Johnny Twennies - Part 2 - Everything Old is New Again

Don't throw the past away
You might need it some day
Dreams can come true again
When everything old is new again

-Peter Allen

In fashion, they call it retro when long-gone styles return to popularity. In film, it's just a constant.

The "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" crowd were steeped in film history, some even taught film. In Scorsese on Scorsese, the director from that group talks about influences not just in terms of movies as a whole, but even breaks down shots that inspired specific shots for his movies.

The maverick darling Quentin Tarantino talks endlessly about films that influenced him.

The animation series that broke the ground for the irreverent, clever adult series today, The Simpson, is steeped in not only old television but old styles of entertainment. Studies have been done on the "Cape Feare" episode, which is an inception inside an inspiration inside an inspiration.

The episode is directly inspired by Scorsese's remake of the 1962 pulp classic  Cape Fear (my personal preference). Sideshow Bob has captured Bart and is about to kill him. Bart's last request? That Bob (Kelsey Grammer) sing all of H.M.S. Pinafore by the 19th Century songwriting duo Gilbert and Sullivan - which he does!

Current animation bad-boy Seth MacFarlane (American Dad, Family Guy) not only opens Family Guy with a clear send-up of classic TV show All in the Family, but regularly references vaudeville, barbershop quartets, and old musicals, from Stewie and Brian's Road To Rhode Island, a tribute to the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby popular road movies to having Stewie dance with Gene Kelley.



These innovators don't live in the past; they take what the past taught them to create something new and fresh.

Johnny Twennies, which would be renamed Man of the Century* on it's release, was not a musical, but like many movies from the Golden Age of Cinema, had music in it.  The music is mostly a throwback to the era of the 1920s that is where Johnny seems to dwell, even though he is living in the 90s.

Adam and Gibson cast the movie from both young rising stars and movie and theater veterans.

The young performers included the lead characters friend, a "cub reporter" played by Anthony Rapp, just off his success in Broadway's Rent. Twennies love interest was played by the lovely Cara Buono, who has had success both on Broadway and has been a regular on television series The Sopranos and Third Watch, and received a Emmy nomination for her supporting character of Dr. Faye Miller on Mad Men.

Both Cara and Anthony were great to work with, but I got the biggest kick from the older stars that were cast. Among them was veteran New York character actor  David Margulies and impressionist and actor Frank Gorshin. Gorshin was a staple on 1960s television variety shows, doing impressions of everyone from Burt Lancaster to George Burns, who he later played on Broadway, but may best be remembered as The Riddler on the campy television Batman.

Margulies as the confused mayor in Ghostbusters

Gorshin as "The Riddler"

As Johnnie's mother, who is a product of the turn of the 20th century, we had the lovely Anne Jackson, who may be best known to audiences today as the doctor in The Shining, and also had a recurring role as a judge on Law and Order. That is a gross short-hand of her career in theater, film, and television, but as with many industry vets, much of their work is in supporting roles. She is seen below with performing legend and husband Eli Wallach (more on this in a later post).

Many jazz legends appeared in old movies in that were not musicals playing musicians, from Hoagy Carmichael playing piano for Lauren Bacall in To Have or Have Not, to Dooly Wilson's iconic "Sam" in Casablanca.

Johnny Twennies had Bobby Short, a cabaret legend.

Here is a fun piece of nostalgia featuring Bobby Short - raise your hand if you understand the campaign and even remember Shelley Hack!



The crew I put together also had a pairing of old and new.

I knew I needed an AD that would bring no surprises, and hired Brian Bentham, my 2nd AD from 1999, as 1st AD.

In the time between that movie and Johnny Twennies, Brian had worked on 1st AD on other films. In fact, Brian had been hired over me for a film where both of us appeared for interviews!

As one of my other former 2nds who later went on to 1st AD for me and others, Chris Kelley, once reminded me, "If you meet the Buddha along the road, you must kill the Buddha."**

One Buddha I wasn't killing just yet was Stan Bickman. my mentor. Not surprisingly, Stan was one of my references. When I was looking for a production manager and a production coordinator, I waded through resumes before the thought occurred to me: What if I hired Stan and his regular coordinator. Dianne?

