IntroductionIntroductions| 00:00 | (applause)
| | 00:04 | Roger: Welcome to the Women's Panel!
| | 00:08 | I would like to thank lynda.com,
who is our presenting sponsor.
| | 00:13 | (applause)
| | 00:16 | I also need to thank the
sponsor of the Women's Panel, Fielding
| | 00:20 | Graduate University.
(applause)
| | 00:24 | Excellent!
| | 00:25 | So, let's start right away with our panelists.
Denise Ream, producer, Cars 2.
| | 00:33 | (applause)
| | 00:36 | Leslie Urdang, producer, Beginners.
(applause)
| | 00:41 | Melissa Cobb, producer, Kung Fu Panda 2.
(applause)
| | 00:48 | Dede Gardner, producer, Tree of
Life, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, producer, Picture Paris.
| | 00:57 | (applause)
| | 00:59 | And please welcome the
powerhouse behind the Women's Panel.
| | 01:04 | She's been with us for now
nine years doing this panel.
| | 01:08 | We adore this amazing person. Madelyn Hammond.
| | 01:13 | She is the former CEO of marketing
from Variety, and she has her own marketing company.
| | 01:20 | Madelyn Hammond!
(applause)
| | 01:27 | Madelyn Hammond: Thank you Roger.
Welcome everybody!
| | 01:29 | I'm excited to be here again,
and we have such a great panel.
| | 01:32 | Okay, I may do some quick
introductions, because this is just so amazing.
| | 01:35 | All right, to my left is Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
| | 01:38 | She has won a Globe.
| | 01:39 | You know what?
(applause)
| | 01:41 | Julia Louis-Drefus: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
(applause)
| | 01:48 | Madelyn Hammond: You know, Viola
Davis said there is nothing like applause.
| | 01:51 | So, it just doesn't matter.
It's pretty good, right?
| | 01:53 | Julia Louis-Drefus: You take it if you can get it.
| | 01:54 | Madelyn Hammond: Yeah, absolutely!
| | 01:56 | Okay, so not that I have to introduce
Elaine. But you must hate when people call you Elaine. I know you do.
| | 02:01 | Julia Louis-Drefus: I do.
Madelyn Hammond: I know, I know, I know.
| | 02:04 | Madelyn Hammond: You know, I couldn't help it.
| | 02:05 | I always like "Can I somehow do it without doing it?"
| | 02:07 | Anyways, she won a Globe, five
SAGs, and an Emmy for her work on Seinfeld.
| | 02:10 | She won an Emmy for The New Adventures
of Old Christine. Calling you
| | 02:13 | Elaine is better than calling you Old Christine.
| | 02:15 | Julia Louis-Drefus: Oh, whatever you want.
Madelyn Hammond: All right! Okay, good.
| | 02:16 | But she has also been in a bunch of
films, including one of my favorites,
| | 02:21 | Hannah and Her Sisters, and she was
also in an animated film, in A Bug's Life,
| | 02:25 | and I say that because we've got
two producers from animated films.
| | 02:29 | She is now starring--and I'm very
happy. Tonight is the big debut of Picture
| | 02:33 | Paris, which is a short film that she's
in that she also produced, and her husband
| | 02:37 | Brad Hall is here, and he co-wrote it, or
wrote it. And she--let's see what else?
| | 02:42 | Oh, and I think you have a little HBO
series coming up called Veep, which is
| | 02:46 | about Vice President of United States,
which I want to say starts in April.
| | 02:49 | Madelyn Hammond: Am I correct on that?
Julia Louis-Drefus: That is correct.
| | 02:50 | Madelyn Hammond: All right!
So, here we go. Now, too, we have Dede Gardner.
| | 02:54 | Dede, The Tree of Life. I am--
| | 02:56 | (applause)
Dede Gardner: Thank you!
| | 03:03 | Madelyn Hammond: Three Oscar nominations:
one for Best Picture, one Director for Terrence
| | 03:07 | Malick, and Cinematographer.
| | 03:09 | She is the president of Plan B,
which is Brad Pitt's production company.
| | 03:14 | They produced a bunch of films,
including one of my favorites, Eat, Pray, Love,
| | 03:18 | and she also produced The
Assassination of Jesse James and A Mighty Heart
| | 03:22 | with Angelina. And before Plan B she
was head of production at Paramount, where she
| | 03:26 | worked on Election, Zoolander,
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and a bunch
| | 03:30 | of other films.
| | 03:31 | And next up for Plan B is World War Z.
It was described as a zombie action
| | 03:37 | Madelyn Hammond: film, and there must be your audience, right?
Dede Gardner: Good!
| | 03:42 | Madelyn Hammond: Am I right?
It's a zombie action film?
| | 03:44 | Dede Gardner: Oh, yes.
| | 03:45 | Madelyn Hammond: Because we need more
zombie action films. This is good.
| | 03:49 | But also you're doing another Terrance Malick film?
Dede Gardner: No.
| | 03:51 | Madelyn Hammond: No.
