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Indiewood
A Podcast for Indie Filmmakers
In the world of social media, and fast-paced journalism, knowledge is abound. But with all the noise, finding the right information is near impossible. Especially if you’re a creative working in independent film.
Produced by Cinematography For Actors, the Indiewood podcast aims to fix that. This is a podcast about indie filmmakers and the many hats we wear in order to solve problems before, during, and after production.
Every month, award-winning Writer/Director Yaroslav Altunin is joined by a different guest co-host to swap hats, learn about the different aspects of the film industry, and how to implement all you learn into your work.
"We learn from indie filmmakers so we can become better filmmakers. Because we all want to be Hollywood, but first we have to be Indiewood."
Indiewood
Breaking Through: George Huang’s Rise from Assistant to Director
Join us for an intimate conversation with writer, directer, and producer (and UCLA Professor) George Huang as he shares his remarkable journey from being a studio assistant to directing his own films and writing for some of the biggest producers in the industry. From a chance encounter with Star Wars at age nine that sparked a passion for filmmaking, to strategically navigating Hollywood's complex landscape, we explore the fascinating behind-the-scenes stories from George Huang’s career.
This series is made for the creatives who seek an unconventional path in the entertainment industry and want valuable insights into the realities of independent filmmaking and perseverance in Hollywood.
Like, subscribe, and join us next week for week two of our conversation with George Huang!
0:00 Introduction to the podcast
1:03 Meeting at UCLA as professor and student
2:22 The 10-week script challenge
4:04 Early film inspirations
6:32 George's background and career journey
7:58 First movie experience: Star Wars
10:09 College years and economics major
11:32 Lucasfilm internship opportunity
14:41 USC film school and Paramount job
16:22 Knocking on doors at Paramount
18:11 Missing out on Wayne's World PA position
19:38 Working for Joel Silver Productions
21:24 Meeting Robert Rodriguez
23:19 Writing Swimming with Sharks
25:36 Financing the first film
27:14 Rocky start to production
30:20 Second film: Trojan War challenges
32:43 Ending up in "director's jail"
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A Podcast for Indie Filmmakers
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IG: @indiewoodpod
YT: Cinematography for Actors
In the world of social media, and fast-paced journalism, knowledge is abound. But with all the noise, finding the right information is near impossible. Especially if you’re a creative working in independent film.
Produced by Cinematography For Actors, the Indiewood podcast aims to fix that. This is a podcast about indie filmmakers and the many hats we wear in order to solve problems before, during, and after production.
Every month, award-winning Writer/Director Yaroslav Altunin is joined by a different guest co-host to swap hats, learn about the different aspects of the film industry, and how to implement all you learn into your work.
"We learn from indie filmmakers so we can become better filmmakers. Because we all want to be Hollywood, but first we have to be Indiewood."
Hello and welcome to the IndieWood podcast, a podcast about independent film and the many hats filmmakers wear in order to get those films made. Each month, I'm joined by one such filmmaker, where we talk about their creative process and how they thrive within the visual medium of film. And this month I'm joined by an incredibly wonderful, talented and special guest because we met in the classroom.
Speaker 2:We did.
Speaker 1:George Huang is a writer, director and current UCLA professor, and also producer yes, absolutely. Who has worked with some of the biggest directors and producers on the planet, has made some incredible films and has recently finished and released his own film Weekend in Taipei. George, thank you for coming on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Happy to be here, yaro, it's good to see you. Yeah, you as well. Too long. You were one of my first students when I joined UCLA, that's right, yeah. It's nice to see that you built out this whole operation. I live here now this is my home. This is beautiful. The view is outstanding.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Yeah, there's the Hollywood Hills in the background for those watching on YouTube. Well, on YouTube we met, because I was a student at UCLA in grad school and then you came in as a adjunct professor. Is that what they call it?
Speaker 2:No, they brought me in as a full professor. I came in with full tenure. That's amazing, which is like everyone is like that's unheard of. I mean, I have friends in academia who are still trying to get tenure. They've spent their entire career trying to get to that spot and they're so mad they're still not talking to me, you know. So, yeah, but they brought me in at full tenure. I keep thinking it's a mistake and they'll figure it out and say, okay, we're going back down to like yeah, it's like you're eight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, they can. Can they do that? If you get tenure, can they bump you back down? I don't think they think they can?
