Cool Rules Pronto

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”
- Steve Jobs

There’s nothing I love more than creative projects with talented people. I don’t even need a major role. In my first play in L.A., all my character did was glare at people and laugh. I didn’t get paid, nor did I have much stage time, but I had a complete blast…

So one reason I moved back to L.A. was to again surround myself with amazingly talented people. Los Angeles is knocked for being a vapid space filled with posers whose sole obsession is finding the best lease on a new Mercedes. The short-lived but brilliant sitcom “Action” captured these people in sordid colors.

But for every poser and pretender, there are thousands of professionals honing their skills and doing everything they can to score their Big Break. And you don’t have to go far to find them. While making the trailer for Atomic Tango, I worked with two all-pros: actor Jed Rowen and director XDL. This project was also a classic case of the creative process working right.

My original script didn’t call for an actor like Jed - it stipulated an attractive female spy. (Did I mention that I like surrounding myself with amazingly talented people?) XDL wrote in Jed’s character as the spy’s nemesis: an “in the box” corporate drone who would appear only on a computer monitor, like a Max Headroom for the 21st Century. XDL penned some corporate clichés for Jed to spout, grabbed his camcorder, and off we went to film.

We set up in the future home of bLAnkspaces, a hip new office concept by architect/entrepreneur Jerome Chang. As soon as the camcorder went on, so did Jed. He was a one-man riot! We had him do multiple accents and moods, which he accomplished without a hitch. Jed even sang his lines (which led me to think, “Atomic Tango: The Musical… hmmmm…”). XDL has a great touch working with actors, and we easily shot half-an-hour of killer footage for this 30-second-spot.

And that’s when we knew: the attractive female spy would have to wait. This first film would be all about Jed, and there’s no way we would confine him to a box. XDL took the footage and worked his editorial magic, and the finished project made me grin so wide I nearly got stretch marks on my face.

What made this project work was letting the talented professionals and our collective imagination shape the film while it was being made. I once worked on an awful sitcom where the showrunner did not allow the talented cast to shape their parts: he had his concept and his script, and screw anyone who diverged from them. Not surprisingly, despite the talented cast, the show lasted all of six episodes before the network pulled the plug.

So here’s another Steve Jobs quote I love about the creative process (yes, I’m an Apple fanatic): “Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”

The role of the producer is to hire truly talented professionals, set the stage and the objective, provide the funding, and make sure the whole project stays on budget, on schedule, and on target. He should be available to answer questions and make key decisions when asked to do so. Otherwise, he should get the hell out of the way. That’s how truly inspired work gets made. Sure, sometimes you fail, but the hits more than make up for the misses, particularly if everyone has an amazing time giving their all. And the greatest reward of a hit is being able to work with these people again on future projects.

PS: The movie for the Atomic Trailer was created by the amazingly talented Woody Pak of Chaos Theory Music.