"With a movie it's essentially a blank
canvas," Sam Weisman says. "You're starting
from scratch, and the director is creating the montage
cut by cut by cut. In that sense, it's being able to
think visually."
And thinking visually is what Sam Weisman does
creatively, though he says, "I'm more oriented
toward performance and words." Still, his solid
reputation in film, television, and theater over
almost three decades shows that he can work across
dramatic media with facility and skill. He's worked
with A-list stars-Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn, Jack
Lemmon, Danny DeVito-and even with a young Brad Pitt
in a pilot which he tried to launch at a nascent Fox
Network. He's directed films with $50 to $60 million
budgets (WHAT'S THE WORSE THAT COULD HAPPEN, GEORGE OF
THE JUNGLE, THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS), but he's also worked
on far-lower budget projects. Now, Weisman is deeply
committed to making smaller films in Massachusetts,
his base of operations, and where he's called home
since 1997.
A Yale undergraduate in Music History, Weisman
sometimes is spotted around Harvard Square donning his
Yale baseball cap as if to tweak the
shoulder-to-shoulder Harvard crowd. He taught English
for two years, then pursued a MFA in acting and
theater at Brandeis University. Degree in hand, he
headed to New York where he focused on acting, then
relocated to Los Angeles in the late seventies. He
pursued acting for ten years. Eventually, he found his
way to directing for theater and gained notice with
two plays which won him recognition. With the help of
Gary David Goldberg who created the TV hit sit-com,
"Family Ties," he found his way into
television, directing that show for all seven seasons
as well as episodes of "Moonlighting,"
" L.A. Law,"
"Brooklyn Bridge," "Seventh
Heaven," and "The Bernie Mac Show." In
between, he directed stage plays.
Weisman transitioned to film when he got
a break with his first feature, D2:THE MIGHTY DUCKS,
and he soon realized the different nature of the two
beasts. "If you're involved in a show with a
regular job, some episodes are going to be good. Some
are going to be really good. Some are going to be bad.
But you have a chance to go back and do it again. You
don't dwell on whether one show wasn't that great.
Whereas, you work on a movie sometimes a year-and-a
half, and it could be over in one night. It opens at
the wrong time. It's not the right cast. It doesn't
work. It's not marketed right."
Among the beliefs in his director's credo, gained
through years of experience, is:
hire the right people. "You spend endless amounts
of time explaining yourself. If you aren't
communicating with people who don't understand your
vision, the way
you talk, the way you see things, then it's really
tough."
In addition, Weisman believes in the importance of
the music score, which
can make or break a film. "Wrong music
can kill a film," he says. "A key person is
the music supervisor." He recounted the evolution
of music in his film GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE. What it
needed was music with its own character to tie in with
the comedy. He brought aboard composer Marc Shaiman.
"The difference between the movie with
contemporary music and with Shaiman's music was night
and day in a way you can't imagine. The music had a
whimsy, which helped the audience understand the level
of humor. He was why the movie was successful. He
turned the movie into almost like a musical."
Often a composer enters the filmmaking process
during the test screening where
the "temp love"-insiders jargon for the
temporary soundtrack-is what test audiences hear.
Apparently absorbing positive reactions
from these private screenings, some composers will
mimic
the temp score, which in some instances comes close to
plagiarism. But Weisman thinks it's good to include
the composer as much as possible. He says, "The
good composer, you've got
to nail down early."
Between bites of nachos and chili, Weisman spoke
about directing. "I feel a director is a
cheerleader, especially in the comedy area.
I find a lot of it is truly being an audience.
If you enjoy what the actors are doing and they sense
it, then you're the audience, the benchmark. You have
to keep putting out
a lot of positive energy. The death of a director is
being stuck. You always have
to feel a sense that you're going on.
"Most novice directors have a set sense
of how they want to do things and that
the first time there is an obstacle they just stop.
They don't know how to deal with Plan B.