Speaker 2:I don't think they can. Yeah, yeah, I joke, but yeah, maybe I don't know.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, you're in a great position. The class that I had with you was really wonderful and I learned a lot of really cool, amazing things about the writing process, and you reminded me that I it's usually a 10-week course.
Speaker 2:Yep 10 weeks to write a full feature script.
Speaker 1:From my idea to first draft. Exactly 10 weeks. You reminded me that I switched my story week six or seven.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like week seven. So I'm like yeah, I don't like the way this is going. I'm going to do something completely new and it was my first class I was teaching. I'm going what are?
Speaker 2:you going to do? It's like, can we do that? And they said, oh yeah, said oh yeah, yarrow does that all the time. But yeah, but that being said, you know what you turned in in those three weeks is sartorialist, was great. I mean it was like, oh my god, this is really a great script. Can you play some showcase with it, or no?
Speaker 1:that was a different script, okay, but that that that script is a lot of fun because it it's this spy thriller in the 60s in paris yep, but it's based on.
Speaker 1:Oh man, there's a blog that called the sialist. This guy ran, I forget his name. He was a photographer, a street photographer, and he would take photos of people who were just really fashionable all across the world Milan, paris, wherever and I just saw a couple images and I was like that's the movie. I don't know what it is yet, but it's about a tailor. It's about a tailor who.
Speaker 1:And it was about a tailor who has this kind of secret agenda and he falls in love with a spy who's out to get him the whole car chase through. No, I'm sorry, the original idea came from and this is a really cool thing people should find on YouTube. It was a short film called Rendezvous and it was a film shot in Paris in the 60s, I believe. Believe, and it's just a camera on the front of a car.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, yeah, yeah, and he needs to get to the steps of uh uh, where they shot john mcforr. I forget the the court yes, yeah and he's just driving balls out. Yeah, and yeah, it's like you know, uh, no edits, no camera cuts. He's, you know, right there driving through the night.
Speaker 1:He has to get there before sunrise and he gets there and there's a woman waiting for him and they hug and they kiss and it's just like yeah incredible, yeah, yeah, and I was like I just I wanted that scene in the movie and so that was kind of the anchor, that that everything else was built around. But the sartorialist was also an inspiration, yeah, uh. Well, your film weekend in taipei also has some car chases, which we'll talk about, like, I think, later down, sure, in the pod, because they're a month. Don't worry, we have a couple weeks buckle in everyone all those car chases are digital he's used to.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know, shooting in the streets of taipei, you know we, you know we had a luke basson sort of car team there. Any lu Luc Besson's done Taken Transporter, so he's got a whole team who knows how to do these kind of movies. But the way that streets are structured in Taipei, it's sort of a new city built on top of an old city. So there are these narrow alleyways that feed into these modern sort of highways, and the head of the car team said we cannot get a proper lockdown. There's too many alleyways where someone could sort of squirt out, whether it's a moped, a biker, an old granny, you know, with their shopping cart, and if you're like running down, you know, a Ferrari at 120, 165 kilometers an hour. Yeah, you are not going to be able to stop in time.
Speaker 2:And so we made a decision okay, well, we'll just do it all digital. So all the cars you see in the movie that are racing each other and sort of the exterior, the wider shots, are all digital. Yeah, Because, yeah, the original plan is okay. Well, let's see, we'll put. You know, the intricacy with which they choreograph these things are amazing, it's about it.
Speaker 2:You have to have the hero car in the middle, and then you have two layers of cars as cushions that are driven by other stunt drivers, and so they choreograph exactly where all of these cars are going to go. So it's like 12 cars almost dancing with each other. You know, at high speeds, you know um, on a roadway.
Speaker 2:But that being said, yeah, you, it doesn't help if you can't, you know get the shot and yeah, and, and you know, giving them out of mopeds and bicycles there, yeah, it was just like yeah, I mean, no film was worth you know anyone getting running over a moped.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, yeah, so we yeah.
Speaker 2:So we just switched to digital and, yeah, you cannot tell.
