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Josefina Lopez Opens Up:
Talks Real Women Have Curves, Her New Play, Women in Media & More
By Amber Topping
Josefina Lopez is the talented and successful writer behind numerous plays, shorts and screenplays, so being invited to have a conversation with the talented playwright and screenwriter was truly a pleasure. We covered many subjects from her successful play and film Real Women Have Curves (which was the breakout role for America Ferrera) to the misrepresentation of how women are portrayed in the media, her new play that recently premiered at her theater Casa 0101 in Boyle Heights, A Cat Named Mercy, and more. Warm and articulate, Ms. Lopez shared stories from the personal to the inspirational about her life and work.
To start, can you tell me a little bit about your background and how you became interested in writing, whether playwriting, screenwriting, and how you got into that?
I came to this country when I was five-years-old. And I grew up in Boyle Heights and I hardly saw Latinos on television growing up. And of course there was a Spanish network but I hardly saw any Latinos; and when I did start seeing Latinos they were always playing the bad guys, always the drug dealers and the maid. And I mean, the maids are not the bad guys but they were either the criminals or the servants…And it really bothered me because my parents were really hard-working people and very dignified and they just got them…with this distortion of truth. And so then I just started writing when I was about sixteen-years-old because I was so angry at how many injustices I saw.
It was my parents telling me that it was a waste to educate women because my Dad came from a rural background; and he himself didn't have an education. So he had these really old world beliefs about not educating women. So I had a lot of fights with my father about this. And then I wrote my first play at 17 as a way of expressing all my anger and how unfair life is for a woman and for a Latina. And then I entered into a playwriting contest and then I won and then the play got made. That's how it really started, is that it was a source of my anger…I couldn't do therapy either because I'm also very empathic with other people's feelings. It's a little too much sometimes. So writing plays was a way of channeling all that pain and anger.
So at 18 I had my first production and then that's how it all started. And then about 21, I wrote my first full length play and then Warner Brothers, a producer at Warner Brothers read the article about my play, Real Women Have Curves and then that's how I became a member of the Writer's Guild. They optioned it and I wrote the screenplay and the movie didn't get made until 11 years later.
Oh wow. That's a long time.
That's how my writing career started.
So let's talk Real Women Have Curves. It was a play, it was a feature film—
Now we're working on the musical.
Yeah! So how important has this story been to you? All these years and it's still something everybody talks about.
When I first wrote it, it was just about me and the sewing factory and the truth and then 11 years later when it did become a movie it was part of a movement of other forms of expression or stories being told about how unfair it is that women are measured by a very different standard physically and sexually in so many different ways. And so when the movie came out, it came out at the perfect time. It came out, I think I remember when the club Curves was coming out…even My Big Fat Greek Wedding I think was coming out around the same time. It was a wave. And so it was so wonderful that me and the sewing factory was a bunch of women, you know? That was one experience but then it became something universal. And I think that's why it was very successful. And I think that's why the story lives on. And it's so wonderful ‘cause I see that Real Women Have Curves is studied in colleges now and in high schools and I really like that it’s been embraced. It's recognized and I see anger that you should feel at being oppressed this way.
I don't think that there's enough stories out there whether a play, movie, about real women having real conversations with each other. There definitely needs to be more movies like that, more stories. So I thought it was great.
Yeah, there should be because—And part of the reason, this is why I try to educate people on this when I lecture at universities and high schools and women's groups, is that people ask: "Why is the image of women so distorted?" And I go, "Well for many reasons." One of them is that Hollywood makes films for men ages 13 to 35. That's who they're trying to get an audience, right? So all the women represent fantasies, sexual fantasies for these men.
True.
And that's why women are a size zero, really skinny blondes...like a certain look. And that isn't real characters, it's just a look. And the other reason is, and I've experienced this myself, is that the majority of the writers, directors, producers are men. And the way that happens is—and I've been rejected from film school six times.
Wow.
Different ones too: Like AFI, Cal Arts, USC, UCLA… And I have gone to film school but a different program. And people are surprised, and I think "Yeah, I was always told I was not promising and it was men interviewing me. And even in one university, one college, one high school, I was told I was not gonna fit in because I was way too successful and way too articulate... (And I was going in for producing and most of the directors tend to be upper middle class males and I'm 27). And that I was gonna clash with them, and that's why I wasn't allowed in. But their typical client was a male, a rich male, because that's who the director is. And I was like, "Oh my God, I should have recorded this conversation.” Of course they wouldn't have let me because this is outright racism.
But this is also why it's a type of person who becomes a director. And it tends to be a masculine male and then these schools favor this type of person. And so there's a lot of women directors, but they're not usually given these assignments because they have to prove themselves. And even after they've proven themselves, and have so much more sexism, that's also why we can't get all these stories about women. And to me, I just get sick of it because even when Hollywood is attempting to tell a story about women, a woman's a size zero and she's a movie star and we're there to look at how beautiful she is.
Right.
Virtually the character has a PHD and to me, I tell people that's worse now. Because now this woman, brilliant, has a PHD in astrophysics or whatever her title is, but she's like this beauty queen. And it's like, "Oh great!" [Laughs] We work hard enough but now we have to be beautiful? It's just ridiculous, you know?
Yeah, it's like the strong wonder woman who doesn't actually reflect real women. I don't know. You see more of that.
You just don't have time to do it all. Like there's a bomb and explosion and she just appears with makeup…
I know. Yeah, it's not very real.
That's how you know this is a man's movie is a woman wakes up looking beautiful in the morning with makeup. I'm like, "how does she do it?" [Laughs]
Yeah, it's strange.
Usually it's not a movie for men and I joke with people; because men can't get sex when they go to the movies, especially young men. They can't buy sex so they go buy a ticket and then they fantasize about these women and they go out and masturbate. And I think for women we have other needs. And we’re also much more auditory beings rather than visual beings.
So, changing the topic a little bit to talk about your play. For the readers who aren't familiar can you describe what your new play, A Cat Named Mercy is all about?
[A] Cat Named Mercy centers around Catalina Rodriguez who is a life and vocational nurse, an LVN, whose hours get cut to part time as part of a discriminatory practice that she discovers later. Or we discover, the audience, later. And she loses her health care coverage and benefits and soon discovers that she has a cancerous tumor in the uterus and has to get it operated right away. And because she lost her health insurance and she has a previous condition she's denied health insurance. And so she's really in a horrible situation and she has a panic attack. And then in the alley of this high class, residential--nursing home, a cat, an alley cat comes to comfort her. And this alley cat she calls Mercy. This alley cat helps her overcome this panic attack and really just kind of ends up guiding her because she doesn't know what else to do except pray because she has to take care of a blind, diabetic mother who is somewhat schizophrenic, and she's always taking caring of people who are in a nursing home, and she's just like a caretaker to the point where she has totally neglected herself.
What she does then is she's just trying to figure out what to do, how to either get another part time job, how to survive. And you just see how much she takes care of people to a point where it really is detrimental to her health. And then this cat is a magical, white cat and it's played on stage by a puppeteer dancer, a woman who's a dancer with puppets. And this cat eventually takes her to people who are ready to die. And then one of the things that happens is—so there's this woman, she's white and she's from the South and she's being brought to the Nursing Home and she basically doesn't want to be touched by anyone not white. Obviously she's old generation, old way of thinking. And this woman, one of the LVN that Catalina has trained…She basically has trained this one woman and now this young woman actually ends up getting a full time job. And Catalina doesn't understand why; she trained her and she's had seniority and discovers that it's because she's white. And one of things that this facility is doing is that they're transitioning from a middle class residency to like a boutique, luxurious residency and they're slowly getting rid of their brown and black staff and from Latino staff. So she's one of the last Latina women.
And there's another woman Joy, who's Filipina and American. And so Joy sort of discovers it too, finally finds out what's happened. But it’s done subtly so that no one could sue. So anyway, there's this white woman named Kitty, she's given the wrong medication by the younger LVN who Catalina trained and so she has a near death experience and Catalina has to perform CPR. And then she comes back from this near death experience touched by the light. And so she really understands what's going on and…she's really touched to the point where Catalina's a little afraid of her because she realizes that this woman wants to go home. She wants to die. And she knows about Catalina's cancerous tumor….Catalina is so afraid because [Kitty] is saying, Catalina, "If you help me die, I'll help you live. I'll give you money so you can use this money toward your surgery." And Catalina doesn't want to do it at first and then eventually this cat guides her back to her. And it's almost like this cat helps inform Catalina as to who's ready to go. And then Catalina helps them die because they've asked her to…
There's one character who’s in a lot of pain who just doesn’t want to be here anymore but she's not running away; she finally accepts that she wants to go home to her real family on the other side. And then another character, the spirit of his wife keeps visiting him. And the spirit keeps telling him to help Catalina but also to come home now. And so it's a very different type of assisted suicide.