Ok, maybe this was playing it a little close to the vest, but why not? If I were looking for someone with experience who I could trust, who better than the man who had taught me so much?

I approached Dianne first to see if it would be awkward for Stan to work for me. If Stan was my Gibbs, he would have smacked me across the back of the head. A job is a job, Stan would say, and who gets mad at being offered work?

Interesting, because in Buddhism, a whack is the vehicle for transmission of the Dharma in many koans. Can this possibly be the inspiration for the whack on NCIS? Then again, maybe I'm reading too much into all of this.

Gibson and Adam didn't miss the peculiar nature of the hiring. When I gave them the name of the production manager, they looked at me quizzically, wondering about the series of events where Stan referred me and then was hired by me. I had never hired Stan before, and pointed out, truthfully, that it wasn't even on my mind at the time of my hiring. Still, I understood how it looked, and only relied on the fact that Stan would do such a wonderful job that it would soon be forgotten.

I would also start my association with some new crew members on this shoot, but more on that as explanation of the shoot continues.

In the meantime, we had assembled quite a cast and crew, and were ready to begin production.







*In this blog, I often refer to movies I worked on by their original title, when I can remember them; hence, these posts are titled "Johnny Twennies."

**While this sounds blasphemous - or at least disrespectful, it's origin is actually from Buddhist teaching. See more on it here.

Party Like It's 1999 - Part 1 ...When the Big Man Joined the Band

"When The Change was Made Uptown

And the Big Man Joined The Band"

Bruce Springsteen

Tenth Avenue Freezeout

So, this post, this turning point in my career, starts with an Assistant Director getting replaced; and a good one. As I have pointed out, this is a more common occurrence than you might think.  As a matter of fact, it became something of a recurrent theme, as my first gig as First AD came replacing someone.

In this instance, it was someone I knew, and a very good Assistant Director. I never found out the reason for the change, but got a feeling it was mutual and not acrimonious. The brief introduction to the project by the producers did not include any scathing indictment of the previous AD, and my brief conversation with the previous AD did not come with recriminations of the producers. This was, at least, a good sign.

The movie, 1999, was about a party on the eve of the millennium, which was then a little bit away. It was being directed by Nick Davis. In speaking of my old friend, the talented writer/director Raymond DeFelitta, I pointed out how it was years after I first met him that I realized that his father had been in the business. Similarly, 1999 was long-wrapped before I discovered that he came from an industry family, and I mean, a
"breeding on both sides," as they say in horse racing, that would have impressed anyone. His father is film director Peter Davis, his paternal grandparents were both acclaimed screenwriters, and his maternal grandfather was the legendary Herman J. Mankiewicz.

I've worked with people who had a fourth cousin that was an assistant editor on a Scorcese film that reminded you of this hourly, and the fact that it never came up once in all my time with Nick says a lot about his character. The only equivalent I can think of is someone failing to tell you they were a Kennedy.

I did know there was something special going on. Here was a director without any lengthy resume shooting a film with some actors I knew, comic Steven Wright and The Graduate author and Saturday Night Live regular Buck Henry. I was also told that some of the young actors on the shoot were "up-and-coming," what I used to refer to as "industry hot." (much more on that in subsequent posts).  I certainly was not familiar with them. While IMDB had been around for a few years at that point, it was certainly not the industry standard it is today, so checking people's credits still had some mystery.

To the logistics of the movie:

All of the action took place in one townhouse. We were shooting the main action on 35mm, but director Davis, himself a documentary filmmaker, would also be a "character" who shot home movies on video, and that footage would also be used.

The townhouse was three floors, with most of the action on the first and second floors. Production and holding for actors was mostly on the third floor, so it would not have to be struck constantly. Because the party happens over one night, continuity was a big issue. We had to bring back most of the extras for background - it would make little sense to see different people in the background in every shot at a party that happens over one night. As I will also go into with subsequent posts, there were actor conflicts.

All of this meant I was walking into a lot of logistics to deal that had to be addressed without a real feel for how it was being handled.

On my first day, the producers walked me through, and introduced me to the two 2nd ADs, who had not been let go. One of my first decisions would be whether to keep the 2nds or replace them.

