"Hey, you're TV's Pete Biagi"

I did my turn on the set of Paul Leuer's first feature film, Eden Court yesterday. Had my own trailer, well apparently I had Barb's trailer. The very nice Peter Biagi, of Project Greenlight 1 fame walked up and introduced himself to me and I said "Hey, you're tv's Pete Biagi", he laughed and said "Unfortunately." I also called Tom Lennon of Reno 9-11, "TV's Tom Lennon", Tom said the guild forced you to change your first name to "TV's" once you got a show.



I played a mechanic and I had two lines which, in total bit player cliche fashion, I worked on in my trailer all day, varying the emPHAsis on each read. Only to immediatly fuck those lines up during the take. Eden is a low budge film, so the setups are fast and they shoot fast, like a tv crew. So when I was finally called to set it was go time. Without being told where to stand I was tapped on the shoulder to enter and walked aimlessly about the frame fucking everything up. Kimberly (Williams, The Bride of "Father of the" fame) cracked up, which confused me further because I don't remember that being in the script. I was wrecked and flubbed the hell out of my lines and improvised to get over it, which prompted Tom to say "I don't remember that line."



Oh shit, "I'm that guy" I thought, that guy that inevitably ends up in all independent productions, the talentless friend of the director who's fucking the whole thing up. Now I was real flustered and was forgetting that stupid line. I did it again, this time knowing where to stand but I was awful, did it again, awful, but everyone claimed it was good and moved on, I really hope that take doesn't end up onscreen, in fact, as an editor, I know it can be cut out easily, actually both my lines can, the only reason to leave them in would be if they're good.



Paul is a good director, there's a common list of mistakes that first time directors make, from producing badly (not seeking creative solutions, not keeping the shoot moving, being rigid with their vision) to shooting badly (too many takes, not knowing shit about coverage) to directing badly (having no idea how to get what you want out of an actor, or more commonly, not knowing what you want, period), but Paul hit all his marks as a director. Since I fucked up, I got to be directed by Paul. Which is the first good sign of a good director, that his first instinct is NOT to direct me. Good director's let you go, then rein it in, or don't, good director's don't need to talk your ear off to justify their job. Woody Allen says a lot of director's do this because they feel guilty at how easy the job is. Secondly, when Paul saw that I was going awry, he came out and just sat down casually like we were going to talk about babes and conversationally, without ever telling what he wanted me to do, got me to do what he wanted me to do.



There's a great story in Bruce Campbell's first book about Sam Raimi directing Gene Hackman. With the possible exception of Darkman, Raimi had only really every directed his friends and nobody's, and now he was on this big movie with screen legend, Gene Hackman. Bruce Campbell was on set the first day and told Sam it would be a whole different world directing big stars with big egos, Sam didn't think so. Gene Hackman comes out and Sam says "Gene I want you to walk out the door, sit in the chair, look down the street, and doff your hat." Hackman says "I'm not doing any of that." Bruce Campbell laughed. Sam then proceeds over ten slow coersive minutes to convince Gene that all these movements were Gene's own idea. The first take, Gene walks out, sits in the chair, looks down the street, and doffs his hat. Sam turns to Bruce and says "who's the man?"

Congratulations Paul.