Producers Panel

Reviewed by Kelly Bader. Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival 2014.

Today at the Producers Panel there were several producers who were involved with films that are up for numerous awards and answered some inside question into what there job involved in the various films. The moderator John Horn asked several different questions regarding struggles and achievements and here a few insights to a few of those questions.

The producer of “Dallas Buyers Club” Robbie Brenner talked about how the director, Jean-Marc Vallee chose to cut the lighting out of the budget and use only natural lighting. Robbie said she wasn’t too sure about Jean’s idea since she never had shot a movie without light before.  However, it did work out and gave the film more of an older, retro feel. She also said that there were only two scenes in the entire film that didn’t use natural light. One was a scene that took place indoors in which they lit up with 20 candles and another scene where they used the headlights of a car since day was winding down and they wanted to finish one last take. This was imperative since they were limited to only 25 days to film the entire movie so they were required to shoot five scenes a day and couldn’t fall behind.

In the movie “Captain Phillips” producer Dana Brunetti talked about how crucial it was that they coordinated with the navy since they were using their helicopters and boats through the shooting of the film. For instance, the original ending scene was filmed at an airport where it required a lot of loading platforms to be scheduled for shut down so they could film the closing piece to the movie. This was all done early on in the shooting for the film so this piece had already been edited and was ready for the big screen. However, in the final days of filming director Paul Greengrass decided to change the ending scene in the film. It was a completely impulsive decision and was put together in seconds. It goes to show you that you may put a lot of time in effort into something but if it doesn’t feel right go with your gut. Dana the producer believes that the way they ended the film in the infirmary was definitely a better ending then the original.

In the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” there was a scene where the director Martin Scorsese had originally lined up to use a Mercedes, however after seeing it on set he told producer Joey McFarland that he wanted the vehicle to be an old Lamborghini. With this Joey had to go out and find one and discovered there where only 11 in the United States. So they got the Lamborghini on the set and prior to getting the stunt driver in the car they had him practicing in an alternative vehicle so he would be ready. As they go to shoot their first shot for this scene the stunt driver runs the Lamborghini into a tree. So obviously this put Joey on the look out for another.   Apparently there are now only six vintage Lamborghinis left in the United States, assuming other driving mishaps. Goes to show you never know what is going to happen and you always have to be ready for what is going to come next.