Speaker 1:It looks great. And I was like how do they do that? You cannot tell it looks great. And I was like how do they do that Digital? Yeah, getting to Taipei and shooting Weekend in Taipei took a long time. I mean, where you started to where you kind of ended. I'd love to hear, maybe you know, not the Cliff Notes version, but not the Bridget version, but the dense version.
Speaker 2:The dense version. We've got 20 minutes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've got 22 minutes 22 minutes. Okay, so I'd like to hear more about your career, how you got started, um, how things evolved and and your kind of ups and downs, and maybe you know, just shed a little bit of light on those moments where things kind of turned for you and you were like, whoa, I'm here, I made it. Or even, just, you know, I, in hindsight, looking back right, uh, seeing, oh, this is something that other people should know right, okay, yeah sure, um, so let's see to take it back to beginning.
Speaker 2:So, um, my parents were Taiwanese immigrants, um, and you know they're very practical people. I mean which?
Speaker 1:is poetic, because now you've come back to Taiwan Exactly, I've come full circle, but yeah that's the reason I wanted to go make weekend in Taipei.
Speaker 2:in Taipei, you know. But so you know, both my parents are very practical. I mean, this is how practical they are. Their first date was the arranged meeting with their families with a matchmaker, really and their second date was a wedding.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That is how practical they are really yeah, that is how that's practical. Yeah, that is yeah, but we do not mess around. You know, um, and so you know I, my dad, married my mom to get the dowry, to get, you know, scholarship money, or you know the tuition money to come to the united states to study engineering.
Speaker 2:You know which he did? At uc, berkeley, um, and so the first year, like he started studying, I was born, um, and you know. So, growing up in a household like that, you know, yeah, movies and TV weren't really part of my life. It was just like, if you have extra time, go do some math homework.
Speaker 2:Go do extra reading, all that type of stuff, which I'm grateful for because, yeah, it's like, yeah, I mean, you know you soak up a lot of information when your brains are you know, at that that age, you're very elastic and um. But when I was nine years old, there was a phenomenon that even they couldn't ignore, and so for christmas that year, they took me to my first movie ever in a movie theater okay and so I'm sitting there and century city in los angeles, and 70 millimeter up comes star wars, and the first image I see is this giant death cruiser coming out of this big
Speaker 2:screen and like, oh, what the hell is this? Oh my god. So you know it left a mark. I mean, immediately I was like what is this? This is amazing, I need to be a part of this somehow, and so that always stuck with me. I mean, I often joke with my parents because it's like look if you had taken me to herbie the love bug or something. It was my first movie not to knock, you know, dean jones or herbie love bug.
Speaker 2:But you know, might have had a different effect. But yeah, since then I was just like, yeah, I need to find out more about movies. You know, I would sneak down in the middle of night and like, try to get to like the, the pay cables and watch the squiggly lines and watch movies. That way it wasn't until I, like, went away to college, I had the freedom to sort of start renting, you know, movies on my own, with my own time, um, and yeah, really became immersed in that.
Speaker 1:So it's it's interesting you mentioned that, because star wars for me was the first film I saw in america oh, no way I didn't speak a lick of english yeah and I was pawned off on a guy who ran the booth, a booth, the booth of a theater, and uh my mom was teaching yeah, uh. And so he's like do you want to watch a movie? And you know, like mimed it yeah, and he did little star, like that's star wars.
Speaker 2:He did the little spaceship with his hand right now and I was like yeah, yeah, yeah, and that was yeah, that was it.
Speaker 1:That was that that kind of I think started the journey.
Speaker 2:For me as well, that's very cinema paradiso, right that's awesome, and so in college yeah. So when I you know, I went to, that's awesome. And so in college, yeah. So when I went to go study in college, obviously I want to pursue storytelling I said I want to be an English major. My parents said, no, you're going to be an engineer, I want to major in journalism. No, you're going to be a doctor. Where we finally sort of agreed to meet in the middle is studying business. So I went to.
