Produced By June | July 2020

PRODUCEDBY THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA // JUNE | JULY 2020

UPPING THE CREATIVITY LEVEL ON TROLLS WORLD TOUR

P. 32 THE GOOD PLACE LEADS TO GOOD KARMA

P. 40 QUIBI LAUNCHES NEW PLATFORM IN A NEW REALITY

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MORGAN

NEVILLE

“Documentaries are the thing I can do to try and put something positive into the world, some sense of understanding and curiosity. I feel like we are living in increasingly incurious times.”

“A CLEVER, MOVING EXAMINATION OF MOTHERHOOD, FEMALE AMBITION AND SEXUAL POLITICS.” “THE QUESTIONS IT BRINGS UP ABOUT MOTHERHOOD, RACE, IDENTITY AND POWER ARE REAL AND MEANINGFUL.” “THE

SHARP SCRIPTS EXPAND ON THE ACCLAIMED SOURCE MATERIAL.”

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MORGAN NEVILLE PHOTOGRAPHED BY THE MATTHEW SMITH

FEATURES 22 THE COVER: MORGAN NEVILLE Documentaries are getting respect, and this guy’s riding high.

32 WARM AND FUZZY Trolls World Tour is bursting with creativity.

40 GIVING LIFE TO THE AFTERLIFE The producers who brought viewers to The Good Place.

47 FEMALE FORCES IN ACTION It’s past time for their achievements to be recognized.

52 DISTILLING IT DOWN Quibi launches its platform in a matter of minutes.

56 TIME FOR CHANGE Women are taking on new roles.

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NICOLE KIDMAN DAZZLES THE PAPARAZZI AT THE PGA AWARDS

DEPARTMENTS 9 FROM THE PRESIDENTS

19 IPSI Wrapping up a successful year

Coming together in time of crisis

10 10 THINGS TO REMEMBER

38 GOING GREEN Mark Ruffalo on a mission

Giving newbies some guidance

12, 62 ON THE SCENE PGA Awards light up Hollywood Producers Breakfast, Nominee Mixers

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60 OPEN DOORS Accurately portraying homelessness

64 ABOVE & BEYOND

16 MENTORING MATTERS

Helping hands from coast to coast

Road to opportunity

66 MARKING TIME

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67 PGA HEALTH 68 MEMBER BENEFITS 69 NEW MEMBERS 70 FAQ:THE PRODUCERS MARK 72 BEST ON-SET PHOTO OF ALL TIME No better job on Earth

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ANYTIME. ANYWHERE.

PRESIDENTS Gail Berman

2019 PRODUCED BY June | July

PRODUCEDBY PRODUCEDBY MERICA // JUNE | JULY THE PRODUCERS GUILD OF A THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF

PRODUCE DBY October | November

THE OFFICIAL MAGAZIN E OF THE PRODUCERS G UILD OF AMERICA // OCT OBER | NOVEMBER

2019

THE PRODUCING TEAM THAT PUT THE HUSTLE IN HUSTLERS

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BETTING ON SHORT-FORM FOR THE LONG HAUL

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GRAB THE GOGGLES FOR A VR MAGIC CARPET RIDE

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two years of “I find it difficult to spend don’t believe in.� my life making things I

WHAT CAN SOCIAL MEDIA REALLY TELL YOU ABOUT YOUR PROJECT?

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“What’s great about being a producer is you never know what the week will bring, breat hing new life into something in a way you didn’t think possible the week before.�

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Lucy Fisher

VICE PRESIDENTS, MOTION PICTURES Reginald Hudlin Jon Kilik VICE PRESIDENTS, TELEVISION Gene Stein Lydia Tenaglia VICE PRESIDENT, NEW MEDIA Jenni Ogden VICE PRESIDENT, AP COUNCIL Melissa Friedman VICE PRESIDENTS, PGA EAST William Horberg Kay Rothman TREASURER Megan Mascena Gaspar SECRETARIES OF RECORD Mark Gordon Hawk Koch PRESIDENTS EMERITI Gary Lucchesi Lori McCreary NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/COO Vance Van Petten NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/COO Susan Sprung NATIONAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS Stephanie Allain Charles P. Howard Michael Ambers Lynn Hylden Nina Yang Bongiovi Paulette Lifton Stacy Burstin Rosemary Lombard John Canning James Lopez Yolanda T. Cochran Betsy Ockerlund Nolte Donald De Line Bruna Papandrea Mike Farah Kristine Pregot Donna Gigliotti Charles Roven Gary Goetzman Peter Saraf Jennifer A. Haire Angela Victor Marshall Herskovitz Ian Wagner EDITOR Peggy Jo Abraham

PRODUCERSGUILD.ORG PARTNER & BRAND PUBLISHER Emily S. Baker CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ajay Peckham

COPY EDITOR Bob Howells

PHOTOGRAPHERS The Matthew Smith

LET’S GET SOCIAL

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Advertising Info: Ken Rose at ken@moontidemedia.com or 818-312-6880

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FROM THE PRESIDENTS

THE PRODUCERS GUILD IS OPEN This issue of the magazine was written and edited before the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery and the subsequent protests.

Nevertheless, we wanted to address these critical issues and necessity for change.

The PGA is committed to the work we face as a Guild and as a nation to combat the widespread systemic racism that has plagued our country for centuries. As a Guild, we can and will do better. We are committed to empowering more diversity of voices and ensuring better equity within our membership and our industry.

One way that we’re already working on this is via our One Guild committee and its mission to increase and foster membership and employment, and to encourage positive depictions of underrepresented groups. Specific activities within One Guild include the College Ambassador Program, an outreach to diverse producing students, and the Producers on Producing series, celebrating the work of women and producers of color. We at the PGA understand that our leadership, membership and productions have not achieved the level of racial diversity that we should have achieved and are committed to change.

We look forward to sharing concrete actions we can take together to ensure this message resounds to each of our members and audiences around the world. Black Lives Matter.

Meanwhile as we all know, COVID-19 has taken its toll, but it has not shut down the Producers Guild. Despite having just moved into our new member-friendly offices, the Guild had to temporarily close our physical doors. The Guild quickly adapted to conducting its business virtually and without any geographical limits.

Due to the financial impact of the pandemic, the PGA downsized the Guild’s staff and instituted some salary adjustments.

The Guild quickly adapted to working remotely by converting all of the Guild’s meetings and events to online engagements, making them accessible to all PGA members. We are pleased to report that the Guild has truly become more national, even international, and more unified.

Here is a partial list of what the Guild has been doing during the pandemic: • Informed membership about a range of COVID-19-related issues through an updated Resources page on the Guild’s website.

• Established the PGA Members Relief Fund (administered by the Actors Fund) and the PGA Member-to-Member Fund, which defrays a percentage of membership renewal costs.

• Our first webinar, Mental Health & Wellness, took place on March 30.

With instrumental input from the Diversity, Documentary, Education, Employment, Events, and Women’s Impact Network Committees, the Guild has hosted 25 events.

• We transitioned the Guild’s Screening Program (with live Q&As) to a completely virtual setting.

• The Mentoring Committee launched a virtual Mentoring Roundtable Series every Thursday where 20 members have an opportunity to participate in 90-minute sessions.

• The Guild launched its PGA Pitch Fest Series with A&E Networks. 125 members were given the opportunity to join a webinar with executives and then submit their pitch outlines to be considered for 10 live Zoom pitch meeting slots.

• Producers Mark arbitrations have proceeded without interruption. 67 determinations have been rendered.

• The Guild’s IPSI Training Program has been restructured to include sexual harassment training as part of the return-to-work safety training.

Additionally, the PGA formed a Task Force led by President Emeritus Lori McCreary that is working with SAG-AFTRA and a number of industry groups to ensure industry-wide standards and protocols. It is a testament to the producing community that so many members are contributing to this conversation. Our own AP Council has done an extraordinary job in helping drive the conversations, especially for unscripted and independent productions—a primary focus, as the studios are developing their own guidelines.

The Guild is doubling down in this time of crisis to address the challenges upon us. Our industry is facing tremendous obstacles, but the Guild represents the producing community, and producers will always find ways forward.

If you want more information on any of these or other Guild activities, please be sure to read the Guild’s weekly Newsletter and click on producersguild.org.

Thank you.

Gail Berman

Lucy Fisher

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TOP TIPS

10 THINGS TO REMEMBER YOUR FIRST DAY ON A SHOOT Written By Phil Cooke

After decades working in the industry and producing programming in more than 60 countries, I’m still amazed at how uninformed many production assistants are, even after they manage to get hired. Following a particularly frustrating experience filming in the Middle East last year, I sat down and created a list of things I think would be helpful for every intern, PA or new crew member. No matter how low they may be on the food chain, these people are there for important reasons, and others are watching. So if you have one of these new hires, help make sure their first day isn’t their last day, by reminding them of 10 important things.

1. Show up early. You’re the new kid, and nobody’s going to wait for you. Be at work on time or don’t show up at all—even if it means you leave two hours early in case of traffic.

2. If the producer, client, the assistant’s assistant or anyone else is carrying more equipment than you, you’re doing it wrong. Enough said.

3. Bring a raincoat, flashlight (your phone battery may be low), protein bars, cab fare (Uber/Lyft aren’t always available, especially in foreign countries), mobile phone charger and anything else you can think of because Murphy’s Law is real.

4. Make things happen. Nobody wants to hear that it can’t be done. Veterans on the crew have all made the impossible happen before or they wouldn’t have survived this long in the business. They’re not interested in hearing about your problems.

They’re interested in solutions.

5. Bring a notepad and pen. Someone’s going to give you orders. Write them down.

6. Your job is to help make the movie or TV show. You can’t get distracted by taking selfies of you next to the cool camera, raiding the craft service table or chatting up the cute make-up artist. Focus.

7. Stay ahead of the game. Don’t wait to be told. Find what needs to be done and do it. If you have to be told more than twice,

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they’ll find somebody else. Believe it.

8. It’s not about you. Don’t be the first in line at lunch. Give up your seat for a client or studio or network executive. Don’t take the closest parking space. We all know you’re a genius and should actually be directing the movie, but right now, you need to pay your dues.

9. They may not remember what you did right, but they’ll sure as heck remember what you did wrong. If you want to get invited back for day two, you need to be batting 1,000.

10. Be the last person to leave. If the producer or director has to carry a trash bag to the dumpster at the end of the day because you left early, you may never work in this business again.

Harsh? Perhaps. But on a production set, there’s enormous pressure to deliver, so it’s critical you understand the expectations from the start. Getting fired up is far better than getting fired.

Phil Cooke is a PGA member and founder of Cooke Media Group in Los Angeles, which focuses on media projects in the nonprofit and humanitarian space. During his career, he’s been shot at, survived two military coups, fallen out of a helicopter and been threatened with prison. Find out more at CookeMediaGroup.com.

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ON THE SCENE

THE SWEET LIFE 31ST ANNUAL PRODUCERS GUILD AWARDS HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM, JANUARY 18, 2020

Attendees at this year’s PGA Awards enjoyed an exciting evening that reflected the glamorous theme of the ceremony, “La Dolce Vita.” Executive produced by Suzanne Todd, the awards brought out Hollywood’s brightest star power including special honorees Ted Sarandos, Marta Kauffman, Octavia Spencer, Plan B (Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Brad Pitt) and the producers of Bombshell. Some fresh faces were honored in the TV categories this year including Succession, Fleabag and Chernobyl, while the World War I film 1917 took home the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures. Bravissimo to all the nominees and winners!

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ON THE SCENE

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ON THE SCENE

31ST ANNUAL PRODUCERS GUILD AWARDS, HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM, JANUARY 18, 2020 (continued)

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M E N TOR I NG M AT T E R S

A RIDE ON THE SOUL TRAIN Traveling to a new region yields new insights Written by Danny Mendoza

A

s a fairly new member of the PGA who does most of his work in the Miami area, I found myself eager to learn more about how productions are run in my neighbor to the north: Atlanta. Miami is a weird, wonderful place with a wide variety of stories that go far beyond what has already been popularly explored. I’m deeply committed to telling those stories and helping to resurrect our local film industry, which has been under assault in our state legislature for the better part of a decade now. I decided that a great way to learn about what works well in other regional markets was to apply to the PGA’s Shadow Mentorship Program. Turns out I had the good fortune of being accepted to shadow executive producer Judith McCreary for a week in October on the set of Season 2 of BET’s American Soul.

The process of applying to the mentorship program was friendly and accessible throughout. During its final stages, the phone interviews were consistently useful—edifying and respectful of my time. What really seemed to click about this opportunity with Ms. McCreary and American Soul was how well it meshed with my passion for my hometown and my goal of supporting its film industry. The match wasn’t solely about my credentials and experience. It was also about what I needed at the moment and what the opportunity could provide. That was so refreshing.

When I arrived in Atlanta, Ms. McCreary and her team were exceptionally welcoming from the start. Throughout the week they allowed me to spend time in their studio and made sure I consistently had access to various aspects of the production. I also had the good fortune of being able to enjoy meaningful discussions with several other producers, department heads, a director in prep, a writer of an episode being filmed and some cast members. In the course of the mentorship, I attended meetings, a read-through, a location scout and a director’s walk-through, and spent time on set at video village.

I have always valued mentorship throughout my career—both as someone guided by mentors and as someone who has had the opportunity to provide some guidance as well. In this experience, I found valuable candor, camaraderie and engagement. I only wish I could have spent more time with the American Soul team, as I felt like we were just really hitting our stride when our time together was up.

