Producer Emma Thomas

We don't want to suggest that a producer's job is ever easy but when you're working on a Chris Nolan film you must have incredible resources behind you in both financial and human terms. How does that change the job?

Well, it's interesting because when it comes down to it you never have enough money. If somebody's giving you a budget you have to deliver the absolute best film you can for that budget.

But I'd say working on a Chris Nolan film as a producer is somewhat easier on two fronts. First, we're really lucky we're working with the best people. They're at the absolute top of their game across the board, that's an amazing thing.

The other thing that makes my job easier as the producer on a Chris Nolan film is that Chris is very responsible filmmaker. He's also a producer so he has no interest in spending too much money. He takes the long term view. He wants to make the best film he can but he also wants to keep working. He's very easy to talk to about the ways we can be resourceful.

Can you talk about a particular example?

It's difficult to talk about specifics but generally speaking when you're getting down to budgeting, building a set for example, the art department might say 'it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to build this'. He'll be able to look at it and say 'well, I don't think I'm necessarily going to need to shoot this corner of it. Maybe we can just build half of it'. He's incredibly constructive.

SSN: So you combined philosophy is to do the right thing by the studio as well as the audience?

Absolutely, because ultimately doing the right thing by the studio and the audience is doing the right thing by us too.

How hands on is a producer versus the exec producer credit we see so much of?

Generally speaking in the film industry there's no real formula for what an executive producer versus a producer does. Often the line producer is credited as an executive producer and they're as hands on as it's possible to be during the shooting period. When I've been listed as an executive producer I'm way less involved on a day to day basis.

It seems like the term 'producer' can be a spectrum.

Producer can be anything. It's why the Producers Guild of America has recently started doing the PGA mark. You literally have to fill out a form and say what you did, what you had responsibility for and only the producers that had a certain number of responsibilities get the PGA mark. And they didn't just ask you as a producer, they ask the people who worked with you.

Do you occasionally get a bit disdainful of people who only have to make one phone call and they get an exec producer credit?

Sometimes, and I'm sure that all producers feel this, that it is a little galling that sometimes people have credit and don't necessarily do as much. But I will say there are different areas of the job that have different challenges, and there's a good deal to be said for difficulty of setting a project up in the first place.

If you then aren't involved in every single aspect of the production it doesn't in anyway take away from what you did at the beginning. The same thing goes for work that you may do on set, the fact that you didn't do stuff in pre-production or in post, it doesn't necessarily take away from what you did there. I've personally never worked on a film where I didn't feel like everyone who got credits didn't deserve them.

Your credits include things like production coordinator and production secretary. Is it a bit like knowing every job on the factory floor and working your way up to producer?

I was very lucky. Basically when I left college in London I did work experience (interning) at Working Title, at that point was absolutely the biggest and pretty much only film company in London.

They had a great program where they would allow people to come and work for two weeks. You didn't get paid but you learnt an enormous amount. You were basically an office runner. I kept in touch with the people who worked there and managed to get a job as a receptionist, then I took different jobs within the company as they became available. I was an assistant to Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.

I was working in the production department as in-house production coordinator keeping track of everything that the production coordinators were doing on the films they were working on. It was a really fantastic experience and I learnt an enormous amount about the way movies are made. I'd had no experience of that other than making student films at university. None of my family worked in the business or anything and I had absolutely no frame of reference for it whatsoever.

So it was a matter of getting in on the ground floor and working your way up?

Absolutely. Then while I was working at Working Title we were shooting Chris' first feature Following on weekends. When we finished Following there was no real film festival in England the way there is here, so we felt the best way to get the work out there was to bring it over here. Chris is a dual national so LA just seemed like it was the right place to be. Very fortuitously for me, Tim and Eric agreed that I could work in their LA office.

Is something the size of Interstellar or Inception more administration or more creative?

It's both. The thing I love about my job is that I'm involved in pretty much every single aspect of making a film, from the script, development, choosing the technicians that you're going to be working with, casting, the shoot and all the way through to the marketing. We're very involved with the marketing on our movies. It's creative and administrative processes that very much merge and I love that I get to stretch both muscles.