Speaker 2:UC Berkeley for my undergrad and I meet in the middle is studying business. Okay, so I went to UC Berkeley for my undergrad and I started in the business school. But, you know, I found that, you know, like you know, it's important to learn about debits, credits, depreciation schedules, that type of stuff. But I was more drawn to economics because, you know, there's at least stories in economics. Like you know, you try to understand human behavior, filter through sort of a monetary lens, and so I majored in economics and, interestingly enough I'm sure you found this out at UCLA it's tough to get classes at these public schools, and so I wanted to get a minor in English or journalism, but I could never get in classes because enrollment was prioritized for majors only, and so the only classes I gave were math. So I ended up with a math minor, like okay, but, um, while I was there my first year, um, you know, the weekends I would never go to the library to study. I would like just find an empty classroom in Barrows Hall, which is the business school, to study, and, and one day when, saturday, I'm walking out and this is again, this will show my age, but they had flyers up for internships at Lucasfilm. No, yes, right, I'm going. Oh my God, this is serendipity, this is fate. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. So I tore down the flyer Nobody else is going to read that Exactly and I went around all of campus to turn down every single flyer. Nobody else should know about this, because it's going to be mine, I should get it. So we started the application process.
Speaker 2:One of the things involved in the application process was you had to provide a creative work. So I said I'll write a short story. But every writer we procrastinate. So it's like okay, well, deadline's coming up. It's at 1 pm on a Friday, you know. So I started writing the story, you know, the night before, stayed up all night, wrote it, you know, and then went to hit print at 11 am and my printer died. It's like shit. So I'm running around all of campus trying to find a printer that works. So I'm going to print out my application, print out my creative short story.
Speaker 2:By the time I got it done, it was like 1.10. And I thought, okay, well, crap, oh my God, I missed the deadline. But I still went and submitted it in the box. When I got to the box, it was pretty much empty. So I thought, oh crap, I missed the deadline. I still put my application in box anyways, hoping it's like, well, maybe they'll take pity and um, come back and get the second round of applications, um, and you know. I just thought, oh well, this is, you know. Yeah, this is bad karma. I shouldn't have torn down the flyers.
Speaker 2:I'm a horrible person and this is the yeah this is me being punished by the film gods uh for for doing an evil thing like that. Well, it turns out I got the internship because they only receive three applications. Really, so I'm going. Oh wow, maybe the flyer thing worked out.
Speaker 2:No, it turns out that application box was overflowing. At 1 pm, somebody scooped up all the applications and threw them away. If I had not been late, my application would have been scooped up by whoever that saboteur was and thrown away with all the others. And so when Lucasfilm found out about it, they of course questioned the three applicants who were remaining. No did you? I was like oh my God, no. Okay, I tore down the flyers, but I had no idea that that happened. So that was yeah, like oh my God, so yeah. So my first job in Hollywood was at Lucasfilm up at the Skywalker Ranch up in Marin County, and you know, like you could not ask for a better introduction to Hollywood, I mean you know, like you know, it's nestled in the Redwood Forest.
Speaker 2:You know, up in these green hills, you know, george had like all the Star Wars memorabilia in his, like you know, up in these green hills. Um, you know, george had like all the star wars memorabilia and his, like you know office, um, there was always something going on like martin scorsese would be there mixing his film. The rolling stones would be like on the soundstage, you know, preparing for the world tour. Um, you know, they were filming indiana jones and last crusade, you know, uh, at the ranch when I was there, and all the people that were super nice, you know, just super wonderful. A lot of them were still my friends today. One of my closest friends was my, you know, was my direct boss, and he came and, you know, helped me produce my first film and so, yeah, it was great, it was a wonderful experience, and so I spent three years there and when it came time to to graduate, they said, well, what do you want?
Speaker 1:to do, you know, with the rest of life. And I said, well, this I want to do this?
Speaker 3:yeah, I just want to stay here.
Speaker 2:But, um, I figured what I would do is go get an mba and you know, a business degree and then come back and circle hollywood, you know, armed with that. And they said well, if you want to do something like that, there is a program at usc called the peter stark producers program, which is like the mba of the film business and if you want, we'll write a recommendation for you. It's like okay thanks and so yeah. So recommendation for me. Um, you know, for the record, I did apply to ucla as well.
Speaker 3:They rejected me, but I imagine that usc, given that it's george lucas on water.
