Mon, July 14, 2003

Project Greenlight is a combination reality show/documentary in which HBO and Miramax select amateurs to direct a feature film. Last year, Pete Jones (who with every movement defines the term "amateur") was allowed to direct his own script. This year, the selection panel picked the script separately and then picked directors to put it up in front of cameras. The winners, co-directors Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin and screenwriter Erica Beeney seem leagues ahead of Pete Jones but the show is still as maddening as ever.

(As with any reality program, I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that 95% of the drama, stupidity, egotism, and miscommunication is embellished if not downright created by the editing. No TV show would be compelling if they focused on the shots of everyone shaking hands and smiling politely. Drama sells, so they play up the drama. I can only review what they show me. Hereafter "Efram" shall refer to the character of Efram that we see in the show, who may not necessarily be the same person as the Efram of real life. This applies to any character mentioned, with the exception of Joseph Middleton who is a snarky, evil shitweasel and deserves a painful death.)

As of this writing, we're five episodes into Project Greenlight Season Two and we're up to the night before principal photography is scheduled to start. Pre-production was accelerated by an overall production schedule that is quicker than normal due to the target release date for the film. From the day of their selection as winners, Kyle and Efram were given three weeks to prepare the script with Erica and assemble a team to begin filming the movie. Many important decisions must be made in that period; the key areas that HBO chose to focus on were casting, script revisions, and the collaborative process.

Erica Beeney reminds me a lot of Michelle Pfeiffer. She's soft-spoken but authoritative and she speaks with a certain forceful gravity. She has the same beestung lips and elegant smile of Pfeiffer as well. Of the three winners, she seems to have her head in the game the most from the start. Her focus is on her role and what the opportunity of Project Greenlight will mean for her. Her focus and drive serve her well in pre-production, where the screenwriter naturally lives, but it's clear that they will present problems in production where the movie is supposed to pass into the director's hands. In script meetings, she stands her ground. She accepts input willingly but she's not afraid to challenge it and force people to define their terms. Her integrity is maintained by her ability to stay with the project, so it's in her interest to collaborate effectively with the rest of the team. She does a great job making herself understood, but we begin to see that she is growing accustomed to having her opinion valued all the time. She turns in an excellent shooting script, but we're set for a bit of a showdown when cameras begin to roll.

Kyle and Efram have directed together in the past, and this is their first time on a project of this scope. They are new to the idea of studio demands and they are new to the concept of collaboration, particularly delegating authority. As with most pairs of close collaborators, they've grown used to an almost non-verbal understanding between themselves, and it takes them some time to learn that their ideas must be communicated to the entire production team. They also must learn that they need help to achieve their vision. In the past, they've depended on each other to get things done; on this scale they need many, many helpers. Fortunately, they have the budget to bring in a larger crew, unfortunately they're not yet aware that they need to. They can't be their own production designer or their own director of photography because it's just not possible. It's their job to select the appropriate people to fill those positions and then communicate their vision effectively to that group. For a while, they're unable to figure this out and Chris Moore (executive producer of Project Greenlight as well as the film they're making, The Battle of Shaker Heights) is reluctant to explain it to them. He figures they've just won this contest and they're still a little shocked. Better to let them find their own way. Well, it makes for more dramatic television.

The guys appear to finally get their head around the concept of hiring a crew because it magically starts to happen and Project Greenlight gradually drops that story line. Perhaps, as is the case with the script revisions, this is foreshadowing of future events and the story line will return. For now, the focus is almost entirely upon casting.

Casting is one of the earliest priorities in pre-production, because it's important to start recruiting actors early so that they have adequate notice to prepare their schedules and you have time to find new actors if your first choices aren't available. So instead of selecting a casting director the way they do with other crew members, Kyle and Efram meet Joseph Middleton on their first day of pre-production; he's already attached to the project. This is helpful in getting the process started, but it's probably among the key reasons the co-directors are reluctant to delegate their authority to other crew members. Middleton does not share the same focus to make the best possible film, nor is he particularly interested in collaborating with Rankin and Potelle. In fact, he appears to take giddy pleasure in their defeat – either at the hands of the studio or Chris Moore or himself. He is a smug, insincere drama queen and lives for his own self-aggrandizement. The major story of pre-production is that it takes almost the entire three weeks for the full cast to fall into place. Everyone seems to blame the co-directors for this, but really no one is more to blame than Middleton. (In tonight's episode, producer Jeff Balis calls his attention to the fact that miscommunication and mismanagement in the casting department is a problem through his assistant. Middleton, who couldn't be bothered to be in the office to field Balis's call, whips himself into a bitch-frenzy over it when he arrives and lashes out at Balis. "Don't take it out on her," he whines when he's really just trying to convince himself that it's not his fault.) As the casting director, it's up to Middleton to keep everyone informed and keep the process moving on schedule. Instead he spends most of his time chuckling about how inexperienced Rankin and Potelle are. Of course they're inexperienced, they just won a contest! Your job is to help, not snicker from the sidelines!

Casting is tough because for some reason Project Greenlight has again selected a story that focuses on youths as the main characters. Young talent is harder to come by and harder to schedule. The co-directors rightly prefer to lock in their lead before casting the grown-ups, but Middleton is never focusing on the right thing. Once they land on Disney's Shia LeBouf for the lead character, Kelley, they begin casting his parents and friends. Kyle and Efram astutely observe that Miramax's first choice Jane Kaczmarek is the wrong actress to play Kelley's mom. They never say this on camera, but I'm confident that their reason is the same as mine: she's already very well-known as the mom on Malcolm in the Middle and casting her as the mom of another nebbishy teenage protagonist is not only uncreative but it will turn off audiences by making the film seem too close to Malcolm. It's like releasing two Steve Prefontaine movies back to back. Unfortunately, the co-directors do not trust in Kaczmarek's ability to see this obvious flaw. So, they fight the studio like crazy and give Middleton more to snicker about. The offer goes out to Kaczmarek (Miramax insists she's easier to market than the directors' choice, Kathleen Quinlan) and she inevitably declines. They get Quinlan, the film benefits tremendously, but now they've spent some political capital that they didn't need to. Kelley's dad also takes some time to find and Middleton again blames the co-directors rather than his own foot-dragging and bickering for the delay. We can only hope that now that pre-production is complete, we'll be seeing no more of him.

So, the boys are off to start shooting and so far the program is as gripping as it is agonizing. Fortunately the pace usually slows down a bit once photography begins. (The pace of the show, not the pace of the crew's work.) Project Greenlight generally packs pre-production into as few episodes as possible because meetings are not as interesting to watch as filming. (Unfortunately the same fate befalls post-production, even though editing is fascinating and would be a really eye-opening thing for a larger public to understand. Maybe HBO realizes that if they let us see how editing works, we'll realize how they pulled the wool over our eyes with their show.) Production is the key part of the process; either it happens here or ot doesn't. It's my hope that having two directors will allow more to get done, but it all comes down to their communication. If every decision must be met with deliberation between them, we're in trouble. But if, as they assert, they can co-direct with the speed and effectiveness of two directors, then we're in for something. The issue that I see (thanks to the unsubtle "coming next week" scenes it's easy to be prescient) is that the film is in danger of having three directors. Erica, now accustomed to being consulted on most every decision, is not ready to give up the reins and let the directors steer the production process. She hasn't developed much trust in them because of the first few days in which they weren't communicating with her. She has already made efforts to be involved in post-production, while aware that it is a unique facet of Project Greenlight that she's even involved in production. As we await the next installment, the decision by the Project Greenlight producers to keep the writer involved may turn out to be a dodgy one. In any event, it's nearly impossible to wait for next Sunday.

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