the way back, driving along the freeway, a brick came crashing into the car, thrown from an overpass above.

When you're at a standstill, this is not a good thing. When you're moving at highway speeds -- it came close to being deadly. Glass went flying, dangerously cutting in to some people. Speeding off, Hedden quickly called one of the other cars to explain the situation, headed out of the pack to desperately find a hospital, and what could have been a tragic experience, turned into a mere harrowing one that allowed for eventual recovery.

A near-death experience tends to affect people. And Hedden -- a genial, self-effacing spirit who'd likely prefer surfing to making movies -- began to take stock of his full situation.

Hedden has had a steady, hard-working career. He's been on the writing staffs of series like "MacGyver" (learning, he's said, how to make a jet aircraft from a paperclip, grocery bag and twine) and "The Commish." He co-wrote the feature films "Clockstoppers" and last year's "The Condemned," and wrote and directed "Friday the 13th, Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan. (Up until they revived it years later, he liked to say that he was the one did the impossible, killing off Jason with the series.) He also directed or wrote nearly a dozen TV movies.

The thing about Hollywood, however, is it can be impenetrable for everyone. It's easier for executives to say "No," than risk failure developing projects along. Work that is actually able to get made can take years to get there -- while being changed along the way, often taken out of the hands of it creators.

After living through his hellacious experience, where his life was totally out of his own control, Hedden decided that, at that moment, he didn't need others deciding what his life would be. And so he determined to make his own movie. No studios, no executives, no script notes. Nothing grand, just something low-key and fun that his three sons could enjoy.

There's a reason most people don't try this. Just getting started is a hurdle.

In those very early stages, Hedden went to a Writers Guild seminar on independent filmmaking and asked me along, less as a friend, than as adult supervision. It was informative, but only up to a point. When someone in the audience asked about film festivals, one of the highly-successful panelists answered, "The only two festivals you should even consider are Cannes and Sundance." The muffled laughter in the audience of struggling writers was pronounced. "Oh, that's all we have to do?! Cool." (It was reminiscent of the old Steve Martin joke on how to make two million dollars. "First, get a million dollars...")

Undaunted, Hedden wrote a comedy that he knew he'd be able to shoot on a low-budget, yet make look much bigger. Something logistically he could film in his hometown of Laguna Beach. And in his occasionally-inspired mind, the more unconventional the better.

He came up with a screenplay which married his passion of surfing, his love of Laguna Beach, his need for a low budget, and his eternally childlike goofiness that has made his wife, Jan, one of the more tolerant, even-keeled women in the land. The story follows a couple of surfer slacker geeks, far outside of the "in crowd" at high school, who come up with an insanely-stupid sport for themselves -- attaching refrigerator boxes to skateboards and blindly hurtling down the hilly streets - that starts to attract local popularity and girls, not necessarily in that order of importance.

And -- starting from a brick being thrown into his windshield, through a need to have some control in his life and then create something for his kids -- Rob Hedden made it happen. The movie, a swirl of inspired silliness, "Boxboarders!" is being released on DVD on July 29th,. Today.

Hedden relentlessly tracked down what financing he could, got friends to help out on the production end, called in favors from recognizable actors like Stephen Tobolowsky, Dale Midkiff, Melora Hardin ("The Office") and Julie Brown, hired some talented young performers to star -- and got his cherished Laguna Beach to open its streets, open its businesses and close its eyes.

That's how you get a movie made. First, face a brick wall. And then do it yourself.

Comments

[BillSeward]

Precedent tells us this. The current DVD residual rate for actors was set 28 years ago. The producers said "DVD and VHS is a new technology with unknown costs and unknown potential. You need to trust us, and not overburden us with too many upfront residual obligations now, lest we strangle the baby in the crib." They gave SAG 12 cents per VHS or DVD to be split amongst... 50 actors on a movie? The estimates are that SAG actors lost literally hundreds of millions of dollars in the past 28 years by "trusting" the AMPTP's word. They have REFUSED to EVER raise the rate, including in this current contract that SAG is having shoved down its throat.

Meanwhile, the headline from Variety, July 20th, 2008? "10.1 BILLION DOLLARS IN DVD SALES" See for yourself! This, while the AMPTP pleads poverty, and calls a DVD residual rate increase a "nonstarter" for SAG, because they got the DGA (who don't rely NEARLY as much on residuals as actors, and, by the way, there's ONE director on a movie) or the WGA (1, maybe 4 writers tops on a project?) and now, AFTRA (no explanation for them besides sheer stupidity, and a desire to be the AMPTP's pal and undercut SAG).