Speaker 2:They had a recommendation from lucas home it's George Lucas' alma mater. They had a recommendation from Lucasfilm. They couldn't say no, and so I was accepted into the Peter Stark Producing Program, came back down to Hollywood and started working. During the day I would work at Paramount Pictures as a financial analyst because I had a sort of accounting background and at night I would go to the producing program. And so while I was juggling that of course my parents are not happy what was going on I said, uh, what are you doing you?
Speaker 1:know you were an accountant.
Speaker 2:I think yeah, so that was that sort of safety net exactly. And so, you know, while I was doing that, um, I would wander around the Paramount lot at lunch and just sort of knock on doors of all the producers you that had offices in the old dressing rooms on the Paramount lot and say, hey, you know I'm on the business side and working, you know, um, and in finances and um, you know, uh, the TV department at Paramount, uh, but I really want to get on the creative side. You know, um, do you need anyone who can read scripts? You know, for free I'll do coverage, all that type of stuff.
Speaker 2:And some producers took me, you know, up on the offer. You know I said, look, come read for us for free. And you know, when a position opens up, you know for, or when we get a, a movie going, you can be a pa on the movie. And so I was like, oh my god, yes, absolutely, I would love to get on a set, love to just see how things work. And so, yeah, I read for a while. And then, uh, finally one of the producers got a, uh, a movie, greenlit, it was wayne's world.
Speaker 3:And so I was going oh, great, I get to be like oh my god.
Speaker 2:So you're gonna start work monday as a production assistant and I thought this is okay, this is it. Yeah, this is exactly what I want to do, um. But then I get the call on sunday night from the producer saying I'm sorry, um, I had to give away your pa position to the daughter of a CA agent. It's like oh crap and so.
Speaker 2:But you know, instead of pouting or instead of going, oh well, F you, I've done all this work for free, you know, I still showed up to his office on Monday to collect more scripts to read and the head of his development you know his, you know president of production, you know saw that that he just felt so bad. He said, okay, george, come here, sit down. And so I sat in his office while for two hours he called everybody up in town that he knew and said, hey, I got a kid here, he'd be great. You know, do you need an assistant? All type of stuff? He finally called joel silver, who at the time was like the action movie and he was doing the, the Lethal Weapon series. You know, yeah, die Hard. You know he was the king of action and said, okay, yeah, send him over. And so I went and interviewed with Joel Silver Productions and ended up getting a job at Joel Silver's production company.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oddly enough, also out of grad school. Exactly, and Girona was over right, Exactly.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, so, yeah. So I worked for Joel for a while and that was. I mean, that was probably the best film school you could have had.
Speaker 1:I can imagine Because we were there 24-7.
Speaker 2:There was always a film in prep, a film shooting and a film in post.
Speaker 2:So you would spend your mornings in script meetings with Mel Gibson on Lethal Weapon 3. Then you run over to the set of the Last Boy Scout, you know, to see, you know what Tony Scott and Bruce Willis were doing, and then you'd head to a soundstage where, like Russell, mulcahy was sound mixing Ricochet, you know. And so, yeah, you're seeing everything it took to make a movie, the whole process in one day, exactly, exactly. And so, yeah, I stayed there for a while and then, when his vice president was tapped to go run Columbia Pictures, he said I want you to come with me and be my assistant. And so I went with him over to Columbia Pictures and when I was there, you know, being his assistant, I'm working the phones, I'm doing everything an assistant should do, you know, like, just, you know, running rampant.
Speaker 2:Robert Rodriguez had just come to town with El Mariachi and he was just standing in the halls and he's watching me at my desk and he goes hey, you look like you eat, excuse me, you know, ever since I got here, these execs, these suits, have been taking me to places I don't know what the hell Hickam is. Where can I just get a good burger in this?
Speaker 1:town.
Speaker 2:And I go oh, come with me. So the next thing you know, I'm taking Robert on a junk food tour of LA. He notices on my desk I have a bootleg copy of John Woo's latest movie, hard Boiled, and he goes oh my God, can I borrow it? Yeah, sure you can borrow it. Next thing you know, he's moved into my apartment.
Speaker 2:He's sleeping on the floor of my bedroom because he wanted to pocket the hotel money in per diem that the studio was giving him so he could buy a car. He was working on low, low budget. No, no, omar actually was made for $7,000 on film back in the day and he raised that money by being a lab rat for some big pharma companies. They would test drugs on him and take biopsy samples out of his arm.
