Film Production Fatal Fascination

• Posted on 1st June 2018
• in Entertainment, entertainment books, Film Production, Hollywood books, Hollywood memoirs, Production Management
• by Ben

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Film production held a distracting appeal for me when I was an actor. With my very first acting job on a film production set (actually a location in L A’s Union Station) all those people and all that stuff commanded my attention. As happy as I was to have a movie or TV gig, the environment of film production was an even bigger thrill. Whenever I was free I pestered crew members with questions. I wanted to know what all that hardware was, what it did, who operated it etc., etc., etc. I soon had the opportunity to find out.

My oldest friend, cinematographer Bob Collins had a small film production company – Group One – in Hollywood and needed a man in New York.

Here’s a brief excerpt form the final chapter of my actor period memoir Three Stages:

In ‘70 Group One got the job of creating a TV Special for Bob Banner and NBC called “Peggy Fleming at Sun Valley”. It was a spectacular success. The great skating star was a natural for TV with her physical beauty and brilliant, balletic skating. Bob won an Emmy for his cinematography and Sterling Johnson, the Group One director, also won an Emmy. The combination of this show and their work on “Laugh-In” put Group One on the map. They needed a presence in New York. Thus began my own personal Film School.

Bob asked me if I would like to be Group One’s New York representative. I had no idea how to do this but Jack Tellander, their producer, said he’d coach me. What I had to do was to take their demo reel and show it to people at advertising agencies and networks. Jack would make the appointments and I’d go and screen the reel for them. But the folks screening the reel would then ask me questions to which I did not know the answers.

The first two or three screenings were harrowing for me. But after each one I’d call Jack and, with a tape recorder attached to my phone, we’d discuss the meeting and the questions I’d been asked. Gradually I learned more or less what to say and how to handle the questions on subjects about which I knew nothing. One lesson Jack taught me was that if someone asked if we could do something the answer was always “Yes”. It was just a matter of time and money. To illustrate the point he told me the following. (More or less a quote and these are 1970 figures.) “If they want a shot of a polar bear we can go to the museum and shoot a stuffed one. $1,000. If they want a polar bear walking around and diving into the water we go to the zoo with a crew. $10,000. If they want a polar bear riding a unicycle across an ice floe while juggling three balls we need a trained bear and a trip. $100,000.” That parable has stood me in good stead over many years.

Thus began the on-the-job training that would lead to my twenty-five year career as a line producer and first Assistant Director and, tangentially, my second book, Circumstances Beyond My Control, which is all about that career.

You’ll find Three Stages here and Circumstances Beyond My Control here.

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Tags: Bob Collins, Group One