Dede Gardner: We are doing another Andrew Dominik movie.
| | 03:53 | Madelyn Hammond: Okay. And we love him.
He's great. All right, so that's Dede.
| | 03:57 | And then next up is Melissa Cobb.
| | 03:59 | Melissa, producer of Kung Fu
Panda 2 and 1, I should say.
| | 04:02 | Before DreamWorks, she worked at VH1.
| | 04:05 | She did a lot of the music-driven films,
and before that she worked at Fox Family
| | 04:09 | Films, Fox Animation, also at IRS
Media, where she oversaw production and
| | 04:13 | development for a bunch of indie films,
and before that she was in live theater.
| | 04:18 | And next up for her is you have
an animated film coming up in 2014.
| | 04:24 | Melissa Cobb: 13.
Madelyn Hammond: 13? Okay, so, right around the corner.
| | 04:27 | You want to tell us what that is?
| | 04:28 | Melissa Cobb: Well, it's going to be
announced in about three days, so I don't know if I should
| | 04:33 | talk about it here, but what the heck?
| | 04:37 | It's called Me and My Shadow. It's a
movie that will combine CG animation and
| | 04:41 | 2D animation in
a really kind of fun way.
| | 04:43 | Madelyn Hammond: I like that. Me and My Shadow.
Melissa Cobb: Look out for that in 2013.
| | 04:45 | Madelyn Hammond: Be on the lookout for that.
| | 04:48 | And then we have Denise, producer of
Cars 2. She was at Pixar, been at Pixar
| | 04:51 | for five, going on probably six years now.
| | 04:53 | Oh! Leslie, sorry! Oh, my God!
I got my notes all mixed up. Okay.
| | 04:59 | Leslie, she is the producer of
Beginners. And tonight is a special tribute, by
| | 05:03 | the way, to Christopher Plummer.
| | 05:04 | (applause)
| | 05:09 | Madelyn Hammond: She's the
president of Olympus Pictures.
| | 05:11 | Before Olympus she founded her own
company where she worked on a bunch of
| | 05:14 | independent films, including one
Twelve and Holding, which won the
| | 05:16 | Independent Spirit Award.
| | 05:17 | She also worked for Redford's
company, Gary Ross's company.
| | 05:22 | She developed and produced Motorcycle
Diaries. And you started out in Broadway
| | 05:26 | too, did you not?
| | 05:28 | Leslie R. Urdang: Not Broadway.
Not-for-profit theater, I have a theatre.
| | 05:30 | Madelyn Hammond: Not-for-profit theatre.
Leslie R. Urdang: Yes.
| | 05:32 | Madelyn Hammond: You know that's good,
because when I saw live theater, I immediately thought
| | 05:34 | Broadway, but there's a whole other.
| | 05:36 | Leslie R. Urdang: Off Broadway,
regional theatre, yes.
| | 05:39 | Madelyn Hammond: And next up.
And what's next up for you?
| | 05:41 | Leslie R. Urdang: I'm in
post-production on several films.
| | 05:45 | We have a movie coming out in
September called The Oranges. We've got, we're in
| | 05:50 | post-production on a movie called Mister Pip,
which is directed by Andrew Adamson,
| | 05:55 | and Thanks for Sharing, Stuart
Blumberg's film. He did The Kids Are All Right,
| | 05:59 | starring Mark Ruffalo and Gwyneth Paltrow.
And a tiny little movie with Melissa Leo.
| | 06:06 | So, those are all in post coming out
in hopefully this year sometime, 2012.
| | 06:12 | Madelyn Hammond: Mark Ruffalo.
| | 06:13 | Mmm. That's all I remember, whatever she
just said, I just remember that.
| | 06:18 | Melissa Cobb: Always good.
Madelyn Hammond: You had me at that. All right!
| | 06:20 | And now Denise, since I'm so anxious
and I keep calling everybody your name,
| | 06:24 | because you're way at the end,
| | 06:25 | Denise, producer of Cars 2 and
she has been at Pixar for five years.
| | 06:29 | Madelyn Hammond: I now want to say is this is your sixth year? Yep.
Denise Ream: Yes.
| | 06:32 | Madelyn Hammond: And she started out as an associate of
production, and a VP, but she, before that,
| | 06:38 | thirteen years at ILM, where she did
commercials and a bunch of different films.
| | 06:42 | At ILM, she was at the top of her game
in terms of animation and special effects
| | 06:46 | and worked on Harry Potter film,
Deep Impact, and Mission Impossible and
| | 06:50 | Star Wars, just, it's crazy.
| | 06:53 | She has had an amazing career in
effects and animation, and I assume when
| | 06:56 | you were little you probably were
in front of the TV watching animated shows, right?
| | 07:01 | Denise Ream: I was a Wizard of Oz and I
Love Lucy freak and War of the Gargantuas for
| | 07:07 | any of those of you who--actually my
grandfather was in the effects business,
| | 07:12 | so I kind of fell into it
coincidently, which very happenstance story.