Speaker 2:And yeah, so it was just absolutely incredible. And so every night we'd go to Tommy Burgers or Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just some artery-clogging, delicious thing.
Speaker 2:And he would tell me how he made El Mariachi for $7,000. And it blew my mind. I mean non-sync sound, you know different frame rates, you know like. It's just like what. They broke every single rule that I learned in film school, that I learned working for the studios, you know. And I think he just got tired after a while of just telling me these stories because he said look, you know what you're doing. You know, you know what you're doing. You know film better than anyone else. And I'm nobody, I'm just this kid from Texas, you're like here in the studio. I said why don't you just go make a movie? And he'd go, yeah you're right.
Speaker 2:What's the matter with you? Are you not man enough? Go make a movie? I was like, okay, yeah, I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it to go make my movies. Like, yeah, I made mine for 7 000 I know nobody. You, you probably got more money, you. It's like, okay, yeah, so, yeah, um. So I went with robert's a sun dance, uh, when, where he premiered el mariachi, and they stuck around for a couple weeks and I wrote my first script, swimming with sharks, and then when I came back, I quit my job, um, and said I was gonna go be a filmmaker, and so, yeah, robert gave me that first push off the ledge.
Speaker 2:Now, when I did call robert, he said you did what, you quit your job it was like that scene from risky business, like, hey, you said you know what the fuck you know? He's just say what they're like oh dude, that was bullshit, can you get your job back? And I'm like, oh my god. So, um, yeah, I thought, okay, I'm gonna go make my own movie, you know robert's way with my own savings. Um. And so you know, I gave my apartment, I moved back and home, yeah, was swimming with sharks.
Speaker 2:Uh, self-financed uh, it was originally so. Okay, I was gonna shoot it for fifteen thousand dollars, I figure I got twice as much money as robert. You know, I'm gonna cast my friends. You're just gonna do this independent style, and you know, and robert had sort of given me the blueprint of how to do that.
Speaker 2:But because of the nature of who I'd worked for and worked with in the past, all of a sudden Variety, which is the town rag, the industry sort of newspaper, got hold of the script and I started being featured in their dish column. So the first week they wrote oh, wannabe filmmaker, george Wong, who's been assistant to so-and-so and worked with so-and-so and so-and-so, has written this gossipy tell-all script about his time as an assistant. And suddenly the script became the hottest read in Hollywood. Everybody wanted to get their hands on it and over the course of Variety it was like charting it. So week one I was considered a wannabe filmmaker by Variety. By week four they said young, promising filmmaker, I'm going. I haven't done anything. What are you talking about? They did the work for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was just taking meetings, but basically off the hype. I got signed with William Morris. A huge agency, Disney, came in. They optioned the script for 75 000, you know, and so I began sort of like development hell with them because they said, you know, um. They said, well, you know, the ending's kind of dark, can we change it where, like the you know so, swimming sharks is about an assistant who has had enough of the abuse and so he sort of turns the table on his abusive boss and kidnaps him one night and tortures him you know, and over the course of that night, you flash back to see what sort of drove him to this point.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, disney thought well, this is a really dark script and go, yeah, yeah, you bought. Did you not read it before you bought it? Oh my god, and so this is a touchstone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hello you know so, um, and they kept like making, like you know, they kept wanting to make change, like so the nonlinear structure, can you just tell it in a normal way? Let's come up with a happy ending where the assistant gets some sort of comeuppance in the boss in sort of a clever way, without killing him. I'm like, oh, my God, yeah, it's like all the James like going okay, yeah, you made that movie already. It was called the Secret of my Success with Michael J Fox. We don't need another one of those. You know, this is my version of it.
Speaker 2:So at the end of the day, I told Disney I don't think this is a fit. And they returned the money to them and said, okay, I'm going back to my original plan. You know this is like a year has gone by and so I've moved home with my parents, you know, who are just like going. Oh, what is he doing? You know like they would walk by my like room and I'd be, like you know, trying to do script revisions with like sock puppets talking to each other, and you know they would just like I could just feel them in the doorway just going. Oh, you know so. And they started to leave law school applications you know outside my bedroom door.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, um, it got to a point, like you know, people would call in like friends and family and say, hey, what, you know what's george doing? And said, oh, you don't need to worry about it. It's like, oh my god. Okay, you know, like, so, yeah, it was really. Oh my god, I'm becoming this great shame in the family. I better start making this movie.
