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Click here to get a copy of the June 2007 Edition, so you can read and enjoy all of the excellent articles inside. Check out this article in the June 2007 print edition of StudentFilmmakers magazine, page 28 .

A Producer's Story

by Myrl Schreibman

Murphy�s Law is our nemesis. Although excellent pre-production is the vaccine, Murphy can smash right in without knocking. And other times, Murphy can come knocking and smack you in the face while laughing at you.

It was the month of March in Los Angeles and during the filming of Hunter�s Blood, a movie that I produced some years ago. I was awakened from a well-deserved sleep by a phone call from my production manager, Andy La Marca, who is now one of the top producers in Hollywood. He informed me an extremely heavy El Ni�o rain storm was coming in and was scheduled to hit us by morning. �What do you want to do?� he asked. Wow! That was a big knock! We were scheduled to do a five-page scene with eighteen actors which included stunts, a fight, and horses. It was a sequence in a wooded and hilly location that was doubling for the back woods and hills of Arkansas. In preparation, the owners of the property made a dirt road to accommodate our cars, trucks and trailers. The only building near where we were shooting was a one-room, tin-roofed storage facility no more than 20� x 30�. The floor was cement, the roof had holes in it, and it was a mess. It was a huge and expensive production day, and the last thing in the world we needed was rain, let alone an El Ni�o.

I looked at the clock, and it was 4:16 a.m., two hours away from our call time. Andy said it again! �What do you want to do?� A lot ran through my mind while the rain began to drizzle outside my bedroom window. We had already given the actors their call time, so we would have to pay them anyway. Crew people were getting out of bed to travel to the location. The caterer was preparing a hot lunch for a company of about 55. And the transportation department would be driving the dressing rooms, motor homes and production vehicles to the location in forty-five minutes. Clearly, it would have been too expensive to cancel the shoot. Damn you, Murphy!

�We�re going to shoot,� I told him. �Call in more grip and electric, send wardrobe out to buy all the rain ponchos they can find, get one of the set PA�s up to work with the AD�s, and do what you need to do to get that camera shooting.�

Andy was the best, and he had a producer�s spirit. �Let�s do it!� he said, and hung up the phone.

I was really counting on the shooting location. The scene was the poacher�s camp where they skin the deer they illegally catch and where they get busted by the hunters and law enforcement. It was selected because of its picturesque qualities for the story. When I had scouted the location a couple of weeks earlier, I noticed the scene was going to take place under a 300-year-old oak tree which had very thick foliage and a large canopy. It was located behind the storage facility, and as long as the director didn�t shoot one of the angles, we would not see the building. The tree branches didn�t begin for some twenty feet from the ground, letting the art director create the poachers camp underneath the tree.

Taking a moment to think about what we were facing, I called Andy back and discussed the purchase of 1 x 12 planking to lay down as a �sidewalk� around the perimeter of our set so people would not have to walk in mud which we knew El Ni�o would cause for sure. Murphy was knocking on our door! We tried to think ahead. Andy put a recording on the machine at the production office to let any call-ins know we were moving ahead as scheduled. He called craft service to make sure they were ready with hot coffee when the crew showed up and not to rely on a generator hookup. I called the director and the cinematographer to cheer them on and assured them we would do whatever was needed to support the day, even rewrite the script if we had to. The cinematographer told me he was going to use the weather and the light created by the storm to give an ominous mood to the scene. And he was going to add fog in the distant woods in each shot. Murphy, you�re not stopping this project!

Within an hour, Andy was in the production office with his coordinator and their rolodex of phone numbers barking out instructions. I was in my office with my assistant Carolyn and told her to call the actors and stunt people to let them know we were shooting and not to worry, everything would be okay. Our PA David Schreibmanwas instructed to go to the set and see what he could do to help out. After notifying the completion bonding company and the executive producer of my plan, I went to the location to pitch in and help at whatever needed to be done.

It was pouring rain when I arrived. And I saw us battling Murphy tooth and nail. The grip truck, dressing rooms, and production vehicles were stuck in the mud and couldn�t make it down the (now muddy) dirt road. People had to park their cars a quarter mile away from the set and had to hike it down the road. Although Andy had two four-wheel drive vehicles operating, he had to determine the priorities, which were to get the camera, grip and electric equipment to the site. I hitched a ride on one of the four-wheel drives and made it to the set where anyone who asked was given a rain poncho.