| | 07:17 | So, I guess it's in my DNA somewhere.
| | 07:22 | Madelyn Hammond: I think sometime when you
do have a family member that's in something,
| | 07:25 | whether it's restaurant business or
effects or writing or acting, you know, you
| | 07:29 | can't help but get a little bit
of the bug, so, it's contagious.
| | 07:33 | All right, so I got to ask you a
question to you guys, and anyone can chip in on
| | 07:38 | this, and chime in, I should say. But
there was just a recent study at the
| | 07:42 | Celluloid study, which talks about
women in different areas of entertainment.
| | 07:47 | Women aren't doing so good still in
directing and not very good at all in
| | 07:49 | cinematography, but we're making,
women are making strides in producing. And I
| | 07:53 | just want to ask you guys--and
I'm going to start with you, Dede--
| | 07:56 | do you think it is because of our
collaborative personalities, our persuasive
| | 08:00 | nature, the fact that we're
generally nurturers and we can take a project
| | 08:05 | through. But why do we think there are
more women in this, and do you feel
| | 08:09 | there is more opportunity? Thoughts about this?
| | 08:18 | Dede Gardner: I have to honest. I've always
felt treated equally in the industry.
| | 08:23 | So, I've felt fortunate, and I haven't
ever experienced being denied the ability
| | 08:32 | to do something simply because I was a woman.
| | 08:33 | So, I think producing is a lot of
multitasking, which I'm told we're good at,
| | 08:43 | and I don't know. I think maybe
someone else would be better at answering this.
| | 08:50 | Madelyn Hammond: Well, I do think though the
multitasking is a big thing, and Melissa, you and
| | 08:54 | I talked before about how important
it is in producing to be collaborative.
| | 08:57 | Madelyn Hammond: So, all these things were important --
Dede Gardner: Patience maybe --
| | 08:59 | Melissa Cobb: And patience, but --
| | 09:00 | Dede Gardner: Movies take a long time, and
you have to be--you have to listen to them,
| | 09:03 | because they tend to talk you,
if they're good I think.
| | 09:08 | Dede Gardner: They're kind of like kids.
Madelyn Hammond: Yeah.
| | 09:10 | So then that the experience of having
kids, and Julia you can speak to this. It
| | 09:13 | probably helps you when you take a
film and you have to kind of make sure
| | 09:16 | everybody is heard and make
sure everybody is taken care of.
| | 09:18 | Julia Louis-Drefus: Yeah, I think you do. I think you have
to wrangle a lot of personalities, and I think that women can be
| | 09:25 | very effective at that, and can wrangle
people without sometimes them knowing
| | 09:31 | they're being wrangled.
| | 09:35 | Madelyn Hammond: That's the most important
part of all. "That was your idea, wasn't it?
| | 09:37 | What a good idea that was that you had."
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Women as Collaborators| 00:00 | Madelyn Hammond: So Melissa, I want to talk
though a little bit more about the producing in
| | 00:03 | general and about been collaborative,
but having the voice so that you can get
| | 00:08 | what you need, if it's additional money that
you need for a scene or if it's something that you
| | 00:11 | feel is important to make the film successful.
| | 00:13 | How important is it to find that voice,
and is that something that came naturally
| | 00:17 | to you or that you had to develop?
| | 00:19 | Melissa Cobb: For sure that was something
I had to develop when I came to Hollywood.
| | 00:23 | I was really, really the most shy
person you ever met as a child. And I really,
| | 00:28 | in order to get what I wanted to have
happen on the films, I really had to work
| | 00:32 | very hard to have a voice in the room.
And I think part of it, now that
| | 00:37 | I'm responsible for a giant movie with
hundreds of people on a crew, my strength
| | 00:43 | to do that really comes from
feeling responsible for those people.
| | 00:46 | You know, knowing that each individual
artist may have worked for two or three
| | 00:49 | years, and if we need something to make
the movie better or we want something to
| | 00:53 | kind of achieve the director's vision,
I'm fighting for them. I'm probably still
| | 00:57 | not as good as fighting for myself.
| | 00:59 | But fighting for other people, and I
think that for sure is a quality that you need to have.
| | 01:03 | Madelyn Hammond: And I think that probably in
terms of fighting for things, you probably had to
| | 01:08 | do a lot of that too, Leslie,
when Beginners was being made.
| | 01:11 | Was it an easy type of thing? Or I
imagine if you were pitching this, it was
| | 01:15 | probably not the easiest
thing to get off the ground.
| | 01:17 | Leslie R. Urdang: Well,
I'm very fortunate right now.
| | 01:20 | I've been an independent producer my
whole life, but at the moment, I have a
| | 01:24 | financing partner who is--we can
invest equity up to a certain amount of
| | 01:30 | money in our own films.
| | 01:31 | Beginners was one where I knew
describing it was not going to bring a great
| | 01:38 | deal of equity investment. It's
about a lost young man looking for love and
| | 01:44 | a 75-year-old man who comes
out of the closet and then dies.