Anything you couldn't do with the space scenes that you really wanted to for whatever reason?

There's one thing we didn't get to do. There's an amazing documentary filmmaker called Toni Myers who's absolutely incredible. We talked a lot with her and we watched a lot of her films when we were researching Interstellar. She put us in touch with an astronaut that really helped us out.

She's actually making a film right now, which sounds like an amazing project, but we talked about the idea that maybe she could shoot some shots for us in space. It didn't end up working out because of the timing of when she was able to get her cameras up there.

It didn't work out for various reasons, but that would've been really fun to have a shot actually shot in space in Interstellar. But it's not anything that takes away from the film, the fact that we don't have it doesn't diminish the impact.

Did you get any tips from the guys who worked on Gravity, or at least get ideas from watching it?

We specifically didn't watch it, we were shooting Interstellar when Gravity and then it came out in cinemas and we very specifically didn't watch it because we didn't want to be reactive in any way to another film. But we were very excited to see how well it did and how engaged and excited people.

So you still haven't seen it?

Thomas: I actually still haven't seen it. But I'm going to.

What's the secret to the appeal of Chris Nolan's films?

Thomas: The thing I love about Chris' films is there's so much going on in them. I've watched his films many, many times, over and over again. Even now with Interstellar, I can't even imagine how many times I've seen it.

But I always get something new from it. And I don't think there are many filmmakers out there who are able to pack so much into their films and have their films be exciting and enjoyable experiences to watch. They can be appreciated on many different levels. Also ha makes films that he would like to watch so he's always thinking 'how would this play for an audience?'

Things have inevitably grown since the days of Memento and Following. Is there anything you miss about doing things at that level?

Every film has challenges in its own different way. There's something really great at this point to be making these big films that have very high visibility. We don't have to fight for attention in quite the same way that you are when you're making smaller films.

But I love the intimacy of those films, the smaller scale. I don't Chris is never going to make a smaller film again. One of these days he probably will when he finds the right story and that's the correct way to tell it. The Prestige was one where we jumped back into smaller scale filmmaking in between two very large ones [Batman Begins and The Dark Knight]. It was a great way of flexing that muscle and for me that's one of my favourite Chris Nolan films.

How do you keep the roles of producer and director when you're married and obviously so close?

One of the great things about working with Chris is he has an extremely clear-cut vision. He knows very much what he wants, he knows the film he's aiming for. My job in no way merges with that. My job is a facilitator for him. I help him fulfil that vision and put it up on screen. In many ways I'm filtering things out so he doesn't have to worry about things that might distract him from the pursuit of that film. They're very clearly differentiated roles in that way, but that's not to say he doesn't listen if I have opinions creatively because he does but he's definitely driving the ship.

Could you ever think about not working together?

There's a level of trust I'd really miss if I was working with somebody else. But I often think about sitting back and twiddling my thumbs and drinking cups of tea and reading a great book while he's off working.

But there's usually a time when we're tired and it's difficult to isolate our family life from the work life where I think 'maybe Chris could direct and somebody else will produce it and maybe I'll just take a break from the next one'. But then what happens every time is he'll figure out what he wants to do next or I'll hear what he's talking about and I'll think 'that sounds really fun'.

Does it make it difficult when you're parents? There must be months where you both literally never leave work.

The work/family balance is often difficult for everyone. It goes for anybody who has to make a living. I'm sure there are people who have far tougher jobs to combine their family life with than we do. We're very lucky because when we do work together we're able to bring our kids with us, which is great.

And the lovely thing about making films, that it's all cyclical. When you're shooting it's very intense and then post-production comes along and you're able to be around your family a lot more. Then there are breaks in between the movies. It's not like we work 9 to 5 every day of the year. So whatever thing you're doing at any given moment you know it's finite. You can look forward to that, but our kids might have a different answer to that question.

Do you have your next project lined up?

No.

You wouldn't tell us even if you did.

No, we really wouldn't.

How do you produce a movie when you're married to the biggest star in the world?

You'd think life couldn't be easier for producer Susan Downey (wife of Robert Downey Jr) when she wants to get a film greenlit for the new shingle she shares with her megastar husband – Team Downey.

