Why Is There a Lobster in the Nativity Play? (A Few Thoughts on "Love Actually")

With Christmas just around the corner, I'm postponing my 2nd post on "The Art of the Edit" until January. Instead, I want to share a few thoughts on one of my all time favorite movies Love Actually.

In case you've somehow managed to miss this 2003 movie, it's about 8 very different couples in the month before Christmas in London, who are all struggling with love and relationships. The great cast includes Hugh Grant, Billy Bob Thornton, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Keira Knightly, Laura Linney, Rowan Atkinson, Billy Nighy, and many more. Writer/director Richard Curtis does an amazing job of interlocking the stories and characters; it truly takes multiple viewings to catch all of the ways that they show up in each others' stories.

Like all movies, it has its issues and odd points. One question/criticism that I've seen (and, admittedly, thought) is: what's up with the lobster in the nativity play?

The scene in question is between Emma Thompson's character Karen and her daughter Daisy:

Karen: So what's this big news, then?
Daisy: [excited] We've been given our parts in the nativity play. And I'm the lobster.
Karen: The lobster?
Daisy: Yeah!
Karen: In the nativity play?
Daisy: [beaming] Yeah, *first* lobster.
Karen: There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus?
Daisy: Duh.

After watching the movie for (probably) the 10th time a few nights ago, I realized (with a little help from my husband Carlo Fiorletta) that the point of this story is the teachers.

The climactic scene of Love Actually takes place at Daisy's school on the night of the nativity play, as many of the characters converge there, including the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant). The school is central to the story, not a passing comment or thought.

There's a lobster (ok more than one lobster!) in the nativity play because Daisy's teacher wants to have all of the kids involved. Limiting the cast to the obvious characters (Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men, a few camels) brings you up far short of the 20-30 kids in a typical elementary school class. So a creative teacher adds more....like a lobster or 3.

So hats off to all of the teachers who go the extra mile - and to the parents who make the lobster costumes!

Happy holidays, and best wishes for a wonderful 2016.

The Art of the Edit - Part 1

[Author's note: if you received this via email, you'll need to click the link and go to the website in order to see the video portion.]

As a screenwriter, I'd love to think that I have the most impact on a movie - after all, if I didn't write it, it wouldn't exist.  Right?

The auteur theory presents the director as the creator of the movie.

In reality, the finished movie that you watch is made in the editing process.  And the final product can be far from what was written and what was shot.  In my first feature, Surviving Family, we split a major scene into 2 separate pieces to pick up the pace and bring a major character back on screen sooner.  And in my 2nd, Detours, we re-arranged the order of many scenes to create a better story arc.

This post looks at the changes to Surviving Family; I'll look at the Detours changes next time.

The pivotal scene in Surviving Family comes roughly half way through the movie:  the amazing Phyllis Somerville as Aunt Mary Giaccone explains to her niece Terry, played by the wonderful Sarah Wilson, why Terry's mother killed herself.  It's an amazing and emotional scene, and many viewers have cited it as their favorite.  But it's long, intense, and talky.  Here's an excerpt:

In the original edit of the movie, that scene was followed by an equally good and intense scene between Terry and her ex-boyfriend, played by the terrific JD Williams, best known for his work in The Wire.  Here's a brief clip from that scene:

But when we put the 2 scenes back-to-back, the sequence was (a) too long and talky and (b) left our wonderful leading man Billy Magnussen off screen for too long.

Director Laura Thies was the editor as well.  After feedback from test viewers, Laura watched the 2 sequences many times. "What happened?" is said in each scene. She inserted a short scene to split the 2 long ones, which also brought Billy back into the sequence.

Here's the piece that she used as a bridge:

It worked beautifully.  But if you want to see exactly how, you'll have to rent the movie for yourself - it's on Amazon Prime (free for members, starts at $2.99 for non-members) and on iTunes.

To be continued...

When Casting a Movie, Look to the Theater

Carlo Fiorletta and Debargo Sanyal

One of the joys of casting an indie film in NYC is the opportunity to work with amazing actors who do much of their work on stage rather than on screen.

I was reminded of that this week when Carlo Fiorletta and I saw the terrific new play Love Sex and Death in the Amazon.  Debargo Sanyal, who is awesome as the rapping motel clerk Rajiv in my just-completed feature film Detours, is one of the stars so we wanted to see it.  He was terrific - no surprise - but it was a great reminder to me that the NYC stage is an amazing source of talent when you're looking to cast an indie movie.  Even though there are hundreds of movies every that shoot at least some scenes in NY, that's dwarfed by the number of plays that are produced every year, ranging from Broadway to off-off-Broadway, plus an uncountable number of readings of new works.