And so then the grand design of it all is that at the end Catalina is sort of found out. And then Catalina is forced to expose herself as far as with what she's done. And as a result of that she goes to jail. But in jail you get full healthcare and coverage, medical benefits. And as a result of that her life is saved. And I did that to show the ridiculousness, you know and it’s like, "Wow, you could be a criminal and get full health coverage?” And when you've been the kind of person like Catalina who's devoted her whole life to be a service to people you get, "screw you." And it's sad.
Yeah, it is.
And so then she ends up in jail but Joy who is the Filipina American Nurse, head nurse RN, comes and tells her that she did deal with suicide matters—that these two people left suicide letters. And that she's gonna fight for her to try to get her life sentence reduced, so that she can get out sooner if they can show it was suicide and that these people wanted to die but it wasn't murder. Anyway, it's funny because at the end Catalina, all the things she never learned like setting boundaries, like standing up for herself, like fighting back, like expressing anger, she now ends up learning in prison. And she kind of ends up experiencing freedom for the first time because she was born into a situation where there was a lot of trauma…it's really very dark. We call it a dark comedy.
Right.
Looking at trauma and how the horrible thing happened where the father molested the daughter, the older daughter. And repeatedly doing it because the mother wasn't intervening and so then the daughter decided to hang herself. And so rather than the family discovering the body, the father hid the corpse and then he took off. And so the mother, because of the incredible shock of this loss, has created a story in her mind where the daughter ran away and that the father went to go look for her; that they're coming back. And the daughter has to take care of her mother. And just [she] had no life of her own because she had to be caretaker from the very beginning. And then the trauma losing her sister, her mother, her innocence and losing everybody, she had to repress because she had to take care of her mother. And so then the trauma manifests as a cancerous tumor sixteen years later.
I've been teaching writing classes for years now. In all the ten years, one of the things that I've discovered is that most of my writing students are coming to write about a trauma that they had at least ten years ago. Usually after ten years we can start dealing with a trauma, but if we refuse to deal with a trauma then it sometimes shows up as a disease or a cancer. So then now we have to deal with it physically if we're not willing to deal with it emotionally or spiritually.
So what was it about this particular story that inspired you to write about it now in your life?
I wanted to celebrate the Affordable Care Act being passed and now a law because I was denied coverage twice. I was denied coverage by Blue Cross because I had had the first stage of cancer because of the HP virus...
Oh, wow.
And it was taken care of. I got the procedures done and it was fine. And that was like a couple years ago. I was living in France because the difference was that I'm a member of the Writer's Guild. And when you work and you make a certain amount of money you get healthcare. But then when I decided to [go to] France and take time off to write my novel, to have my second child, to take time off, then I had no insurance because I wasn't working. And then when I came back to the U.S., when I applied for insurance I got denied. And I was like, "ridiculous.”…So I went without coverage and luckily I got insurance again through Writer's Guild but it's been tough these past years. I haven't gotten any writing assignments and so I had to apply for health insurance again. And then I got denied again because I had, had a total knee replacement. And you're not supposed to have one until your sixty. And I'm like, well I needed one, and my spine was going crooked, so I had to get one. And then there's also that I was penalized and so I was denied coverage again. So I was like, "this is so unfair." You know?
Yeah.
[Laughs] So I wanted to show the ridiculousness of that. And also, I had heard a story. Well there's a couple of ones. The other one is of Doctor Elizabeth Kubler-Ross [who] wrote many books on death and dying as I'm sure you know. Her Quest book about the dying process; and then her later books dealt with what happens when you die and you're at hospital and you're dying and all the conversations that people would have as the veil was lifting. And all the relatives, deceased relatives [of] that person would show up. And they would have conversations and then, the angel—I mean, the stuff that would happen in the rooms when people were dying, she just documented that. And she talked about how oftentimes...Like one experience where there was a family that all were rushed to the emergency room because they were in a car accident. And they had to take half of the family to the other hospital because there was no way they could take care of all of them. And she knew who had died based on who this person, you know, the person survived. And they were talking to a spirit of someone of their family. She knew that their person at the other hospital hadn't made it and they were coming to say goodbye.
And then she had this other experience where she had considered giving up this research on death and dying because there was so much criticism and it was so difficult for her to continue because scientists don't want to look at that, at death. Because it just goes beyond the scope of what medicine and science is. So she wanted to continue, but she considered giving up. So then one day, she had a woman visit her and this woman said to her: "You can't give up. This is so important. Humanity needs this. You have to continue." And so then, this woman who she didn't recognize fully but she knew she knew her, convinced her till she said: "You know, you're right. I'm not gonna give up on the key point." And so after, the woman said: "Okay, great." And she left. And then after the woman left, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross said, "Oh my God, now I know who that woman was. That was a patient of mine. She died months ago. She died with the spirit. The spirit came to talk to her. And that's when she knew that, wow this made an impact…that she had to come back and tell me.”
And so I wanted to incorporate what Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross said and what she said is that: “Nobody dies alone.” And I said, “Oh that's a beautiful message” because I think why we so afraid? Because we think it all ends and we also are afraid to leave behind those we love. And then she said something else, it was really profound. She wrote this book with David Kessler who's also an expert on dying and he said that one of the things that happens is when we're afraid to let go of the hand of a dying relative. And so instead of the person dying, afraid to let go of their relative, they don't realize is that someone is already [holding] their other hand on the other side.
Yeah, that's nice.
If one's already ready to die, then you know. So I wanted to capture that with the play. And another thing is that there was this cat named George in a nursing home that would go to comfort people right before they were gonna die. And this is a true story and so after he would do this a couple times, they thought, "Oh maybe this is just a coincidence or maybe the cat smells death or whatever." But after the cat [did this many times] they realized that this wasn't a coincidence, an accident. That this cat [was] in tune with the psychic, you know.
Intuitive…
So I wanted to take this story but it had been many years since I saw this story. I said, "Well maybe we could add the little twist where the cat is the one guiding Catalina to the people who are ready to go home. And when she gives them the injection then the cat comforts them. But the cat is also helping people die even without Catalina." So this idea of this cat, and that's why it's called A Cat Named Mercy—so the cat represents kind of a divine spirit comforting those who are dying. Catalina's also dying and that's also why the cat comes to comfort her. And there's also this electromagnetic field interacting with her electromagnetic field, so she's able to stay alive a couple more days to be able to do what she's doing; and then eventually she breaks down and she's dying. And in one of the scenes she's actually happy to go home but then the spirits as a people that she helped die, come to her to tell her don't go into the light, you're too young. You know, they haven't had a life, you really need to stay and so she decides to stay. Anyway, it's a very beautiful play. It's really been funny because some of our critics hate it. And we've been told that they just hate the play.
Yeah, that happens.
And I think some of the critics who hate it, I think a lot of them are white male. I tell people that death is an affront to your ego and especially to masculinity because masculinity a lot of it is a false self. It's your ego. So the idea of dying, people wanting to go home or die is like such an affront to having any kind of control. But in reality you do have control because you have free will. Your soul has free will of when you want to die. We just don't know that that's what we do.
It's a powerful message and idea, an image of the cat representing this divine figure. I love that. It's great.
Have you seen any of the video [the youtube links]?
I did not see the links. I actually would love to be able to see the play. Is it going to extend beyond the Feb. 23rd dates at all?
No, no because we have a play coming up right after.
Oh, okay. I live in Arizona which is the only reason I haven't been able to see it.
Yeah, yeah. If you look up A Cat Named Mercy there's two of them [youtube videos]. One is in Spanish and then the other one is in English. And it's like two minutes. So you can see the visuals. And I think I have the one with a puppet.
I will definitely watch that.
You know, we've had people out in the audience watch it and people have had near death experiences happy to see this play because they're like, "It's so great because I couldn't talk about it and now I can talk about it. Now it's just okay to talk about it." And then other people who have had people die, they're like, "You know, I feel better now because I know that my Mom wasn't alone when she died." But then I also recognize that, and I told the cast, I said, "Don't be offended if people don't come back after the second act. It could be too much for people to watch a play with racism.