As far as my goals for this mentorship, I consider them fulfilled: I got to learn about the production environment in Atlanta, I’m better able to understand how a show like American Soul is made, and I connected with wonderful people who are great at their jobs. I was impressed by both the scope of the work and the quality of the team, and will always be extremely grateful for this opportunity.

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“The match wasn’t solely about my credentials and experience. It was also about what I needed at the moment and what the opportunity could provide.”

I P S I UPDATE

PGA’S IPSI INITIATIVE TAKES OFF IN A BIG WAY

I

t was just over a year ago, April 2019, when the Producers Guild of America held its very first IPSI training.

The Independent Production Safety Initiative is a one-of-akind program in our industry— offering free anti-harassment training and legal advice to qualifying independent productions. In the past year, the Guild has conducted nine such trainings, all across the country. The response has been incredible, and we look forward to meeting the demand for even more training sessions this year.

Our initial IPSI workshop took place in New York, under the guidance of Ivy Kagan Bierman of Loeb & Loeb LLP. Most recently, trainings were held in Richmond in January and Atlanta in February.

Organized by our COO Susan Sprung and attorney Samia Kirmani of Jackson Lewis P.C., the Georgia session was held in conjunction with the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) under the leadership of Leigh Seaman, the Senior Executive Director at SCADFILM.

Leigh Seaman

HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INVOLVED OR LEARN ABOUT IPSI? I met Susan at a meeting in Los Angeles to discuss how the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and the Producers Guild of America (PGA) might collaborate in Atlanta, given the growing number of PGA members who are living and working in the region. Together we determined that SCAD, one of the most prominent authorities in film and television education and career preparation, was perfectly positioned to provide a venue for IPSI. I was thrilled the PGA was eager to expand the training to include students and faculty.

We currently enroll more than 5,000 students in 32 different degree programs across 14 entertainment arts disciplines.

Unique to our university, students work on professional film sets in below-andabove-the-line roles in Savannah and Atlanta during their time at SCAD. This immediate hands-on and collaborative experience prepares them to launch the moment they graduate or even before!

WHO FROM SCAD PARTICIPATED IN THIS PARTICULAR EVENT, AND HOW MANY ATTENDEES WERE THERE? We had SCAD students from our School of Entertainment Arts participate in the IPSI training. Total attendance was 56 and included PGA guests, SCAD students and faculty.

WHAT SORT OF FEEDBACK DID YOU HEAR FROM THE STUDENTS? During the training, SCAD students asked questions and brought up situations that led to compelling conversation with people in the audience and the leaders.

Following the event, I was approached by several students who thanked me for bringing in the PGA. They cited examples from the presentation that resonated with them, especially as they pertained to how to avoid becoming a passive enabler of inappropriate behavior.

WHAT DO YOU THINK WAS THE MOST VALUABLE PART OF THE TRAINING? The training included “what-if” scenarios that challenged the attendees to consider actions and just as importantly, nonaction, in certain situations. These scenarios were presented in a way that we could easily put ourselves in the described environment and visualize the behavior or actions that needed a response. The scenarios, together with the PGA’s emphasis on the great support it supplies their members, resonated with our students. It encouraged and empowered them to make the BRAVE, BOLD and NECESSARY choices to speak up about harassment.

WOULD YOU BE OPEN TO DOING MORE OF THESE TRAININGS? We look forward to discussing another IPSI session in the fall and hope to establish a partnership with the PGA to be the Atlanta host of its training and other activities throughout the year.

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I P S I UPDATE

Samia Kirmani WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST TAKEAWAY FROM THIS LATEST TRAINING AT SCAD? We have found that participants are extremely interested in the subject matter. They have insightful questions about what is appropriate versus inappropriate and what to do when a situation arises. The students at SCAD, however, were particularly involved and attentive. I have done a ton of training for various audiences, and this was one of the most interactive and engaged groups of participants I have encountered. The students’ questions and commentary were sincere and authentic. Their perspective was refreshing, and it was clear they took issues of harassment seriously and wanted an opportunity to discuss and learn. They left us feeling like a cultural shift is actually happening and very hopeful that it will continue.

WHAT AREAS WERE THE ATTENDEES MOST INTERESTED IN? They seemed most interested in how to foster a positive and harassment-free environment when they themselves become producers or are in other positions of authority onset. They also had questions about—and wanted to discuss— various approaches to addressing potentially inappropriate communications when they occur, both in the moment and after the fact, whether as victims or bystanders. They actively engaged with each other and with me and my co-presenter, Kristen Baylis. The two hours flew by.

WHAT DO YOU FEEL IS THE MOST VALUABLE ASPECT OF THE IPSI TRAINING? The IPSI training provides an opportunity for participants to go beyond traditional harassment prevention training and to have authentic discussions about matters they may have had questions about but never raised before. The purpose of the training is not to check the box that training was provided or even ensure compliance with state-specific training mandates. Rather, the purpose is to make clear that

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inappropriate conduct—whether potentially unlawful or not—is not tolerated. We use real-life production scenarios to foster discussion about practical approaches to problem-solving, so that participants can have questions answered; understand better the difference between inappropriate and appropriate conduct; and feel empowered to address issues when they arise. When conducted on the first day or very early on in a production, the training sets a tone and expectations, and creates a fresh memory in the minds of participants about the fact that appropriate conduct and a harassment-free environment is critical on every set.

IS THERE ANY PARTICULAR FEEDBACK FROM THE STUDENTS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE? Right after the program, multiple students approached Kristen and me to thank us for the presentation and to applaud the PGA for IPSI generally. Some even contacted me after the program via email and LinkedIn to share similar sentiments.

We were so gratified to hear from Leigh, who told us she felt fortunate to have such an engaging and necessary training for the SCAD students and was already asking when we could do it again. It has been so rewarding to be a part of this effort. We appreciate the opportunity and would love to find more ways to collaborate with the PGA and with SCAD.

CONSIDER AMAZON ORIGINALS Homecoming

Making the Cut

Modern Love

Morgan Neville INTERVIEW BY PEGGY JO ABRAHAM photographed BY the matthew smith

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M

organ Neville has debuted many projects at the Sundance Film Festival, but this year was different. It wasn’t just that his new documentary Taylor Swift:

Miss Americana nabbed the prestigious slot as the opening night gala premiere. Having a star of Swift’s magnitude attend the event was in his words, “like the circus came to town for 24 hours.” The infinite curiosity surrounding the performer combined with her loyal following led to quite a scene. Neville says, “When we pulled up to the Eccles Theater opening night, and outside in the cold weather were hundreds of fans singing her songs, I thought, ‘This is not your normal Sundance. We’re definitely in new territory here.’”

The film is the latest in a long line of intriguing and acclaimed documentaries from this creative producer. His 20 Feet from Stardom, which focused on the behind-the-scenes lives of backup singers, won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2014. Last year Neville won high praise for his award-winning doc on the life of Fred Rogers. The film, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, took audiences far beyond the TV persona of Mr. Rogers, offering them a deep examination of the philosophy that guided this unusually wise and visionary man. It was a worldview in sharp contrast to what most people were experiencing in real life, following the 2016 election.

In taking on a bio of Swift, Neville dives into his sweet spot— the intersection of music and our culture. It’s an area that feeds the producer’s unending curiosity, which in turn leaves the viewer satiated, thanks to the unvarnished honesty of both the performer and the movie itself. In addition to his film accolades, the producer’s obsession with all things music has earned him six Grammy nominations for Best Music Film. He won the category with 20 Feet from Stardom.

Neville’s talent for storytelling is steeped in a lifelong love of books. His father is a rare-book dealer, and his wife is a children’s librarian. He still collects books and bemoans an era where “it seems like they are disappearing.” But when it comes to documentaries, Neville is much more hopeful. He notes, “Twenty-seven years ago documentaries were the spinach of filmmaking. Now documentaries are the cool kids.” Given this new attitude about docs, we’re excited to offer you a glimpse into the mind of one of the hippest guys in the biz.

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THE COVER: MORGAN NEVILLE

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH TAYLOR SWIFT AND MISS AMERICANA? AND WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO DO THE FILM? Netflix had been talking to Taylor and her people about making a film. They called me to ask my opinion and if I’d meet with her. I flew to Atlanta, where she was on tour. Before watching one of her shows, I talked to her at length. Two things became abundantly clear in that first meeting. One was she wanted to make a real documentary, not some kind of branded exercise.

The second thing was that a woman needed to direct this film because so much of what Taylor was talking about related to coming of age as a woman and dealing with those issues. I just felt like we needed a director who could speak to that from her own experiences.

THAT TURNED OUT TO BE LANA WILSON. WHAT WAS YOUR CONNECTION WITH HER? I knew and liked Lana as a person, as well as her work. When I suggested her to Taylor, she watched Lana’s film After Tiller and connected with it. Then she met Lana, and they instantly connected. The fact that After Tiller is a tough documentary about abortion says something about the seriousness with which Taylor wanted to attack the subjects in the film, and she could see that Lana had the depth to go there.

YOU WERE GOING FOR THE TRUTH. Yes. The thing is, doing this long enough, I have enough of a track record that people can look at the work I do and understand I’m neither a hagiographer or a sensationalist. I’m somebody who’s just trying to tell truthful, good stories. As a producer, I want to tell stories about culture that reflect a sense of empathy and emotion, along with, hopefully, an intelligence.

Those are the main ingredients that I want to put into everything.

TAYLOR IS A STORYTELLER LIKE YOU. IT SEEMS LIKE IT WOULD BE A GREAT WAY TO RELATE

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AND CONNECT.

A lot of documentaries I do are more past tense stories. But if you can catch a great story in the present tense, that’s amazing, and you never know where it’s going to go.”

Yes, and she understood that. One of our conversations was about how up until that point in her life, everything she had done revolved around one album. For an artist like that, you put out an album and you do a tour, and there’s a certain kind of aesthetic and a narrative you tell with that album. This is the first thing she’s ever done that crossed multiple albums— that was trying to actually step back and tell a bigger story. When we started, we didn’t know the ending. She hadn’t endorsed anybody politically. She hadn’t recorded “Lover.” She hadn’t lost out on the Grammy nominations. Those things all happened while we were shooting.

We started the film during the “Reputation” tour, and to her, it was more about coming out of this period where she had been kind of shut off from the world.

THE SONGWRITING SCENES ARE SO ENLIGHTENING AND NATURAL. CAN YOU EXPLAIN YOUR DECISION TO MAKE THOSE A MAIN FOCUS OF THE FILM? Lana shot so much great material in the studio, and I’m a sucker for creative process. Creative process is something that never gets old to me. Seeing great people do what they’re great at is always exciting. I felt that way about 20 Feet from Stardom too. Having somebody who is an amazing singer sing is something I can watch all day. It’s like watching them demonstrate their superpower. I think it’s something that is both moving and inspiring. I want people to feel inspired to do whatever they want.

CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE ABOUT WHEN TAYLOR DECIDED TO GO PUBLIC WITH HER POLITICAL VIEWS—HOW THAT WENT DOWN AND HOW MONUMENTAL IT BECAME? We were lucky because we didn’t know it at the time, but we really did end up capturing this truly transformative period in her life. At the beginning she’s in seclusion, she’s kind of disappeared from the public

COURTESY OF JAKE HOSTETTER

THE COVER: MORGAN NEVILLE

Morgan Neville on the set of Showtime’s Shangri-La

eye, and then she decides to come back and to find her voice again, no longer as a girl but as a woman. I think of it as a feminist coming-of-age story. I think when we were first talking to her, the seeds of that were all there. There was this sense of her coming out of her shell and kind of biting back at the culture that had been chewing her up.

story in the present tense, that’s amazing, and you never know where it’s going to go. It could have gone nowhere. A lot of the things you see in the film might never have happened, but I don’t think it was a total accident. I think she had a sense that something was changing in her life, and it was time to tell that story.

IT’S INTERESTING. YOU WERE DOCUMENTING THINGS THAT SHE WAS STARTING TO GO THROUGH, AS OPPOSED TO DOCUMENTING THINGS SHE’D ALREADY BEEN THROUGH.

AND SHE WAS RIGHT.

A lot of documentaries I do are more past tense stories. But if you can catch a great

She was right. She’s a storyteller.

WHY THE CONCENTRATION ON MUSIC IN YOUR WORK? ARE YOU A MUSICIAN OR IS JUST SOMETHING YOU’RE INTERESTED IN?

I’m a living-room musician. I’ve had a music obsession my entire life, and I realized a long time ago that I could make films about music and feed my obsession.

I think for people of my generation, and generations before me, music is part of how you understand the world. It’s part of how you identify with people. I love that music is something inherently emotional.

It’s like this great natural way of connecting and feeling something. If you’re lucky enough to be able to make films with music in them, you’re halfway there by the time you begin. Because if you’ve got great songs to tell the story, they do so much of the job for you. Now that being said, I feel like music films are also Trojan horses.

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THE COVER: MORGAN NEVILLE

Jeff Goldblum and Neville go over a scene for the documentary Peanuts in Space: Secrets of Apollo 10

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THE COVER: MORGAN NEVILLE

HOW SO? There’s the music, but there’s also what does the music say or what does the story behind the music say. I think that’s the most important question. If somebody comes to me and says, “I want to make a film.” I say, “Well, what’s it about?” and they tell me, and then I say, “Well, what’s it really about?” You have to have the answer to that question. I feel like every great music film isn’t just about that artist and that story. It’s about what their story really says or what their music really says. It’s like the story of 20 Feet from Stardom is not just about backup singing. It’s about coming to terms with not living the life we thought we were supposed to live, and coming to terms with the life we actually end up living.

