by Erik Childress
The “Paper Covers Rock" Pitch: Life -- why bother?
Is this your first trip to SXSW? Got any other film festival experience? If you’re a festival veteran, let us know your favorite and least-favorite parts of the ride.
JOE: This is my first trip to SXSW, but I’ve been to quite a few festivals in the past with other films. I hate the technical problems. No two screenings are ever the same. The color never looks right. The sound is never right. To make matters worse, the projection folks are often prickly and impatient and generally treat you like garbage. Big festivals, with seemingly unlimited resources, are as guilty as the little ones. Five minutes into my very first Sundance screening ever the screen went black. It took a good ten minutes for them to get the projector running again. After five minutes people started leaving, not a lot of people, but still. To this day I don’t know what happened.
Back when you were a little kid, and you were asked that inevitable question, your answer would always be “When I grow up I want to be a …” what?
JOE: A painter and sculptor, like my father.
How did you get your real “start” in filmmaking?
JOE: I didn’t go to film school, but I hung out with a lot of film students and I learned a lot on their student film shoots. Then one day I just made my own movie, VIRGIL BLISS, which did fairly well for a small feature, and in turn made it easier for me to make the next movie.
Do you feel any differently about your film now that you know it’s on “the festival circuit?”
JOE: Yes. Now I know it will have some life and everyone who has worked so hard on it can enjoy a little recognition. I like my movie a bit more now. It’s like a child who grows up and becomes an accountant. My movie has amounted to something. President of the United States, no. But something.
Of all the Muppets, which one do you most relate to?
JOE: Unfortunately, the Muppets came into being a little late for me to really know much about them. I was raised on very early 70’s Sesame Street though, and of all those characters Oscar was my favorite. Is he considered a Muppet? I also liked the Count.
During production did you ever find yourself thinking ahead to film festivals, paying customers, good & bad reviews, etc?
JOE: No. In fact, it was the exact opposite. Making this movie was an attempt to blot out that aspect of the film business and just enjoy the process of telling a story with my friends. PAPER COVERS ROCK is the first of many “incidental films” which I plan to make. Incidental films are disposable films, films made for nothing, with no outside interference and no pressure for the final product to have any commercial value. You can get more information from our site www.incidentalfilms.com. It’s still in the construction phase, but worth visiting anyway.
How did this film get rolling at the beginning? Give us a brief history from writing to production to post to just last night.
JOE: I was in development limbo on two big films that I’d written and was attached to direct. Every month it seemed I was on the brink of going into production, and then something would fall through, either an actor would pull out, or the financier would decide they didn’t like a cast member, or the financiers would start fighting and the money would go away, ad infinitum. It’s a disgusting process the way movies get made (“...this business of butchers and whores”, to quote Bergman) and I was just so sick of waiting around and having conference calls and meetings and jumping through hoops of fire trying to keep these fragile deals together.
One day I’d just had enough and I began writing a script I could produce for nothing with my friends as actors and crew. Clint Jordan put up $3,000 and I put up $3,000. We shot the movie in ten days with a two person crew - Sam Shinn shooting and me doing my own sound. Seth Anderson edited it at my apartment on Final Cut, and pulled some favors to do a little touch up stuff on picture and sound at Gramercy Post. And that is the story of PAPER COVERS ROCK in a nutshell. Last night? I fought bitterly with my web-domain host support person over the phone. If you can’t log on to incidentalfilms.com, you can thank the assholes at Apple customer service.
One other detail. When it came time to actually begin pre-production, the only real obstacle I could foresee was procuring a single location – the NYC Aquarium. The script had been written to be produced for as little as possible (in the end - $6,000), using my apartment, friends’ apartments, streets, etc. When it came time to contact the aquarium, I told myself that if this is a ball-busting experience, then I’m going to take it as a sign and walk away from the movie. Needless to say, I got the aquarium, and they were fantastic, kind people to work with.
If you could share one massive lesson that you learned while making this movie, what would it be?
JOE: Never wait for anyone to give you permission to go out and make a movie. Always be in production. It’s the greatest thing in the world. The technology exists for me to go out and shoot a movie anytime I feel like it. We shot an entire feature a few weeks ago, (January 11th, 2008) all in a single night. It’s called EUPHORIA. We used multiple cameras (a friend of mine owns 3 Varicams), and set it up sort of like a scavenger hunt with actors placed in locations throughout Manhattan and Queens. We’ll cut it, like we did PAPER COVERS ROCK, on the Final Cut Pro system in my apartment. If you have a constant flow of ideas, you can be in a permanent state of production. Never wait for other people to get their shit together and allow you to make your movie. Stay active with projects you can control, even if it’s just you and your little PD 150 walking around shooting street signs.
What films and filmmakers have acted as your inspirations, be they a lifelong love or a very specific scene composition?
JOE: Krystof Kieszlowski. Hal Ashby. John Cassavetes. Ingmar Bergman. Those are the ones I go back to again and again.