Yeah, it's hard.
People are used to one subject at a time and I'm not like that because, I go, "You know, as a Latina woman who's not a size four or a six, I have so many different types of issues to work with in one day, you know?" [Laughs] …That to me, that's realistic. It's like, you know, when something goes bad—and this is what's interesting, when something goes bad it doesn't just stay bad, it gets worse. Because as soon as you start experiencing like one bad thing and you stay there and you don't get out of it, that energy pulls more bad things to you.
Yeah, attracts it.
So in that sense, the character's like, you know, her mother's become schizophrenic, she's dying, she gets her hours cut—it’s just everything in the kitchen sink is thrown at her. And she's just doing the best she can. And so I did this because sometimes, some people—I think one of the first performances we had there was a woman who brought her daughter because they were a part of a class that came, college students. And the woman said, "Oh my God, I love your play but I can't stay to watch the second act because my mother just died and I'm starting to feel all the pain. And for her, she was still incomplete because I think she probably felt guilty that she put her mother in a nursing home. And I told the actors some people when they watch this, and at the end of the first act they go, "you know what this isn't for me, I don't want to have this, I don't want to think about this." Or you trigger too many things. And that's okay.
So I wanted to write this now because I haven't been afraid of dying just because when I was a little kid I heard an adult conversation about how the world was gonna end. My brother was arguing about [how] the atomic bombs were gonna destroy the world. And he was only like maybe twelve or whatever. He had learned at school that atomic bombs could destroy the world. And my mother was Catholic, very Catholic. She said, "No. It'll be God destroying the world." And I was like, "Oh My God, I don't want to hear this conversation." But they really instigated me thinking about my life, like wow, I'm gonna die? And so I decided that I was gonna really look at dying. That dying was gonna be something I make peace with because then your whole life is spent resisting dying. And then you're just about survival, and not about making a contribution to humanity or being present enough to say, “Well what do I want my life to be about?” And so I think that changed the way I saw my life. I said, “Wow I could die any minute.” And it's funny because I've had many experiences where I almost died. But I had divine intervention. And you know, I had many instances where I was shown what was gonna happen before it happened, seconds before so that I could do something about it and move. But yeah, yeah like I've had several supernatural experiences.
That's powerful.
Like my life being saved, yeah. So then I realized that death is not random. If death was random I would be dead already. Because then I said, “No I have something I'm supposed to do, and I'm supposed to have a long life and I'm not allowed to die yet.” [Laughs] …I teach classes on the paranormal because...
Oh really? That's very interesting.
...Because I befriended a man who was like the third, one of the top three experts in the paranormal in the U.S. And we became friends as a result of meeting him and working with him on a screenplay. I learned a lot, and then I just said, “I'm gonna have to keep learning.” And so I try to teach people that we know, we have free will, like even when you have dreams for instance...Sometimes people have dreams. You're shown these dreams because your soul is saying, are you ready to go? Because if you're ready to go, then don't do anything when this happens. But if you're not ready to go then do this, do something else, you know, or change this. And you're given these premonition dreams to change. But if we do intend to go, it's you're time to go cause you will decide before it incarnated that you were gonna exit by this time if you learned your lesson. So I guess I have a lot of lessons to learn; that's how come I'm not allowed to die.
Me too. [Laughs]
Yeah.
So let's talk a little bit about your theater Casa 0101. Was it always a dream of yours to one day have your own theater?
Yes. You know, it's funny, yes. When I was 18 years old, I remember thinking most people who grew up in Boyle Heights their dream was to save enough money to get out of Boyle Heights and go to [where] the successful Latinos go like Montebello which is just like ten minutes away. But I remember thinking… my family, the American Dream is getting a house and a pickup truck. Or a big car, you know? And for me, my American Dream was always to get educated so that I could be free. And in my thoughts and my mind...And so for me I never aspired to own a house, it wasn't like something that important…so for me having a theater is kind of like my version of a house because then I could share it with so many other people.
But the other reality was that even after I had a lot of success with Real Women Have Curves (I had like 19 productions of the play), I couldn't get a production in Los Angeles. No one would produce my play. And when I submitted it to people, they would give me really bad feedback like these women were undignified, that they didn't want to present Latina women this way, and a bunch of other stuff that I thought was kind of condescending. And even outright telling me that they didn't care how my Chicana diatribe—and this and that. I mean, really these were men too; a couple women. And I was really shocked, you know? Because I said, “Wow how could my play be hated this badly when it's been produced 19 times with huge success?” So after a while I said, “You know, I can't.”
And here's the thing, I was complaining about it and then a friend of mine who was in a leadership class with me said, “Well maybe you're supposed to produce it. Maybe that's why it hasn't been done.” And I was like, “Oh Man she's right. I'm supposed to.” So then I used my student loans from UCLA, I was getting my Masters degree and I decided to use that money to produce it in a tiny little theater that didn't ask for money upfront. And then I had a successful six week run and then we extended it. Then a producer came and saw it. And anyway, but I started producing theater because no one would produce my plays in Los Angeles. And it was to me ridiculous. But then I realized, hey maybe I'm supposed to do it because maybe I really need to take charge of telling the stories of my community that aren't being told; and the stories of women that aren't being told. And that's why I started my theater because I also wanted to help other women and Latinos tell their stories.
And it's so wonderful to have a real theater now and then one of the things that I'm trying to do now is start Latino theatre rows and encourage many Latinos to write plays and tell their stories. ‘Cause there's several theatre rows in Los Angeles so I want to start one in the East Side, because it's funny that we're in majority here in Los Angeles, the Latinos, and yet we're still pretty invisible in television and film. And so at least we can do it in theater. So I'm trying to at least represent ourselves in theater because there's just so many stories and there's also a whole spectrum of the Latino experience that I want to show. And so yeah, so I opened another stage called Real Women Have Curves Studio. And people just say, “Oh you're going to be the Mayor of like these two blocks…”
Yeah. I love the mission statement of your theater, a love letter of sorts to Boyle Heights.
Yeah.
And the idea of nurturing future storytellers who will change the world is an amazing idea and being able to provide opportunities for people to have classes. I think it's wonderful.
Yeah…I walk into the theater and it's so wonderful to see so many people lit up and inspired. One of the things that I wanted to do, is this community was the home of so many immigrants, but this community was so neglected by the city to the point where it was so violent. And then the city realized they had to do something. And so, to me, I see that this is one beacon of light; that we need a lot of light because there was so much violence. I didn't know this growing up because I was lucky that I was a part of an intact family, that there were 87 gangs in the city.
That's a lot.
I was like, “Oh, My God.” So to me, the way you fight the darkness is not with more darkness, you fight it with light and that's why it was such a big deal. And so to us, I just wanna be like a little beacon of light so that little kids [that see] the gang life feel that there's another way…
Have you started to see a positive influence that the theater's been on the community?
I have. I have seen it because now people can say, "Oh yeah, we have a theater.”…We have these things that in rich neighborhoods people just take for granted. And I wanted to create a space that I wish I could have attended when I was a little girl; I wish could have inspired me when I was a little girl, you know, so I'm happy to say I got educated so that I could come back and share this education with people. And then, inspire other people who are also educators, also people who grew up in the neighborhood to come back and contribute back to the neighborhood instead of just --because so many people take, take, take from this neighborhood. But they don't realize, well, you also need to give back.
Give back, yeah. No, I love that even on the site it says that no one is turned away for lack of funds which is really great because that's so rare and it's a wonderful opportunity for people who want to be able to learn and experience who probably wouldn't have had the opportunity otherwise which is fantastic.
No, it's true. I teach screenwriting and playwriting classes for ten dollars. And I tell people, you know, it's so hard because when you look at the screenwriting classes that they do have, they're about $350.
They're insane, yeah.
And then you go, yeah, you know as a writer sometimes you're like, do I pay rent to take a writing class? And yeah, so to me it's kind of like I don't want to make it hard—because it's hard enough to be a writer. It's a very hard road. I try to make it as easy as possible.
That's great! So changing gears a little bit, you also wrote a book. Can you talk a little bit about your first book, Hungry Woman in Paris?
