Company Move Hell

On CALIFORNIA SOLO, we shot at 30 different locations in 21 days--all in and around Los Angeles. That's an average of 1.4 company moves per day. It was, um, not the funnest thing I've ever done. And yet, we made it through--gracefully and alive!

Special thanks to location manager David Flannery, assistant location manager Dan Eason, co-producer Ross Girard, line producer Matthew Medlin, and 1st AD Nicolas Harvard!

Read all about how we did it in the L.A. Times:
'California Solo' showcases L.A.'s less familiar scenes

And go see the movie--it's a New York Times Critics' Pick!  It opened in NY on 11/30, L.A. on 12/7, and is now making its way to a theater new you.  Next stops: San Diego and San Francisco!

Children of Invention, Together Again

Here's a nice Filmmaker Magazine piece by Kishori Rajan about Tze Chun's forthcoming thriller, EYE OF WINTER (update: now called "COLD COMES THE NIGHT"), which I produced. It was great to work with good ol' Chundance again!

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Second-Time Director: Tze Chun and Eye of Winter

At Filmmaker we continuously cover the struggles of first-time directors to make their debut pictures. But the second film comes with its own set of unique challenges, issues that will be explored in this five-part series by Kishori Rajan. Below is the first installment, chronicling Filmmaker 25 New Face Tze Chun’s move from the microbudget character drama Children of Invention to a thriller with stars like Bryan Cranston. Look for further articles in the weeks ahead. — SM

The late producer Laura Ziskin once remarked that movies “aren’t made, but forced into existence,” an expression never more apt than when talking about a director and his first feature film. Producing a movie on a micro budget – an arguably necessary move for the risky first feature – is an aggressively scrappy process, one that turns Kickstarter donations into funding, parents’ living rooms into sets, and producers into impromptu PAs.

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