Wardrobe, hair and the second AD were in a huddle because the actors were soon to arrive, and there were no dressing rooms. The rain was really coming down; I looked around and saw the old leaky storage building. I turned to the three of them and said, �Set up in that building!� It was cold, damp, and leaking in spots, but it would do what we needed it to do. I then called Carolyn back at my office and told her to wake the picture�s hair designer up and get him to the set. He was a friend and well-known in Los Angeles; we were in trouble, and he got there with his scissors in hand wearing his designer jeans and loafers. Murphy, you�re not getting this project!

By the time the actors arrived, we were set up with wardrobe, a makeshift blanket for them to change behind, and makeup and hair nearby with a hair designer who the actors trusted with their looks. I laughed and joked with them about what we were doing while fetching them coffee or tea while they got ready. I was adamant the weather and our location were not going to delay us from getting the scene shot nor affect the actors and their performances. Murphy, you are not going to win this one!

By 10:00 a.m., El Ni�o was really coming down, and the actors were ready to go to the set to begin a rehearsal with the director. The second AD arrived with umbrellas to walk the actors over to the location. I asked him how things were going, but he didn�t answer. And I didn�t hear of any problems on set, so I assumed that what was decided was to somehow motivate the rainstorm for the scene. Damn, Murphy, you were going to make us rewrite the script!

I began to look for Noah�s Ark as I walked in the mud � slipping and sliding, making my way to the wooden sidewalk to gain some kind of firm footing. Everywhere I looked, people were huddled together in their plastic ponchos, underneath umbrellas, or going to and from the grip truck carrying a c-stand, sandbag, or some other piece of equipment, prop or set dressing. There were new people on the set I didn�t recognize. I passed craft service, which was housed under three makeshift patio umbrellas, and passed the sound cart and saw the sound guy under his beach umbrella fiddling with filters on the mixer. Andy was on his walkie talking to transportation trying to get the grip truck and dressing rooms closer to the location. Damn you, Murphy!

I worked my way over to the set not knowing what I was going to see. The sidewalk ended. I stepped onto firm but damp terra firma. And what I saw brought tears to my eyes. The area under our 300-year-old tree was now a poachers camp with work table, a hung skinned dear (manufactured, as no animals were killed making this picture), and a group of actors rehearsing the beginning of a five-page scene. And they were all dry! A bit damp, but dry. The storm was raging outside of the canopy perimeter of the tree but here, underneath, no rain! What I had thought at 4:00 a.m. would happen. Was happening. The tree�s canopy was making a natural umbrella protecting the actors from the rainstorm. The little bit of rain water that dripped through the leaves of the tree added production value to the scene. The key grip moved with the fog machine through the trees beyond the poacher�s camp, and the location became eerie, dramatic and mysterious. The rain made it happen. It gave us something we never could have done within our budget; great production value! Murphy... I laugh in your face!

But we had a long day and a five-page scene to do before we lost daylight. I knew we had a shot at it because we worked fast to solve the immediate problems, get the set moving, and the camera to role. It was coming on to 11:00 a.m. when Andy came over to me. �Where do we set up for lunch?�

�What?�

�Where do we set up for lunch?� he repeated.

I looked up and shook my fist at Murphy. �Move makeup and wardrobe out of the storage building. They�ll have to make do the rest of the day now that we got the actors to the set.�

Catering! We were going to feed within the hour when I see the executive producer walking down our sidewalk. �Come with me,� I told her. And we went into the storage building to help the caterer set up tables, chairs, and the buffet lunch for the company. At noon, the first AD called lunch, and the crew began to file in to our makeshift cafeteria. The executive producer started to get in line when I handed her a serving spoon and told her to stand with me and dish out the food to everyone. We would eat afterwards. And as each of the crew members and actors filed into the damp leaky building and out of the El Ni�o storm, they saw the producer and the executive producer standing behind the buffet table dishing out the food and making sure everyone had enough to eat. For them it was a first! For me, I was making sure lunch ordered for 55 would now stretch to 70. We faced Murphy again, and I laughed in his face knowing the audience only knows what you show them on screen. Not how it got there!

This article may not be reprinted in print or internet publications without express permission of StudentFilmmakers.com.

Myrl A. Schreibman is a Producer/Director, professor at UCLA Film School, and author of the book, “The Film Director Prepares, A Practical Guide for Directing Film and Television.”

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