While most directors and producers watch a lot of movies, it can be (very) helpful to see as much theater as possible.  And while that's wonderful and easy in NY, there's a tremendous amount of very good regional theater all across the country.  You'll see some amazing actors who might not otherwise be on your radar, and you may even be inspired to change what you're looking for.

I'll wrap this up with a shout out to a few of the amazing actors from my 2 features Surviving Family and Detours, and some of the great theater work that they've done.

Billy Magnussen was Tony nominated for originating the role of Spike in Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and then starred in the off-Broadway play Sex With Strangers.  Sarah Wilson starred in the well-reviewed The Best of Everything. Tara Westwood was weird and wonderful as a woman who gives birth to a tree branch in Branched; and P.J. Sosko is a staple of the off-Broadway scene.

Richard Kind & Tara Westwood

Michael Cerveris received the Tony Award for Fun Home and Assassins; he was nominated for Sweeney Todd, The Who's Tommy, and LoveMusik and has appeared in many (many) other plays both on and off Broadway. Richard Kind was Tony nominated for his role in The Big Knife, and has starred in (among others) The Producers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Sly Fox.  Phyllis Somerville most recently appeared in the experimental all-female production of I Remember Mama.  Deirdre O'Connell is a staple of NY's Broadway and off-Broadway theater scene, and received a Drama Desk Award for both Circle Mirror Transformation and In The Wake.  Betsy Aidem played Lady Bird Johnson and other roles in the Tony Award Winning All The Way.  Marguerite Stimpson was in The Elephant Man.  And Carlo Fiorletta recently originated the role of Assbiter (truly one of the best character names ever) in "Is That Danny DeVito?"

So to paraphrase the most famous playwright of all:  "Get thee to the theater." 

My Monologue "Risk" To Be Published November 1

I'm delighted that my monologue "Risk" is a finalist in TentSquare's West Side Stories Monologue Competition!  It will be published on November 1 in W42ST magazine, which is available in midtown Manhattan as well as on line.

"Risk" is inspired by my work-in-progress screenplay "American Casino."

"Available" is Now Available, and Carlo Fiorletta on Stage

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of serving as the script consultant on Michael Gibrall's delightful romantic comedy:  Available: A Modern Fairy Tale.  I'm very pleased that it's now available to rent or own on Vimeo.  Alexa Yeames stars as Anka, a college student who inherits a billboard company and accidentally advertises her dating status, while Carlo Fiorletta and Donna Castellano are terrific as pizza parlor owners whose son (played by Gordon Palagi) falls for Anka.  You can check out the trailer here and rent or buy here.

Meanwhile, back in Jersey City....Carlo Fiorletta is on stage starting Thursday October 8 in the world premiere of Is That Danny DeVito? at Art House Productions.  He plays Ass-Biter (truly the best character name that I've seen in a long time) in Alex Janosek Doyle's absurdist comedy in the style of Samuel Beckett.   Click here to buy tickets; Art House is adjacent to the Grove Street PATH station in Jersey City (click here for train maps and schedules); there's also parking available (pun intended).

On Location: Combining 2 Locations into 1

Michael Pressman (left) and Carlo Fiorletta

 "Detours" is a road trip movie, and one of the decisions we made early on is that we'd shoot the interior scenes in New York and New Jersey,  then many of the exteriors while on the road to Saint Petersburg, Florida.  The road trip portion of the shoot would include only the 2 lead actors and a skeletal crew (about 1/3 of what we had for the NY/NJ portion).

Jennifer  Giraldi (played by Tara Westwood) is moving from NYC to Florida to make a career change:  she's gotten an MFA in Theater Management, and is giving up her acting career to be the assistant director of a theater company.  The audience has to feel how big this decision is for her when she shows her dad (played by Carlo Fiorletta) the theater she'll help to run and introduces him to her new boss (Michael Pressman)

A year before we started principal photography, Tara (who is also one of the producers) and I traveled to Florida (and Savannah, and Myrtle Beach, and North Carolina...) to check out potential locations.  We found several nice theaters in Saint Petersburg, but our favorite was always The Palladium.  It had exactly the look we wanted, and their exterior decorations were their own - meaning we wouldn't need to get releases from other artists or companies.