WITH 20 FEET, WHERE DID THAT CONCEPT ORIGINATE? I met with Gil Friesen who had been the President of A&M Records. He said, “I went to a Leonard Cohen concert and smoked a joint and watched the concert, and he had these backup singers who were incredible. And I just kept watching them all night and wondering about their story. I think background singers are interesting. It might be a good idea for a documentary.” I asked him, “What do you think their story is about?” And he said, “I have no idea.

That’s your job.” And that’s a film that could have gone in a thousand different directions.

YOU HAD SO MANY OF THE GREATEST BACKUP SINGERS PARTICIPATING. WAS IT HARD TO GET THEIR COOPERATION? It was not that hard because nobody else was calling them. I mean, they might be the greatest backup singers, but they were still pretty anonymous.

AND THEN MAYBE THEY WOULDN’T HAVE WANTED TO SORT OF CELEBRATE THAT ANONYMITY, BUT THEY SEEMED HAPPY TO SHARE THEIR STORIES. I think the film really did change their lives like in a way that you never plan on. You never go into a project thinking it’s going to change something. That feels too egocentric to want to believe in, but then it happens, and that’s like the best kind of gift you can get as a filmmaker or producer—to feel like that film did something. It happened with Won’t You Be My Neighbor?. Best of Enemies did something. Even with Miss Americana, in an odd way, I feel like it may actually have more of an impact than any other film I’ve worked on, just because millions of teenage girls around the world are going to watch the film.

COURTESY OF MARC GILBAR

LET’S TALK ABOUT WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?. WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST TAKEAWAY IN TERMS OF MR. ROGERS’ PHILOSOPHY? I THINK A LOT OF PEOPLE DIDN’T KNOW WHO HE REALLY WAS. No, including me. I loved him as a kid, but I forgot about him. I never thought of him as a deep thinker.

DID YOU COME TO THAT UNDERSTANDING BEFORE YOU STARTED THE PROJECT? There were a lot of hints that started to stack up. I’d done a film with Yo-Yo Ma called The Music of Strangers. He knew Fred and talked to me about how Fred really mentored him in how to use fame as a positive force for social

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change. And I thought, “Well, that’s not what I was expecting.” Then I watched a speech of Fred’s on YouTube, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I thought, “Where’s this voice in the culture today?”

I started doing more research, and I just kept feeling the same way to the point where I finally said, “I think I need to make a documentary about this. This is not the Mr. Rogers people know.” So from the beginning it was a film about ideas. If I had to distill Fred’s philosophy down to one thing, I would call it radical kindness.

I think he would have called it grace. He talked a lot about the idea of grace.

I READ THAT ORIGINALLY THE MOVIE WAS GOING TO BE CALLED THE RADICAL MR. ROGERS . IS THAT TRUE? It was.

HE WAS SO RADICAL IN A SOFT, HUMAN WAY. SO WHAT CHANGED? What changed is the 2016 election. The day after the election I said, “I can’t name this film The Radical Mr. Rogers because I really want people from every imaginable background to see this film. If I call it that, people are going to ascribe a certain political leaning to it, which is not what the film is about.” He was a compassionate Republican minister, and I wanted this film to speak to people who I may not agree with politically.

So I wanted the title to be as inviting as possible. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? felt like that invitation.

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“I feel like I have two big themes to everything I do. One is creative process and one is culture as a bridge, and virtually everything I’ve done hits one of those two things.”

IT CLEARLY WORKED, BECAUSE THE FILM CAME OUT DURING A TIME OF SUCH CHAOS AND DIVISION, AND A VERY DIVERSE AUDIENCE FULLY EMBRACED IT. WAS THAT A GOAL OF YOURS— TO POINT OUT THAT THERE CAN BE A DIFFERENT WORLDVIEW? Obviously I started the film before the election in 2016. But these issues of divisiveness in our culture and where we find common ground is one of the other

major themes in my films. I feel like I have two big themes to everything I do.

One is creative process and one is culture as a bridge, and virtually everything I’ve done hits one of those two things. I think documentary filmmakers are inherently empathetic people. We walk in other people’s shoes, and we try and share that with an audience. If there’s a dearth of empathy in our culture, as I feel that there is, then documentaries are the thing I can do to try and put something positive into the world, some sense of understanding and curiosity. I feel like we are living in increasingly incurious times.

LOOKING AHEAD, IS IT TRUE YOU’RE DOING A DOCUMENTARY ON ANTHONY BOURDAIN? Yes. I’m deep into that right now.

Anthony Bourdain is somebody who used culture to connect people around the world. I feel like what he did is what I’ve been trying to do, which is show that we have more in common than we have differences. One reason I think he was so good at what he did is he was always willing to learn. Like the number of times he would go to a place and say, “Why is it like this?” I liked to see him change his mind or learn something. He had strong opinions, but he also was very willing to learn. He was genuinely curious.

HOW DO YOU BALANCE DIRECTING AND PRODUCING? I’ve always been a producer, from the moment I started directing. In many ways the roles are indivisible

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in documentary. Producing shows like Ugly Delicious, Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, Abstract and an upcoming Mickey documentary for Disney+, has allowed me to learn more creatively, but also to grow the company organically, which gives space for the people that I work with to grow as well. It’s really been a win-win.

Now more and more I’m producing things that I’m not directing, which gives me a chance to play a mentorship role that I find really rewarding.

WHAT HAS CHANGED THE MOST ABOUT PRODUCING DURING YOUR CAREER? I’d say the kind of moment we’re in right now with nonfiction television and documentaries. I’ve been doing this for 27 years. Twenty-seven years ago documentaries were the spinach of filmmaking. Nobody wanted them.

Nobody wanted to pay for them. And now documentaries are the cool kids. It’s been phenomenal to see how people’s attitudes have changed. Another huge part of it is the streaming services. Now it’s very easy to find documentaries. It wasn’t before. It’s funny because for a long time I would hire kids out of film school, and they would often act like documentary was a stepping-stone to, quote-unquote, “real movies.” Now kids come out of film school, and they just want to make documentaries. That has been a seismic change.

THAT MUST FEEL VERY GRATIFYING. AND WHAT A WONDERFUL WAY TO MAKE A LIVING! I can’t think of a better job than being able to go around and talk to the most interesting people about the most important things in their lives and then share those stories with the rest of the world. Also, we’re in a moment now where we can tell the stories we want to tell. To be able to say, “I want to go in that direction and spend the next two or three years making a film about that and become expert in it” is like a great gift.

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COURTESY OF DREAMWORKS ANIMATION LLC

m r a W d n a y z z u F Inside the Creative Bubble of Gina Shay’s World Written By Katie Grant

“I was never a princess girl,” says Gina Shay, producer of the princess-rule-breaking movie Trolls, where there was a conscious decision to portray a princess with a positive body image, and the upcoming Trolls World Tour. “The troll dolls were prominent in my life in the ’70s. I played with them in the shag carpet, and I had all these fantasies with them. I just never thought they would come back into my life in such a major way.”

Considering the success of the DreamWorks Animation Trolls franchise, this is an understatement. Shay says her artistic mother, an impressionist painter and photographer who took her to countless museums during a Paris and New York upbringing, “basically set the foundation for why I do what I do.” What Shay does is tell stories that make our hearts beat and toes tap, but also, as Shay likes to put it, “subvert the audience’s expectations.”

For the second Trolls installation, Trolls World Tour, the challenge of avoiding a business-as-usual followup movie is met by doing exactly that. Shay tells us, “Queen Poppy (the Trolls star and protagonist) goes on this journey to expand her naive viewpoint of the world—from super idealistic and altruistic to learning more complexities than she could ever imagine. In the end, she helps empower other people to save the world with her, instead of going it alone.”

As a girl, Shay’s world centered around the Muppets and Sesame Street. She considered Bert and Ernie her friends, who were always there no matter how many times she moved during her unconventional upbringing.

“Sesame Street was like my moral compass and my guide to how to be a human being.” Shay eventually met someone who worked on Sesame Street and realized she could make puppets herself. Always feeling “different and weirder” than her friends, she used creativity as an escape, and it’s still paying off today.

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“A WELL-PACED, TIGHTLY PLOTTED, EXPLOSIVE ACTION-THRILLER WITH SEEDS OF HOPE IN ITS HEART.” – TV GUIDE

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES AND ALL OTHER CATEGORIES

Coming in on the ground floor of the Trolls experience, Shay loved the challenge of creating an origin story for the Scandinavian-born characters.

She was on a quest to reimagine these “homogenous” creatures with high fuzzy hair, open arms and stocky bodies, noting, “We wanted to modernize them and bring them into the future, make them connective for everybody. Because we’re all quirky, whether we admit it or not, just like the trolls are. And they are unabashedly confident, even though they’re super quirky. So we wanted all shapes and sizes. The studio got a little bit concerned about redesigning these guys.”

At that point, Shay took her own advice, which she offers to aspiring animation producers: Push it. “Never stop pushing for the best creative. Because one thing I never want to do is look back and go, ‘That could have been better.’ Push and push and push. Somebody might say no, but at least you tried. Just feel free until someone says, ‘No, you can’t.’ Even when they say ‘No, you can’t,’ don’t take no for an answer.”

That pushing led to a world of wonderfully diverse Trolls characters, each quirky in their own right. “Kendal Cronkhite, our production designer, and art director Timothy Lamb came up with these crazy-looking characters, which ended up being Poppy and Branch. Our studio went through so many transitions over the course of the movie, but we just kept going forward with this big idea. The consumer products department wasn’t used to not having cinch-waisted princesses to sell. So it was a challenge for them, but they were able to connect. The movie, I think, connected with families, and that helped.”

What also helped the entire crew working on Trolls was Shay’s leadership style, which begins with the office environment. The Trolls corner of DreamWorks is a burst of happiness—bright, warm and fuzzy, just like the trolls themselves.

There are white flowering light fixtures hanging from the ceiling, bright green and yellow walls, comfy pink couches, and plush dolls everywhere. It is a manifesta-

COURTESY OF JOHN WILSON

WARM AND FUZZY

tion of what Cronkhite coined as “fuzzy immersion” to describe the world of this movie. That welcoming environment is just the beginning of how Shay invites her team to the table.

“Every movie has a different process based on what the leadership, the director and the producer feel is the best way to set the tone for the production itself.

I’ve been working with Walt Dohrn, the director of Trolls World Tour, for more than 12 years. We feel that we make the best movie when everybody has a voice.

The process of making the film reflects back in the movie. Even thematically.” Not only does every one of the Trolls crew have a voice, but they are asked for notes after exclusive crew pre-screenings. And those notes are read and taken, which is certainly not the norm.

Shay explains further, “What I like to do is be very transparent. I’ll say, ‘This is behind this decision. We had to make this decision because of X, Y, Z.’ And people

Trolls World Tour Director Walt Dohrn, Producer Gina Shay, CoDirector David P. Smith

will say, ‘OK I get it.’

A lot of producers or directors like to hold their cards very close. But I feel like open communication with everybody is definitely more fun. It’s more productive. I still have to deal with studio politics and the franchise extension, but if I can keep the film crew here in a creative bubble, then we’re going to get the best out of them.”

That open channel exemplifies the same leadership skill Poppy learns in Trolls World Tour: listening. “We were still working on the first movie when we came up with the idea for the second one. We thought everybody who sees this movie, or is involved in this movie, loves the music aspect of it. We were thinking about how to subvert the audience’s expectations for a second movie. How do we expand this world, but in a musical way?”

Expand it musically they did. As

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Poppy transitions from princess to queen, she is called to task on how to listen. Delightfully, Poppy’s musical education becomes the audience’s as well, in a surprising way most would not expect from an animated movie.

“We felt the depth was necessary in order to get people to really latch into a story. It needs to have some kind of depth that surprises you. For Poppy to go on a journey where she’s a new leader, we looked at what leadership aspects we respect. What are the leadership skills of the best leaders we know? We decided listening is a very important part of leading.”

Shay’s own listening was honed growing up, as she puts it, “in that moment before technology.” Yet technology is exactly what enabled the DreamWorks team to make the Trolls movies so different. The fuzzy immersion that Cronkhite desired for the animation was actually possible where it wouldn’t have been just 10 years ago. However, the spirit of the movies that influenced Shay back in the day with “super rebellious offbeat characters that were going against the grain,” like in Where the Wild Things Are or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was always at her fingertips. That spirit is infused into Poppy and her subjects, along with all the glitter, rainbows and roller skates it can handle.

Yet the music in Trolls World Tour “spans many, many different generations,” going beyond the disco decade. The film not only covers some of the best tunes from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s to “root people in familiarities,” but includes seven original songs. Those were used in places “we really needed to convey stories specifically for the film.” Shay’s process for helping create these songs was to “write up a blurb of what that moment needs to convey with Dohrn and Dave Mitchell (the director) including the tone, how we were going to actualize the sets, and who’s

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singing it.”

Justin Timberlake, who, Shay says, “is like our partner, an executive music producer,” was responsible for a lot of the original songs, but the overall soundtrack was a collaborative effort between many artists and is peppered with covers, just like the first Trolls movie. With musical ability such a huge part of how Shay goes about casting, she says she has to think about “who will be able to act and convey the humor as well as sing like crazy.”