But as she explains, there are just as many battles when your producing partner is the one everyone wants – against the pressures of family life if nothing else.

How difficult is it to work with your husband?

We've been doing this for a long time. We met on a movie 12 years ago and this is our 7th movie together.

Even though The Judge is the first Team Downey movie and that does put a little pressure on things, our personal and professional lives are so intertwined we honestly we get off on talking creative. It works out well.

During the period of production you're both tapped out by the end of the day as opposed to one doing that and one being refreshed. It can get exhausting.

But we love the process and we love working together. He's got such an incredible creative energy you want to have around and he thinks like a producer. He's very responsible as a filmmaker with all the experiences he's had. It's all we know at this point.

But isn't it tiring because you never leave work?

Sometimes when you do this stuff - especially when you find a project you're passionate about you - can never truly leave it. We've tried. We've said okay no more talk about the scene or this or that and that lasts 20 minutes and then we're saying 'one last thing before we go to sleep'.

But when you don't know any different or any better you accept it.

How hard is it being a female producer in Hollywood?

Recent studies published show it's not getting much better, especially in America relative to other countries. I found it very interesting because my personal experience is that it's only after I leave a room do I realise I was the only girl there.

I'm focused on the job at hand and I've never been shown any disrespect. I'll take that back – there's probably been one or two meetings I've been in where there's been someone I've ended up not working with and they'll remain nameless.

But that has nothing to do with me. For the most part I've always worked at companies prior to team Downey that have had very male oriented fare. So I don't know, I'm used to the boys.

I went to film school at USC. My first year in production they accept 50 kids and there were four women. I got to my junior year and they upped that to 100 kids and there were eight women. So maybe you just get really used to it. The writing programs tended to have more women.

But there's no barrier, nobody saying 'don't come in to this job'.

If you're a woman and you're going to try to have a career and also have a family you do get derailed a little bit. You have to work a little bit harder. Because as awful as it is for you to go away from your family during certain times and as difficult as it when you bring them and try to balance, the role of mum makes it even harder.

There's a reality to it that I understand, but I don't think it comes from a discriminatory place within the industry. I think it's more of a practical reality to how do you balance everything.

Is it a cultural thing where women don't even think 'I can be a producer or a CEO'?

Maybe, and that's a shame because it's not in my headspace, I've never thought like that and it's entirely possible. And that's what I mean, there's no gate keeping the girls out.

Every woman is different but it's certainly natural to me and a lot of the things that help me hopefully be a good mother are a lot of similar things that help me be a good producer.

You have to be very aware of the people you're working with and their personalities and you want everyone to feel comfortable and taken care of and listened to and at the same time you have a job you have to get done. So it's not just sitting there conducting group therapy. You've got to get through things to get results and if you ever try and get a kid down to bed there are result you need.

Do we see the lack of women in higher positions when we go to movies? Some young actresses say that because there are so few women directors and writers the roles aren't that interesting?

I have a hard time ascribing to that. First of all there are a lot of really powerful women in Hollywood, especially in executive roles. You find it less in the creative side as far as specifically directors and female driven roles in features.

In television it's huge. You go and look at writers or people behind the scenes or production designers. I've worked with equal amount of men and women in those different roles.

It's specific to directors and to a certain degree producers. Does that dictate what's out there in the marketplace? I don't know.

How the latest exec-to-producer story chases the Dragon

We've mentioned ex Warner Bros chief Jeff Robinov before on Screen Producer, back when we talked about the oft-trod path from executive to independent producer.

At the time Robinov had just got the boot from WB (and probably not a moment too soon after news has emerged about how badly the company's doing, announcing massive staff cuts).

He's probably spent the last year in his Hollywood Hills pool area, wearing shorts and fielding offers from companies all over the world.

But the story of what he did next isn't only a remake of what Jon Peters, Peter Chernin, Bill Mechanic, Lorenzo Bonaventura and every other ex studio head before him has done. It's the story of Hollywood's still-burgeoning love affair with China.