While Tara and Carlo would be on location in Florida, the actor playing Jennifer's boss would not be, nor would the crew that would be needed for such a complicated interior scene.  So we had to find a theater in NY or NJ that met these criteria:  (1) could pass as the inside of the Palladium; (2) had a raised stage and a large audience seating area; (3) wasn't in the middle of a production; (4) didn't have artwork or signage around the stage, which would create licensing issues; (4) was willing to let us use their space for a half day shoot; (5) was geographically suitable relative to our other locations; and (6) most importantly - wouldn't cost a fortune.  This was by far the hardest location for us to get.

To say that we were running out of time to shoot the scene inside the theater would be a (very) polite understatement.  Our terrific location manager Audrey Lorea had almost run through the (long) list of possibilities - none of which worked for one reason or another - when she reached out to the terrific people at The Strand Theater in Lakewood, NJ.  Not only was it aesthetically perfect for the scene, it was close to where we were then shooting in south Jersey.

We spent a morning shooting at The Strand, and it went beautifully.  It was another 3 weeks before we got to Saint Petersburg and shot the beginning of the scene, walking up the steps to the Palladium.  But it works!

Casting Name Actors in an Indie Movie

Richard Kind & Tara Westwood in a scene from Detours

I've been asked the same question a lot recently:  how did I get name actors in my movies? Specifically, how did I get Richard Kind and Paul Sorvino for Detours, and Vincent Pastore for Surviving Family?

In some ways, the answer is the usual one:  have a good script with roles that are attractive to actors.  But there are a couple of practical things that you can do to ease the way.
 

Tara Westwood & Paul Sorvino on set in Detours

Director Laura Thies & Vincent Pastore on the set of Surviving Family

First, hire a good casting director.  They know the actors' agents and managers, and have spent their career developing great contacts.  They also have a (very) good idea what Actor X's rate for a low budget project will be, which will tell you who is worth approaching and who isn't.  I've worked with the wonderful Caroline Sinclair on both Surviving Family and Detours - she's been casting indie movies (as well as shorts & commercials) in NYC for 25 years.  She's both very knowledgeable AND a pleasure to work with.  (My husband Carlo Fiorletta had met Caroline several years earlier and recommended her.)  There are plenty of good CD's, but I'd suggest getting recommendations from people whose opinion you value.

Second, get a good entertainment lawyer - mine is the terrific Jonathan Gray - he too has been in the business for 25 years.  He's not only knowledgeable but he also truly loves movies.

We all think of entertainment lawyers as protecting us from getting sued and/or helping us if we do.  But I learned quickly that for a producer who is just starting out in the business, they are an enormous help with negotiating deal memos (i.e., contracts) with actors.  Agents and managers are (understandably) suspicious of committing their clients to work for an unknown producer.  So even if the actor WANTS to do your movie, you've got to convince their representation as well.  The agents and managers ALL knew and respected my attorney, and having him on board facilitated the negotiations tremendously.

It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that in order to hire a reputable casting director  and an entertainment lawyer you'll need to convince them that you know what you're doing.

I'll make one final point on this subject:  the absolute best way to have a star in your movie is to cast one BEFORE they become a star, so you can benefit from their success without paying a high price.  But that's damn hard to do.

First trailer for "Detours" feature film released!

I'm just finishing post-production on my 2nd feature film (I wrote & produced), and I'm thrilled that we're releasing the first trailer today.  Detours is a road-trip comedy about a newly single New Yorker (played by Tara Westwood) who has to re-locate to Florida for her dream job.  She drives south with her widowed Dad (Carlo Fiorletta), her mom's ashes in a coffee can, and a GPS with a mind of its own.

Detours has an outstanding supporting cast, including Richard Kind, Paul Sorvino, Michael Cerveris (the TONY Award winner also provided several songs for the soundtrack), Vanessa Aspillaga, and Phyllis Somerville.

Here's the link to the trailer - I hope you like it!

More Truth Within Fiction: An Alcoholic in the Family

Johnny Hopkins as Hank Malone in Surviving Family

I grew up hearing stories about my mother's alcoholic younger brother Hugh.  In a family where both parents were alcoholics, it was something of a foregone conclusion that it would hit at least some of the kids.  Hugh was next in line age-wise to my mom - 2nd and 3rd respectively out of 5 kids - so she was always trying to help him out.  He was a heavy drinker by high school, and was always in trouble - getting in fights, or landing in jail for whatever stupid idea he or his buddies dreamed up.