| | 01:49 | So it was not a--
| | 01:51 | Madelyn Hammond: Write a
big fat check on that one.
| | 01:52 | (laughter)
| | 01:55 | Leslie R. Urdang: But I read the script, and I
said, "I have to make this movie." And I just loved
| | 02:01 | it, and I cried. And I had recently
lost my mom, and so it really touched me.
| | 02:08 | So I persuaded my financing partner to
finance the whole shebang on this one,
| | 02:14 | because I knew if we did it for a
certain number, we were not going to be too
| | 02:18 | terribly exposed with its success or
failure, and it ended up being a--we got
| | 02:24 | lucky. It was a good bet.
| | 02:25 | Madelyn Hammond: And how you do feel with all
the great accolades that Christopher Plummer is getting?
| | 02:30 | Madelyn Hammond: That's got to make you feel beyond--
Leslie R. Urdang: It's so great. I adore him.
| | 02:35 | He was a pleasure on the set, filled
with stories, filled with--he is a gentle-
| | 02:41 | man, he's funny, he's smart. He came to
set eagerly every day, and I kept saying,
| | 02:48 | "Oh my God, it's Captain von Trapp," you know.
| | 02:54 | I wanted him to be everything when I
was a little girl, and he is--which he
| | 02:58 | hates The Sound of Music. He'll be
the first to tell you that he loathed
| | 03:02 | doing that movie. You're not
even supposed to bring it up on the set.
| | 03:05 | Julia Louis-Drefus: Did you
ever ask him to sing edelweiss?
| | 03:08 | (laughter)
Leslie R. Urdang: Oh.
| | 03:10 | No, I should have, but he's--
because the first thing he will tell you is
| | 03:15 | don't even bring up the name on the set,
The Sound of Music. But he is really
| | 03:22 | enjoying this, and it's a great, great
pleasure to see him being rewarded for
| | 03:28 | this movie, and I think the body of his work.
| | 03:30 | Madelyn Hammond: Yeah. It's so great this year, too,
with Max von Sydow who is in Extremely Loud &
| | 03:35 | Incredibly Close and then Christopher
Plummer. It seems like this is just their
| | 03:39 | time, and age doesn't seem to be a
factor. It's about experience, you know?
| | 03:42 | It's great, got to make you feel really great.
| | 03:44 | So Denis, I want to ask you little
bit about Pixar, because to me that
| | 03:48 | sounds like one of the most amazing
places to work, but a strong corporate culture.
| | 03:54 | Denise Ream: That's interesting.
| | 03:55 | I actually in some ways feel there was
a stronger corporate culture ironically
| | 04:02 | at Lucasfilm, which is interesting
because it's a privately owned company.
| | 04:09 | Pixar is about trying to really make
great movies, and that is really nice to
| | 04:14 | have everyone focusing on that.
| | 04:17 | So I have to say, I was--I mean it's
always really hard when you're--I have
| | 04:23 | experienced of not working freelance.
| | 04:25 | I worked consistently as a
staff person for many years.
| | 04:29 | So when you are going from one place to
the other, you really need to take the
| | 04:33 | time to get to know the
people around you and the culture.
| | 04:36 | And it was a very welcoming place, and
it doesn't feel overly corporate, I am
| | 04:43 | very happy to report.
| | 04:44 | Madelyn Hammond: Was it hard when you made the
transition from ILM to there after being at
| | 04:47 | ILM for so many years?
| | 04:49 | Denise Ream: Yeah, yes it was.
| | 04:52 | You know, I again, I am an observer.
| | 04:57 | I probably take longer to sort of get
the lay of the land than most people, so I
| | 05:03 | took my time and I was very careful to
not go in there and say, "Well, at ILM
| | 05:08 | we did dot dot dot," which is super irritating.
| | 05:12 | So it took me a while, but again,
everyone was very generous with their knowledge
| | 05:20 | and sort of how things are done there.
| | 05:24 | That's not to say that I didn't sort
of question the process, which I actually
| | 05:28 | do think is important to filmmaking.
But they were very kind and generous and
| | 05:35 | gave me a lot of slack.
| | 05:37 | Madelyn Hammond: Good, that's good. And that's
what you need to get your--to get into it.
| | 05:41 | Madelyn Hammond: So Julia, I've got to ask you about Picture Paris.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Yeah.
| | 05:43 | Madelyn Hammond: What kind of brought you to it? What
inspired you? Anything to do you with your
| | 05:46 | little French ancestry
going on there? What was it?
| | 05:49 | Julia Louis-Drefus: Yeah, to a certain extent.