This was a hard one. I figured they knew a lot more about what was going on than I did, and that could be helpful. When these sorts of parting happen, however, producers sometimes like a clean break. All of the reasons to replace them would have been political. Would they resent me? Would it make the producers happy? Should I bring in someone loyal to me?

If you think politics has no place on a film set, well, good luck with that.

I did not have someone waiting in the wings. I had been PM and line producer more than an AD recently, so I didn't have a regular second, and my calls to the few seconds who I trusted turned up people who had either moved up to First AD or were not available.

Talk about good fortune.

I decided to give the two, Amy and Brian, a chance. If nothing else, they could guide me until I found replacements.

We didn't exactly shoot in sequence, but we tried to stick to it somewhat, so there was a lot of striking set, moving to the next one, coming back to the first. Not my preference from either a logistical or scheduling perspective, but, hey, we weren't there to make things easy for the 1st AD. I already had the luxury of one building to deal with; I was not about to complain.

So it was, a moment I will always remember. The PAs were responsible for striking sets and clearing rooms for the next set, while art department dealt with the details. We had a lot of PAs, almost all of them without much experience. It amounted to a lot of "hands," which was exactly what I needed as we wrapped one set and were moving on to the others.

Neither Brian nor Amy were shouters, which was good. Over the years, I had developed a calmer demeanor, and always hated screaming on set. It just sets such a bad mood, but, we were still in the age when, as one co-worker once famously said to me, an AD was often thought of as "a grip with an attitude." Sure, on DGA gigs, this would be ridiculous, but on the low-budget indies, we were doing our best to establish demeanor and rules in the absence of anything on paper.

I got on walkie and calmly said, "Hands, please." There was some shuffling and scuttling, but not in the way of movement into the room, certainly not as fast as I would have liked. I also only heard my two ADs reply with, "copy."

Now, this is a major annoyance with newbies on walkies, PAs who don't "copy." It means I don't know if you heard me and are just not doing it, you lost your walkie, you're "on a mission" (someone else in charge has you doing something) or just fell asleep in the corner.

I get back on walkie: "I need hands, please. PAs, please copy." Static.

As a deep sigh was leaving my lungs, I feel the movement erupts like a volcano. Over walkie comes this voice, calm but firm, only slightly raised.

"I heard JB call for hands. Is there a reason no one is copying?"

Next came an immediate string of "copy that"s, followed by PAs running into the room. Before the ones who were just outside the room made it in, there was Brian, my 2nd, having made it down two flights of stairs moving things and directing PAs.

In bad Rom/Coms, this is when they backlight people and play violins. Don't get me wrong, Brian and I are happily straight, but I took one look at this calm big man, making things happen, and I thought, "you're not going anywhere."

When working as a 1st, chemistry with your 2nd is important. It is even more important when you line produce and UPM and need to work with a 1st AD. The problem with 1st ADs who move up to UPM or line producer is we tend to either expect our 1st ADs to work like us, which is unrealistic, since no two people are alike, or we tend to micromanage. The solution is finding someone whose style may not be exactly like you, in fact, who can complement you with their difference, while respecting them.

This was that guy. A big man with broad shoulders (I later learned his friends called him "Biggs") he was nonetheless always calm and quiet, but when he needed to make a point, everyone listened. He commanded respect because of how he dealt with problems on set and, more importantly, how he dealt with people. We've worked together many times over the years, and never, not once, has anyone come up to me and asked, "why did you hire him?"

Truth be told, I think those same people liked him more than they did me. That's just fine by me - I tended to agree with them.

I love the calm Brian brings to a set. If I come on set as line producer, and things are a little off, I look at Brian, he will shrug his shoulders, then give me a succinct and simply explanation, one that I know that I can trust without an ounce of defensiveness.

Amy was very good as well, but had a very different personality. It was okay, they did complement each other, and I wasn't about to replace either of them.

Yeah, right then I knew what that look Springsteen gave the late/great Clarence Clemons meant. If you ever saw them live, you saw it, and never so much as when Bruce would sing those lines above, "..and the big man joined the band." It meant that finally, everything fit. It's the line I always thought about when Brian would have his first day with us on any shoot.

So, we were a team, a team that would work very well together, on a very creative and funny movie.

This was the beginning....