Those singers this time around, besides Timberlake, include Kelly Clarkson, Mary J. Blige and George Clinton, along with Anna Kendrick returning as Poppy.

Shay explains further: “Working on these movies is like an artists’ collective of 300-plus people.” The ability to corral so many creative voices starts with a great story. “If it’s open enough for everyone to give their own voice to it, to feel like they’re a part of building that story, then everybody puts into it and exceeds the creative expectations.”

Shay first learned about inspiring a creative crew from Ralph Bakshi on his production of Cool World. “He hired me as a PA because in high school I was friends with his son. I wanted to work in animation. He said, ‘In your off-hours you can try to draw these characters.’ Then I was on the same production as animator Tom McGrath and all these incredible, visionary people who were in their first jobs too. I learned from Ralph about the artists’ collective.

“He really inspired people to do their best work. I saw him empower the artists.

So that was part of my education.” Now Shay sees everyone on her films as a filmmaker. She says it’s like workshopping a play together, and she strives to keep an “open creative space” like she saw on Cool World. Thanks to her many years of experience as a producer and artist, she feels confident being open and vulnerable.

“What I know from being an artist myself is I am most happy having the freedom to express myself or to somewhat creatively influence a project I’m working on. That makes me the happiest. So I think I

learned that just based on who I am.”

Shay’s other major professional influences came from Matt Stone and Trey Parker of South Park and the late Stephen Hillenburg, creator of the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise. She worked on South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut as the line producer. “I learned so much from Stone and Trey when I thought about comedy. That was an unbelievable experience. It was really hard to make that movie. But they taught me to say, ‘OK, here’s the obvious part of the joke, and then here’s where you subvert the expectations of the joke.’”

Speaking of Hillenburg, she says, “I learned a lot about respect. He hired me even when I was seven months pregnant, on a movie that was just a twoyear schedule.

I needed three months off for maternity, and he still wanted to hire me.

“He was empowering.

I witnessed the level of charm he put in his characters and how much he loved and was passionate about protecting the integrity of the characters. That’s where I learned how to protect a franchise and make sure everybody working on it keeps the core values intact. He was awesome, and he’ll be missed on this planet.”

Looking at Shay’s IMDb page, one might think she very strategically chose a direct path from PA to background coordinator to associate producer to line producer to co-producer to her current executive producer position. But she says her career has always been based on which projects she was drawn to creatively. “That’s

where I base most of my decisions on taking jobs. Who am I going to be working with and what are we doing? Am I going to be challenged? Luckily, I was able to get to where my day is just filled with creative tasks.”

For the most part, those tasks revolve around story. “Story is the most important

“NEVER STOP PUSHING FOR THE BEST CREATIVE. BECAUSE ONE THING I NEVER WANT TO DO IS LOOK BACK AND GO, ‘THAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER.’ PUSH AND PUSH AND PUSH.” part about producing. It is a lot of fun in the beginning of these movies. But also, once the production department starts up and you’re in dailies, then you’re watching the movie come to life, and that is a gift. I look at my schedule for the next day every night and if I see that I have animation dailies and art, I’m excited for the day.” Maybe as excited as we are to see how Shay’s story unfolds and how she’s going to meet, exceed or subvert our expectations next.

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PHOTO COURTESY MARY CYBULSKI, FOCUS FEATURES

GOING GREEN

DARK WATERS RUN DEEP MARK RUFFALO’S PASSION FOR THE ENVIRONMENT TURNS INTO AN ECO-THRILLER Written by Katie Carpenter

M

ark Ruffalo is outraged—but in a good way. The passionate actor/producer channels his outrage into movies that are bold and sometimes uncomfortable. He tells stories that we need to hear, because they are about real things that scare us and bother us—things like fearless reporters and predatory priests, relentless lawyers and polluted water. Things like the health of rural families and why 190 cows fell over dead in a field in West Virginia.

His latest film, the 2019 eco-thriller Dark Waters, was born when he read an article about a lethal water pollution crisis in Appalachia.

At the center of the story: one crusading attorney who goes up against powerful polluters and won’t back down. Ruffalo had been looking for a film project that captured his own concern about environmental issues. He had already gone public with his opposition to fracking, so when he saw the article on toxic water, he knew he had his next story.

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It does seem like real-life environmental crimes are coming to light more frequently these days—think Volkswagen, Monsanto, Duke Energy, Bayer, BP. As a nation, we are increasingly anxious about issues like climate change, mining spills and pesticides, yet these are rarely the basis for big-budget films or scripted television.

It’s a blind spot for some, but not for Ruffalo.

“I wanted to tell this story because it’s probably the biggest corporate crime in history, and I couldn’t believe that it wasn’t on the front page of every newspaper in the world,” he explains.

Ruffalo optioned the article, brought it to Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler at Killer Films, and soon director Todd Haynes, Participant Media and Focus Features joined the project. Accustomed to playing superheroes like the Incredible Hulk, among his other famous roles, Ruffalo was going to need all his superpowers to transform this dark story into commercial success.

Fortunately, among those powers are uncanny instincts and im-

BRYAN SCHUTMAAT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Top: The chemical site near Parkersburg, WV, source of the waste at the center of the DuPont class-action lawsuit.

GOING GREEN

Bottom: Mark Ruffalo, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon at Produced By New York Conference

peccable timing. He knows how to spot an underdog on the verge of beating the odds.

The movie follows Ohio lawyer Rob Bilott, who filed the suit against DuPont, the corporation primarily responsible for the pollution. The charge: They knowingly allowed a leak of the toxic chemical used to make Teflon, known as PFOA or C-8, from its plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia. It polluted local water supplies and was linked to the spread of many diseases, including cancer, to thousands of residents.

“At its heart, it is a film about doing the right thing and not giving up, even when it seems everything is against you,” Ruffalo says.

That’s a superhero story he wanted to tell.

Bilott spent 16 years suing DuPont on behalf of everyone whose water was tainted by PFOA. After countless courtroom face-offs, the company and its subsidiary, Chemours, agreed to pay $671 million in cash to settle more than 3,000 personal injury claims.

Three thousand people with cancer, deformities and other illnesses could frighten off a producing team, but co-producers Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler have a history of bringing darkly powerful stories to the screen (Boys Don’t Cry, Safe, Still Alive).

In the midst of a location scout for her next movie, Vachon talks about the prep work required on Dark Waters. “During development, we had to acknowledge that it was a complicated story, both in terms of the legal and the scientific aspects. We knew we had to embrace that and tell it carefully. We also wanted to make sure there was empathy for all the characters and all the angles, even though some were scary and upsetting.”

Koffler adds, “When you produce a movie about the heroism of one person who truly made a difference, you may not leave the theater with your heart gladdened, but you do know you’ll have something more: hope.”

There’s also an additional bonus: There are things you can say in an environmental movie that just can’t get said in the courtroom.

The hero, Bilott himself, confirms this. “In the movie, there is a scene where my character makes the comment, ‘The system is

rigged. They want us to think it will protect us. We protect us. We do. Nobody else. Not the scientists, not the government. Us.’ And that is unfortunately the reality right now,” Bilott claims.

After a long journey of research and development, the film, which opened late last year, was admired as a sort of a cross between Erin Brockovich and The Insider. “Coolly hypnotic and bleak as the grave” wrote Los Angeles Times film critic Justin Chang.

The movie found its audience and earned a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Ruffalo, Haynes and their producing team had made an eco-thriller for the ages, both potent and illuminating.

Vachon remarks, “This is a true whistleblower story, and you can tell from all the Twitter posts, it got people thinking. There were a lot of people who said they thought it was going to be a dull procedural, but it was so much more.”

One particular Tweet captures that sentiment perfectly: “A movie about real heros. No capes. No superpowers.”

David Linde, CEO of Participant, is proud of the influence the film has had. “The impact campaign Fight Forever Chemicals has worked to energize audiences around the world to demand stronger environmental protections. After launching the campaign in D.C., we worked in France, Brussels, the UK and here in the U.S. by partnering with key organizations—including the European Parliament— to ensure that the film fuels their movement to improve environmental health and safety. To date, nearly half a dozen corporations have joined our campaign’s public pledge to eliminate chemicals from their shelves. States have offered new legislation to clean up legacy pollution, and through our Contact Congress tool, people have sent over 60,000 messages to federal legislators urging action.”

“These kind of stories move me,” says Ruffalo. “They are important stories that people need to have and hold onto, to feel that life isn’t just a miserable, cynical experience. Today we’re being led to believe that selfishness is the ultimate reality. And we’re here to say there’s an alternative to that: the truth.”

With the impact of Dark Waters, other producers are asking whether the moment for more environmental moviemaking is here and if they should try to develop such projects.

On that point Koffler says, “No question that a movie in which a single hero goes up against all odds and actually wins the day can help people see the allure of stories like this. Be honest about the challenges, but highlight people’s ability to come up with solutions.”

Ruffalo sums up his Dark Waters experience with this reminder: “It is a cautionary tale about the magnitude of environmental damage caused when industry is allowed to set the rules and regulations. If we are truly going to protect the planet and one another, not only do we need tell more stories like this one, real superhero stories, but we also need to turn the mirror on ourselves and push our industry to switch to 100% clean energy, stop flying private jets and make sure our productions and sets are more sustainable.”

For more on green filmmaking, visit greenproduction.guide.com

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GIVING LIFE TO THE

Afterlife ‘The Good Place’ discovers creative nirvana

By Kevin Perry

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ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF NBC/COLLEEN E. HAYES

aughter is life’s great barometer. If a joke is too cruel, it repels its audience. If a quip is too nice, it elicits only polite smiles. Humor is the ultimate balancing act, and at the intersection of irreverent and intimate lives the sitcom sweet spot.

Or to put it another way: The Good Place.

“It was such an odd show to get made,” says Executive Producer Morgan Sackett.

“An afterlife, philosophical comedy was not the elevator pitch that you sell.” But The Good Place creator Michael Schur did

just that. “NBC told Mike, ‘Whatever you want to put on the air, we’ll put on the air.’

So he thought, if I’m gonna get that golden ticket, I’m gonna take a big swing.”

Putting doubt in the rearview, Sackett forged full-funny-bone ahead, but the ask was big indeed: The Good Place deftly juggled existentialism, reincarnation, and chainsaw bears (just watch it) for four masterful seasons.

To achieve his lofty goals, Sackett teamed up with Producer David Hyman, with whom he had collaborated for 12 years. “We met right before we did

Parks and Recreation,” explains Sackett, to which Hyman retorts, “It was an arranged marriage.” Asked why they make such a successful team, Sackett replies, “Well, first of all, we both hate doing interviews.”

Touché.

“We don’t like being the center of attention. We definitely like to be behind the scenes,” says Hyman. And that scene needed to be set in an epic way.

“We hired a Production Designer named Dan Bishop who did Mad Men and all this great stuff, but he also did the

The Good Place crew celebrating the last episode

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The Good Place creator Michael Schur confers with Producer David Hyman.

first six episodes of Parks and Recreation,” recounts Sackett. “We thought, ‘Can we go to Larchmont, can we go to some real little town?’”

Picking up the creative baton, Hyman continues, “‘Can we go to The Grove?’ At one point, we thought we could shoot at The Grove and that would be the afterlife.”

Sackett explains, “But we couldn’t go to these places that have, y’know, parking meters and so many terrestrial things that would have to go away.”

Turning their attention from earthly limitations to studio Shangri-La, the production team finally arrived at the Little Europe section of the Universal backlot, which was a fixer-upper at the time. “It was certainly a long process, because we didn’t have enough money Season 1 to buff it out the way we wanted to, but every year we would do more,” says Sackett.

With their HQ firmly established, the creative team quickly got on the same page. “One of the many great things about Mike Schur is that we would have scripts way in advance,” says Hyman.

Schur also planned ahead when he enlisted his trusty producing team to

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help bring his ambitious vision to life.

“Integrity, unmatched professionalism, unflappable calm, generosity of spirit, a tireless commitment to getting it right.

These are the adjectives Morgan and David told me to use when describing them, and I’ve learned it’s always best to do exactly what they say,” quips Schur.

“Following their suggestions to the letter is honestly the only way I’ve survived in Hollywood to this point.”

Hyman also looked beyond Hollywood, moving Heaven, Earth and everywhere in between to evoke The Good Place.

“We scoured locations for days and days and days and came up with Huntington Gardens, which we used a lot.”

Paradise percolated from several corners of SoCal. “We went to the beach because the ocean is beautiful and perfect,” beams Sackett. “We had a great visual effects guy who just cleaned everything up, this guy David Niednagel.”

Hyman exclaims “Just amazing!” at the mere mention of Niednagel’s name.

“He would just buff it out,” continues Sackett. “He would just take all the power lines out and make the skies blue.”

Hyman adds, “He was the reason why

we could shoot a lot, because we could turn around and see the buildings, but he would make them all go away or make them look beautiful. Having him was our secret weapon because we could shoot anywhere, and he could fix it.”

Concurring with his partner’s assessment, Sackett interjects, “I feel like a lot of our success is the people we gather along the way.”

Flipping through the call sheet in his mind, Hyman declares, “We’re only as good as the people we hire. David Miller, who is our Director of Photography, I knew from West Wing and thought he’d be great. He met everyone, and they fell in love with him. He was really great about using additional cameras for coverage. He was kind of the secret sauce to our success, in terms of how we moved quickly.”