Yeah, it's a novel. See, I wasn't living in Paris and I was gonna spend my time with my kids and then I got really bored, so...[Laughs] You can only do so much with your kids. And I didn't speak French, so I convinced my husband, because it's very pricy obviously to go to Cordon Bleu Cooking School, so I figured, you know what, I want to go to cooking school so that I can write a novel and then I told my husband, "I'll cook dinner for you, this and that." And so I went; and I decided to write a novel because I wanted to tell a story, like an erotic story that takes place in Paris with a Latina that wasn't about falling in love. And I wanted it to be about a woman who finds her calling in life or at least finds meaning in life. Because she's really depressed and then she kind of has to reach into all the fire within to cooking, and there are these sexual experiences that sort of bring her back to life… And I wanted to treat men like food, you know?
I remember seeing a book called Men Are Just Desserts. And I just remember thinking, “Wow,” that the message of that self-help book was don't make men the main entree, make them dessert. Everything in your life and what you want and what you need and then have men complement that. And in many ways the story [Hungry Woman in Paris] is about a woman who's trying to find a reason to live because she is kind of depressed. And she's also a journalist. And this takes place around the time when they were lying to us saying that there were weapons of mass destruction, that we had to go to Iraq, and all this stuff...You know, we knew it was a lie and I protested and we protested and then still they went. And the censorship of the media…
Then one of the things that was happening too is that in the war up there we send the Mexicans and the Blacks at the frontline. In so many wars, Latinos die disproportionately because when they enlist they're always sent to the front lines. And that's why there were a lot of protests in the ‘70s about this. And so she starts reporting on—like a lot of Latinos still undocumented signed up for the military because this is the fastest way of getting your green card and U.S. citizenship; and so she would write stories about this but then they were basically being killed, these stories. And so she really got tired of the censorship and decided to walk away from the writing career.
She's supposed to get married and she decides to break off her engagement to a Doctor, and decides to just use the plane tickets for her honeymoon to go by herself and figure out what she wants; to get away from her family who think that she's gone crazy for breaking off her engagement. It’s about a woman who needs time off; she needs a year to kind of really figure her life out. And it's funny ‘cause I was writing this at the same time that Eat Pray Love was coming out in the U.S., I'd been away, so I said, “Oh wow.” Yeah, I think the idea of a woman taking care of her needs: Spiritual, Emotional, Sexual; and owning her hunger. You know, the fact that when men want sex it to them it's like there's no shame around wanting sex because it's like they're hungry. They have to feed themselves, you know. As a woman, she just wants sex for sex sake. There's this whole guilt, a lot of guilt attached to it, especially Latina women. And so I wanted just to write a book about women owning their hungers, their sexual and their spiritual hungers—basically how hungry women are; and not just even about dieting. Because I think that most women are on a diet that that's kind of our reality…From the very young we're on a diet. And we go hungry in so many ways.
That's true. Well I definitely will check the book out, spread the word…
Yeah, and I mean it is very erotic. So sometimes I've been criticized for that. And I said, “No, you know what?” I also wanted to explore Latina sexuality because we're always seen as these hot senoritas and our sexuality is just taken for granted; that it's really there to be a service to white men and we were eroticized and so I wanted to really show a much more realistic look at sexuality. And even some Latina women blush when they tell me, “My God.” But with them they're saying, “Wow, I'm so jealous that you could do this ‘cause I could never do this.”
They'd probably be too embarrassed.
Yeah. They're too embarrassed or if they have done whatever this character has done, Camilla, they wouldn't admit it. And they wouldn't definitely write about it. And so to me, I said, you know I wanted to really look at sex from this woman's point of view. And yeah, I didn't want to write a romance novel. And I think that's probably the reason I had like little disagreements with my editor because I think wasn't used to a woman being so real about sex or about things that women aren't supposed to do. And I wanted to write a story about a quote on quote bad girl. There's a saying that good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere. And so I wanted to take her so many places that men automatically get to go. And yeah, I wanted to take her to places that women, a lot of Latina women aren't allowed to go.
Well, before we wrap up, do you have any other upcoming projects? Or is there anything else you wanted to add?
Yes, I just, again—I was writing all these screenplays thinking that after my big hit with Real Women Have Curves, I would get more movies made. And it was really disappointing to discover that ten years had passed and no, I couldn't get a movie made. So I decided to start producing films. So I produced my first film called Detained in the Desert. You saw my play about SB 1070, the anti-immigrant laws in Arizona. And it's called Detained in the Desert. And so right now I'm taking it to different film festivals, and then I'm trying to get it distributed. I've decided to just be responsible for all of my dreams. And to say: if anybody wants to help me, great, but that's it. I'm not waiting like Cinderella…for it to happen. [Laughs] Not waiting. It's not up to anyone else to make these dreams come true. And it's great ‘cause now I know how hard it is to make a movie. But now I know how to make a movie. Yeah.
Awesome. Okay, well thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me and share your stories. So thank you.
Okay, thank you. Okay, bye.
For those of you who would like to find out more about Josefina’s upcoming play dates check out her theater’s website for Casa 0101: http://www.casa0101.org/
For other information, head on over to Josefina’s personal website here: http://josefinalopez.co/
To learn more about Amber Topping, check out her vintage inspired (yet modern) media blogzine: http://www.silverpetticoatreview.com/
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- Written by Amber Topping
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How To Take A Great Selfie in Yosemite
By Eric Weintraub
The Yosemite Valley was a paramount source of inspiration for famed photographer Ansel Adams. When you go hiking through the sweeping valleys and towering hills of Yosemite, you too will be tempted to pull out your camera every five seconds to ask your friends to photograph you. If your friends have become tired of taking a picture of you in front of every lake or meadow you pass, you should think about taking a selfie. Selfies aren’t as easy as the high school girls of Facebook make them look. They can come out awkward: you wouldn’t want a close-up of your face blocking a shot of Tioga Pass, or for your disproportionately huge nose and right cheek to distract from Half Dome. With these tips, you’ll be able to take the perfect selfie in the most beautiful place on Earth.
TAKE LOTS OF PHOTOS
DON’T TAKE THE PHOTOS TOO SERIOUSLY
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF NATURAL LIGHT
DON’T GO TOO CRAZY WITH FILTERS
KNOW WHEN TO PUT THE CAMERA AWAY
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Bloodhoney
By Harun Mehmedinovic
If you have not read Reap's profile on Harun and learned about him, his philosophy or watched his TED presentation, please do so by clicking on this link.
Foreshadow
Visit Harun Mehmedinoviv's website, Bloodhoney by clicking here.
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- Written by Amber Topping
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A Diary Of A Feature Film
Hybrids
By Peter Wooley
Update: Click here and be one of the first to watch the trailer of Peter Wooley's film, HYBRIDS, then scroll down for Peter's final diary entry.
Peter Wooley, production designer and author, is sharing his diary about his adventures as a first time producer on Hybrids starring Paul Sorvino and Caroline Hennessy. The film was written by Tony Schweikle, directed by Tony Randal and produced by Tony Schweikle and Peter Wooley.
Peter is the author of the wonderfully, funny book "What! And Give Up Show Business: A View From the Hollywood Trenches" is available on Amazon here. Read his delightful stories about working with such greats as Mel Brooks, Chevy Chase, Dom Deluise.
"Hybrids?...What the hell are you talking about, Tony? We both drive a Prius. What else do you need to know? The world does not care to know how, what, when, where, or why a car got built in script form, yet. Tony, take a rest. Go home to Italy, and look out on that Terranian Sea and write something about two old men wanting to make a movie. Now that’s something we know something about.”
Tony Schweikle, my partner in crime was telling me about this half-assed idea he had for a script. “Listen, Dummy, this is a good and current idea, and I’m gonna’ damn well write it. Play this on your piano: Brother and sister-late teens, early twenties-their father is a vampire and their mother is a witch. They live in this old, cold castle up inna’ mountains. They are home schooled and rarely get an opportunity to mingle with the masses, and they have the abilities of both a true witch and a true vampire.”
Now, if you looked at Tony Schweikle, you wouldn’t think ‘He looks like a smart dude.’ Sorry, but at our age, that’s just not the way it is. We are both wiggling up against “old.” We are both working on our weight and a number of other physical misfortunes. We have both been through the mill.
Now Tony is prone to good ideas. I, on the other hand, am prone to bad jokes and warm hearts. He has about a half dozen scripts in various stages of undress ready for the taking. I just finished my second book, first novel, You Only Go ‘Round Once available on Amazon.
