Producer’s Panel (SBIFF, 2011): USA

Reviewed by Katie Funk. Viewed at the Lobero Theater.

The Producer’s Panel held at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival housed a wide range of producer’s. Some were from from big productions like Darla Anderson a producer for PIXAR and the Toy Story series and others from small funded flicks such as Jamie Patricof from Blue Valentine. Getting to hear perspectives from two very different movie producers proved to be a very valuable experience for me. Darla Anderson went into much detail about the world of computer animated production and how it allows for much more control. They never have to worry about the weather and can take as many re-takes as they need rather than a production that was using real actors could. Also, they had a disconnect between their musical composer for the orchestra where he was just told what kind of emotion to present and was never working on site. “Music completes the emotional storytelling” she explained and luckily for them their composer Randy was someone they could count on to deliver. When asked the question about what their tricks of the trade for fund-raising were used she responded with a simple but frank “great script”.

On the opposite side of the movie spectrum was Jamie Patricof, producer of the movie Blue Valentine. This film was a very low budget flick with two pretty highly sought after actors but yet still did not have the same amount of funding as other more popular films. He explained to us that his movie was also originally rated NC-17 and how he had to go through a lengthy appeal process just to get it down to an R-rated film. He seemed pretty bothered by those who rated his film as they are a completely different group than the appeal board who unanimously over-turned the NC-17 rating. Adding that there was a disconnect between people who have very different viewpoints and that perhaps they should figure out some better guidelines and be more open in the future. He exclaimed, “It’s not what you see, it’s what you feel that determines rating.”

A few other producer’s had their moments in the spotlight as well. Mike Deluca from Social Network whose film was rated PG-13 chimed in about the ratings saying that even though drugs were present throughout his film, they were never being used. The rating process seems like a very difficult one where film-makers are trying to get to as much of their audience as they can and having to change such small things such as the way a sexual act is played out. Jamie Patrick laughed over the silliness of something so trivial saying “Up and down or side to side makes a huge difference in which way your rating will go”. Another low-budget film producer was on scene, Alix Madigan, from Winter’s Bone who helped produce a very low-budget flick with part of the secret to funding being that they used all unknown actors and locals from the nearby community. Lastly, Todd Lieberman from The Fighter gave his input on funding saying that a famous cast does not always grant funding, “It’s hard to get a movie made, you have to have passion.”