Time and timelessness were of the essence for The Good Place, a surreal exploration of candy-colored purgatory and the endearing characters who inhabit it. “A lot of the things we do, we do to get the maximum amount of acting per hour,” says Sackett. “When you get more cracks at it with funny people, you get

GIVING LIFE TO THE AFTERLIFE

Ted Danson goes over a scene with Executive Producer Morgan Sackett.

better stuff.”

Helming the heavenly chaos was the performer affectionately known to the crew as K-Bell. “Kristen Bell is such a great actress and like no one I’ve worked with,” extols Sackett. “Almost like a robot.”

Hyman is quick to qualify, “In a good way!”

“Yeah, not robotic,” continues Sackett.

“All the information loads in, she delivers all the notes of the scene, and then the next day she wipes the hard drive and starts over. So she could act against a blue screen, and it would be fine.”

One character who benefitted from the producers’ substance-over-style approach was Janet, the all-knowing apparition played by fan favorite D’Arcy Carden.

“There was a lot of R&D the first season to figure out how to make Janet disappear,” Hyman recalls. “It was almost silly how simple it was.”

Sackett asks rhetorically, “We decided she’s gonna be doing that so many times, do we want to burn a bunch of our visual effects budget on that, or do we want to save it for more specialized fare?”

Breaking it down, old-school style, Hyman explains, “We’d hold for a second

“I don’t know if it made me more spiritual, but it made me more philosophical about how to be good to people.” and she’d jump into frame, so it looked like she was there.”

Punctuating the process, Sackett concludes, “We’d just put in that ‘bloop’ noise and we’d cut and hide it with the edit.”

Janet was the audience’s guide through The Good Place, a quixotic realm of comedic possibilities that kept viewers perched enthusiastically on the edge of their couches. “One of the hallmarks of the show was the plot twists,” says Sackett. “They were fast and furious.”

Producing a series packed with otherworldly reveals proved to be a tightrope trade-off. Hyman opted for transparency. “We like everyone to know as much as we know. We’re very inclusive.” Hyman adds, “It’s pretty amazing in this day and age that we were able to keep every finale under wraps.

Ted (Danson) was kinda panicked that he was gonna let the cat out of the bag. He thought he was gonna spoil it.”

“And he did!” blurts Sackett with a chuckle. That’s right, Danson would routinely spill the beans about the ingenious Season 1 climax that revealed how The Good Place was actually just hell with frozen yogurt. The afterlife was depicted as a metaphysical petri dish where souls lingered in emotional limbo for eternity.

The daring twist had NBC execs shaking their peacock tail feathers. When they read the script, top brass worried viewers might not return for Season 2 knowing that heaven was all an illusion. “They were nervous,” notes Sackett. “They were like, ‘Should we shoot it both ways, just in case people are really turned off?’ But we talked to them and they were totally on board.”

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And fans were buckled up for three more seasons of celestial contemplation with slapstick sincerity. The Good Place galvanized a legion of loyal viewers to follow its characters through the uncertainties of love and loss. The feat only succeeded because the entire team was harmonizing on every heartstring.

“If the cast knows the people who are on the other side of the camera, it’s much easier,” says Sackett. “They’re all comedic actors, but they didn’t need some of the preparation that you might expect for heavy dramatic scenes.”

“They’re very loose,” Hyman agrees.

“People wanted to get up every morning and go to work there. The crew, the cast— everyone really enjoyed working there. It was a great environment.”

“Which made it really sad when we ended as early as we did,” counters Sackett. “We finished Veep the same year.

We had two series finales for two wellregarded shows.”

basement and got a little TV, and we all watched it.”

Summing up the end of four seasons in three simple words, Hyman paints a picture: “lot of tears.”

The deluge wasn’t limited to The Good Place ensemble. “We have people reaching out from all over the world saying it was amazing, and the press has been really great. It feels good to work on a show with that kind of impact,” reflects Hyman. “It really resonated with a lot of people.”

Despite the emotional roller coaster of a series finale, Sackett contends it was all worth it. “People were so invested in the characters that they wanted to take that journey.”

It is a journey that mirrors the duo’s trek from the production trenches to the heights of Hollywood success. They were both PAs in the ’90s; Sackett on Seinfeld and Hyman on films like Demolition Man. Without naming names, Sackett adds,

“A lot of the things we do, we do to get the maximum

amount of acting per hour.

When you get more cracks at it with funny people, you get better stuff.”

With a comedic flourish, Hyman reveals, “We need a little therapy.”

Make room on that psychiatrist’s couch for the crew of The Good Place. “The night before the finale,” recalls Hyman, “we showed it to the cast. That was really sad.”

“They had not seen it,” says Sackett.

“The visual effects were coming in at the last minute. So we were at a hotel in New York, and we rented a little room in the

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“We both came up with a lot of producers who screamed and yelled a lot.”

“We wanted to not do that,” understates Hyman.

“It’s a waste of time” Sackett agrees. “If you’re making comedy and it’s a tense set?”

Answering his partner’s question, Hyman concludes, “It doesn’t work.”

Fast-forward to the pair’s egalitarian approach to their current slate of projects.

“Best idea wins,” announces Hyman.

Sackett elaborates, “You can get a joke from somebody on the set or somebody in the writers’ room or one of the actors. It’s all good.”

“We like the challenge of solving things,” says Hyman.

The quest has paid off handsomely, yielding entertainment gems from the big screen to the ubiquitous stream. They have a Netflix project titled Moxie vying for their time alongside the upcoming series Rutherford Falls. “We’ve been bouncing back and forth between the Mike Schur TV world and Amy Poehler in movies,” explains Sackett.

With a humble addendum, Hyman lists, “Over 200 episodes, three movies and a bunch of pilots. We’ve been really lucky.”

Schur shares the sentiment, commenting, “There is simply no way Parks and Recreation or The Good Place, or any number of other pilots and projects I’ve worked on could have happened without them. They are the best producers in this entire godforsaken town, and if they ever leave me, I’ll sue them for emotional distress.”

These days Sackett savors his Good Place karma and pays it forward. “I don’t know if it made me more spiritual, but it made me more philosophical about how to be good to people.”

The conversation ascends into a pingpong match as Sackett and Hyman volley examples of mitzvahs they now perform.

These include simple gestures like returning the grocery cart to its proper stand, recycling, and transforming each production space into an eco-friendly green zone.

They illustrate their commitment to Mother Earth by giving me an unexpected parting gift—a reusable tote bag and water bottle set branded with their Season 4 logo. I thank them heartily, but they eschew the appreciation and mumble their renewed disdain for attention. Instead, Sackett shrugs and offers a blunt yet earnest justification: “Gotta get our Good Place points.”

Well played, guys. Take it sleazy.

5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, CA 90038

323.956.8811 TheStudiosAtParamount.com

FORCES

FEMALE

Achievements are there.

Recognition is not.

Written by Sarah Sanders

It’s an interesting moment to be considering women and power in America.

In politics, after beginning with the most diverse Democratic primary field in history, the presidential race again narrowed down to one man. In film, this year the Academy and BAFTA Awards again failed to nominate a woman for best director of a feature film.

It can feel tempting to throw up one’s hands in discouragement, to dismiss equity as something that is still too far away.

Yet, while progress is not always linear, change is happening. The #MeToo movement has sparked conversations, brought about policy changes and, with the sentencing of Harvey Weinstein, given some survivors of sexual assault a taste of justice. This year, 42% of the PGA’s membership identified as women—a good sign for sure. Further, while no women were nominated for best director at the Oscars, it was a record-breaking year for women in many other respects, especially in production. Eight of the nine films nominated for Oscar’s best picture and eight of 10 films up for the top PGA award had at least one credited female producer attached. Even with these numbers, the achievements of these women were largely left out of the media conversation around awards season.

“The thing I struggled with most, and I think my fellow female nominees felt the same way, was the conversation, or a kind of blanket statement, that there were no female nominees. There were more women nominated for Academy Awards this year than ever before. Let us celebrate that

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and keep change moving in a positive manner,” says producer Shannon McIntosh, who worked on Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.

Nowhere have recent gains been more apparent than in the case of Emma Tillinger Koskoff, who had two films nominated for best picture this year—The Irishman and Joker, “which puts her in a very select group,” McIntosh adds.

Jenno Topping, producer of Ford v Ferrari, is grateful for the opportunities but knows it will take more to achieve equity in this male-dominated industry. “Bringing Ford v Ferrari to screen was an unforgettable experience, and I’m incredibly proud of the film we created.

On top of that, it’s so gratifying to be amongst this group of talented female producers in such a competitive award season landscape. I’ve long admired the work, drive and passion of the other women who produced or helped to create Academy Award-nominated films this year. Although we are seeing more and more women in this space, there is always more that we can all do to create parity in our industry.”

Giving more public recognition to these women at the top of their professions would definitely help.

“Producing is an area that I’ve observed has been really rife with talented, creative, badass women, and I do think it would be great to highlight that more,” says Daniela Taplin Lundberg, who produced last year’s Harriet and Honey Boy. Jane Rosenthal, who is the co-founder, CEO, and executive chair of Tribeca Enterprises and who produced The Irishman

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Daniela Taplin Lundberg

Jane

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Shannon

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with Koskoff, agrees that it is vital both to recognize existing achievements and to keep pushing for progress. “Change doesn’t happen overnight,” she says, adding that it is important to have perspective and historical awareness. “You look at how old the industry is, and for the majority of that time, you’ve had basically white men working.”

Lundberg agrees that recognition takes time. “I think our industry is really still largely male, largely white male, but I’m inspired by what’s been happening over the last couple of years,” she says. “There’s a really diverse amount of content that is flooding into the market, and that to me is a good thing.

That’s a really positive step.”

Still, striving for parity in the industry will require a significant rebalancing and redistribution of power. “We have to know the institutions that have such an ingrained point of view, and start to change them internally and systematically,” Rosenthal adds.

Rosenthal, Lundberg and McIntosh have advocated for making those internal and systematic changes in a variety of ways, including developing mentorship programs, insisting on telling stories by and about more diverse voices, and making structural changes around things like working hours.

Rosenthal is a strong advocate for mentorships, which provide both training for and access to jobs in the film industry. She has developed initiatives like Through Her Lens: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program—a multifaceted program that provides funding, project support, and significant mentorship for U.S.-based

FEMALE FORCES Emma Tillinger Koskoff women writers and directors— and Tribeca All Access, the Tribeca Film Institute’s flagship program for scripted and documentary storytellers from systematically excluded communities. The Tribeca Film Festival also created the Nora Ephron Award, a $25,000 prize given to a female writer or director who embodies the spirit of the late filmmaker.

Additionally, Rosenthal says her company is about 60% women, and she is very proud of how many interns, executive assistants and production assistants whom she has mentored have gone on to executive positions. “There are so many ways for us to do it (support women’s professional development in film). I look at just the handful of ways I’ve mentioned. So let’s multiply that by all of (the Produced By) readers; let’s multiply that by what the studios are doing, by what the PGA can do, and that becomes a start. More than a start.”

Lundberg agrees that mentorship is important on a number of levels. “The more you see people like you out in the world succeeding, the more you feel compelled to do the same,” she explains. “There are plenty of female producers that have come before me that have mentored me and inspired me.”

McIntosh believes empowering female filmmakers is especially important in terms of increasing the number of women directors and in recognizing them for that work. She notes that this year’s Oscar-winning documentaries, both feature length and short subject, were directed by women: Julia Reichert co-

Jenno

Topping

Amy

Pascal

directed American Factory, and Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreicheva directed Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl), respectively.

“To change the narrative, we need to champion strong female voices and encourage more women to be directors.

Thinking outside of the box when trying to put together new projects by looking for female and diverse directors are the only ways to start changing the conversation. There are so many talented women and diverse voices coming up the directing ranks. The glass ceiling will be broken, and there will be more nominees and by virtue, there will be more stories from women,” McIntosh says.

A highlight of the stories from women last year was definitely Little Women, a new adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s novel, written and directed by Greta Gerwig, and produced by Amy Pascal. Pascal spoke glowingly of Gerwig at the PGA’s Nominees Breakfast panel in January. “The reason to make this movie was 100% about Greta, from beginning, middle and end,” Pascal said, “demonstrating what can happen when a director with vision is given the chance to tell a story.”

Even before Gerwig made Ladybird, for which she did receive Oscar nominations, Pascal says Gerwig pitched an adaptation of Little Women that would be focused on economic independence, art, the passage of time, home, and female geniuses. “She made the movie that she set out to make in every facet, and I was lucky enough to be there supporting her all the way and helping her

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realize her dream. It was truly one of the great professional experiences I’ve ever had,” Pascal adds. While Gerwig was snubbed for a nomination in directing this year, Little Women received five other nominations, including best picture, and passed the $100 million box office benchmark in North America even before the Oscars.

Lundberg believes that in addition to supporting female filmmakers, it’s important for more people to make and be willing to invest in “content that’s going to diversify what our industry can phrase as successful,” and that requires a willingness to take a risk. “I really took it upon myself awhile ago to take control of my own destiny and raise my own money, and if I wanted to make change in this industry and hear more diverse voices, I was going to have to do that myself and not wait for people to give me the opportunity. I feel like that’s what a

lot of people in our industry, particularly women and people of color, are doing,” she explains.