Speaker 2:So I started to, you know, sort of, uh, go back to plan a. But you know, by this time it had gotten sort of bigger. You know, I, I now had access to some real actors. You know, uh, frank whaley, who was a big fan of you know, agreed to come and play the assistant. Um, and you know, kevin spacey, you know, read the script and said, okay, yeah, let's talk, let's meet, let's do it. Um, and so, with that sort of cast attached, it's like, okay, well, I can't just show up with like a 16 millimeter. Yeah, we have like real action, we got to make this a real movie.
Speaker 2:And so, uh, through sort of assistant friends of mine, uh, you know, one assistant, uh friend, uh, kimber wheeler, who I worked with at columbia pictures, said I have a friend who wants to get into the movie business and he has a trust fund, you know, and he really liked the script. So he came in for the first, like 250 000, and then he referred it to um, a lawyer friend of his, who got it to a hedge fund manager who was like managing uh, the uh, managing investments for the uh, I think it was the prince princess of japan, it wasty of Japan, yeah. And so they came in, you know, for another $250,000. That was enough to sort of get us started and get us moving and so, yeah, yeah so you know we got the first movie made.
Speaker 2:You know we shot in 18 days, super quick. It was right in the middle of the Northridge earthquakes. I mean it was just like. I mean, yeah, no of production is like okay maybe I'm not supposed to be directing, so the first day.
Speaker 2:You know I'm savvy enough, having worked in the studio. You know that. Okay, you have your call sheet which is when, okay, the crew is supposed to show up and then off that crew call. You want to get your first shot off as soon as possible because it goes in the production report. You know, okay, crew call was at 6 am, first shot off at 6.30.
Speaker 2:It shows that you're an efficient director, you know. And so I was like great, you know, I scheduled it perfectly. It's like it's just going to be a simple shot of Kevin Spacey driving into a parking lot oh no, that's it right. And so it's like okay, great, we rehearsed it, we're ready to roll. And somebody goes. I said what do you mean? You don't have any film, we forgot to get it. It's like okay, what time do they open? 9 am. It's like, oh my God, it's 6.30 am. So what am I supposed to tell the actors? Like, I don't know. So I didn't tell the actors Like, first day, you do not want a scene as this amateur, you know. Like, just, you don't know what you're doing. Doing. So I made kevin spacey rehearse pulling a car up for two and a half hours and he's like, staring at me, going, what are you doing?
Speaker 2:it's like I'm still not feeling. Can we go again? He goes I think I think I know what I'm doing like, no, it's still gonna be all right for me. So are you kidding? Yeah, so we got off to a really rocky start that first day. He didn't know what was going on and so, um, that was the first day. The second day, um, again, low-budget production. We weren't Union, we didn't have Teamsters driving the two tons, and so one of the trucks broke down on La Cienega, and it was a super foggy night, and so the PA driving the truck just left it there. But in the fog, a Porsche came zooming down La Cienega and ran right up into the back of the truck and exploded, and we lost all our props.
Speaker 1:So we went oh my, my god, that's the universe, just yeah, the universe, yeah. Telling me he's like okay, do you want it? Yeah, I do, I really want to be doing it.
Speaker 2:And then the third day was a northridge earthquake. And then that's I'm, kevin spacey and frank whaley going. Okay, that's it. This is sign of god. You should not be doing this movie. We're going back home to new york, and so I remember being the the hotel, on my hands and knees begging him, literally clutching my legs please stay, please, give me another chance, please, please, please, so, yeah, so you know, we just finished out the shoot and, yeah, I mean we are also amazed the movie turned out as well as it did, because, yeah, we're just like, oh, this is not meant to happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so from Swimming with Sharks to Weekend in Taipei, yeah, I'm sure the the, the production was different, you know. Oh yeah, but how has your career kind of evolved from that first film to this last film?