My husband, last year our oldest son went off to
| | 05:55 | college, which was a big transition for
us as a family, and it was sort of the
| | 06:01 | launching-off point for my husband
who wrote the film and directed it.
| | 06:04 | It's about a woman whose youngest
son in this case, goes off to college, and
| | 06:10 | she becomes compulsively obsessed with
going to Paris the day after he leaves,
| | 06:16 | and that's what she focuses on.
| | 06:18 | And so that's the film, except things
that you wouldn't think happen happen.
| | 06:25 | I mean, big things happen
that are shocking, I hope.
| | 06:29 | And so that's how it began, and then
all of a sudden Brad wrote this, and I
| | 06:40 | thought, "Oh God, we should do this.
| | 06:42 | But we know what this movie is.
| | 06:44 | We have a very strong creative idea
for the whole picture. And let's just make it."
| | 06:51 | And we'd never made a film independently before.
| | 06:54 | Brad has worked in films before, as
have I, but always through studios and so on.
| | 06:59 | So the idea of doing this
independently was hard, but I have to say it's thrilling.
| | 07:05 | And we did it for a dime and with a
very tiny crew, and we shot it in LA and in
| | 07:12 | Paris. And it was an
exhilarating experience, I have to say.
| | 07:17 | I mean it was hard work for sure,
but we called in a lot of favors.
| | 07:21 | It certainly hearkened back to our
theater days in Chicago, in terms of the, you
| | 07:25 | know, who does what well?
| | 07:27 | Ask them to do it, you know.
Who has a coat we can use?
| | 07:30 | Borrow his coat.
That's what the experience is like.
| | 07:33 | But it was a thrill.
| | 07:34 | Madelyn Hammond: But isn't that cool?
It's almost like camp.
| | 07:36 | It's like you can't fail
because it's nothing--it just works.
| | 07:40 | You just call in favors, and
it's like the family and everyone is pulling together.
| | 07:44 | Julia Louis-Drefus: Yeah, and it's nice to have
your vision kept intact from an artistic point
| | 07:48 | of view, and that certainly did happen with this.
| | 07:50 | So we sort of tested the waters. It's a
short film, and it premieres tonight at the
| | 07:54 | Metro if anyone's interested.
| | 07:56 | And but it's a long short.
It's twenty-nine minutes, as a matter of fact.
| | 08:01 | Madelyn Hammond: Are you hoping maybe this
could develop into something else if it works out?
| | 08:04 | Julia Louis-Drefus: Well, we are working
on another project that we also want to make
| | 08:08 | independently, but really this was,
from a creative point of view, it was just
| | 08:14 | to test the waters.
| | 08:15 | Can we do this? Does this feel
manageable to us? And it certainly did. It's incredible!
| | 08:20 | Julia Louis-Drefus: That's great.
Madelyn Hammond: Absolutely incredible!
| | 08:22 | Madelyn Hammond: Can we do this and not fight and
still stay together? And everything worked out there.
| | 08:26 | I know, sometimes when I hear about
couples working together, I think it's so
| | 08:29 | amazing, in terms of how they do that
and do it well and share that vision and
| | 08:34 | everybody has their own thing, so.
| | 08:35 | Julia Louis-Drefus: Yeah, except
I didn't really mean as a couple.
| | 08:37 | I meant really as can we do this? Can we
make this film the way we want it made?
| | 08:43 | Does that make sense?
| | 08:44 | Julia Louis-Drefus: And so, and keep the integrity, make it seem authentic.
Madelyn Hammond: Integrity.
| | 08:50 | And that was, I didn't know. We didn't
have anybody telling us what to do. We
| | 08:55 | just followed out instincts. It was phenomenal.
| | 08:57 | Madelyn Hammond: That's so great. That's exciting!
Julia Louis-Drefus: Yeah it was exciting.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Choose it because you love it| 00:00 | Madelyn Hammond: So Dede, I have to ask you.
You had been working with Brad and Plan B for a
| | 00:03 | while. What happens--I assume your
tastes was somewhat similar. Do you ever have to go
| | 00:07 | in there and have to persuade him, or
vise versa, to do a particular film and do
| | 00:11 | you guys say, "I will do this one, but
you've got to do mine"? How does that work,
| | 00:15 | that balance, in terms of
getting the vision done?
| | 00:17 | Dede Gardner: I think we do have similar tastes,
but it's a very democratic place, and the one--
| | 00:26 | I wouldn't say rule--but request,
is you just have to love it. If you love
| | 00:32 | it, if you feel like you will die if
you can't make it or you can't try to
| | 00:34 | make it, then you get to go do it
and give it a shot. Don't do stuff for other reasons.
| | 00:42 | If the other things--if commerce
comes or box office comes or awards
| | 00:46 | come, great, but choose it because
of the story, and choose it because of the filmmaker.
| | 00:53 | Madelyn Hammond: That is great,
whoever was clapping, I agree.
| | 00:58 | Madelyn Hammond: You know what? It--
Audience member: That's my whole philosophy.
| | 01:00 | Madelyn Hammond: It is so true because
sometimes--and I want to ask the other
| | 01:03 | panelist--as a producer, sometimes you
think, well, the box office is going to be
| | 01:07 | great if we go after this kind of
audience, or the merchandizing might be
| | 01:11 | phenomenal. Or maybe we should put this
character in. I wish I could have this
| | 01:14 | person, but we should go with this,
because he or she is better known, and
| | 01:17 | sometimes you have to make those compromises.