[BillSeward]

First: Robert? We need you! Your funny, sarcastic wit combined with your tech-geek logic and numbers crunching was must reading during the WGA debacle. Now, of course, SAG is up against it - from the AMPTP, from AFTRA's concession to the AMPTP, from itself: different factions - the dominant Hollywood board of Membership First, which just got a 68 to zero vote of confidence for its demands per the currently offered (but not taken) AMPTP contract from every national branch of SAG.

A competing slate for the SAG board elections in September called "Unite For Strength" has emerged to challenge Membership First. Their platform seems to be: make peace with the AMPTP, merge with AFTRA, and qualified voting (if you're a SAG actor who had a bad year - you don't get to vote).

When questioned on the specific, prohibitive, and landscape changing aspects of the offered AMPTP contract, however, there is virtual silence from Unite For Strength. They either don't have answers to the questions, or don't care to answer. The issues are:

[BillSeward]

SAG is asking for product placement language that protects the actor from this: "Hi. I'm Bob, one of the producers of the movie? Yeah, we'd like you to wear this Corona Beer baseball hat in this scene. O.K.?" If the actor says "Uh, no, Bob, I think that feels exploitive, plus I make most of my living from commercials, and if I endorse Corona for free in your movie, which could conceivably run forever somewhere on the TV or the web, I'll never be able to audition for another brand of beers commercial again." To which, Bob the producer can, under the language AFTRA agreed to, say "Oh, yeah... well, then, you're fired. NEXT!" Yes, there is a "consent" clause in AFTRA's contract, but there is NO language protecting the actor from being subject to retribution should he or she say "no" when asked.

[BillSeward]

New Media: the biggie. In the digital present/future, content will be increasingly made for, and delivered via, the internet. The AMPTP has signed contracts with the DGA, the WGA and, most recently, AFTRA, that give the producers wide latitude to exploit a non-union space with non-union actors, writers and directors. The reality is starting to sink in that, if SAG caves and signs the contract currently offered, that virtually mirrors the contracts the other creative unions have signed (called "the template" by the AMPTP), the town goes non-union. It's simply a question of time.

The current contract being fought off by SAG states that any content made originally for the internet "under 15k per minute, 450k for series, or 300k, whichever is lowest" can be made non-union.

The problem? The current average cost of one minute of original content for the internet? 2 thousand dollars - the "floor" the producers have offered is so HIGH that content can easily be made beneath those figures, non-union. So, you see, this means, a HUGE non-union space for non-union talent to compete with and possibly overwhelm, union talent.

[BillSeward]

SAG wants the right to continue to bargain for actors collectively for force majeure, as SAG already does. The AMPTP wants to make it an "individual" right, meaning, the actor himself has to go up against the studio to retain this right, instead of being protected by the union.

And so on. SAG simply CANNOT accept this contract, despite the AMPTP's insistence that they are done bargaining, and that SAG must submit to "the template" set, in their mind, by the DGA, WGA and now, AFTRA, which stabbed SAG in the back by breaking an agreement to negotiate with SAG collectively, as AFTRA had for 28 years, then breaking their word, and breaking off to negotiate one on one with the AMPTP and agreeing to a substandard contract that severely complicated SAG's attempt to get a fair, reasonable and forward looking contract of union actors.

[BillSeward]

Any original content made for the internet and reused ON the internet? NO RESIDUALS. EVER. No matter how much profit it generates in perpetuity.

UNION production for the internet? Residuals so low, or in many cases, nonexistent, so as to make residuals for actors (who often rely on residuals for up to 50% of their income in any given year), a thing of the past. Think about that. There was a time BEFORE residuals, and, if this contract is ratified by SAG, there will be a time - an eternity - AFTER residuals, because, once the producers set the precedent? They will NEVER "revisit" of "renegotiate."

[BillSeward]

Will SAG strike. NO ONE wants another strike. NOT SAG , NOT THE AMPTP - NO ONE.

HOWEVER, if SAG's only leverage to get a fair contract for SAG members, that protects union actors from the catastrophic consequences of the AMPTP's current offer to the middle class actor's ability to have a shot at making a decent living? (which is WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT - NOT THE "STARS")
is to STRIKE? We'll have no choice.

Support Membership First candidates in the upcoming elections. Support your SAG leadership. The time is NOW.