Robinov's own shingle was announced months back, and the first place he went calling for dough was China's Fosun Group, with whom he's signed for as much as $200 million.

Back in July the trades were wondering if Robinov could pull it off, saying he'd have to pull the trigger on projects quickly to keep his new partners happy.

Now, with Robinov's Studio 8 set up and having found a home at Sony with chiefs Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton, things seem to be steaming ahead.

Fosun chairman Guo Guangchang talked the talk about confidence in Robinov and Lynton told a Sony press briefing he can see Robinov delivering 18 to 22 movies a year.

It's good news for Robinov, who's set up and ready to go, and it's great news for Guangchang, who can tell his bean counters and shareholders the returns are imminent.

But it's the best possible news for Sony, who have had a dreadful couple of years thanks to some bomb projects and rebel investor Daniel Loeb calling for structural separation, performance that saw them announce restrictions on content.

Robinov promised 'visually unique' movies – whatever that means. But if he can bring directors as marketable as Chris Nolan, Zack Snyder, Ben Affleck and others who've propelled Warner Bros to the top of the box office and awards lists year after year (not to mention Legendary, which was a hit machine at Warners), it might be time to take your shares out of News Ltd and put them back into Sony – especially now everyone else is so spooked by the recent $2bn loss.

How Seth Rogen makes successful movies

I recently interviewed actor/writer/proucer/director Seth Rogen and asked him to secret to his success as a film producer. Here's what he said.

One of the things I'm very happy about and proud of is that for the most part we've made movies that I as a movie fan would be really excited to go see.

That's one of the things that's kept our movies somewhat relevant. We're movie fans, we go to movies, we participate in life largely the same way most people do and we really make movies for ourselves, which not a lot of people do. A lot of people make movies thinking 'oh, maybe people will like this, maybe this'll do well'. We don't do that. We movies thinking 'we like this. This to us is relevant and funny and good and smart enough.

I think that's the reason we've maintained some relevancy, because we really just try to do stuff we're passionate about.

1984 Private Defense Contractors

You won't find four more different movies than 2011 Liam Neeson hit The Grey and last year's Broken City, Dredd 3D and Mark Wahlberg smash Lone Survivor. Which makes 1984 Private Defense Contractors hard to pin down.

Who?

You might have seen their kitschy ident ahead of some movies recently, a Tron-inspired, first-gen CGI clip showing a line-drawn city that's as fun as it is a loving homage to another era.

Part of the new breed of boutique Hollywood production companies, 1984 Private Defense Contractors was the brainchild of co-presidents Adi Shankar and Spencer Silna and quickly established itself a player, signing a first-look deal with Canadian financier/distributor Entertainment One in early 2013.

Though the company doesn't have a perfect track record with releases (theatrical disappointments include Machine Gun Preacher, Killing Them Softly and Dredd), it's usually one of several names behind projects and smash hits like The Grey and Lone Survivor have assured the company a place at the table.

The path to success

Talking to the Indian-American Shankar is like trying to keep up with his influence in Hollywood – he switches between subjects and thoughts mid sentence while you're left to pick up the threads.

But while it might make the 29-year-old sound undisciplined and cavalier, his feel for material proves anything but. Shankar and his company have a plan, and he intends to see it through.

"Every film we've ever done has been a drama," he insists. "We're telling dramatic stories through the lens of some sort of a crime or action element. But they're all effectively dramas. We're definitely sticking to that course."

But while staying the course, Shankar is also taking things one film at a time, saying he doesn't have a particular ambition to turn into a comprehensive studio, as former small-time genre label Lionsgate has become.

"I'd say we operate in a specific niche because we effectively make adult dramas that are kind of 'thinking man's action movies'," he says. "Art house audiences and critics tend to like our kind of thing. Often they're then accepted by mainstream audiences. Our niche is broad while being small at the same time, if that makes sense."

The new brutality

1984 Private Defense Contractor's movies have also been prominent at an interesting time in contemporary American cinema. Even though violent war and action films are a cornerstone of the industry, they've come under greater scrutiny recently.

