Film Production: Low (no) Budget Feature

• Posted on 28th June 2016
• in Entertainment, entertainment books, Film Production, film production book, Hollywood memoirs, New York City
• by Ben

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Here’s an excerpt from my

film production book

Circumstances Beyond My Control.

Reminder, italicized names are pseudonyms.

“More commercial work was not in the offing and in the early spring of 1977 I answered an ad in one of the business newspapers about a low budget movie producer/director who needed a production manager. We had a meeting at the production office, which was in an apartment building four blocks from my home.

“His name was Anil Chandhri and he was director, DP, editor and co-writer (with a famous Indian director/writer, B.R. Ishara). Kaibosh (Not the real title) was to feature three big Indian stars: Let’s call them Nimrod, Vinehra and Queena.

“Anil was charming and seemed to know his business. ‘Seemed’ is the operative word but I wouldn’t learn this for a while. He said he’d call me after he interviewed more applicants. Within a week he called and asked me to meet with him and his money man, Dr. Mohan Rajani.

“Dr. Rajani was (among other things) the owner of the building in which Anil and he had their offices.  We had an amicable meeting and after Anil’s effusive introduction Dr. Rajani quizzed me about budgetary matters. I asked to see a script and budget, look them over and then have another meeting and be better able answer his questions. He ignored the question. There was small talk and the meeting was over.

“Back in Anil’s office he offered me the job and an amazingly, insultingly low fee. While I realized that this was not a major motion picture I was shocked at the penurious offer. I again asked to see script and budget and was given a script and told that the budget was being finalized. I really wanted to production manage a movie and figured that I could get him to up the offer so I took the script and agreed to meet the next day.

“The screenplay wasn’t all that bad. Not great but interesting enough. Without breaking it down it looked to me that with a nonunion crew and some breaks on equipment rental it could be shot for $300,000 or so. (Remember this is ‘77.)

“At the next meeting we agreed on a fee that was about three times the original offer and, thinking Anil was a good guy, I signed on. I was to have four weeks of prep time and when the shoot, which was scheduled for five weeks, began I’d get a twenty percent raise. …

“In a normal situation the PM has a budget for each category and can make deals based on these data but since there was no budget forthcoming when I started hiring a crew I had to just get them as cheap as possible, constantly getting permission from Anil or Rajani. I’m talking about a six day week of (planned) twelve hour days and I was limited to less than two days normal pay a week for a technician. This dictated the hiring of a very inexperienced crew.

“My old pal from Ansel, Kevin O’Connell, was now working as a freelance electrician and wanted to become a gaffer. After much cajoling I offered him the job and after a meeting with Anil (who charmed him, too) he accepted. He and Anil worked up an equipment list. …

“I had been searching frantically for an AD. We interviewed several senior PAs who said they knew how to AD a picture but upon close examination none actually did. I don’t remember how we found him but one day Michael Pariser walked into the office and after five minutes I knew he was my man.

“My next challenge was getting him to take the job. And I don’t remember why he took it but he did. My impossible situation began to look a little more possible. Mike took the script breakdown I’d finally finished and, with Anil, scheduled the shoot. He also did the location scouting. …

“A huge problem on this (as it eventually became apparent, no-budget) movie was finding a make-up and hair person who would work for coolie wages. And we found him in the person of Tom Brumberger. Tom (alas, no longer with us) was a brilliantly gifted man but he was slave to the demon rum. Before I met him he had been very successful as befitted his talent but had become persona non grata in the business due to his alcohol soaked lack of reliability. I was unaware of this when we met and both he and his resume were very impressive. He told me some cock-and-bull story about why he’d take a job for such low pay. I bought it and hired him. How naive I was.”

For more film production tales click here to get Circumstances Beyond My Control.

Tags: B R Ishara, Michael Pariser, New York City