Tradeshows: Film, Television, and Motion Picture Industry

When counseling on the pursuit of greatness, many heroes of both the body and mind extol upon the values of staying hungry- that cultivating a fire nourished in the pit of one’s stomach may light one’s way all the way to the top. Yet, crusading against such conventional wisdom is senior Temple film student, Zac Auron. He has rather committed himself to extinguishing the flames of such “misinformation” throughout the film industry, having been burned once before after giving into its seductive snare.

Although his slim figure harkens to the archetypical ‘starving artist,’ Auron professes his desires to both “learn and eat” after graduating. He is proud to say that his work on professional film sets throughout his college experience has enabled him to leave Temple debt-free with both money for food and more filming opportunities. And what is not to be proud of? The feat seems all the more impressive today than it ever was. Debt among college graduates and present students alike is now so inescapable that present the population of debt-ridden college students and graduates has reached numbers capable of forming active coalition’s across the country to nullify their collective debt. I asked him to talk about what lessons he had already managed to gain from these gigs, seeing that they had given him quite a deal and that he had evidently derived great success from them. I even thought that maybe the answers to our country’s college debt problem could be answered- that maybe the solution had to do with more movies. I at least found to have lit a flame with this question. While Auron may not have had all the answers to diminishing everyone’s debt, he did however give advice to help not make the problems of those in debt any worse in addition to good filming practices.

Auron: I want to clear up something because I think there is a big misconception about this amongst some schools of filmmaking. Most people know this, but some don’t and they’re spreading bad information. I just want to put a stop to it. So I am putting my foot down and saying once and for all that you always feed your cast and crew. It’s just good practice.

1. It gives your cast and crew something to do when they aren’t working. It keeps their minds occupied during downtime which means that they won’t get as tired or uninterested when they’re working.

2. It can buy you time as a director if something needs a catastrophic reorganization. If there’s a table with a bunch of goodies, you can then very easily be like, ‘Uh…Everybody…lunch break. NOW.’ And no one will question you or grow restless.

Food can definitely be a tool in addition to something that can make everybody like you. Because they’ll just hate you if you don’t have food. Because most everybody thinks you should have food. And who will you have to work with then without food? Some people perpetuate bad information by saying that you don’t have to have food, but in reality that just makes you look like a dick. My heart goes out to theirs to change their ways. So they need not relive my pain.

Brennan: Have you been on any sets where a cast or crew has revolted because of a lack of food?

Auron: Yes. I once didn’t provide food. This was a film that I was trying to self-produce. It was a very short shoot and we had already been providing food for other very short shoots. We thought that everyone would work with us on this- that it was not an unreasonable concession to make given all we had already done. However, people still started to complain, drag their feet, and threatened to secede. Now there is an inherent stop for donuts on the way over to a set. No matter how irrational the call for food may seem, irrationality will definitely prevail where there is hunger.

Also, just to kind of go along with the food thing and give some more general, lasting advice from it: Be a nice person.

Brennan: What does that mean?

Auron: Don’t be an asshole.

Brennan: Who? Me?

Auron: Because then people won’t want to work with you.

Brennan: Well, not if you call them an asshole.

Auron: The field is very reliant on working with people. If people think that you’re an asshole, then they won’t want to work with you. Simple as that. And then how are you going to make a film?

Brennan: Who? Me?

Auron: It’s just always a better idea to be pleasant than unpleasant. Because I don’t think filmmaking is supposed to be a one-man show. You can just do exponentially more if you have more help than you can alone. You have to be some sort of Superman to be independently wealthy, a good writer, a good director, a good art director, and a good cinematographer. You would then need to have an incredibly good sense of pacing to edit the film, a really good ear and musical sense to develop sound design and score the thing, and then you need to be some sort of marketing genius so that everybody knows about your film. Did I mention that you need to be independently wealthy?

Brennan: What’s the most assholish thing that you’ve seen on set? Just so that other aspiring filmmakers can brace themselves for the other side of the business.

Auron: One time I was working on a set and the director of photography was yelling at me because he thought that I lost a piece of equipment- even though I knew where it was. But it wasn’t where he thought it should be, so he said I lost it. He threatened to fire me. And then you just have to ask, “Fire me for what? You’re no paying me.” It baffled me how someone could be so disrespectful to another who was volunteering their time for his shit.

A close second though is what I saw this one director of photography do to a director who was much less experienced than him. For basically the whole shoot, the director of photography- not the actual director- would be the one saying, ‘Camera speeding, sound…’. Then after making these calls, the DP would turn to the director and say, “Okay. Your show.’ Sure the director sure have taken charge, but that the DP should have belittled his power so much left me speechless.

I hope you got enough that you can use for your interview and that I didn’t just sound like an asshole.

Brennan: No man. It’s your show. Get those DPs some food!