Interview With Paul Osborne

Paul Osborne is the director, writer, editor and an executive producer of the feature film FAVOR.

Paul previously directed, wrote, edited and co-produced the acclaimed film festival documentary, OFFICIAL REJECTION, and wrote and executive produced the crime thriller TEN ‘TIL NOON. Both went on to multiple awards and healthy film festival runs before their respective releases theatrically and on DVD.

He lives with his wife, producer Leslie Wimmer, and his three children in Burbank, California.

What is the current project you are working on?

I just wrapped shooting the feature film FAVOR, which I wrote and directed. It's a character-driven thriller, and I crafted the two lead roles specifically for the actors that played them, Blayne Weaver and Patrick Day.  I've been a fan of each of those guys for a while, so it was kind of a daily treat to have them doing my bidding on set for three weeks of shooting. It also looks like Scott Storm wants to direct another script of mine next year, tentatively entitled SMALL HOURS. He and I have a creative aesthetic that meshes well, so I'm excited to see that move forward. Otherwise, there are a few projects on the horizon that I'm playing with maybe taking on next summer or fall, depending on how long the post on FAVOR takes. I'm a notoriously slow and meticulous editor, so it's difficult to schedule "the next one" until the current one is done.

Did you always want to be a filmmaker?

I did always want to be a filmmaker, but when I was very small I interpreted that as being an actor. It wasn't until I was a little older that I realized someone actually wrote and directed movies, and it wasn't just the actor making it up as they went along. It's a good thing I put that together, because I'm a terrible actor. Nowadays I direct, produce and edit, but at my core I consider myself basically a writer, and all the other hats I wear are simply functions of getting my words and stories onto the screen.

What inspired you to become filmmaker?

I was born this way. I've always been drawn to movies and television, and as long as I can remember I've seen life thru a lens. You can say it's a "calling" or a "sickness" - both are completely applicable. There was no one flick that "turned" me, and I've never wanted to do anything else.

What is the best thing about being one?

The best thing is actually when something's done. When you've gotten something accomplished and it works. I'm not just talking about finishing a movie, although that certainly applies. But this refers to every step of the process - when you've cast the right actor, gotten the script where it needs to be, made the scene work in editing. Filmmaking is always a struggle against both external elements and your own limitations. When you punch through and make something work, it's incredibly gratifying.

What is the worst thing about being one?

The worst thing is dealing with the business side, and that's largely because so much of the business is unnecessary. Things are in place to either block your way or allow people who have little or nothing to do with your movie to profit the most from it. Filmmakers are passionate about what they do and would do it for free, and the business world has completely taken advantage of this. All I see are one-sided contracts that work against the artist, and the few agreements where the filmmaker might actually see a penny or two are almost never honored. What's encouraging about the digital revolution - smaller budgets, smaller crews, more DIY distribution - is it's stripping the business away, layer by layer. There are still leaches in the pond, but fewer of them.

What is the estimated number of projects you have worked on?

FAVOR is the third feature I've been involved with on the above-the-line level. I wrote and executive produced the crime thriller TEN 'TIL NOON and directed and produced OFFICIAL REJECTION, a documentary about film festivals. In terms of shorts and things, I have no idea. There are too many to count. I've been making them since I was knee-high.

Who is is your favorite filmmaker?

I have so many favorites I would be really hard-pressed to pick just one. And there aren't any big surprise names in the bunch: Scorsese, Tarantino, Aronofsky, Soderberg, Fincher, Nolan - all the usual suspects. I think Sam Raimi and Peter Weir are really under-appreciated. If you're asking where the biggest influence on me personally comes from, it's the early works of the Coen Brothers. BLOOD SIMPLE, RAISING ARIZONA, MILLER'S CROSSING, and BARTON FINK are what happens when God touches celluloid. Both the writing and sheer craft on those movies are unbelievable.

How has your life changed since you became a filmmaker?

Well, it really hasn't. I've been making films since I was very small and only rarely have worked outside the industry. I feel like I've had a steady increase in experience and knowledge over the years, but that probably qualifies more as an intensification of my life rather than a sharp change.

What is one piece of advice you can give to someone who also wants to make it in the movie business?

I think the advice would depend on what that person wanted to do in the movie business. It's a pretty wide net. Regardless of what you're after, though, the best thing to remember is that succeeding in the industry takes time and requires a lot of steps. I feel like a lot of people expect it to happen quickly and without a whole lot of effort. It doesn't go down the way it did in THE MUPPET MOVIE, with Kermit and friends just showing up after a long road trip and being offered the Rich and Famous contract. A better cinematic analogy would be THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, with Tim Robbins tunneling his way to freedom one spoonful at a time. It might seem insurmountable in the beginning, but after a while you see real progress.

What are some of your favorite American films? Foreign films? Television shows?

Again, I have too many favorites to list. I'm a serious movie buff; just one look in my media closet at home will give you some idea of exactly how big a film geek I am. If we're taking recent favorites, last year I really dug INCEPTION, SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, THE AMERICAN, BLACK SWAN, and this great little documentary about an exploitation filmmaker called POPOTOPOLIS, which I find myself watching every couple of weeks. The best flick I've seen so far this year is FALLING OVERNIGHT, which is a tiny indie currently playing the festival circuit.

