FEATURE: 11 AUGUST 2011
I got to eat Alligator gumbo, apparently it is a popular dish in the South. A workmate from upstairs was eating it and told me that there was a truck at the Union Square Market giving out bowls. It seemed like an appropriate thing to have during my stay in New York. The meat is hard to describe, the best I can do is say it’s somewhere between fish and chicken.
I quickly mail some NYC postcards to friends back in NZ before heading back to Killer Films. At the office I am going through assistant bootcamp. Gabby (Pam and Christine’s assistant) is on leave and I’m doing my best to understand how things work from only a day of training.
A typical day for Christine and Pam is filled with meetings, calls and conference calls, all of which I schedule and organize. A frequent caller is Bankside Films, a London-based international sales and production company. They have a first look and co-development deal with Killer Films and also invest development money in the Killer slate.
I’m also in charge of the office and all the interns. And the summer interns are starting to filter in to serve time and get their much needed college credits. Many are young and inexperienced when it comes to basic office protocol. David meets with them and runs through what is expected, then I take them through phone training. A simple task, but surprisingly easy to mess up.
The importance of answering every phone call was instilled early on in the placement at Killer films. Though I have been working in development, Killer is the type of company where everyone has to pitch in and do a variety of jobs to keep the office running smoothly. One missed call from a potential investor/agent/writer could hold up an entire project. There is a famous story that floats around the office of the worst message ever recorded by an intern. Typically when answering a phone one must always get the first and last name, with correct spelling and phone number. Pretty simple. An intern took a message and handed it to Christine. All it said was “Blah blah called” (it was in fact a company called Sloss Law).
Christine heads off to Louisville, Kentucky where Killer is involved in producing a live concert with My Morning Jacket at the Louisville Palace Theatre to be directed by Todd Haynes. It’s part of a series called Unstaged by Momentum where bands and directors are matched to create a live-stream concert. Other pairings include David Lynch and Duran Duran, Spike Lee and John Legend & The Roots, Terry Gilliam and Arcade Fire. You can check out Todd Haynes’ creative vision here.
After two weeks Gabby comes back and I head into my final week at Killer. I’m relieved to be back in development. David asks me to come up with a list of DPs who might be right to work with Kazou Ohno on his feature Mr. Crumpacker and the Man from the Letter. At the top of my list are Adam Arkapaw (Animal Kingdom), Marcel Zyskind (Mister Lonely, The Killer Inside Me), and Eduard Grau (A Single Man, Animals). David sends the list to the producer and they like my suggestions. I’m asked to come up with a list of actors for the female lead. I do and again the team likes my ideas.
The last week at Killer brings reflection on the 3 months I have spent here. I have learnt a great deal about the way the independent film industry operates in America. I’ve become familiar with agencies, producers, directors, actors, and financiers that are big players over here and who have relationships with Killer. I have read a great deal of scripts – good and bad, getting valuable insight into the kind of work being produced in America and what companies are potentially looking for. At Killer it’s a script that has a distinct directorial voice, a contemporary story with some sort of commercial potential. But ultimately it’s just a story that resonates with them on some personal level that cannot always be defined.
Of course I must hand out some thank-yous before ending this blog. Thank you to Script to Screen for their support, organisation and correspondence throughout my time away. Many thanks to the Film Investment Corporation Foundation and the New Zealand Film Commission for their sponsorship of this scholarship. A special thanks to Chris Parkin for his generous support in helping me utilize this scholarship. Thank you to David Hinojosa and Gabriell Nadig for never being too busy to answer my obvious-to-an-American questions, helping me fit in to the office and making work fun. Thank you to David Hinojosa for the script work which allowed me to become familiar with the roll development plays at Killer Films. Thank you Tommy Strauss – master of the internship. Thank you to Christine Vachon and Pam Koffler for allowing me to hang out at Killer Films and get an insight into their day to day workings. I’ve been blown away by the amount of excellent work they do. Their ability to make films happen, pull deals together, and resurrect projects is without parallel. And on top of all this – look after their families and raise children. Amazing.
When I leave I give out some thank you gifts. Some flowers, some wine, a Yucca plant which I hope will survive in the low light conditions. I will not miss the windowless office but I will miss the people in it.