Long story short:
Tony wrote the script, and Tony wrote the script, and Tony wrote the script. And, Tony being Tony, anyone who wanted to add something could feel free to attempt to add to it. Editorial rights reserved. Those were not really a painful two years, we were both doing other things, but focusing on Hybrids. Between the two of us we’ve had about 75 years in “show business.” We met in show business. We talk in show business. Since Tony lives in Italy half the time, we do show business in two different languages.
Anyway, we just finished principal photography in South Florida on the soon-to-be-hit called Hybrids. It was one hell of a ride for two guys with all this show business experience to become “PRODUCERS.” “Piece ‘a cake! I been pushin‘ producers around for years. What’s to know?”
Tony and I are still attending school it seems, on “producer 101.” It’s complicated. ( ) the word between those thingies is that word we all say. A lot.
Stay tuned...
“Tony, Darlin’ you better give all this some serious thought. Maybe you should return to Spaghetti-land, look out again at the Terranian Sea, and have serious thoughts, not to mention serious dialogue with thy self.” Tony Schweikle, my partner in crime just laid a big one on me.
“We all agree that the script is good,” Tony announced, “Not quite finished yet, but good enough to start thinking about making it.” He just returned from Sapri, Italy, his new home town. Now Tony and Phyllis, his wife, live about four months of the year in Ave Maria, Florida; the rest of the time in Sapri, Italy. Yes, Ave Maria. It’s a town-city that sprang up overnight in the Everglades about twenty miles from Naples, Florida. Weird thing is Sapri, Italy is not too much further away from Naples, Italy. Confusing, but if you visit both places your confusion will end.
Phyllis’ family (an old Florida family who have been prominent in the area for generations) built Ave Maria, along with the Ave Maria University for the founder, Tom Monahan of pizza fame. The centerpiece of the town is a very Germanic Gothic church shaped like the pope’s hat, and you can’t buy contraceptives at the local Publix Market. However they had a considerable amount of unused office and empty space for sets and production requirements. For a song. Big chunk of the budget saved. We’re brilliant.
“Yea, Tony, the script is sweet and it works, but it doesn’t work...yet. ‘Coupla characters need better defined. Shit, I don’t know. I write books, remember? All of that can be taken care of, anyway. Using only our wit and...wisdom.”
“Okay, Pal, whatsit you need to know? You need to know where we gettin’ the dough?” Tony smiled and hesitated. We stared at each other for a moment. Both thinking the same thing....
What sort of magic does it take for two old fools to fall in love? Between us lies about 75 years of film making in the big leagues. Tony with the likes of Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade among a large number of other major projects with all the major studios doing various duties, and me with too many films and television films as a production designer to count. From my first day on the lot at Warner Bros. in 1963, I think, until...now, it’s been one hell of a ride.
Tony and I met on an HBO movie, a western-called The Tracker in the fall of 1987, starring Kris Kristofferson, Scott Wilson, Mark Moses, and David Huddleston. Tony was working for the Colorado Film Commission and I was the production designer. We spent a lot of time together scouting and setting locations. We connected, our wives became friends; tried to build a permanent western town in the shadow of Mesa Verde National Park in the Southwest corner of Colorado. Locals had us for lunch. We kept in touch, as they say.
Tony was really getting into writing, and the stuff he was writing was chock full of thoughtful, funny, and meaningful plot twists and giggles. I was writing my first novel, and we exchanged chapters and scenes. Gave suggestions to each other: “Why is she sittin’ during that whole scene?” “You use that phrase too much.” “We don’t meet him/her soon enough.” That sort of thing. Always talking about where and how we would make this one or that one.
On our fiftieth wedding anniversary, Linda and I went to Italy for a month. Flew into Rome for a week, then Tony and Phylis drove up from Sapri and took us south for a week. The little villa with the many gardens overlooking the Terranian Sea awaited us. On the drive down, clinging to the mountain on the Almafi Coast, I asked Tony what those tower-like ruins were lining the coast.
“Donno’ for sure. Some sort of watch towers. They date back to before Christ, I understand. No two are alike. Some have been restored into restaurants, B&B’s, that sorta’ thing.” Tony mused, “I would like to do a coffee tables book on ‘em. They are all over the Mediterranean.”
“Sounds more like a documentary to me,” I said as I looked straight down at the Terranian’s surf crash two hundred feet below our strip of blacktop. . .
Crash, boom, bang, wooden swords, authentic costumes and two years later we finished the documentary “Barbarossa and the Towers of Italy.” Tony wrote and directed it. Rode the film festival circuit for awhile and racked up a few awards. We turned around and looked at each other and smiled, and said, “What next, Pard?”
Seems we’re still turning around and smiling at each other. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Tony asked holding on to the smile.
“No, Shithead, I want to know where we get the dough, and I’m not sure I heard what you just said.”
Tony smiled, “Me, or is it I? Anyway, shithead, I figure we can do it for $500,000.00 using all our wit and wisdom. I am gonna’ finance it myself.”
“You know what they say about lawyers representing themselves? Same goes for financing your own movie. Tony, we’re just a little long inna’ tooth for this sorta’ thing...”
“But if we don’t, we’ll never know, will we?” Tony was grinning and I was thinking about a director... That word: ( ) goes in here.
Now this part is the weirdest thing that ever happened to me. Maybe the hardest bit of information I have ever tried to write. Honest stuff now. Tony lost track of his senses, and began talking to cameramen, editors, and hired a production designer. (Now the production designer, Chip Radaelli, really was a given. Chip, Tony and I met, and worked together on “Tracker.” He was the construction coordinator. In my mind, Chip came with the deal.) But historically the director has the say as to whether these three people,along with the heads of other departments like wardrobe, hair and make-up, are on the team. The director. We didn’t have one of those yet. ( ) Insert the word here.
While I was watching Tony putting together a team, I was not watching myself. Oh, I reminded him from time to time that we should get one of those director-type fellas, but after all my years of knowing how to it, I was not doing it. GET A DIRECTOR FIRST!
Hell, Nearly all the directors I worked with were all dead, nearly dead, dying, or rich. I thought about it, Talked to Tony daily. We decided we needed a young guy who was hip to this Hi-Def and CGI stuff. The script had people disappearing, turning into bats and flying away.
So shopping began. One director, size negotiable. Sex, any.
Got the usual number of passes, a fair amount of want-to-dos, but haven’t-done- anything-yets. Tony entered the script in a lot of film festivals, and it was always “up there” or winning. It still wasn’t completely flushed out, but festival judges tend to judge a film without having to make it. Or think about making it. Or what’s the subtext.
No director.
Hiding in the back of my mind was a director. Not just any director, but just about my best friend. We had worked together on more films than we care to count. We always seem to “see” the same movie in our heads as we’re working. Finally, after long conversations with myself, it didn’t “feel” right, but maybe.... Talked to Tony and he thought it was a smashing idea. Gave my friend the script and waited. For about an hour. “This baby needs work, Peter, I mean work.”
We hopped a plane to Naples, Florida. He and Tony sat down and started a page one read. I laid down on the couch and covered my head and listened. It was not going well. What’s that oil and water don’t mix? Most of the changes that came out of that meeting, however, were positive. It was just a relationship thing, but rewriting began long distance. Both in miles and mind. I, of course, was the sounding board for both of them.
In the meantime, Tony had pretty much set the editor and cameraman, and was having serious conversations with effects houses. The editor, Tony Randel and David Rakoczy, the director of photography were talking about stuff already. Now I have an unhappy writer and a director with one foot out the door. I gotta let my best friend go. More pain, and we haven’t started shooting yet. No director. Lot’s of hand wringing and sleepless nights and feeling awful about my friend. Happy to say, he’s still my friend.
“Tony, if you even think of directing this, I’ll crap in my hands and rub it in my hair.” That was before I said hello on the phone.
“It’s right under your nose.”
“What’s under my nose?”
“Our director.”
“You heard what I said. Not “Hybrids”. You shouldn’t direct “Hybrids.” Let’s do this picture and find out how to be producers first.
“Tony Randel, shithead. He’s directed a couple of features. He’s our editor. Let him direct and edit.” So we hired him.
“See,” Tony grinned, “Now we have no problem with the director not wanting our crew. Shit, he is the crew.” Tony had never laid eyes on the guy, nor had I, but, hell, it seemed like the right fit. I had lunch with Randel and it seems like this just might work. He wanted to rewrite and offered to quit, and me and my gut said he’s our guy.