First came the widely reported study late in 2013 that assessed the rise of gun violence in movies from 1950 to 2012 (short answer; a lot). Then mogul Harvey Weinstein – famous for giving Quentin Tarantino a start in movies – very publicly told CNN he was done with gratuitous cinematic gun violence.

What does Shankar – with a movie as violent as Lone Survivor behind him – think of it all? As he explains, there's violence and then there's violence. "I don't blame him," Shaknar says of Weinstein's stance. "The violence portrayed in our movies is very dramatic and very realistic.

"Not to knock anyone's movies, but in a lot of these tentpoles the way violence is portrayed is almost casual – 'oh, this building exploded'. I'm sitting there in the audience asking myself how many people died in that explosion that was caused by the hero. It's almost glossed over. I think that's more dangerous than the violence in our movies. Vin Diesel jumping out of a moving vehicle catching Michelle Rodriguez in mid-air and landing unharmed on another vehicle is an unrealistic portrayal of violence."

The fanboy producer

Shankar also knows he's coming of age as a movie executive in a unique time. After his generation's grown up online, he's more platform-aware than the fusty 60-something moguls in their big studio offices trying to understand the carnage digital technology has wrought on their industry.

"When you release a movie you're not just competing against the other movies that weekend, even movies in theatres," he says. "You're effectively competing against everything ever made. We have access to technology everywhere, internet everywhere, multiple streams and access to both current and historic content."

He's also proud of 1984 Private Defense Contractors' slate of short films, one of which is set to make very big waves very soon. Many fans considered director Pete (Vantage Point) Travis' Dredd a creative success last year – finally putting the irascible 1995 Sylvester Stallone version by director Danny Cannon to rest.

The film didn't perform at the box office, making $35m globally from a $50m budget, but it was the performance on DVD that silenced naysayers. Dredd home entertainment distributor Lionsgate said 650,000 units were sold on initial release, making it 2013's best selling new release DVD title.

Regardless of the money (it's a common theme throughout the discussion – Shankar's far more interested in creative integrity and making movies people love than first weekend box office, tracking and ROI; 'As long as it's someone’s favourite movie, we've won,' he says), Shankar talks about the passionate Dredd devotees.

"The fan base keeps growing to the point where the growth has eclipsed the intense depression I felt from the film's initial commercial outcome," he says. "So for the past year and a half I've been working on an 'unofficial' Dredd short. Tonally it's very different to the movie, and like all my 'Bootleg Universe' shorts, it's 100 percent for the fans. A thank you for being so damn loyal."

Partnerships

Beyond that, Shankar continues to align himself with filmmakers who have something to say. "We're in a position now where we can effectively give people a shot," he says. "A lot of the filmmakers coming out of Sundance are the ones I'm interested in at the moment. People who have voices – that's what it comes down to for me.

"As I slowly get older and become more and more entrenched in this crazy town, I'm looking a lot at these guys thinking 'oh my God, you're as pissed off as I was when I was your age'. Whenever I meet a filmmaker who has that same spark, that need to tell a story or their head is going to fucking explode, I'm like 'alright, we're doing something together'."

Next up for 1984 Private Defense Contractors is September's A Walk Among the Tombstones. Directed by Scott Frank (writer of 2013's The Wolverine and the upcoming Assassin's Creed movie), it stars Liam Neeson as a private investigator hired to find the man who killed the wife of a crime lord.

Even more of what you least expect will come after that, including what he describes as a 'puppet gangster' movie, making us wonder if he's kidding for a second. "It's in a world where humans and puppets co-exist but it's a hard 'R', super violent, told through this parallel universe of humans and puppets."

Crazy town

On that note and with our conversation coming to a close, it seems like a good time to ask about the obvious practical joke behind the company name.

"It's an Orwellian reference," Shankar says. "When we first started I thought we should just make sci-fi movies because that's my genre. If I was to list my top 15 movies of all time you're going to find a lot of retro sci-fi movies like The Road Warrior [Mad Max], RoboCop, Logan's Run, Blade Runner. Even The Warriors, which is a dystopian movie."