| | 01:20 | So it's good in your case, Dede. You
can just kind of just go for it, and you
| | 01:23 | don't have to really worry about that.
| | 01:24 | Dede Gardner: Yeah, I mean, it's important.
| | 01:26 | That's an enormous privilege, and I
think if you do it--if you are given a
| | 01:31 | chance to do it long enough, you will
end up having movies that are really
| | 01:35 | successful and some that are just
critically successful that maybe don't work
| | 01:38 | at the box office, but you will have
enough of a range that you will get to keep doing it.
| | 01:42 | Getting the time to do it is a privilege,
and I consider myself very fortunate to
| | 01:49 | have a partner who is such a cinefile
and who is so committed to creating a
| | 01:54 | harbor for stories and filmmakers.
| | 01:57 | Madelyn Hammond: And it's good to have a
partner who is a cinefile and I might also say open
| | 02:01 | to female-driven films, if you look at
some of the stuff that you guys have made,
| | 02:04 | Madelyn Hammond: with Eat, Pray, Love, and The Mighty Heart and then --
Dede Gardner: Rebecca Miller's movie.
| | 02:07 | Madelyn Hammond: Rebecca, Yeah. It seems like--
I don't think the box office is necessarily the
| | 02:12 | driving force; it was probably because it was good material.
| | 02:14 | Because at the end of the day, am I
right on this, Leslie? It's all about the
| | 02:18 | story and really what it is.
| | 02:19 | Leslie R. Urdang: Yeah, I
agree with everything Dede said.
| | 02:23 | I think it's about the story, and it's
about the filmmaker. And what I have
| | 02:27 | learned, even just in these last like
eight films or something, is that I am
| | 02:33 | not good at making movies I don't
feel really passionate about, because
| | 02:37 | invariably you hit that place where you
need to fix the cut or you have choices
| | 02:43 | to make all the along the way.
| | 02:44 | And unless you have that guide post,
from my point of view, you know why
| | 02:49 | are you making this movie and you feel
it's important, for whatever reason, to be
| | 02:53 | making this movie, I lose my way.
And those movies don't come out as well as the
| | 02:58 | ones that I love and I care about and
I will work for as long as it takes to get it right.
| | 03:05 | So it's practical as well, for me, to
try not to second guess, oh, okay I don't
| | 03:11 | love this, but this could
do really well in the world.
| | 03:14 | I am always wrong, and so I have to just--
all you have got are your own instincts
| | 03:20 | and passions, finally, when you are
working for yourself, and you are your
| | 03:24 | driving force to get something done.
| | 03:27 | Madelyn Hammond: Yeah. Big difference.
| | 03:29 | Melissa, I've got to ask you, you worked
in both live action and animation, so
| | 03:33 | other than the fact that animation takes
a whole lot longer, what are some other
| | 03:37 | key differences from a producing standpoint?
| | 03:39 | Melissa Cobb: The longer
is one of the big things.
| | 03:41 | You are making it literally one
frame at a time, which is fascinating and an
| | 03:47 | amazing artistic challenge and process,
which I love. I really love that pace of it.
| | 03:53 | The other thing that I think happens
structurally is that we tend to, because we
| | 03:57 | can, we are rewriting the movie
the entire time we are making it.
| | 04:00 | So in live action, the creative
process tends to be, you finish this script,
| | 04:04 | then you shoot the movie, and then you
edit the movie and maybe there are some
| | 04:06 | reshoots in there somewhere.
| | 04:08 | With animation, it's a really huge
collaborative process with a lot of creative
| | 04:13 | voices, dozens and dozens of creative
voices every day chiming in on the story
| | 04:18 | and the structure of the movie that
you are making, including the actors and
| | 04:21 | the storyboard artists and the animators and
the studio, and lots of people have lots of opinions.
| | 04:27 | And so, because it is such a fluid
process and such a collaborative process, it
| | 04:31 | takes, I think to what you guys are saying,
you have to really know what movie you
| | 04:34 | want to make, because it's very
easy to get lost in that process.
| | 04:38 | Much easier to get lost than it is
I think in live action.
| | 04:40 | Madelyn Hammond: Yeah. And about the voice and the
talent, you have been very lucky in this and
| | 04:46 | gotten some amazing-- is there any particular
person in your opinion who was like one of the best gets,
| | 04:51 | and is there one that got away,
that you still can't get over?
| | 04:54 | Melissa Cobb: No, I don't. We have been very lucky
to have great actors, and they all bring something very
| | 04:59 | unique and very specific. They all
have slightly different ways of working,
| | 05:02 | We record with them, and it's a very
open, very free process. They come in
| | 05:07 | in their pajamas or hungover or
whatever. You can use your imagination, but--
| | 05:14 | and it's cool. We record for a couple of hours.