“Don’t quit. Go home and rewrite your ass off. I’ll talk to Tony. He’s in a mood right now to accept a good rewrite.”
As we were leaving the restaurant, he handed me a DVD of his last film. I took it home and watched it. Didn’t like it. the direction was pretty good, but it was cut all over the place. It was a horror film (Randel’s forte, it seemed). Not my cup of tea.
“Burt Reynolds! You gotta be shittin’ me.” I knew we were talking to “his people”, but Tony just got a letter of intent from ‘his people’, Then we got a letter of intent from Burt his own self. Big time. Seems Burt liked the script and thought it might be fun.
It was one of the few times Tony and I were in the same place at the same time. We passed this on to a distributer friend who on the strength of Reynolds’ intent gave us a letter of intent. Sounded positive. Moving forward....
But what about Tony Randel? Had we screwed up by committing to him? Tony and I thought it through, talked it to death, and decided we made the right decision. We just had to make sure he made a happy movie and not one of the scary things he had been doing.
Seems Tony Randel was having the same thoughts: Was he ready to go from horror to comedy? Seems he wanted to stretch his chops so he was making the jump. We gave him two weeks to do what rewriting he thought was needed. Then we three would either bang out the kinks or kill each other. Last minute. Burt Reynolds backed out. He had not been feeling well, had some surgery, whatever, no Reynolds. The two Tonys and I and by now our casting director, Kate Engren are searching heaven and under rocks. Insert word ( ) here.
Two weeks go by and Tony Randel says, “How ‘bout Paul Sorvino? I know his daughter, and will give it a try if you want.
“Hell, yes, we want,” I scream. To make matters even better, Randel turned in his rewrite, and it was good. Cleaned up the story line and character development, and didn’t change the thrust of the original Schweikle script.
Then Kate announced that Carolyn Hennesy had signed to play “Aradia” to Sorvino’s “Count.” In the meantime, Kate was putting together a wonderful cast of young actors.
Tony Schweikle called. “You know what I dread?”
“No, Tony, what do you dread besides the need some day to have to use Pampers?” “That smell. You know, how old people smell.”
“Geez, Pard, do you think you’re starting to smell, or is it me? Wait just a damn minute. Old people smell ‘cause they spend too much time sitting on their ass. As painful as it is getting up and moving around, that’s about the last thing we have to worry about. What the hell are you talking about? Smell.”
“Well, it could happen,“ Tony said, and made an “old” sound over the phone. “Do me a favor. Hang up, walk into the other room and ask Phyllis if you smell old. See? I lost my sense of smell years ago so I can’t help you much. She’s gonna’ throw something at you, and between you and me, I hope she hits you and knocks some youth back into you. Just do what I do: don’t get any older.”
“We can’t get any older.” As I was contemplating those wise words, Tony hung up.
Burt Bluestein signed on as our line producer. Burt, a sweet, curmudgeonly guy almost as old as us from New York seemed like a good match for us. Not quite as old, but, you know, understanding. The team was just about set, and we set a start date for principal photography. We would start shooting in Florida on October 28th. and have everyone home for Thanksgiving. Start serious post after the holidays, and each rob one convenience store a night to pay for post costs. Makes sense. Tony suggested that we use a horse for our getaways.
Then he said the sweetest thing. “Who’s Burt Reynolds?
So Burt Bluestein and I limp into Ave Maria, Florida in the middle of the night.I feel too tired to go to sleep right away, and begin thinking about all the locations I have showed up to over the years.
Hundreds, it seems, and for me in about seven other languages by now. It’s such a unique thing. Flying into, or near, a place. Getting picked up by a stranger holding a smudged white board with my name written on it, and being delivered to one of two places. Either where I’m probably going to be sleeping for the next ( ) months, or where, for the same amount of time, I am going to be working out of. Bad grammar, but I have discovered that any location office in which I work, I will soon begin to work “out of.” Did I mention that besides the director, producer, unit manager, and first AD, everyone I’m communicating with are strangers-hopefully speaking English?
If I am shown to my personal accommodations first. It’s usually the middle of the night, where I’m dropped off, spoiled goods, to unlock a door with a key nestled in my mit, and find a bed to slam myself into because I’m too tired to be hungry. ..............................Or to drop off my things, jump back into the car/truck/limo,or horse-drawn something, and proceed to the production office. I am shown the workspace assigned to me, introductions mosey in and out as I wander over to a window and figure out which way is north.
I am musing my musings. I am Old. ( ) Word. I am about to republish my first book, “WHAT! AND GIVE UP SHOW BUSINESS? On Amazon.com. You can read more about that, there, soon. This is about “HYBRIDS”, right? Old poops do that.
Anyway, There is magic, uniqueness, to this “coming together.” Besides the common love of the business we share, Despite the common knowledge we share. Also because we need the money, we probably don’t have as much in common as you might think. One thing we all know: Those 100 or so pages called “the script.” We, then as common strangers, can speak “scriptese” to each other and make a movie. (Once did a single, six month project, in three languages in three countries.) Accommodations at Ave Maria were fantastic. Seems Tony and Phylis had two condos. Connected. Tony Randel and I in one, and Tony Schweikle, Burt Bluestein, and our old friend from Italy, Fabio Micelli, in the other. Fabio was going to do a “making of...” video. He was our cameraman on “Barbarossa and the Towers of Italy.” Fabio’s soon-to-be- wife, Grazia, was the star of our reenactment sequences. I fell in love with both of them, and, it seems, they with me. We keep in touch via email.
They were an “item” when we were shooting “Barbarossa”, and have since married and have a beautiful daughter, Ginevra. They are all going to be with us on the shoot.
(Fabio shot a “making of” video, and had it cut before the holidays. I don’t have a clue how he did it. Did I mention that he speaks not one word of English? I don’t speak any Italian, but we “talk” constantly. Quietly, one by one Fabio pushed cast and crew into a little room, where his camera and sound were set up, turned on a light or two, and said, “Speak.” He had no idea what we were saying, but knew when we were finished. I’m sure Tony looked over his shoulder from time to time. I’m sure, but in my heart, I believe Fabio produced, directed, and edited the making of “Hybrids” from his heart and not his ability to speak English.)
The brain trust has two kitchens-refrigerators stocked-thanks to Tony, and we all have our own bathrooms. What’s not to like?
Tony and I had pretty much pre-scouted Ave Maria and the buildings within for locations so we were sure where things were going to take place. Right across the street (an un- busy street) was an empty three story building. Empty, except for a bank in the back corner of the first floor. Top floor was decorated for law offices-never used. Great interiors for the family chateau. The first floor was one big empty space for building the interiors of the old witch Aradia’s house. In the heat-laden South Florida month of July, Chip and Tony’s son Luke built Aradia’s house with money Tony made shooting a Mercedes Benz commercial. Damn good low budget producing, I would say.
Tucked all around the building was office space for every department. Tony secured furnished condos for most of the out-of-town crew. A hotel for the rest and the cast. With van service. We would all walk to work. Every day. A couple of parties were thrown to loosen-up the troops. The Tony’s were doing a final polish on the script. Come to think of it, there really is no such thing as a “final” script. As they say, “The script is final when you are walking down the isle at the premier. Or not.” Hold ( ) for future placement.
Kate Engren, our casting director, put together a stellar cast. We, Tony, Tony, and I waded through.... Wait a minute.
zzz
My partner in crime just interrupted me... I’ll get back to you. zzz zzz
He has some stuff he wants to add to my ongoing prose.
zzz
Without further fanfare, I introduce to you the words of---let’s hear it, put your hands together for---Mr. Tony Schweikle!!!!!!!!!!
I can’t stand it. As much as I love to tickle Tony, I asked him to write his thoughts from time to time. Otherwise he would never have the opportunity to say naughty things about me. I’ll tell you about Kate later.
Tony:
And the serendipity continued with the hiring of the grip and electric guys. It came about when the DP, who had some grip and lighting on the truck, decided the production needed more crew and equipment to do the job right. He turned us onto Jay Shropshire and his gang. These were all young guys in their twenties, but had already worked on a dozen low budget features in the Miami area. They worked silently, respectfully and like a symphony orchestra. When the last shot of the day was done, they had wrapped everything that was not being used. Never went overtime, and all of it with no drama. In fact, Pete and I from the beginning warned everyone before they were hired, that we would not tolerate Prima Donnas, screamers, and those gremlins who would make problems so they could solve them. We worked on too many shows with those kind of people, and we were determined it would not be like that on Hybrids. And it wasn’t.