My mom gave him a place to stay more times than she could - or would - count.  Things would start out well, amid promises that it was "different this time."  Then the drinking would start.  Again.

Here's the scene from Surviving Family that's inspired by that; Sarah Wilson stars as Terry Malone, Billy Magnussen is her fiance, and the terrific Johnny Hopkins plays Hank (catch him next in Ed Burns' upcoming series Public Morals).

Inevitably, things would go wrong and the drinking would start again, usually in secret.  He sometimes stole from her.  He always disappointed her.  Sort of like this:

I spent more than a year showing Surviving Family at festivals around the US, as well as in Canada and Germany.  I was amazed - although although I probably shouldn't have been - how many people told me that they have a friend or family member just like that.  While I certainly wouldn't wish these problems on anyone, I'm damn glad that people can relate to the characters.

If you're wondering about the great restaurant location in the 2nd video - thanks once again to the great folks at Satis Bistro in Jersey City, NJ.

If you like the clips, watch the entire movie on Amazon Prime or iTunes.

The Question I'm Asked Most Often

Carlo Fiorletta (photo by Dana Halsted)

I see myself as a writer first and a producer second:  I write because I want to but produce because I have to.  I'm frequently asked if I've always written, and the answer is a resounding "no."  The 2nd question, of course, is how and why I started to write.

I met my husband Carlo Fiorletta (pictured at left) in 1995, and he had already been acting for several years.  I went with him to numerous off-off-Broadway plays in and around NYC, mostly in small black box theaters.  I eventually reached the following conclusion:  a lot of the actors were terrific, and a lot of the directing was good as well.  But much of the writing was downright awful.  It's not that there aren't good playwrights in NYC:  there are tons of them.  But much of what got produced at that level was written by the actors or directors simply so they could highlight their talents.  As much as I understand that, it didn't make for great theater.

After I said that a few times (ok, I whined about it), Carlo had a simple response:  If you think you can do better, do it yourself.  I thought I could, so I started to take a few classes.  First, some classes at the Gotham Writers Workshop.  Later, screenwriting classes at The New School.  I found that I could indeed do it, although I'm definitely a fan of Dorothy Parker's statement :  "I hate writing, I love having written."

The pay-off moment for me - when I realized what a rush it could be to have my writing performed in front of a real live honest-to-goodness audience - came on September 19, 2001.  Carlo was a member of the NYC group Love Creek Productions.  This now 30 year old group produces one act plays on a year-round basis, and he had the opportunity to direct a new play of his choice.  We agreed that he would put up my romantic comedy "Bermuda Triangle."

My little comedy went up in midtown Manhattan just 8 days after the 9/11 terror attacks.  The theater was full.  My sister and brother-in-law came up from the Philadelphia area, at a time when people were afraid to be in the city.  People laughed.  And applauded.  They so very much wanted to laugh, to get away for just a few moments from the terror and death and fear of the past week.  It was the most amazing experience I had ever had.  That was the moment that I knew that writing would always be my "thing."

So no,  I haven't always written.  I didn't always want to be a writer.  But I love having the ability to touch people's emotions.

Here's a recent profile of Carlo that appeared in Backstage.

Movies on Bi-Polar Disorder: It's Great to be On a List with "Silver Linings Playbook"

Silver Linings Playbook - winner of 1 Oscar for Jennifer Lawrence as Best Lead Actress and nominated for 7 others - is the #1 rated movie about bi-polar disorder on IMDB.

With a movie like that as #1, it is absolutely awesome to see that Surviving Family is ranked #12 on that list!  Take a look at the clip below, then check out Surviving Family on Amazon Prime or iTunes.

Mental Illness in a Movie - It Ain't Easy

I knew when I started to write Surviving Family that I wanted to incorporate the subject of mental illness.  It's something that affects many families including my own (see stats from the National Institute of Mental Health HERE).  Treatment has improved markedly in recent years, but the issue still struggles to emerge from the shadows.  It took numerous re-writes to come up with something that was reasonably accurate (keeping in mind that it's fiction) while still being (I think!) entertaining.

A wonderful aspect of the millenial generation is that they are far more upfront, accepting, and honest about many things that were taboo in the past - this has been the subject of much discussion lately regarding their overwhelming acceptance of the GLBTQ communities.  But it's true with regard to mental illness as well - I've seen it within my own family.  That's something I wanted to highlight:  young people are often far more comfortable acknowledging and dealing with mental health issues than their parents and grandparents are. 