There’s also the business side to this kind of drive and just-do-it initiative. “I’m a big believer in creative producers also understanding the financial side of things and going out and trying to raise their own money or negotiate deals, and put content into the marketplace that maybe larger studios might be more reluctant to, or a little bit scared to take a risk on,” Lundberg says.

“There are so many extraordinary stories out there to tell,” Rosenthal agrees.

“There’s so much creativity. It’s a hopeful and exciting time.”

Hope and excitement can also be seen in the growing number of women in the PGA, and with that comes hope for additional kinds of change. Lundberg says she would love to see more progressive conversations about regulations and

“I REALLY TOOK IT UPON MYSELF AWHILE AGO TO TAKE CONTROL OF MY OWN DESTINY AND RAISE MY OWN MONEY, AND IF I WANTED TO MAKE CHANGE IN THIS INDUSTRY AND HEAR MORE DIVERSE VOICES, I WAS GOING TO HAVE TO DO THAT MYSELF AND NOT WAIT FOR PEOPLE TO GIVE ME THE OPPORTUNITY.”

explicit guidelines around issues such as working hours. “I’m the mother of three children, and it was never my instinct to publicly bring up the issues I had with splitting my time between raising kids and working. But it is really hard to be pregnant or breastfeeding, or being the mother of small toddlers, and to be on set and doing the job that we’re required to do. I think we’re getting to a place where we have to acknowledge that the working hours of making a film or a piece of television are really long. There are certainly rules for everyone, but I would say this is an area where we probably need to be protected a bit more.”

Another area where protection is needed? “We certainly don’t get paid the same,” Rosenthal says, with McIntosh echoing her call for pay parity across the gender spectrum. There is agreement that it’s important to both look ahead and also understand just how many obstacles there are to overcome. “You have to know where we’re coming from as we’re pushing for change,” Rosenthal explains.

“We should continue to keep pushing.

But it’s having perspective with how far in this industry we are coming since we demanded a certain kind of change. Now it’s going to take some time.” Lundberg similarly describes ongoing changes as “a little bit of a quiet revolution.”

“As far as the PGA membership goes, I’m certain female membership will continue to grow. The conversation needs to stay productive and not get bogged down in what we’re lacking, but really spark an excitement in terms of the growth we’re continuing to see,” observes McIntosh.

And the vision for what that growth could lead to is inspiring these women.

“Ultimately, if we can create content that’s successful on the marketplace, it does start to change the dialogue a little bit, and the zeitgeist,” Lundberg says. Rosenthal agrees that progress toward equity and the success of diverse voices are having a positive effect, stating, “The more diversity we have in our industry and the types of stories we tell, that’s the impact that we can have on the world.”

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in a Matter of Minutes Quibi Aims to Capture Viewers During Those In-Between Times Written by Chris Thomes

uibi has finally arrived, and it’s only a tap away on every mobile device. The platform, designed specifically for smartphone viewing, debuted with 175 original shows, and top talent including Sophie Turner, Chance the Rapper, Sasha Velour, Keke Palmer and Lena Waithe. It also launched with a lot of industry eyes on it, many wondering how it would fare, especially after so much hype—and the considerable financial investment made by founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman.

Its premiere certainly garnered attention, even as it took flight in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, recording 1.7 million downloads in the first week. By week two, that had grown to 2.7 million people. The platform kept its promise to deliver smartphone-friendly viewing with all episodes clocking in at less than 10 minutes. Katzenberg stresses it’s not “short-form but rather long-form in short chapters.” He believes the idea of movies in chapters is the fundamental evolution of film narrative, and one that Quibi’s proponents have embraced. Their model is founded on the principle that 10-minute segments can be serialized in a way that will excite viewers.

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The question that looms large is, “How much more time are people willing to spend on streaming?” Entertainment options were expanding while Katzenberg and Whitman were building their app.

The Walt Disney Company and Apple joined the streaming party in November, while Disney+, Apple TV+ and TikTok— filled with short, homemade videos—had a spectacular rise, hypnotizing the young viewers Quibi hopes to attract.

Regardless of the challenges, Katzenberg remains bullish about Quibi’s future, confirming, “I’m actually more confident today, even though we are at a difficult, challenging moment, one that was obviously not on any road map or plan that we had going into the launch of this.”

Now that millions of people are newly out of work, Quibi’s original mantra is being put to the test. That idea was that you get up every day, leave your home, and take the television set with you, and in the course of your day you have in-between moments that can be served

by Quibi’s chaptered programs. The technology, product and content were all conceived for that purpose. Even though YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat are successfully playing in that space, Katzenberg believes Quibi will have an addictive quality.

However, when they made the decision to move forward in the face of the pandemic, what they had expected in terms of consumer behavior was partially thrown out the window. Katzenberg recalls, “Suddenly, no one was leaving their home, nobody was on the go. We are all sheltered in place. But our conviction told us, OK, the circumstances are different, but we all still have in-between time—the time between homeschooling your kids, doing your chores around the house, answering your emails and being on Zoom.

Even though we are sheltered in place, we do have in-between time.”

That may turn out to be a silver lining.

With so many potential customers for Quibi working from home, the company accelerated its plans to enable the app to cast to TVs. While that feature wasn’t

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planned to be part of the launch, they quickly shifted gears to cater to a captive audience asking for its content to be available on the TV screen.

This nimble flexibility seems to be one of Quibi’s greatest strengths. It is, after all, a start-up. Katzenberg explains, “That’s what you do in a start-up business. I’ve been here before. You gather together your plan, you get the resources, you launch out into the world and then things happen. That’s OK, though, when you are agile and willing to open your eyes and ears and be receptive to things that are not the way you thought they were going to be; when you are willing to change.”

Quibi’s altered plan and redirected product road map are the stuff of tech companies. Pivoting to meet the consumer’s needs is not something traditional Hollywood companies have been very adept at, although that is starting to change with the rise of Disney+, Peacock, HBO Max and slew of other new streaming services. Entertainment distributors understand that to survive in the new world, one must be flexible and reactive.

But as they all learn to play ball in this new arena and flex their technical muscles, the playing field is becoming very saturated, and platforms will be competing even more for viewers.

Katzenberg is not fazed, though, and believes Quibi is positioned well with its plan to serve strong programming to viewers in their in-between times. “I still am very optimistic that the quality of the storytelling and content that Hollywood has made for Quibi is of a premium quality that people are going to value and pay for,” Katzenberg asserts. “This is a marathon, not a sprint.”

To run that marathon, Katzenberg and Whitman are doing it with a lean, start-up-sized team, but one that has to meet the demands of the target audience.

Armed with a modest engineering staff of 75 people, Quibi had to initially make its product compatible with 2,000 different devices. While not one of those was a television set, pandemic constraints quickly put engineering through its paces

to make TV viewing a reality.

“Meg and the engineering team literally did a 180-degree pivot,” says Katzenberg.

“They reprioritized their roadmap to launch an update on the app in less than two weeks, one that will allow you to watch Quibi on your TV set.”

Creativity and innovation aren’t limited to the technical staff, Quibi has made news for engaging top talent and paying big dollars to get premium programming onto the platform. As of the end of April, the top five trending shows on the service were: • Most Dangerous Game - Liam Hemsworth, Christoph Waltz • Chrissy’s Court - Chrissy Teigen, Vilailuck “Pepper Thai” Teigen • Flipped - Will Forte, Kaitlin Olson • Punk’d - Chance the Rapper • Survive - Sophie Turner, Corey Hawkins Not only do shows feature big names, but Katzenberg believes producers are pushing new boundaries in their formats, far beyond what was initially expected.

He is convinced there is not a filmmaker who’s made content for them who hasn’t innovated in some fashion, shape, or form and exceeded their expectations.

“Whether it’s Sam Rami or Antoine Fuqua, Catherine Hardwicke—I don’t want to leave anyone out because every single one of them have been pioneers. They have been incredibly innovative,” Katzenberg affirms. “The creative challenge Quibi put out to producers seems to be paying off. Filmmakers, storytellers, showrunners have all been hitting it out of the park.

Hollywood has delivered exceptional content. The compelling stories are told by amazing talent both behind and in front of the camera, using this new set of tools we gave them to make it beautiful on the phone.”

Now, as viewers’ patterns shift radically in a new, stay-at-home world, time will tell if these stories originally made for the small screen will adapt to the one on your living room wall. Quibi is touting that its completion rate for shows is over 80%, an incredibly high engagement number for mobile content. If it increases with the

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introduction of TV viewing, Quibi may be a rising contender in not just the mobile space, but the streaming space, too.

Still, the adoption is small relative to launches like Disney+, which announced the day after it started that it had more than 10 million subscribers. Unlike Disney, Quibi’s brand is new and relatively unknown, meaning it’s relying on advertising and celebrities to make a name for itself.

If what Katzenberg believes is true,

though—that Quibi is serving a uniquely unmet daypart (the in-between times)— then it may thread its way into viewers’ lives more like an addictive utility than TV. How many times, after all, does one pick up their phone to check email, read a text or a post on Facebook or Instagram?

With the world now being so uncertain amid a scary pandemic, feeling comfort in all of those in-between times may be just what the doctor ordered.

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The Times

THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ A bold NEW PSA HIGHLIGHTS WOMEN IN PRODUCTION Written by Jeanette Volturno

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“It’s clear that many people in our industry, both men and women, believe there can be another way of doing business— that training and creating opportunities for the next generation of women and other underrepresented groups is essential.”

What does it mean to have a strong, supportive network of colleagues who you can count on and who understand your position because they’re right there in the mix with you?

It means everything!

In 2006, Debra Bergman and Dana Belcastro started connecting Physical Production Executives (who happened to be women) for an occasional get-together. At the first dinner, they could all fit in a booth at Lucques. Now, almost 15 years later, having expanded to include TV, streaming and independents, we are 135 women strong.

What started as a casual chat over drinks became The Women’s Production Society (WPS). Notes Belcastro, “It’s been an extraordinary opportunity to meet so many women who are doing brilliant work in our part of the industry.”

Let’s step back for a minute. Years ago, when I was coming up in the industry, there were only a few women at any com-

pany or on any crew. The situation in the 80’s and 90’s was competitive rather than supportive or nurturing to new women coming into the industry. Thankfully, times are different now. Within groups like the WPS, I’ve witnessed a sea-change: rather than compete, we collaborate. We are women who are committed to supporting each other, to pay equity and to raising women up in all roles of production. And it’s making a difference.

But we still have a ways to go. The WPS tracked hiring practices of women working in film and TV production, and the numbers were dismally low. It became clear that there are some positions that

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are barely being filled with any women.

Think sound mixer, composer, electric, grip and so on.

A study released by USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, called “Inclusion in the Director’s Chair,” found that out of 265 top films released between 2016 and 2018, women comprised:

0% of gaffers <1% of best boy electrics 1.4% of key grips 3% of best boy grips 9% of assistant directors 18.3% of production designers 15.5% of editors 2.3% of composers Since they are uniquely placed within their respective companies, the women of the WPS are in a position to help balance crew representation. By asking agents, managers, department heads and their production teams to consider women and those from other underrepresented categories, and by providing databases and directing women to applications like crewvie.com, these executives have seen the numbers start to improve. But there still aren’t enough women in many of these categories.

The WPS understands it must keep getting the word out and letting the next generation of women know these positions are available. To that end, a subgroup of women from the WPS brought the seed of an idea to the entertainment arm of TIME’S UP. A campaign was conceived and discussed among the group: A Public Service Announcement (PSA) that shines a light on the various jobs in production to be broadcast in theatres and across digital platforms to reach the widest possible audience. The PSA, narrated by Ava DuVernay, leads viewers to resources that provide information and guidance on how to obtain those enter-

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tainment careers depicted.

The idea is simple: “If she can see it, she can be it.” Debra Bergman stepped up to enroll AMC Theaters to commit to showing the PSA. On-camera roles were filled with real crew members, women who have excelled at their craft for years, like Shawn “Pip” Pipkin, 1st A.D. extraordinaire, electrician Rebecca Raines and art coordinator Mishi Molani.

The PSA was produced by TIME’S UP Foundation, and Pulse Films came on board as the production company, led by Managing Director, Hillary Rogers. Rogers and her team recruited writer/director Jess Colquhoun who came up with the concept for the PSA. WPS member and Shondaland Head of Production, Sara Fischer, rounded out the team, raising funds and providing invaluable day-to-day support and leadership.

The almost entirely female shooting crew and cast were paid through the extraordinary support of YouTube Originals, with the help of ShivHans Films, Blumhouse, Cast and Crew, and Starz.

It’s clear that many people in our industry, both men and women, believe there can be another way of doing business, and that training and creating opportunities for the next generation of women and other underrepresented groups is essential.

Not one company turned down the call to action to help on this project. Many iconic companies including Kodak (yes, this was shot on 35mm film), FotoKem, Panavision, Kino-flo, Cinelease, Bruce’s Catering, Chapman Leonard, MBS, JLT Specialty USA, Herc Entertainment, WPA, CAPS, Quixote, Fed Ex, Galpin, Sony Costumes and more participated to bring this PSA to life.

Dana Belcastro, Sara Fischer, Debra Bergman

It is through the efforts of these collective voices that the barriers preventing underrepresented people from learning a craft, joining the industry and making a good living, are brought down. By working together, by giving people a chance, by supporting training and networking, we are making a difference.

