Producers Panel 2015

Reviewed by Logan Kovarick. Seen at the Lobero Theater 2015.

The producers panel every year brings in the years best films producers and always delivers an extremely insightful panel. This year set the bar even higher with getting seven producers that all produced academy award nominated pictures. The seven that were involved were: Lisa Bruce (The Theory of Everything),
Jon Kilik (Foxcatcher), John Lesher (Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Robert Lorenz (American Sniper), Teddy Schwarzman (The Imitation Game) and  Cathleen Sutherland (Boyhood).

Some panels this year failed to execute a sense of organization and the moderators lacked a sense of poise which in turn caused for a not so interesting evening, this one was outstanding. There were so many wonderful questions asked by the moderator that evoked a lot of good information from the panelist’s process in not only their personal projects but their profession in its entirety. Some things that stood out to me were when they started to talk about making a film that feels organic. For example, if Leonardo DiCaprio were to portray Alan Turing in the recent Imitation Game, it wouldn’t feel natural or real. You, as an audience are aware its the movie star Leo and you’re taken out of the story. But Benedict Cumberbatch portraying Mr. Turing, it feels extremely organic and you’re receiving a legendary performance that totally immerses you in this mans life. They reminded young film makers to stay organic in their process, do what feels right and natural. Another talking point that really was amazing was this notion of limits inspire creativity. Amongst a small budget you’re faced with opportunities instead of facing problems and road blocks. You just go around them and what you’re getting is creativity. If someone says no you can’t have that or no you can’t have the money, the panelists insisted to think of it as we just don’t have it, so how do we improvise, how do we go around it. What you get sometimes, when you’re amongst an exceptional team of film makers, is gold and in turn is better than what you expected. A final point they talked about, is something that may seems obvious but really stuck with me. It was the fact how much a director’s own life and thoughts are reflected within the characters they direct and the story they tell. When there is controversy over a true story on screen, people need to remember its the directors vision of the events and how they played out in his mind, not yours. It is an art form at its purest. You don’t walk into an art gallery and say this painting sucks I would have painted it this way with this attached to it. You either marvel at it in the painters work or walk on to the next one.

When the panel was asked: ” So the actors get the glamour, the directors get the credit, what do the producers get?” The producers looked at each other and after a long pause, one director leaned in and said “The Santa Barbara Panel.” It was a perfect end to a great afternoon with the panelists and set the level of excellence for years to come