It's very free. They can play with the
| | 05:19 | dialog. They can have a nervous
breakdown and nobody cares. It's all--it's
| | 05:25 | really, I think, hopefully for the
actors fun, but really fun for us too,
| | 05:28 | because we discover so much about
the characters and what's unique and
| | 05:31 | interesting and lovable and
vulnerable about them, through the
| | 05:35 | collaborative process with the actors.
| | 05:36 | Julia Louis-Drefus: I love doing animation
just for that various reason, the pajamas, the hungover part. It's great!
| | 05:42 | Madelyn Hammond: That's got
to be a big selling point.
| | 05:44 | Do you ever have anyone that's said, "I
need hair and makeup" and you are like, "You don't. You
| | 05:47 | really don't. I know you think
you do, but you really don't."
| | 05:49 | Melissa Cobb: That's why they
said yes in the first place.
| | 05:51 | Julia Louis-Drefus: No hair and
makeup is a big selling point.
| | 05:54 | Madelyn Hammond: Hey, so Denise, same thing.
You feel that it's just that that process
| | 05:58 | with your talent is just so unique, and
it makes it so easy for them, because it
| | 06:02 | does take place over sometimes a number of years?
| | 06:05 | Denise Ream: Yeah, what was really
interesting--well, for me, repeatedly, I am always
| | 06:09 | amazed. We have scratched voices in
for so long. And we essentially make the
| | 06:15 | movie eight times. We screened on
Cars 2 every twelve weeks, so you have these
| | 06:21 | people that repeatedly play
the parts. And then I was always amazed,
| | 06:27 | finally going to the recording
session with the actors and just their shear
| | 06:32 | talent and charisma just comes
through in a remarkable way. And I just--it
| | 06:38 | never ceased to amaze me what
they really do bring to these films.
| | 06:43 | Madelyn Hammond: Do you ever get involved in
the marketing, Denise. Do you ever look--do they
| | 06:47 | come to you in a regular way and
say, "What do you think about this?
| | 06:50 | We have got a option on a poster or an
option for trailer or special scissor reel?
| | 06:54 | Madelyn Hammond: They do?
Denise Ream: Yes. We spend a lot of time with that.
| | 06:56 | Madelyn Hammond: Do you like that?
| | 06:58 | Denise Ream: It was a--I am pretty new to
that part of it, to be honest, and it's --
| | 07:06 | luckily I was working with John
Lasseter, who is amazing, has a lot of opinions,
| | 07:12 | so I felt really fortunate to be able
to collaborate and be partnered with him
| | 07:18 | to sort of see that firsthand.
| | 07:20 | I think it's really hard personally,
and what maybe the studio wants is very
| | 07:28 | different from what the filmmakers want,
so that's a big challenge I would say.
| | 07:33 | Madelyn Hammond: The studio different than
the filmmakers, and in the case of Cars 2 is
| | 07:36 | different than your promotional
partners, because you also have to serve them
| | 07:39 | in some way maybe too?
| | 07:40 | Denise Ream: We are--that's a whole
separate discussion about promotional partners.
| | 07:48 | We had the challenge--we had over almost forty car companies
that we had to basically involve with the
| | 07:55 | making of the film, and we
do it for authentic reasons.
| | 07:59 | We wanted to get iconic cars, and we do
not do product placement at the studio.
| | 08:05 | So it was--that was actually one of my
biggest challenges, in terms of walking
| | 08:09 | that line between getting what the
director wanted and what the film needed
| | 08:15 | versus trying to entice the car
companies to give us permission.
| | 08:21 | So we kind of steer clear of
that as much as we can, honestly.
| | 08:24 | Madelyn Hammond: Yeah. I bet.
Dede, what about you?
| | 08:26 | Did you get--I thought the campaign on
The Tree of Life was phenomenal. Were
| | 08:30 | you involved at all or were--?
| | 08:31 | Dede Gardner: Yes, yes, although I think in
that case that people at Fox Searchlight are
| | 08:37 | nothing short of brilliant. And I
think we have seen that year after year
| | 08:40 | after year after year.
| | 08:41 | They are just. And they are brave,
they were not--they had no interest in
| | 08:47 | putting on a poster with
Brad's head on it. Thank God!
| | 08:50 | And they try and they don't trick you.
| | 08:54 | They try and actually convey what
the movie is, and the artwork and--I
| | 09:00 | just think what they did for that
movie was amazing. But they were very
| | 09:03 | bold. They just went for it.
| | 09:04 | Madelyn Hammond: And it was risky, I mean, and
you could tell that there was, with the little
| | 09:09 | baby's foot, and then it kind of
evolved into something else with all the
| | 09:13 | pictures, so people were like, "What is
this," and I think they purposely did that
| | 09:17 | to try not to sell it as the Brad Pitt film.
| | 09:20 | Dede Gardner: Yeah, yeah. Very much.