One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was
from director Greg Hoblit who was executive producer
for L.A. LAW and who did a lot of features. He said,
'Always have a Plan B and always have a sense of the
way you are going to shoot. And if it's not going to
work, what's the next thing you're going to do?'
"It's all about momentum. Nurturing is a big
part of it. But also knowing when to be mad. Sometimes
the only answer is to get mad, to show your
disapproval. Sometimes you've got to create a
'scene'."
Despite the shibboleth that screenwriters are
unwelcome on a set in Hollywood movies, Weisman
believes otherwise. "Most movies I've done I've
had the writers around at least part of the time.
During the shooting of GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE Weisman
had Disney pay for writers to be on stand-by. "If
I needed a line, I called the writer's cell
phone." He would tell them to look at a certain
page and line and offer alternate lines and ask for
suggestions.
Weisman sees filmmaking essentially in two camps.
"Today there's a huge gap between movies in the
higher-end above $70 million and those down around $10
to $15 million. The middle area has very few, and
that's where I've worked. That whole end of the
business is virtually shut out. What that means is
that the stakes are really high in the high-end.
Usually those are movies with a lot of visual effects
and a lot of action.
"Or, on the low-end, it's about somebody
getting an idea. He hires an inexperienced director
who doesn't have an opinion, and who's not being paid
well, and who can be controlled. In that sense you
have a lot of people being anointed as directors who
have very little experience. The studio views it as a
calculated risk because they don't care about movies
for the most part. If they make a movie for $10
million, there's a chance they are not going to lose
it. They would rather pay somebody $175,000 rather
than pay somebody seven figures who they have to put
more energy into managing."
With the new tax incentive bill, which was passed
on Beacon Hill in November and later signed by
Governor Mitt Romney, Weisman sees a major shift with
more film productions coming to Massachusetts.
Officially, it becomes law in March, and industry
people as well as members of government think it will
be the long-awaited jump start for filming in the
state. Modeled on legislation passed in Louisiana,
which transformed the state into a kind of Hollywood
South, the tax incentives law can only make the Bay
State more attractive to filmmakers in-state and from
elsewhere. "But the big problem right now is we
still don't have an official state film office. We are
losing a lot of business." Weisman believes that
the current situation with a quasi-state-sanctioned
office and a competing private entity is unworkable.
"Anybody coming here will be trying to get a tax
incentive. They can't go to a private entity and get
tax incentives vetted. If the state doesn't clear this
up, they're not going to reap the benefits of this
legislation.
And, despite the state's photogenic good looks and
diverse appeal, filmmakers closely watch the bottom
line and anything that increases it "Boston is
not an easy place to shoot. There's a lot of traffic,
it's crowded, and it's not easy to move around. The
biggest problem is the physical tightness of the area.
Also, it's a very expensive city to operate in."
Last summer, Weisman returned to the glow of the
limelight, acting the part of Polonius in
Shakespeare's HAMLET for the Commonwealth Shakespeare
Company production. In the past, he had acted and
directed a lot of Shakespeare.. Still, with centuries
of tradition on record of perhaps Shakespeare's most
intriguing play, performing a major character is
"pretty intimidating," He says, "You
have to forget about how other people might have done
it and think about the way you can do it, and not
worry about how the part is normally played."
This HAMLET played outdoors on Boston Common for 18
performances before 93,000 people. To prepare for the
role, he assiduously worked with a speech and text
coach. "The language is the way into the play. If
you get that into your body, you have a shot at it.
Nothing is better
than doing Shakespeare before thousands
of people."
Weisman spends his days now developing projects.
He's joined John MacNeil at Moody Street Pictures in
Waltham in development as well as development
of scripts with Providence writer Paul Grellong and
college friend Brad Hall. Also, he's pairing with
actors Joe Pantoliano and Chazz Palminteri in an
off-Broadway project, GIZMO LOVE.
Writer-photographer Robert Pushkar's features and
photos regularly appear in IMAGINE and in local,
regional, and national publications. Currently, he is
marketing his romantic comedy screenplay. He may be
contacted at rgp@robertpushkar.com