When a movie starts, Shankar thinks the audience should be entertained from the second they sit down – by the production company or studio ident if necessary. "These logos would always be something like a raindrop and then a big orchestra and they're just really boring. I wanted to build a mythology around it, pretend we're in a completely different industry."

He adds that even though it's clearly a joke ('If you're a private defense contractor you don't call yourself 'private defense contractor, right?'), his office staff still contend with people who don't get it. He says people frequently turn up with resumes that list other private military security experience with companies like Blackwater, Inc. "One guy came in and said he needed us to transport diamonds that he had in his trunk or something. It was really freaky, I just kind of locked my door."

Tracking, the Internet and You

The business of marketing movies is changing, and one of its traditional cornerstones is under assault.

I'm talking about tracking.

The old ways, many say, are dying. Holding focus groups is a notoriously under-representative affair, and handing around little cards or shoving a microphone in an audience member's face or as they come out of a test screening is way too confronting to foster honesty.

After several stories around town about how the tracking system was fundamentally broken;

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/08/business/la-fi-ct-movie-tracking-20131008

http://variety.com/2013/biz/news/the-problem-with-film-tracking-data-isnt-being-interpreted-correctly-1200783116/

I decided to find out what was going on, and it led me to a finding that seems obvious in hindsight. The Internet is where we're our most honest and candid with our opinions, so it's the perfect place to go to generate tracking information.

As it turns out, several big names in technology are ahead of the curve, with Google and Adobe in particular mining social media and search data. Both companies claim it gives them an edge in predicting box office success, and I found out exactly how in this story;

http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/cloud/social-media-analytics-predicting-box-office-success-20140228-hvfg6.html

Producer Mary Parent, Disruption Entertainment

Way back in Mary Parent's back catalogue as a producer is 1998's Pleasantville, the sleepy, sweet comedy drama about two teenagers sent back in time to shake up the culturally stagnant 1950s.

Somewhere along the line, Parent obviously decided to go big or go home. Just look at the giant films she has to her name; Darren Aronofsky's Russel Crowe-starrer Noah, Gareth (Monsters) Evans' Godzilla redux and Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim.

What's the appeal in producing a big action adventure movie?

I love making movies so for me it's about getting to make as many movies as I can. I sat on the bench for a year and a half, so I could jump into this right away and it was a dream come true. A movie of this size can really get away from you, and that's the other thing about Guillermo with Pacific Rim – he has full command of the movie and the way he thinks.

I mean, look at his body of work, he thinks visually as well as about character and emotion. Let's face it, you see some movies that have incredible visuals but you don't care about the characters, or smaller movies where you care about the characters but not the visuals. Guillermo is able to do it all.

Pacific Rim was the only major film of the midyear 2013 season not based on a pre-existing property. How do you get a studio to take that risk?

People first and foremost want to be entertained, but what makes a great entertainment experience is when you connect. In this case there's also this huge wish fulfilment – we've seen robots before but we haven't seen them this big and to be able to get inside and actually drive them. And in Pacific Rim you really get up in the face of the monster.

So you'll get that visceral on the edge of your seat feel, a real rollercoaster ride, but a real emotional investment of the characters at the same time.

Considering it's giant robots, were you conscious you didn't want to make another Transformers?

Michael Bay delivers, he almost has his own brand that delivers a level of entertainment that's unparalleled. I love all the Transformers movies. Guillermo does very different movies. Again, in this case we're driving the robots and the creatures are coming from an entire other universe.

These sort of films appeals to the little boy in all of us. What can you bring to the film from a woman's perspective?

As a woman, we like the visual thrill ride. A lot of people are surprised how well horror films play to women, it's that visceral feeling you get from that experience. So women will 100 percent relate to this, plus there's an absolute love story at the centre of it. I think women have a hard time when there's just mindless violence or action that has no character meaning, not that men really like that either, but I guess guys would be more tolerant of it.

For me this film has all the elements. I love that big adventure, I love the idea of looking into the face of these monsters. But at the same time I want a story where I can care about people, care about characters. It's a movie about second chances. It's about an unlikely gang of characters who hopefully come together against all odds. I like movies where I feel like I've been transported but at the same time where I feel like the characters need me on some level.