Did you watch any movies in pre-production and yell “This! I want something JUST like this …only different.”?
JOE: No, I don’t think so. I watch a lot of movies all the time. The movies I like I’ll watch many times, so their influence is probably more subtle than the dramatic “aha” moment you describe.
What actor would you cast as your favorite cartoon character?
JOE: I don’t have a favorite cartoon character, but if I did, it’d be something funny and tragic at the same time and I’d cast John Turturro to play him/it.
Say you landed a big studio contract tomorrow, and they offered you a semi-huge budget to remake, adapt, or sequelize something. What projects would you tackle?
JOE: I’d like to do an adaptation of “Revolutionary Road,” the novel by Richard Yates. Sam Mendes just did it, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. I’m sure it’ll be just fine, but I’m confident I’d do it better. In fact, I think I’m the only person out there who should have been allowed to adapt that novel. Of course I’m joking, but not really. I’d also like to do an adaptation of Camus’ “The Stranger”. I’d do it totally straight; no impressionistic bullshit, just this slow march towards a completely senseless act of violence.
Name an actor in your film that’s absolutely destined for the big-time. And why, of course.
JOE: Jeannine Kaspar, because she is talented and has that LA brand of ambition you need to get ahead in this business. And Sayra Player, because she is just so good and works harder than any actor I’ve ever worked with.
Finish this sentence: If I weren’t a filmmaker, I’d almost definitely be...
JOE: A chef.
Who’s an actor you’d kill to work with?
JOE: Kill, no. But I would have loved to have had the chance to make a movie with Peter Sellers.
Have you “made it” yet? If not, what would have to happen for you to be able to say “Yes, wow. I have totally made it!”
JOE: I guess to not be worried about money all the time would be a sign that I’ve made it. To get to a place where I had paid directing and/or writing jobs lined up back to back. I’m not in this to get rich and frankly I’m pretty happy with my life as it is right now, but it would be nice to not have to struggle quite so much.
Honestly, how important are film critics nowadays?
JOE: They’re very important for the life of a small film. If the Times pans my movie on its opening weekend, I will have a much harder time getting audiences into the theater. Unfortunately, the smaller films that really need the boost from a comprehensive review - not a positive review mind you, but a thoughtful and thorough analysis that might help the readers to understand that, despite the lack of recognizable stars, this is still a movie worth seeing – these small films are the ones the big dailies and weeklies most often overlook, or devote a few careless lines to. That’s what irks me the most, the sheer laziness of so much film criticism.
What would mean more to you? A full-on rave from an anonymous junketeer or an average, but critically constructive review from a respected print or online journalist?
JOE: First, let me say that I don’t know of a single filmmaker who really cares what any critic thinks of his or her work. That said, I read my all of my reviews and recognize that, like it or not, good reviews from established critics are essential in promoting small films like the ones I make. I don’t like it, but that’s just the way it works. So to answer your question, I’d have to say it’s more valuable, from a marketing standpoint, to have the comprehensive, average review from an established print or online source. We live in a society that relies on the imprimatur of established news outlets, which again is why I like so much the idea of incidental films, which are all about the process of making the film, period.
You’re told that your next movie must have one “product placement” on board, but you can pick the product. What would it be?
JOE: Some brand of cigarettes. I don’t smoke, but I like seeing people, preferably women, smoke in the movies.
You’re contractually obligated to deliver an R-rated film to your producers. The MPAA says you have to delete a sex scene that’s absolutely integral to the film or you’re getting an NC-17. How do you handle it?
JOE: If I have signed the contract and been paid, then I cut the scene. Anyone who has read the script, signed the contract, been paid, and then makes a big stink out of having to make the cut is just a showboating asshole. However, if the producers have approved the scene and then backpedal because they get cold feet about an NC-17 rating, that’s a different story. Then you fight it, most likely lose the battle, and eventually include the offending scene in your “director’s cut” DVD, which is where most people are going to see the movie anyway.
What’s your take on the whole “a film by DIRECTOR” issue? Do you feel it’s tacky, because hundreds (or at least dozens) of people collaborate to make a film – or do you think it’s cool, because ultimately the director is the final word on pretty much everything?
JOE: For some reason I have no strong opinion on this. I’ve done the “film by” thing, but also like the idea of a more egalitarian approach to film credits. I guess it seems kind of irrelevant to me; an pseudo issue created by middlemen (unions, agents, managers) to justify their existence in the whole endeavor.
In closing, we ask you to convince the average movie-watcher to choose your film instead of the trillion other options they have. How do you do it?
JOE: If I could do what you describe I’d be the most powerful man in Hollywood.
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Joe Maggio's Paper Covers Rock will have its world premiere at the 2008 South By Southwest Film Festival in the Narrative Features Competition. Screening times will be announced on Friday, Feb. 15.
link directly to this feature at http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/feature.php?feature=2384
originally posted: 02/13/08 11:09:09
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