Fast Talk: Screen Gems

Screen Gems shares some tidbits about the film industry, including this bit from Celine Rattray, co-CEO of Plum Pictures, a small production company:

After graduating from Oxford, I worked for McKinsey doing strategic projects for media and entertainment companies and later, for HBO. I've always wanted to work in film, but I never had the experience. So a year and a half ago, I persuaded two friends to help me found our production company, Plum Pictures. We each bring different skills to the partnership. One is good with the creative process, the other is good with production. My strength is the business perspective.

You have so little leverage when you're a small company. No one likes to work for low pay, so the challenge is to motivate people. On a small-budget film, you offer typecasted actors different roles. You offer crew members a position above what they're used to doing — the makeup assistant might be the lead makeup artist. And we compensate writers by including them more in the production. We paid nothing for one script; a studio might have paid $10,000. The writer is helping choose a director and cast. It's an exchange.

This bit from Michael London, producer of Sideways, doesn't surprise me at all:

There were many battles over the casting of Sideways. All three of the leads — Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, and Virginia Madsen — were seen as wildly unlikely choices, but our director felt these were the right actors for the roles. I'm the one who had to deliver the bad news to agents, financiers, and studio executives who kept pushing me to change his mind.