Madelyn Hammond: Which would have been confusing. Which is good.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Finding the path for your indie film| 00:00 | Madelyn Hammond: I want to talk about
independent film. And so Leslie, question, because you
| | 00:05 | worked--you did some other films.
| | 00:07 | Now there are so many options, and
for those in the audience that are want-to-
| | 00:10 | be filmmakers or filmmakers that are
trying to struggle and get that film
| | 00:14 | seen theatrically,
| | 00:15 | there are plenty of options now that
didn't exist when you were doing it.
| | 00:20 | So what do you think?
Do you think this is a good thing or bad thing?
| | 00:22 | Sometimes we are going straight to VOD,
it is enticing, but there are drawbacks.
| | 00:28 | So what about the nature
of independent film today?
| | 00:31 | Leslie R. Urdang: Well, I think it is in a
huge transition, and obviously that gives people a
| | 00:39 | lot of opportunity as well as obstacles.
| | 00:43 | And I think the best thing is
to focus on the opportunity.
| | 00:47 | I think that film is evolving. There
used to be--when I first started making
| | 00:54 | movies you could finance a movie
because you knew there were like nine
| | 00:57 | windows that you would be getting
money from over the course of its life,
| | 01:02 | starting with theatrical, going to
free television, paid television, premium
| | 01:08 | cable, second window cable, and then
on and on to the various DVD, all the ancillary
| | 01:14 | rights, and now all of those windows of
distribution and access to storytelling
| | 01:19 | have been compressed.
| | 01:20 | And the cost of putting a movie out
theatrically is enormous and not right for
| | 01:27 | every film necessarily.
| | 01:30 | But it becomes the place where your
movie is promoted, in some way, for all the
| | 01:35 | other ancillary rights to be exploited.
| | 01:39 | So I guess as an independent
filmmaker, I look at--everyone's dream, every
| | 01:47 | filmmaker that I meet ideally wants
their movie to be shown theatrically.
| | 01:52 | That's kind of what most movies are shot for.
| | 01:56 | But there are some stories that don't
need to be told on the giant screen, and
| | 02:00 | how great is it that you can
produce them and have an outlet for them
| | 02:06 | that is not requiring that much
financial support, just to get it out into
| | 02:14 | the world, to distribute it?
| | 02:15 | And it just means you have to, as an
independent filmmaker, you balance the costs
| | 02:21 | of your production with what you
anticipate being a realistic life for the film.
| | 02:27 | It's really lovely when a studio picks
up your movie internationally and you
| | 02:34 | just deliver it to them and you are
involved in the marketing of it to a certain
| | 02:38 | extent and they put it out into the
world. But that's a really rare
| | 02:43 | experience for the number of films
that are actually made year to year, so
| | 02:49 | finding the pathways, all the other
pathways, to getting your movie out, whether
| | 02:53 | Leslie R. Urdang: it's Google or--well, DVD is even going away.
Madelyn Hammond: Netflix?
| | 03:00 | Leslie R. Urdang: Netflix or YouTube, Apple, it's YouTube. Exactly.
Madelyn Hammond: iTunes, Apple.
| | 03:06 | I think it's great.
| | 03:08 | I think it democratizes everything and
still the quality things will come out.
| | 03:16 | I mean what's happening right now
that's complicated is there's so much noise
| | 03:21 | out there that it's hard to
break through in that world unless you have the
| | 03:27 | support of a big marketing
campaign behind you, still.
| | 03:30 | But, I don't know where it's all going.
I don't think anybody completely knows.
| | 03:36 | If they do, I would love to meet that person.
| | 03:38 | Madelyn Hammond: Yeah! No, it is like the wild wild west now.
It's like, who knows, and it's going to
| | 03:42 | be good for you and anything that you
decide to do as a consequence of the short
| | 03:47 | too, because there are just plenty
of avenues. It's about being seen.
| | 03:50 | Julia Louis-Drefus: Yeah. Well, there is a market for shorts.
| | 03:52 | There is certainly an
international market for shorts.
| | 03:54 | You know, it's really very much the
culture outside the United States is to
| | 03:57 | pair a shot with the feature in a way
that isn't quite the case here. But Hulu
| | 04:02 | and iTunes and so on and so forth are
great opportunities for a launching--a launching point.
| | 04:08 | Madelyn Hammond: And Melissa, you came from
indie films, so it's very different than it was
| | 04:11 | when you were doing it.
| | 04:11 | Melissa Cobb: Yeah, back then it was about
things called--there were videotapes. But
| | 04:18 | then you know, yeah, when I was working
a lot in independent films, it was sort
| | 04:21 | of the heyday of where there was a lot
of video money, because the video market
| | 04:24 | was a relatively new then, because I
am super old. And there was a lot of
| | 04:29 | financing available, and it really
spurred this great rebirth in independent
| | 04:33 | filmmaking that was fantastic.
| | 04:34 | And I'm hoping that there will be sort
of a second wave of that with all these new
| | 04:37 | opportunities coming up.
| | 04:38 | Madelyn Hammond: Yeah I think that it's
the opportunities that are making such a difference now.
| | 04:43 | You know, they just didn't exist back then.
| | 04:45 | It's all changed with technology.
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