Me:
Tony, by the way, has also written a book, “The Cardinal’s Treasure,” and, of course, turned it into a screenplay. It’s “off the beaten path” from what he usually writes and thinks about, but it reflect’s his fascination with Italy, the Catholic Church. Tony:
From Tony...
This is my first novel. “The Cardinal’s Treasure,” is an historical/fiction story of 33,000 words. The idea and much of the material is from 2 years of research for a historical documentary. The novel and the documentary have nothing in common, except for a few historical icons I use in my story.
Bio: The following is a list of professional occupations during my adult life, not necessarily in chronological order.
Musician, Chef, Carpenter, Snow Skier/Racer, Still Photographer, Actor, Screenplay Author, Film Producer, Film Director, Film Editor, Marketing Manager, Graphic Designer, Audio/Visual Manager, Softball Player, College level Instructor in film & television production.
I have also fathered and raised 5 children.
My wife and I have now lived in southern Italy since 2003. We own a small home overlooking the sea. We have a large garden of fruit trees and flowering plants. A small portion of the garden is set aside for my vegetable growing. We are here from April to November, the rest of the year we spend in southwest Florida with our children.
Check out Tony's book on Amazon here.
Now, where was I? Oh, yea, Kate. Kate Enggren,to be exact. Tony knew Kate from Durango. (What the hell is it with Durango? Tony met David Rakoczy in Durango. Now Kate’s from Durango. Why Durango? Who knows, in this business?)
Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, Kate came from heaven. Lives in Southern California now, and works as a casting director. Tall blonde, beautiful-that got my attention- and wanted to come and play with us and cast Hybrids. She did a difficult and taxing job brilliantly. She then threw off her casting hat, became our production coordinator working with Burt Bluestein. At our urging, she took a small part in the film as a librarian in a great little scene with the “bad guy.” She was with us every day of the shoot, and ahead of us every day in the details. Kate became mother superior, problem solver, peacekeeper, shrink, and Associate Producer, in that order.
That’s not all. She has a kid, Erika. Tall, blonde and beautiful. (They cornered the market.) Erika was our extra casting head, an actor in the student film within the film, and set decorator/prop man. These last two titles demanded that Erika be on set all day every day. She was. With good humor, patience, and way too much knowledge of the business for a kid of twenty-one, Erika turned in a number of stellar performances on and for “Hybrids.” In the witch Aradia’s house, she even had appropriate titles on all the books on the shelves. Hand-did some of them.
Well, there you have the Enggren Ladies. What a pleasure! Linda and I met ‘em for lunch at our favorite Italian restaurant at the beach the other day. I wanted to show Linda what I had been putting up with, poor me. Funny. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant-never could-but it is the same restaurant where Tony introduced me to Kate, who we were meeting for dinner so many months ago. Same joint. That Tony, he really gets around...
Now. Let’s jump backwards in time to shooting the beast. I love the words “principal photography.” Sounds so...well, important. Principal Photography. “Yes, well, we just completed principal photography on our multi-million dollar epic. Good to be finished with principal photography. Now we shall rest.” This should be read in a George Sanders-type voice. Haughty, British.
A shooting day (or night) is pretty much like yesterday, and yesterday could have been downtown in any city in the world, and today is on stage in any city in the world. After the first couple of days are in the can, a shooting company settles down to “work.” Everyone knows their spot on the floor. Most mornings you come to work and every one is just working. No talk, no banter (that comes later) they might have a breakfast burrito in one hand and a C-stand in the other, but they’re doing what it takes to make the day. Actors in the makeup trailer, wardrobe setting the day. Props and set dressing laying out the day’s work (and a little more, just in case). Assistant directors doing that magic thingy of all knowing, all seeing. (How the hell do they do that?) Camera, Grip, andElectric doing their “dance.” The director would like to take a dose of hemlock about now, because everyone has “one little question.” Producers sitting there with their earphones around their throat at “Television City,” at the monitors, thinking, “I just looked at the budget again, and I wonder if the director has any more of that hemlock.” The only people really moving fast are the production assistants who feel like they have to be moving fast.
Mornings on a movie set are, and will always be to me a magical place. Sometimes angst can run underneath it all, but most of the time, it’s professionals doing what it is they do, and doing it very well.
We have such a happy cast and crew. Hangin’ out at night together. Just being a team. Hold ( ) until further notice.
Sorvino and Hennesy are due tomorrow for wardrobe fittings, and makeup tests. They’re the last actors on the call sheet. In the meantime, we have shot the film as written, and been dumbfounded by the performances we are getting from our cast.
This is all so new to me. All my career as a production designer, I have been prepared for “how it looks.” I was involved with the actors, their performance. AlI I cared about was did the image on the screen look as I wanted it to look to help the performance. All I cared about was what the actors needed from me to make their performance complete. I, all these years, have been building nests, arenas, boxes, if you will, to provide my actors a place to play. I read the script-any script, and it told me what the sensibility, the thrust, the passion of the scene was so I could put my actors in a place where they couldn’t fail.I built them what they needed to perform the words on the script. They needed a place to play, a place to make the story, whatever it was, come alive.They needed a place to become the characters by way of how they felt working in my playground.
Now here I am working as a producer, not giving my production designer, set decorator, property master, costume designer, lighting director, and cinematographer all the movie tricks I alone possessed and now am choosing to ignore. Or, at least, not focus on. That’s their job now. I am finding all the other pieces of this insanity that make up a motion picture shoot. Insert ( ) here.
“Producer 101,” I think I called it awhile back. I can fully admit that I have been missing a class or two. Sometimes, at my age, it’s just embarrassing. BUT we’re through the song that had us all concerned. We shouldn’t have worried. Leanne Agmon nailed it. Hell, she got the subtext right away. Even cried during her performance. (Leanne is currently starring in a production at the Old Globe in beautiful Old Town, San Diego).
So actors #1 and #2 on the call sheet are arriving. Their sets and locations have been settled, fussed over, and even acoustic-set for Paul Sorvino’s singing in Aradia’s kitchen. Singing.
What the hell doesn’t Sorvino do? Let’s just say he sings, probably dances, acts, directs, sculpts, and loves what he does. Let’s just say there is not a lot of air in the room when he exits.
Changing the subject for a minute, I’m constantly amazed at the professionalism of our crew and cast. No snits, no “sorry I’m lates”, no missing props, no waiting for makeup. We have a great pair of assistant directors, Frank Falvey, the first, and Laura Wheeler, our second, were always ahead of the curve. Many times on a film set, the curve is hard to find. Not here. Tony and I keep looking at each other and smiling...
So we wrapped last night, at night. The last day was a split day so wrap was about 2:00AM. Everyone was too pooped to party. Not too pooped, however, to smile and hug.
Paul Sorvino and Carolyn Hennesy came in, nailed it, and are asleep in their condos. They were as prepared as actors can get. They brought some goodies with them in their performances, and gave us two unforgettables. May the gods continue to kiss.
Their scenes were complete in four no overtime days. The last three days we shot split doing the movie within the movie, the student film, around a concrete factory a stroll away. The last scene we shot was Blaz and Maria in the cutting room finishing their student film with the words “The End” on their editing screen. Never pass up a “moment.”
And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, “The Great Unknown.” Post production. Editing, music, foley, more special effects, CGI, ADR, hell, I donno’ LSMFT. You know, the great unknown. And while we’re going through that gymnastic, we gotta’ try and sell this mother. Put two of these here: ( ).
Stay tuned for the Post Production Phollies...
Post production. Post production. As near as I can figure, post production is like rolling over after your first wedding night bliss, (after principal photography has passed between you), and saying, “Now what do you wanna’ do?”
It’s time to ‘cleanup’. Let’s see, there’s music, there’s special visual effects, there’s foley, there’s color “timing”, and the dreaded director’s cut. Three of these: ( ).
This is also that peaceful time when there are only a few of us; most importantly, the director and editor. In our case, it’s the same guy, Son of a bitch. How do smart people allow things like this to happen? The director thinks the editor is an asshole, but won’t listen to anyone else. You figure it out.