In terms of television, I'm really high on the fact that BREAKING BAD is back. Not only do I think it's currently the best thing on TV - it may be the best thing that's ever been on TV. There's not a moment, dialogue line, or shot out of place on that show. Ever. It's staggering.

How would you describe your film education?

You have to specify if you're asking about my film school experience or my education, because they're not the same thing. I went to the University of Miami's film program and I had a good time, but I didn't really learn a whole lot. I'd already been making movies for almost a decade when I started classes, so other than learning to use 16mm equipment instead of Super-8, it was really just more of the same with a thick layer of bureaucracy smothered on top. My real education came from both making my own movies and working in production. You want to know how to make a flick? Get on set. You want to make friends and network? Go to film school.

How would you describe the film "scene" where you live?

I live in Los Angeles, so the whole damn city is the "film scene". You hit Starbucks and everyone in the place, baristas included, are somehow involved in "the biz." What's interesting how the studio and indie worlds combine and collide here. It's like two different universes that people constantly beam themselves between. Joe here has a day job at the studio, but he's made an indie, which he's now using to try to get an agent so he can get hired as a director back at the very same studio. Now Joe will go attempt to network at a party with executives and movie stars, but afterwards he'll shoot down to the hole-in-the-wall bar and hang out with his other independent filmmaker pals so they can talk about how they don't need the establishment. It makes for a strange mix.

How has social media changed the independent film industry?

What's social media has done, at the most basic level, is changed the way marketing works in two essential ways: One, it's made communication with a potentially large group of people possible without the need for an expensive intermediary, like a TV network, ad buy or PR firm; and two, its intermingled marketing with social interaction, so talking to someone online becomes a form of marketing, and vise versa. The applications for the indie filmmakers are almost limitless and get written about pretty exhaustively, so I won't attempt to discuss them here. But I will give you one example of social media helping me very recently in an unexpected way: almost my entire crew for FAVOR came from people contacting me because they'd seen the Kickstarter campaign succeed on Facebook. I would get emails asking if I "needed help on the shoot", and if the person that sent it had both a valuable skill and availability, I would bring them aboard. I ended up with a fantastic crew.

[caption id="attachment_1444" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Shooting a scene of "Favor""][/caption]

What is the casting process like?

The casting process is exciting, especially when you see good people bring your work to life. I try and make the auditions as easy on the actor as possible, because "reading" is such a different skill set than "acting". Usually I'll offer each actor the entire script in advance - not just their pages - schedule a longer period of time for them to audition in case they want to go through it more than once, have another real actor for them to read against, and do a little blocking so it feels like an actual "scene". I also think it's smart to find actors through other actors. In my experience you tend to get generally stronger performers that way.

How does independent film differ from the mainstream?

The difference between independent and studio movies is that the independent ones are made without the involvement of a studio or other established Hollywood production entity. That's it. These are films produced outside the establishment. Any other definition is false and dangerous to independent cinema. BLACK SWAN is not an indie film. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, which Variety thoughtlessly proclaimed as an example of "what a true independent film can do", was produced by Warners and released by Fox.

To ascribe some sort of style or "edginess" inherent in an independent film versus a studio one is completely misleading, and it's this confusion which has allowed the studios to essentially appropriate the label "indie" as a marketing term and thereby take away opportunities from actual independent movies. This is what enabled Hollywood to take over Sundance by pouring the multi-million dollar "Indiewood" flicks they make into the festival, and allowed the major studios to either absorb or dismantle all the larger independent distributors that used to actually acquire and release real indie films, ultimately leading us directly into the distribution crisis we currently face. We're only now starting to see daylight with the as-of-yet unfulfilled promise of self-distribution, and I guarantee you that if and when this is a wholly viable way of releasing indie movies these same studios will try and muscle in there, too. So it's important we stay vigilant and clear about what defines independent.

You could go back in time and see any classic film being made. Which film would it be?

I think I'd like to watch Hitchcock work, so I'd probably opt to beam back to the set of PSYCHO. Here was Hollywood's top director at the height of his career, working on a small budget with the crew from his TV show, shooting this little character thriller. Anthony Perkins was so incredible in that flick and I'd love to see what Hitch had to do to get him there.

You could be any animal. Which would you be?

I'd be a lion. I'm a cat person so if you've got me transmorphing into an animal, I'd go for the top in that column. Besides, the male lions get to lie about while the females do all the hunting and gathering. That would rule. Bring me my zebra steak, bitch!

You could have any super power. What would it be?

Man, I would love to be able to freeze time. Then I'd be able to get a decent amount of sleep and still accomplish everything I need to get done. Plus I could pants people without being caught.

Do you believe on life on other planets?

With the astronomical number of planets that exist, the likelihood of life existing on one or more of them is extremely, extremely high. It's nearly a mathematical certainty. I don't know if I'd use the word "believe", because that implies some sort of leap of faith. Let's just say I'd be damn shocked if there wasn't some form of life on another world somewhere. Especially on Saturday nights.

BELOW IS A BEHIND THE SCENES CLIP FROM FAVOR:

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/26179847]

Thanks for doing the interview Paul. I'm a big fan of your films. I love "Official Rejection" and "Ten Til Noon". I can wait to see "Favor" when it comes to DVD.