Speaker 2:right. Well, so my second film, um, you know, obviously like off the heat of that of swimming sharks is, you know, while it got picked up by a small distributor, and you know there's horror stories behind that too, yeah, yeah. So you know originally like we took it to film festivals and the film felt you know there's horror stories behind that too. Yeah, yeah. So you know originally like we took it to film festivals and the film festivals, you know, so great response. Miramax came to the table and said we'll give you $2 million for it. And you know it's like oh, you know, oh, my God. I told him. I said you're going to make money on this. That never happens. You know, in indie film we'll take negotiations. We do this for a living, so just sit back and trust us. So, literally watched them negotiate their way down to where we only had a $200,000 offer from Trimark Productions, which at that point was famously known for distributing the leprechaun in the movie. Yeah, so it's like oh, so, yeah, so technically, we still have not made money on some of these shows, so, anyways, but again the movie did what it was supposed to do. In fact, I often complain to the producers like, oh, I only got paid $5,000 to write and direct that movie. I said, oh, you guys got a bargain. The investor turned to me and goes George, you should have been paying us. I go yeah, you're right, you're absolutely right. This was a great calling card. It got my foot in the door, it got me legitimized as a filmmaker.
Speaker 2:And so what did I do with that capital? I went off and decided, you know, because so Many Sharks is about like you know, almost like eight, ten years of my life. So I figured, okay, what else can I mine? Oh, high school. So there was a high school comedy called trojan war which is basically about high school senior about to get the girl of his dreams if only he can find a condom. Goes out in the middle of the night, cannot find a condom to save his life. You know hijinks and seal, all that type of stuff.
Speaker 2:And it was going to be with warner brothers and, uh, chuck gordon. You know who? Um had just come off of waterworld, you know. And so was like great, everyone's excited about it. I cast Jennifer Love Hewitt, will Friedle from Boy Meets World, a lot of great cameos in it. It was going to be sort of my mashup of John Hughes and Martin Scorsese's After Hours. Well, things went sideways really really fast. It's like, oh, jennifer Love Hewitt's a minor. Given that this movie takes place all at night, she has to be wrapped by midnight, so effectively, you only get like an hour and a half of shooting time with her. I was like okay.
Speaker 2:You know, we'll make it work. You know, chuck Gordon, who was the producer of Waterworld, was coming off of that. I think he has an agenda. He wanted to prove that he could do a movie for a budget. So every night I get called in. It's like ah, you're out of control, you're spending too much money. I am oh my god, I'm so sorry. And so I started like ripping out script pages and, like you know, cutting down coverage. And then, you know, by the end of it, you know, I got called in by warner brothers and said okay, we budgeted this movie at 10 million dollars. You brought it in at six. This is the largest underage in Warner Brothers history. And I go okay, you're welcome. He goes no, our budget department is never wrong. Based on that, we do not think you have a movie. Yeah, so they never released a movie. It went straight to video, which at that time was considered the mark of death.
Speaker 2:And so I ended up in director's jail. Yeah, so yeah now.
Speaker 1:Now, if you had did that in like 2025, they're like oh my god, thank you. Yeah, come back again, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no but do this all the time, right? Well, it's funny because the movie did well enough in video where, like a lot of the execs and warner brothers who went off to other places, like oh, they would constantly call me in like a universal home video or fox home video. Hey, we're doing, you doing, you know, uh, a sequel, you know, to this movie. Will you come in and do it? So you know it's still got a lot of meetings out of it but, you know, effectively for sort of the big feature sort of career.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my career was over.
Speaker 1:you know, I'd love to chat more about cause you you're still making movies. You've you've helped others make make film and films and, um, I want to dig deep into kind of production in 2025 and production back when you started and kind of throughout the last couple of decades. But I think we'll save that for episode two. For today, we'll wrap things up and for this week, we'll wrap things up, and we'll see you next week, so.
Speaker 1:George, thank you for coming on the pod and, yeah, we'll continue to talk about cool stuff soon. All right, awesome, all right. Thank you everyone. See you next week. Thank you for listening to the Anywood Podcast. You can find us anywhere you find your podcasts or on YouTube on the Cinematography for Actors YouTube channel. See you next week.
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