Tony Randel has been handed the reigns. Handed the reigns. How do producers give this away? Hey, I’m going to go away, and bathe myself in healing oils for the next few months while you have my testacles in your hand. Giddyup, Tony Randal. Right now Tony Schweikle and I are lying in the arms of Tony Randel hoping he doesn’t kill us. Right now he’s handling effects, timing, even music. He’s successfully delivered a final cut to us. We tweek it from time to time, but except for CGI and music and sound effects, we got us a picture. Our director and editor, who are not speaking as far as I know, are still playing on the same team. Bless those two guys.
Schweikle and I talk all the time about talking “picture” to Tony Randel. We’re never sure which one we’re talking to, director or editor. Either way we must insult one or the other to get our opinion across. Bet that discussion is as old as film-making itself. “The editor is going to love my opinion on this one and the director will want to ambush me in an alley.”
Then there’s the matter of this computer thing. Yeah, I know, here comes that old coot again, but I miss making decisions in front of people, with discussion and disagreement. Now the Tony’s and I are in front of our computers all day looking at cuts, listening to music, reading actors, passing judgment on the trailer. We do this in the privacy of our own offices. Quietly, by ourselves. No looking your workmates-the brain trust-in
the eyes, and saying, “Is that the best we can do?” Man, I really miss the studios...
We lost our original composer towards the end of shooting because of time restraints. We hired a guy Randel has worked with before. Corey Wallace. Young, energetic and full of himself. Just the way you like it. His “sound” is perfect so far, and we have no reason to expect anything less.
CGI is being handled by a young man hiding in the great unwashed mass of the Midwest. He lives somewhere around the twin cities, I think, but with this new age stuff, he lives most of the time in our computers. Jim Ray Rodriguez is his name, the Special Effects Supervisor, and they tell me is only a child. I have a feeling I’ll never really meet him. That’s another reason I miss the old time studios. Walk across the lot and get your work done. Also on his team are Michael Spear, Visual Effects Artist, and Jeanna Penoff, Graphic Design Artist. Their first animation attempt-changing Todor into a bat-was masterful, so I’m breathing easier on that front as well.
Sound, Foley will follow and, as usual, pull things together for the viewer. I am in preliminary discussion with a US distributer, and Schweikle is talking to Foreign guys. We had a trailer company pound together a quick trailer for the distributers-barely color corrected, and uncleared music. Turned out it wasn’t bad, so we submit to the distribs and wait....
Tic-tic-tic
This whole post production thing is getting out of hand. Life is getting out of hand. If anyone is following this crap, they must understand that I am holding on with both hands. Not as an old time production designer, not as a new producer, but me. My life, Peter Wooley.
Here’s where we stand: Music is trickling in-CGI is taking forfuckingever. What I have seen and heard, I like, but ...
Distributers, looking at the trailer, want “to see the final product”, and who wouldn’t blame them them? Our first distributor choice passed because he didn’t know it was a horror film (It goddamn ain’t a horror film) Lots and lots of these: ( ).
As I sit and write, I sliiiiide back into the past. I think about making a film, finishing principal photography, and looking around for the next one. Job done...NEXT. Producing does not allow for that sort of order. You ain’t done until everyone who works for you tells you you’re done.
And so I sit. I sit and try to think of ways to bring attention to my yet unborn child. ...and I muse...
... So we’ll wrap this up with the last chapter of my HYBRIDS diary very soon. Optimistically the last chapter will be called... “SOLD.” Please stay tuned.
Tic...tic...tic.
Post production drags on. Post always drag on, but we can only advance as fast as we can afford “things”. Sat in for a few minutes on a music recording session. Brilliant. Corey Wallace is wonderful. Music is wonderful. I have seen the finished product of countless films I have worked on, and noticed the differences, and accepted it. Now, getting to take part in the process is wonderful. It dawns on me, that as some wag said sometime, someplace, “You’re never too old to learn.” Hell, Sometimes I feel too old to get up in the morning, but learn, I must.
Just got a rough cut of the main titles with Corey’s music tucked in, but not balanced. Tony Randel’s daughter, Sofia, took the lead in designing the main titles. Bunch of old farts like us-Tony, Tony, and me-desperately are in need of a young “feel” for HYBRIDS. Sofia, by the way is attending the Dodge School at Chapman College, and “Hybrids “ain’t her first rodeo. I haven’t had the chance to tell her yet, but I think she’s what we needed in the main titles. I’m delighted. “Yes, that feels good. Let’s move on.”
Strange thing. “Hybrids” is having a life of its own right now. Tony Randel’s director’s cut is in and approved, We know what this film “is”, and what it “isn’t”. Yet, we hear it with the intended music, we see it with the intended effects, and it becomes-slightly- something else. And we say, “Yes, that feels good. Let’s move on.”
We are desperately searching for what this film, this thing we have been nurturing for so long, really is. Having never sat through this post production process-from beginning to end-I am truly amazed at what editing a movie can do to alter slightly what the script said.
Oh, yes, Sofia’s first main title design was “Sharkansas Woman’s Prison Massacre.” You really can’t make this stuff up.
So, as producer, I stay the hell outta’ the way, and let the players play, sing, dance, and make funny noises with their noses. And I wait...
Well, the T’s are dotted and the I’s are crossed, and we have a preview screening date at the DGA on January 10th. of HYBRIDS, our completed movie film. I have looked at all Tony Randel’s labors and those of a wonderful gang of post production mavins, and have found them stellar. We probably have a picture, I think, and we are going to die of badness, I think. Or no one cares, I think... Even if they hate it, they won’t try to hurt us in any way..... I hope. Time passes, and we had our screening. It was a wonderful and glorious weekend. We had a party at Kate Enggren’s house at the beach Saturday night. Just about everyone from the cast and crew attended, within traveling distance and marriage plans.
There is nothing like the love fest of a prescreening party. I suddenly realize my age, and how many times I have played this scene-never knowing in my heart-of-hearts if the film was a hit or a miss. I only hoped the hopes of the innocent. Sunday evening, DGA theater on Sunset Boulevard. We get a full house! oh, boy. The love continues but the lies increase. Lies from cast, crew, friends. Good intentioned “nice” lies. Just trying find the “good spots.” That’s not to say that every movie we see needs work. It’s simply that no one is eligible for “hit” status, except the hits.
I can’t count the times I have attended these things, but always they’re a love-fest. At the end of the screening, everyone lines up and tells us what a wonderful evening they had, and “they just loved” this scene or that performance, or that montage. And we all head for our cars and, slowly, the lights go out...one at a time.
But, Goddamn it, I knew. I always knew. Right here in my movie-loving heart I knew. I understood the “stinkies” from the “goodies.” I have been rarely surprised. Rarely...I’m human, after all.
You see, I just turned eighty. The last fifty, making movies, telling stories, playing “cowboys and Indians”, but I never fell into the deep and dark pit of the independent film maker. I sucked lovingly at the teat of the majors-film or television-always the “big guys”. I loved being under contract to Warner Bros. Now I find myself standing in the theater lobby listening to lovely words. All those nice words we say after the screening. People are coming to me with that positive grin, saying “nice” things about my movie. Nice lies, if you please.
And I ask myself, “Okay, Dummy, what do you think about this film? What’s your feeling in here-that spot that is rarely wrong-about, as they used to say on some radio talent show back in the day, “Is it a hit or a miss?”
Ever so slowly, Tony Schweikle and Peter Wooley, find themselves joined at the hip. I, declaring myself officially retired sitting on the back porch of my place at the Jack Daniel Tennessee Squire Home for the Unencumbered. Tony vowing to bring the Italian history back to the Italian masses. Somehow, as the story-teller says, Peteranthony Productions is making an unlikely film in an unlikely part of the world for an unlikely sum of money. Two old farts pitting their combined movie making wisdom against the system. (By now, if you, dear reader, are still reading this thing, you know Tony’s and my histories: Vast film knowledge and on a first name basis with, well anyone who is who) er’ excuse me, I’m going to the bathroom. Thank you. I have completed all my humility classes, and I am ready to accept the audience praise, no matter how bad it is.
The evening went quite well, as expected. The audience reacted the proper way to the scenes, and laughed in all the right places. When the lights came up there was a nice applause, and lots of happy faces turned and looked our way. In the lobby, people came over and “just loved” this scene, or that performance, or that montage. And we all went home.
Is it good? Did I like it?
Look at these HYBRID clips, and tell me what you think... I can take it. I have just lost my ability to know-really know- is it a hit or a miss?