The tremendous recent growth of our industry demands a balanced workforce.

Thank you to all the Women of WPS and TIME’S UP who keep working on new ways to get the message out.

There is a better way to do business where everyone has a shot at achieving their dreams. Supporting the next generation is not just the right thing to do, but it’s absolutely necessary to the vitality of our business. Most importantly, these efforts show that once women make up their minds to accomplish a goal, nothing can stop them!

For more information on the WPS, go to womensproductionsociety.org

COURTESY OF DEVIN HASSAN

<1% of camera operators

O P E N D O ORS

CHANGING HOW WE DEPICT HOMELESSNESS IN MEDIA America is in crisis and Los Angeles is ground zero Written by Sasheen R. Artis

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ens of thousands of families—men, women, children and teens—are living on the streets in tents, in cars, RVs and in fleabag, crime-infested motels.

Many are the working poor. Some go to school. Others are elderly and/or disabled.

There are folks who are mentally ill, drugor alcohol-addicted, and victims escaping domestic violence or sex trafficking.

Regardless of how they got there, they need our help to get off the streets and into permanent, affordable housing.

As a Wayfinder Foundation Fellow, I’ve visited homelessness service providers who work under extreme conditions to serve the most chronic cases. I’ve attended commission and community meetings. I’ve also toured the sprawling, 38-acre MLK Hospital campus, which provides robust medical and mental health services to the homeless community, and met with policymakers in an effort to understand the complexity of the crisis. I observed the dearth of affordable housing. I have seen how stagnant wages and systematic discrimination against people of color and the poor—combined with a toxic mix of dysfunction, political inertia and corporate greed—seemingly caused this powder keg of homelessness to explode in the past five years. One of the most startling statistics is that for every 133 homeless people who secure shelter in Los Angeles County, 150 new people fall into homelessness and onto the street. Every single day.

Most of us can agree that we wouldn’t want to be in the same predicament. Yet when asked for suggestions on how to resolve the crisis, many consider their

own interests ahead of the 500,000 people who suffer across the country. From NIMBYism to othering and dehumanizing our neighbors, we excuse ourselves from the solution because for many of us the problem is incredibly overwhelming, and some of us simply don’t care.

But the stakes are high and getting higher. As the coronavirus pandemic adds to the plight of the homeless, the entertainment industry is in a position to help change hearts and minds. When we showcase stories featuring these experiences, it helps society empathize and compels change. So the ask is simple.

For creatives: Develop, write and produce content with a character or story arc that depicts the issue of homelessness in an authentic way. Feature characters and situations that accurately reflect what this crisis looks like, how it affects those experiencing homelessness and, most importantly, what works to resolve it. For executives: Greenlight and fund these projects.

I spearheaded the program Ground Zero: Narratives on Homelessness to provide the

creative community with the tools and resources to craft stories that challenge our perceptions of what homelessness looks like and who are (and who can become) homeless—all in an effort to make our content more authentic. My experience with the PGA’s Power of Diversity Master Workshop has given me great insight. Not only am I committed to social change, but I personally know what it’s like to be in dire circumstances as I too was homeless.

In April, I moderated our first webinar, graciously hosted by the Education Committee, featuring Kate Folb, Director, USC Norman Lear Center’s Hollywood, Health & Society; Tommy Newman Sr., Director of Impact Initiatives, United Way of Greater LA; Giselle Routhier, Policy Director, Coalition for the Homeless NY; and Frank Ybarra, Speak Up! Team Advocate, Corporation for Supportive Housing. We heard stories from the front lines of this crisis, helped dispel the myths, and answered poignant questions on how to best represent this issue when creating content. Together we can spur more compassion and become part of the solution. ¢

Sasheen R. Artis is Co-chair of the PGA Power of Diversity Master Workshop. You can contact her at sasheen@plentyofpie.net.

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ON THE SCENE PRODUCERS NOMINEES BREAKFAST JANUARY 18, SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER A packed house of 650 people mingled over breakfast and heard from an amazing panel of producers at our popular nominees event, which took place the morning of the PGA Awards. Producers from the 10 nominated movies for best film showed off a dazzling display of humor, as moderator and Guild President Lucy Fisher questioned them on topics ranging from development and production challenges to original themes and adapted scripts. Parasite producer/director Bong Joon-ho drew a laugh when he said, “I felt so bad for the marketing team because they constantly had to ask me what genre this movie was.” When asked for advice on how to get dramas made and sold, Jenno Topping, producer of Ford v Ferrari answered with a smile, “Do it while no one’s looking, and the company is being bought by another company.” Jane Rosenthal, a producer on The Irishman, spoke about their revolutionary process of de-aging the main actors. When explaining the reactions after they first screened a scene with the younger versions of the cast, she described Robert De Niro as saying, “This is great. I have another 20 years of my career left.” Clearly a fun way to start the PGA Awards day.

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ON THE SCENE WEST COAST PGA AWARDS NOMINEES CELEBRATION, JANUARY 16, LOS ANGELES This year’s annual PGA West Coast Nominee Celebration took place at the historic Hollywood Museum. The event recognizes nominees for the entire Producing Team of a film or show. For the first time, two PGA Awards were presented at the mixer. The award for Short-Form Program went to Comedians in Cars With Coffee. The Guild’s newest award, The Inaugural Innovation Award, was given to Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series-Episode I. The Innovation Award honors an outstanding entertainment endeavor across VR, AR, experiential and other emerging media. In addition to celebrating the 2020 nominees, guests were able to enjoy all of the museum’s fascinating exhibits. Thanks to the many volunteers, and the AP Council and New Media Council members who made the night such a success. The event was organized by Jennifer Haire, Tim Durant, Megan Mascena, Melissa Friedman and Jenni Ogden.

EAST COAST PGA AWARDS NOMINEES CELEBRATION, JANUARY 13, NEW YORK, NY The Producers Guild of America East hosted its 2020 celebration of the Producers Guild Awards nominees at Ascent Lounge in New York City. Among the attendees were the producing teams of Marriage Story, 1917, Knives Out, The Cave, One Child Nation, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, When They See Us, Fosse/Verdon, 60 Minutes and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Mari Jo Winkler was presented with the Charles FitzSimons Award for her leadership in the PGA as well as her dedication to green initiatives within the producing community. Peter Saraf, PGA East Chair Emeritus, presented the award. The producing team for Sesame Street (Season 49) was honored with the award for Outstanding Children’s Program, and the team behind What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali was presented with the award for Outstanding Sports Program.

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A B OV E & B E YO N D

HELPING HANDS FROM COAST TO COAST VOLUNTEERS APPRECIATE THE REWARDS OF GIVING The Producers Guild of America relies on its member volunteers in all chapters and regions around the country. James Axiotis on the West Coast and Kristine Pregot on the East Coast are two such members who have gone above and beyond in their volunteering. Even though they are 3,000 miles apart, they have the same goal: to help the Guild help its members.

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ames joined the PGA just five years ago, but he has definitely made a difference in a short amount of time. His only agenda is to have everyone succeed. James has been a delegate on the AP Council and also started the AP Council Facebook page. He initiated and produced the “video pitch,” a series of videos featuring PGA events from coast to coast, which appear on the PGA YouTube channel and Facebook page.

James joined the International Committee because he was born in Greece and wanted to stay connected with the global community.

His involvement has led to many memorable experiences. “From producing the video pitches to delivering roses to a PGA Oscar Party, I have enjoyed each experience for its uniqueness,”

K KRISTINE PREGOT

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says James. His favorite projects have involved networking with people and piecing together various elements—because that is what producers do. He knew that volunteering would help him meet new people, learn more about the Guild and fully appreciate the valuable work the PGA does for producers. James urges others to get involved, particularly for the value of networking. “Our business is all about who you know, and I can honestly say that I have met some of the best people by volunteering for the Guild. It’s a great way to extend your base and keep working,” James explains. When he is not putting his all into volunteering, James works as a post producer/supervisor. He is currently developing a legal drama pilot that he created and wrote.

ristine Pregot, currently an AP Council delegate, is on the National Board of Directors and is the East Coast Co-chair of the Mentor Committee. She joined the Guild in May 2011, and since then, her appreciation for the PGA has only grown stronger. “We get stuff done like no one else!” says Kristine.

She especially values the Guild’s incredible resources, and loves meeting and learning from the best producers in the world. Hosting the Mentor Roundtable events in New York has been her most rewarding experience. “The roundtable events provide an opportunity to ask specific questions and get world-class advice from amazing producers. The mentors are honest, candid and always deeply inspiring. I have learned so much from these events, and it

JAMES AXIOTIS

is such a privilege to program them for the New York community.”

As a board and committee member, Kristine is able to observe firsthand how tirelessly volunteers work to organize events and educational workshops—all to help producers stay relevant in their fields. Kristine is also very proud of the Shadow Mentoring Program.

She stresses how easy it is to get involved, saying, “You just have to go online and fill out an application.” She is always looking for new mentors, so if you are interested in giving back, please reach out to her. Kristine is currently the EP of Production Operations at A&E Network.

When she’s not working or volunteering, this busy PGA member teaches yoga and meditation classes and leads retreats.

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Y

CM

MY

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CMY

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MEET TEACHER JESSICA

One book changed her life.

Photo Credit: Save the Children / Rachel Palmer

Jessica’s world is now wide open because she can read.

She attends a school sponsored by Save the Children – and wants to be just like her teacher one day. For 100 years, Save the Children has been ensuring children’s needs are met, in the U.S. and around the world. See how one small act can change the life of a child.

Learn more at savethechildren.org/change CHANGING A LIFE LASTS A LIFETIME

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P G A AT YO U R SERVICE

MARKING TIME The Producers Guild proudly salutes the following whose credits have been certified with the Producers Mark. This list includes February through May film releases.

Certification via the Producers Mark indicates that a producer undertook a major portion of the producing duties on the motion picture.

BIRDS OF PREY: AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN Margot Robbie, p.g.a.

Bryan Unkeless, p.g.a.

Sue Kroll, p.g.a.

BLOODSHOT Neal H. Moritz, p.g.a.

Toby Jaffe, p.g.a.

Dinesh Shamdasani, p.g.a.

BURDEN Robbie Brenner, p.g.a.

THE CALL OF THE WILD Erwin Stoff, p.g.a.

James Mangold, p.g.a.

DOWNHILL Anthony Bregman, p.g.a.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, p.g.a.

Stefanie Azpiazu, p.g.a.

EMPEROR Cami Winikoff, p.g.a.

Reginald Hudlin, p.g.a.

Mark Amin, p.g.a.

THE HUNT Damon Lindelof, p.g.a.

THE INVISIBLE MAN Jason Blum, p.g.a.

Kylie du Fresne, p.g.a.

JUST ONE MORE KISS Joe Barbagallo, p.g.a.

LOST IN AMERICA Brent C. Johnson, p.g.a.

Mike Manning, p.g.a.

Rotimi Rainwater, p.g.a.

THE LOVEBIRDS Tom Lassally, p.g.a.

Jordana Mollick, p.g.a.

Todd Schulman, p.g.a.

MY SPY To apply for Producers Mark certification, visit us online at producersguildawards.com.

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Chris Bender, p.g.a.

Peter Segal, p.g.a.

NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS Adele Romanski, p.g.a.

Sara Murphy, p.g.a.

ONWARD Kori Rae, p.g.a.

THE PHOTOGRAPH Will Packer, p.g.a.

James Lopez, p.g.a.

SCOOB! Pam Coats, p.g.a.

Allison Abbate, p.g.a.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG Neal H. Moritz, p.g.a.

STREETLIGHT HARMONIES Timothy Headington, p.g.a.

Theresa Steele, p.g.a.

Brent Wilson, p.g.a.

TREAD Sean Stuart, p.g.a.

Glen Zipper, p.g.a.

TROLLS: WORLD TOUR Gina Shay, p.g.a.

VALLEY GIRL Matt Smith, p.g.a.

Steven J. Wolfe, p.g.a.

THE WAY BACK Gordon Gray, p.g.a.

Jennifer Todd, p.g.a.

Gavin Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Connor, p.g.a.

Ravi Mehta, p.g.a.

P G A AT YO U R SERVICE

PGA HEALTH: WHAT’S YOUR STORY?

“I WORK ON A WEST COAST IATSE PRODUCTION.”

“I RUN A SMALL COMPANY.”

“I AM AN INDIVIDUAL LOOKING FOR THE BEST COVERAGE I CAN AFFORD.”

Motion Picture Industry Plan

Open Health MEWA Plan

The Actor’s Fund

Available to: Producers/Produced By, Executive Producers, Associate Producers, Post-Production Supervisors

Available to: Employers and employees of small production companies

Available to: All professionals who work in the entertainment industry

Who: • Work at a company with a minimum of three employees. Company owner may count as an employee if s/he draws a salary from the company.

The Actor’s Fund is the official organization representing the Affordable Care Act to the entertainment industry.

Who: •Work for an AMPTP signatory • Work on theatrical motion pictures, prime-time network series, prime-time, first-run syndicated series •Utilize a West Coast IA Crew • A re credited with 600 hours of work over the past six months. (Assume a 60-hour work week.)

CONTACT: (866) 491-4001 Request information about MEWA (Multiple Employer Welfare Association) plans.

CONTACT: (800) 221-7303 (New York) (888) 825-0911 (Los Angeles) Request a consultation to discuss individual plans available on the open market.

Once qualified, participants must be credited with 400 hours of work in the subsequent six-month period to extend coverage.

