TV Commercial Production tale: Ben Bryant, author of “Circumstances Beyond My Control”

Bizarre episodes were not unusual during my years in TV commercial production. A business peopled by highly creative, highly insecure, highly neurotic and highly paid characters is rife with such interludes. They are more the norm than the unexpected.

As I was compiling these memoirs I was working without a net, as it were. Neither notes nor records (other than photos, some of which had dates) were available. There was nothing but my – and a few friends’ – memories. So it was inevitable that more than a few stories didn’t make it into the manuscripts. This is a cool thing about an author blog. I can share these tales even after the books are published. Don’t you love this technology?!

So, I was producing a job for N. Lee Lacy & Associates in 1978 or ’79. David Johnson was the executive producer who hired me. There’s a lot about DJ in Circumstances Beyond My Control because for several years he was one of my main sources of employment. I have enormous respect for Dave although our personalities and leadership styles are as different as they can possibly be within the bounds of professional film production. His style was somewhat military and rather tightly wound. I was certainly well buttoned-up myself when it came to the details of the gig. One cannot effectively do the job if one isn’t but I tended not to over-supervise.

Anyhow this was a studio job for some kitchen product and we were shooting on a long gone sound stage in the East 70s. We had built, dressed and lit the set. All was in readiness for an 8:00 AM crew call the next day.

I was sound asleep that night when the phone rang. It was on Elizabeth’s side of the bed so she answered and I tried in vain to stay asleep.

“It’s for you.” I took the phone and heard Dave Johnson’s voice say, “There’s a fire in the studio!” While I can’t be certain of my reply after thirty-five years I believe it was, “Why the hell are you calling me. Call the fucking fire department.”

The rest of that conversation (if there was any) is lost in the fog of non-memory. I never did find out why I needed to learn of this unfortunate event at 3:00 AM instead of 6:00 or 7:00 but that was DJ. It took a day to get the stage cleaned up, the damage repaired and the set re-prepped. The place did smell a bit charred but the shoot went off a day late and no one was hurt.

This anecdote is half the illustration of how different the styles can be between two excellent executive producers.

The other of my primary employers during the TV commercial production years, Morty Dubin, was on the other end of the modus operandi spectrum. Where Dave demanded the long answer, Morty wanted the short one.

Case in point: In chapter 21 of Circumstances I told a couple of stories of my gigs with the infamous Brit director, Howard Guard. The first one was a phone call I made about going into four hours overtime on a pre-light day. Morty said, “Was it necessary?” I said, “Yes.” Morty said, “See you tomorrow.”

When Howard and I had our storied on-set contretemps and I informed Morty on the phone of my departure from the shoot he required no explanation. He just handled the situation immediately.

In the phrase made famous by that great American philosopher, Clerow “Flip” Wilson, “Different strokes for different folks.”

Buy Circumstances Beyond My Control

Comments & Responses

Comments are closed.

2024 © InkThemes. All rights reserved.