James Cullen Bressack, Filmmaker: Nowhere else in the world outside of the film industry
will somebody try to convince you that the thing that you want is not actually what you want.
Film Courage: James, off camera you mentioned an interesting analogy
based on a conversation with your friend about distribution.
James: Distribution and also what audience's expectations are. There's a couple things that
I would talk about within that but for instance I know for me I have a responsibility when I'm
making a movie for an audience is when I make that movie there's they're spending that same
$7.99 (whether it's my movie or a studio movie) to rent it or to buy it ($4.99 or
whatever it is). It's the same amount of money so I have a responsibility to the audience
to over deliver with beyond my budget as well as give them what they're expecting of a movie.
If they're ordering this movie and this movie is a turkey sandwich, I can't come out and then say
okay well I know you were expecting a turkey sandwich but let me give you some lasagna.
You don't order that at a restaurant and somebody comes out with lasagna and goes well I think you
want lasagna more that doesn't work that way so the way I think of it also is when I'm talking to
distributors distributors are expecting a certain thing so when you explain to them the movie they
want to know what comes in it so you could explain what's inside the turkey sandwich but you can't
say guys I know you want a turkey sandwich but why don't we get some pizza it's just that if they
want a specific thing that's what they want and so it's it's you got to find how to be creative
within making that thing versus trying to convince them that they're actually hungry for something
completely different and so that I to relate things back to food because food is a universal
language in the sense that everybody no matter how much they know about movie they know enough about
food right and when you think about food in that sense it it takes the ego out of it because it's
not it's not you going oh well my personal dreams and goals for this sandwich or this
you start going okay well I could add this to it I could add this to it I could add this to it takes
the ego out right so I think a lot of that is is you've got to take the ego out and look at it as
film is where creativity meets commerce business meets commerce so you can't forget about the
business side of things so business is expecting to have things that hit certain beats have a
certain amount of action have a certain amount of cast yada yada yada so you have to fit within
those confines and I think if you think of it outside of the box instead of well my dream
and my creativity and my this is one way and you think of it outside of that there's the movie that
you're pitching to the people that are financing and buying the movie and then the conversation
you're having with the actors or well my dream my this my that the conversation you're having with
the DP is well my dream this that's good keep that in there but when it's two different conversations
you need to be having if that makes sense so I think if you are outside of yourself and look at
it in in as a concept of food it all kind of makes more sense and it sounds sillier to you if you're
oh well they ordered a turkey sandwich but I want to give them spaghetti and meatballs but
if you are able to understand the standpoint of the financier of the distributor if this is
what they expect then you can be creative within that world I think that's a fun analogy I that
did you ever try to offer spaghetti bolognese to a distributor and they wanted the Cobb salad and
so you learned that the hard way I feel every single every single thing that I have learned
is from some type of trial and error where I I went in there and I was I remember I was pitching
unnamed distributor a movie and they'd done a bunch of action movies and stuff that and I
was listen this thing we could possibly submit it to Sundance they were looking for something that
would go into Redbox you don't go in there going guys this is going to be a Sundance darling to a
company that does movies that they want for Redbox and Netflix you've got to understand
who who the buyer is and what their order is there you go right right it's their order for
one of these food deliveries exactly and so if you're changing it on the phone yeah
yeah it's imagine imagine just this conversation you call me right now and you say James I want to
order try ordering I don't know some pizza sure okay so hey is this James delivery yeah yeah
yeah this is James delivery oh yeah hey yeah so I think I’ll have the do you guys have the turkey on
do you have gluten-free right so I interestingly enough I really think you should have some sushi
okay we've never made sushi before don't get me wrong but I think this sushi would be really tasty
okay well I was actually more hoping for turkey with gluten-free bread meat I know I told you
I make turkey sandwiches and this is a turkey sandwich business but we're making sushi today
so sushi is what you should have you see if you if you get out of that whole mindset you're this
is a ridiculous conversation nowhere else in the world outside of the film industry
will somebody try to convince you that the thing that you want is not actually what you want
sure so I think that once you once people start to think that it's business to the distributors
yes they love the creative side but it's business to them it's business to the producers
so when you start to think in the business standpoint they want the thing that they're buying
interesting yeah that's that's a fun way to present it because it does make sense if you're
calling up with one order and someone's trying to convince you of a completely different thing
yeah it doesn't make any sense yeah exactly it makes no sense it's almost insulting it's why
is this person trying to convince me to get something else what if they're vegan
well they don't they don't eat that so I think find a way to be creative within
what the person wants versus trying to convince them they want something completely different
right and what if you're you're realizing that they want to stick with a certain food
group for lack of a better term but they want it very limiting and you want to add things
to this thing so they want a turkey sandwich but they want a very bland but you want to maybe have
focaccia bread and you want lettuce and you want to spice it up so the weirdest thing that you'll
experience is most of them don't care if you spice it up they're okay with that they're oh
yeah they the idea of oh you want to do this you want to add more you want to add more turkey you
want to add more action you want to add a little bit more action to this great you want to you want
to throw in a little bit more of a character arc you're great a little bit of mustard great
they're cool with that they just don't want you to just go so far that suddenly it's a salad
I see so you have to you have to know what the limits and borders are of that right and is
there a time and a place to present your ideas or all that should be done in the preliminary
meetings with the distributor the distributors mostly want to understand the basic concept of
the movie they want to understand okay this is an action movie where guys rescuing this person
from a burning building and blah blah they want to understand that right they want to understand how
often action happens what are the big set pieces there's this the fight that happens on a jet ski
great they want to know all these different things right but they don't they don't necessarily I mean
they they do want to read the script and know that it's a good script but when you're pitching them
initially I don't think you need to get as far into all that other stuff I think what you can do
is once they're interested and they're hooked and you're going back and forth is you could go hey
I think this would be much better if we do this and that could that could help for sure but I
think it's better to kind of expand as the movie expands do you ever have a distributor change it
on you where they say I know we said x y and z but we're actually going a different direction
no i've never had that you've never had that happen okay no no i've never had that happen you
make it sound you're in talks with distributors before you make the movie yeah a lot of the time a
lot of the time not always because I'm sometimes I'm work for hire so I'm hired as the director
and so maybe the producer wasn't in talks or whatever I might not be in those conversations
but a lot of the time where I'm producing and directing or I'm just producing I'm talking
with the distributor because a lot of the time in this world you want to know that the distributor
would be interested in a movie this with a certain type of cast or this before the movie's ever made
so that's best to have those conversations and to find I don't know I don't necessarily know if it's
best I just know that it's less risky ah because you could make an incredible film then it turns
out you could always yeah you could you could make an incredible film that hits all the beats
and a distributor would pay way more for it when it's done right but you could also make an
incredible film that doesn't hit the beats and the distributor would pay less way less for it
when it's done than if they didn't if they hadn't been made aware of it prior if that makes sense.
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