January
5Learning “Movie-Speak”
If you’re on a movie set and someone tells you, “Give me two Ts or a cowboy with the Jack Lord and make sure the BG is visible as you pan and maybe we’ll make that a one-er so just banana left,” what do you do?Well one option is to pick up a copy of a new book called “Movie Speak” by Tony Bill, which provides a helpful guide to movie slanguage. No, not Variety slanguage – the real on-the-set stuff. Having produced a number of memorable films (“The Sting,” “Hearts of the West”) and directed a few (“My Bodyguard,” “Untamed Heart”) Bill decided it would be helpful to publish an insider’s lexicon.
In his new book, Bill also mixes in a few chapters on his own experience, which add up to mini-memoir. Along the way, he concludes that acting provides the best preparation for directing (Bill not surprisingly was an actor) and declares that all directors, even veteran ones, feel in their hearts that “they’re really a fraud, and that this time it’s going to be a disaster.” He also provides some insights into the character of the stars that he’s worked with, giving Sinatra and McQueen, two very difficult guys, especially high marks for being gracious and helpful.
Bill has earned respect for his willingness to read scripts by first-time writers and provide guidance. He admits impatience, however, with writers who can’t figure out “an original, imaginative way of submitting a script.” “You just don’t mail it in,” he snorts.
Bill sites the example of how Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear, when they were first struggling to get into features, convinced Sinatra to read the script “Come Blow Your Horn.” One day they hired a moving truck to pull in front of Sinatra’s house, unload a big leather armchair, a reading lamp and a bottle of Jack Daniels together with, of course a script. Sinatra was sufficiently amused to read their script right away and even agreed to star in it.
You’ve got to use a little show biz to get into show biz, Bill recommends. He should know.
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Posted by: O.G.P. | 1/6/2009 6:04:03 PM