CONTACT: Your payroll or labor relations department.

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P G A AT YO U R SERVICE

MEMBER BENEFITS ■ Discounted registration for Produced By Conference and Produced By: New York.

■ Vote on Producers Guild Awards and receive discount tickets to the event, as well as DVD screeners for awards consideration.

■ Access to CSATTF online safety training videos.

■ Admission to special PGA pre-release screenings and Q&A events.

■ Full access to PGA website including events, calendar, social networking tools, members-only video library.

■ Access to PGA Job Board, online resume search, employment tools and job forums.

■ Eligibility for PGA Mentoring Program.

■ Listing of contact and credit information in searchable online roster.

■ Arbitration of credit disputes.

■ Participation in the Motion Picture Industry Health, Welfare & Pension Plan.

■ Free attendance at PGA seminars.

■ Wide variety of discounts on events, merchandise, travel.

■ Complimentary subscription to Produced By.

PRODUCEDBY December | January 2020

PRODUCED PRODUCEDBY THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA // DECEMBER | JANUARY

marta kauffman

THE PRODUCER WHO KEEPS SCORSESE TICKING

P BILL HADER GOES FROM FILM NERD TO FILMMAKER

P

volume XV number 6

For classics and more, call The Huntington!

Our abundant location options include: lawns, ponds, mature trees, themed gardens, classic architecture, and select interiors.

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KAUFFMAN “One of the things Grace and Frankie has is a quality of warmth. Someone once called it comfort food, and I think that’s what it is.”

SEE THE DIGITAL EDITION PRODUCERSGUILD.ORG LET’S GET SOCIAL

626.405.2215 | filmhuntington.org Advertising Info: Ken Rose at ken@moontidemedia.com or 818-312-6880

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P G A AT YO U R SERVICE

NEW MEMBERS The Producers Guild is proud to welcome the following new members, who joined the Guild between January through April 2020.

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PRODUCERS COUNCIL

Clarence Hammond Jonathan Rae Dream Hampton Johan Renck Christal Henry Jay Roach David Hill Ben Roberts Drew Holt Tony Roche Leopold Hughes Rob Saffi Andrew Hurckman 2 Laura Schweigman Matt Kaplan Mathias Schwerbrock Luke Kelly-Clyne Martin Scorsese Axel Kuschevatzky Douglas Smith Noah Lang Sarah Snow 3 Jacqueline Lesko Bill Straus Marla Levine Carolyn Strauss Michael Lewis Roxanne Taylor Blanca Lista Jayne-Ann Tenggren Jessicya Materano Eduardo Verastegui 4 Craig Mazin Samantha Vincent Alexandria McAtee Karen Wacker Callum McDougall Ayelet Waldman Jennifer McGrogan Aeysha Walsh Russell McLean Jay Weisleder Randi Michel Jonathan Zwick Karina Miller Lin-Manuel Miranda AP COUNCIL Barbara Morgan Stephanie Alpert Katherine Mullaney Lynn Appelle Sean Mullin Adam Butterfield David Nutter Brooke Carnahan James Oh Robert Chang 5 Matt Passet William Clark Jon Peters Nora Cromwell Amanda Phillips Atkins Cassandra Del Viscio

Cori Abraham Ashley Allen Daniel Amigone David Auge Robert Baehr Elizabeth Baquet Joe Barbagallo Robert Barnum Jason Bateman Jennie Bedusa Derek Bishe Jordan Brodsky Colin Brunton Kristen Campo 1 David Carrico Michael Chabon Marjorie Chodorov Jesse Daniels Maren Domzalski Gary Ehrlich Ori Eisen Brent Emery Ben Feigin John Ferrell Ricky Fosheim Lindsey Frew Joseph Geschwind Kate Glover Danny Gold Narineh Hacopian 6

7

Holly Dellocono Anjali Desai Joe Dinnen Aaron Downing Emma Dunleavy Dara Edwards Alisyn Ghivizzani Hannah Godwin Joshua Gonzales Emily Gregorio Shuo Grimes James Hasman Nicole Hearon Jim Jensen Stuart Johnson Lainie Justi Melanie La Rue Harry Limauro Atif Malik Ashley Mayer David McKimmie W. Jay Moore Tara Nadolny Sona Pak Brian Papworth Kevin Pardo Karen Payne Neomi Peries Devin Reiter John Roberts Giulia Rocca Hannah Settle 8

Carolyn Shea Jonathan Sheflin Michael Solinger Lisa Spence Raffaello Vignoli Chelsey Warner Korey Washington 6 Matthew Wells Hailey Wicker Ricky Wiebe Rachel Zusser

NEW MEDIA COUNCIL Brian Berkowitz Doug Brady Chris Bruss Bonnie Buckner Mari Burns Kaitlyn Cavanagh Rebecca Doyle 7 Arianna Drumond Maureen Fan 8 Robert Fishman Tanya Leal Soto Brittany Machado 9 Amanda Miess Nigel Nikitovich Ari Palitz

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P G A AT YO U R SERVICE

FAQ: THE PRODUCERS MARK those three little letters have a lot backing them up

WHEN I SEE P.G.A. AFTER A PRODUCER’S NAME IN A MOVIE’S CREDITS, WHAT DOES IT MEAN? It means that according to the rules of the Producers Guild’s certification process, that producer performed a major portion of the producing functions on that particular motion picture.

DOES THE P.G.A. AFTER THE PRODUCER’S NAME MEAN THAT THE PRODUCER IS A MEMBER OF THE PRODUCERS GUILD? No. A producer does not need to be a member of the PGA to receive the “p.g.a.” designation after their name. In many cases, the sets of initials you see in movie credits (such as A.S.C. and A.C.E.) indicate membership in an organization.

The Producers Mark is different. It’s a certification mark; its purpose is to designate that the producer has met an officially recognized standard of performance on that film.

IF A PRODUCER DOESN’T RECEIVE THE P.G.A. MARK FROM THE PRODUCERS GUILD, WHAT HAPPENS TO THEIR PRODUCING CREDIT? Nothing. The Producers Mark doesn’t control or affect the “Produced By” credit in any way, nor does it invalidate that credit by its absence.

WHAT IMPACT DOES THE P.G.A. MARK HAVE ON AWARDS? Determinations for the Producers Mark and for producer award eligibility are determined at the same time and via the

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same process. In addition to the PGA, AMPAS, HFPA and BAFTA all rely on the PGA process to guide their decisionmaking. However the final selection of nominees is always at the discretion of the organization giving the award.

Overwhelmingly, these organizations concur with the PGA determinations, but occasionally, the decisions diverge.

WHAT’S THE PROCESS? The process is initiated by the copyright owner of the film. After the postproduction process has commenced, but four to six weeks before credits are locked, the owner submits a film for consideration via ProducersGuildAwards.com.

Within two to three weeks, the PGA sends out eligibility forms to every producer credited as “Produced By” or “Producer” on the film and sends confidential verification forms to a wide variety of third parties associated with the production of the film: the director(s), writer(s), department heads, company executives and key crew members.

Once forms have been returned, the PGA convenes a panel of arbiters, each of them active and experienced producers with numerous (and recent) credits, typically in the genre or category of the film under consideration. (I.e., if the film is a major studio tentpole, we try to utilize arbiters with considerable experience in making those big-budget studio pictures. If the film is a smaller indie movie, we rely on producers familiar with that type of production, etc.) An initial arbitration panel typically has three arbiters.

The arbiters review all materials

returned to the PGA by the producers and third parties, with all names of individuals credited on the film redacted, so that arbiters can arrive at a judgment based on the testimony provided rather than the name recognition and perceived reputation of the producers.

Following the determination, the PGA staff informs the producers of the decision.

Producers who object to the decision have five days to notify the Guild of an intent to appeal. After giving producers the opportunity to add to or clarify their testimony, the PGA will convene a new panel of arbiters. All appellate panels consist of three producers. If the initial decision was unanimous, the appellate panel will consist of one producer from the original panel and two new producers; if the initial decision was not unanimous, the appellate panel will consist of three new producers. The decision of the appellate panel is final.

SO WHEN ARBITERS ARE LOOKING AT THESE FORMS, WHAT ARE THEY SEEING? The eligibility form filled out by producers asks them to indicate their level of responsibility for a variety of producing functions spanning development, preproduction, physical production and post-production. The form also includes a free-response section for the producer to more fully elaborate on the specifics of the production and their role on the film. The verification forms filled out by third parties typically ask the respondent questions related to the nature of their collaboration with the credited producers.

P G A AT YO U R SERVICE

(For instance, the verification form for editors asks the editor to designate which producer(s) consulted with the editor regarding dailies, gave notes on cuts or participated in screenings.)

WHO SELECTS WHICH ARBITERS VET THE CREDITS OF WHICH MOTION PICTURES? That determination is made by the PGA’s Associate General Counsel in consultation with the National Executive Director/COO.

WHAT IF THE PGA SELECTS AN ARBITER WHO (UNBEKNOWNST TO THEM) IS BIASED AGAINST A GIVEN PRODUCER OR FILM? The Guild takes proactive measures to prevent that from happening. Prior to convening the panel, the PGA provides all producers with a list of potential arbiters. Producers are free to strike any arbiter for any reason. Such arbiters will not be empaneled for that particular film. Furthermore, all arbiters are asked to affirmatively state that they have no interests in the films to be arbitrated that might result in a biased judgment. Even if all of those hurdles are cleared, an arbiter will be removed from the process if they or the PGA administrator feels that bias is affecting their judgment.

WHY CAN’T THE PGA BE MORE TRANSPARENT ABOUT THE PROCESS? We maintain the strictest confidentiality around the identities of the producers, third parties and arbiters involved because such confidence is the only

p.g.a. way we can hope to get accurate and truthful information. Many producers are powerful figures in this industry and this might put pressure on third parties and arbiters to achieve a desired decision.

Keeping those identities confidential is the only way to maintain the integrity of the process.

ONCE A PRODUCER’S CREDIT IS CERTIFIED WITH THE P.G.A. MARK, IS THAT CERTIFICATION APPLIED PERMANENTLY TO ALL OF THE PRODUCER’S FILMS? No. A Producers Mark appended to a producing credit applies to that film only. It represents the nature of the work performed on that film alone and does not “carry over” to future productions.

WHY DO SOME FILMS CARRY THE P.G.A. MARK, BUT NOT OTHERS? The Producers Mark is voluntary.

Each of the major studios—Universal, Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, Paramount and Fox—has signed a contractual agreement to submit their films to the Guild for credit certification, as have Lionsgate, DreamWorks and DreamWorks Animation, Lucasfilm, Marvel, MGM, New Line and Pixar. If an independently owned film elects not to participate, we can’t

force them to submit for certification.

The Producers Mark also is recognized by the WGA, DGA and SAG-AFTRA. The PGA has agreed not to license the Producers Mark for use with any combined credit (e.g., “Directed and Produced By …”)

WHO DOES THE PRODUCERS GUILD REPRESENT? The PGA is composed of over 8,200 professionals working in motion pictures, television and digital media throughout the United States and around the world.

HOW IS THE PGA DIFFERENT FROM ITS FELLOW GUILDS? Unlike the DGA, WGA and SAG-AFTRA, the PGA is not a labor union. This means that we can’t go on strike, set wage minimums, or negotiate collective bargaining agreements on behalf of our membership. As we are now the largest professional trade organization in the entertainment industry, the PGA provides numerous benefits for its members, including educational and training events, employment opportunities, social and networking functions, and a collective voice that represents and protects the varied interests of producers and their teams, including the Producers Mark. ■

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BEST ON-SET PHOTO OF ALL TIME

NO BETTER JOB ON EARTH

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t was 1 a.m. and the first night of shooting on the set of Abbey Grace, a micro-budget horror film produced by PGA member David Dittlinger. He had gone back to his hometown of Benton, Missouri, to shoot the movie in the dead of winter 2014.

Lighting was great, and the weather was frosty enough for a natural fog to settle in. Maggie McNabb, who played the title role, was crushing it as the vengeful child spirit. Jamie Hickman as the evil headmistress was looking extra limp, and in David’s words, “really most sincerely dead.”

Two hours later they moved to the town cemetery for the next scene, where Maggie’s character was to be murdered and thrown into an open grave. It was around 3 a.m. when Maggie filled the air with blood-curdling screams, and they saw flashing lights heading up the hill to the cemetery. A police officer, who looked like a Barney Fife doppelganger, went over to the crew and told them, “Got some reports of someone killin’ a little girl up here. Figured it was just you movie folks. Get back to it, but try to keep the screamin’ to a minimum.”

Fast-forward two hours, and cast and crew are exhausted. David is just glad he was able to successfully arrange lodging for everyone, in four houses scattered throughout the small town. But there was one final hitch. “Just as I was dropping off to sleep in my snug childhood bedroom, I received a text with a photo of two of my stuntmen spooning each other for warmth. No pillows, blankets or sheets. I’d forgotten the bedding. As I slipped on my boots for a frigid Walmart run, all I could think was that there’s no better job on earth.” ■

We know what you’re thinking. “Best of all time? No way. I’ve got an on-set photo way better than that.” If that’s the case, we dare you to prove it. Submit it to BOSPOAT@producersguild.org. Before you submit, please review the contest rules at producersguild. org/bospoat. Because no matter how great your photo is, we have no desire to get sued over it.

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The Guardian

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A MASTERPIECE

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