In the clip below, teenager Lily Malone (played by the terrific Katherine C. Hughes) tells her aunt (Sarah Wilson) about her diagnosis while Lily's mother (Tara Westwood) squirms uncomfortably.   Joining in them in this scene are Billy Magnussen as Terry's fiance, Bill Sage as Jean and Terry's dad,  P.J. Sosko as Terry's step-father, and Sophia Parra as Helen.

KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid (I didn't)

Carlo Fiorletta & Tara Westwood in Detours

I learned a lot from making my first feature, Surviving Family.  I swore that I wouldn't repeat the same mistakes on my 2nd feature, Detours.  I didn't.

I love the cast of Surviving Family (you can see the full list HERE), and there's no one who I would get rid of.  But when I wrote the screenplay, I put a lot of actors into many different scenes in many different locations.  This created major logistical challenges (working with the actors' schedules, transporting them from place to place, and - not the least of the problems - blocking the scenes).  I promised myself that I wouldn't make that mistake in my next feature.  I didn't.  But I created new production challenges instead.

Detours is a road trip movie:  a newly single New Yorker (played by Tara Westwood) must re-locate to Florida for her dream job.  She travels south with her widowed dad (Carlo Fiorletta), her mom's ashes in a coffee can, and a GPS with a mind of his own (played by the delightful Craig Wollman).

On the plus side,  I DID limit how many scenes each each actor is in.  We put together a wonderful cast, including TONY award winners Michael Cerveris and Richard Kind, and iconic Italian-American actor Paul Sorvino.   Each one is only in a couple of scenes, and they truly shine in those scenes.  But it's a damn ROAD movie.  Which means you need to (a) shoot car scenes and (b) move from point to point and show it.  There is nothing - and I mean NOTHING - simple about shooting a road movie.

Is Detours good?  Absolutely - it's terrific and people will love it.  It's a fun story about a father and daughter, starting over, and falling in love.  It has great actors and wonderful music (more on that another day).  But if you'd like a look inside the challenges of shooting a road movie, here's a behind-the-scenes look:

Writing Truth Within Fiction

Surviving Family is fiction inspired by real life.  So nothing is literally true but many of the stories in the movie come from things that happened to people I know.

My mother's family was populated by alcoholics:  some were charming even (especially?) when drunk.  Others were angry and belligerent.  All were unreliable.  There's a scene in the movie where Terry's dad doesn't show up for her wedding - yeah, that happened.

When I was a kid, my best friend's mom used to scream and throw dishes at her husband, for reasons that no one could quite understand.  He would stand out of range and quietly ask her to stop because they couldn't afford to keep buying new dishes.  This became the inspiration for much of the character Lucia Giaccone (played by Lorraine Farris).

Check out this clip from the movie  - it features Phyllis Somerville as the wise and wonderful Aunt Mary, Sarah Wilson in the lead role of Terry Malone, Tara Westwood as her sister Jean, and Bill Sage as Lucia's husband Jerry.  In the flashback portion of the clip, Stevie Steel and Carleigh Chirico can be seen cowering on the stairs as the child versions of Jean and Terry, as their mom Lucia literally clears the table onto their dad.

A brief Introduction....

I'm a NJ-based writer & producer, with my 2nd feature - Detours - ALMOST done with post-production.  I'm very excited to get it finished soon.  But as any indie filmmaker will tell you - you're not done when it's done.  You've just moved on to phase 35.  Or is it 36?

I'll be writing more - much more - about Detours very soon.  But first a little about my first feature - Surviving Family.  It's a romantic drama - with a dose of comedy - about alcoholism, mental illness, suicide, and love.  And garden gnomes.  Not necessarily in that order.

The most amazing thing - for me - about writing & producing a movie that takes on subjects that are often taboo is learning just how many people are directly affected by these issues.  A stunning number of people have told me that it's their story or their family's story or their friend's story.   And that is damn cool.

Click HERE for the Surviving Family website, with links to watch the trailers & rent/buy on Amazon Prime or iTunes.

And here are a few of my favorite images - Billy Magnussen as Alex D'Amico + our poster, featuring photos of Sarah Wilson (left) and Tara Westwood as sisters, plus (left to right) Vinnie Pastore, Billy Magnussen, Bill Sage, Johnny Hopkins, and Phyllis Somerville.

Billy Magnussen in Surviving Family