"The Finale" – Project Greenlight, Episode 9 by carpesomediem
Last week we left off waiting for Bob Weinstein to weigh in on the film. Joel was on the phone with him negotiating the film. "Well, you know what, I hope you like it as much as I do," he tells him. He's supposed to watch it that day as he was at the Golden Globes the night before. They're waiting for the word from Bob through Andrew.
Bob Weinstein liked the movie. "That was good," Mike says, "That was huge." Andrew says, "There's a lot of potential in the film." He admits they picked the right script and the right director. They joke about whether or not Andrew is still going to be involved with the project because of the dissolution of Dimension Films from Disney. "Now, we're no longer under the radar," Chris says. Ben comes in and sits down, and he's very ecstatic about what Bob said.
"This reaction from a studio is unprecedented," Ben says of Project Greenlight. They decide they want to do some focus groups on the film before doing screenings for the public's reaction. They're continuing to edit things through the rough cut in the rooms. "I just hope we can whip it into shape," John says.
Forty-eight hours later, they're having a bunch of big names come in to watch the film. Kevin Smith, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Andrew Rona and a bunch of other industry names come in to watch the next step of the rough cut. "He's like a different guy," Ben jokes. "John is getting a further grasp at the image of a director," Joel says of the changes in John going from wallflower to the spotlight.
They watch some scenes that are put together much better than they were during the last showing. At the end, they all clap, and they seem very pleased. "See, I told you he was a good director," Matt jokes. Afterwards he fielded questions from everyone to get feedback on what he has now. "He's reminding everyone that it's not perfect, yet," Joel says. They say they might want to do a few reshoots to put in. "We're saying great job, if you want to fix it, let's do it," Andrew says. "That's a unique thing for the project for the studios to want to put more money in the film," Matt explains. "I thought he did a really good job." Kevin Smith was also very impressed and said so.
They decide they want to do a test screening with a real audience. However, they want to try to get the sound and visuals put together before they do that, even if they don't have enough time to do it. "We'll get some honest feedback," John says of the next slew of screenings. "We have a huge task in front of us," Mike says, "We have to lock the cut. We have to get the picture very pretty."
"There's a part of me that actually wants us to fail at this test screening next week," Joel explains, "But fail enough to know we need to fix this movie and make it better." FotoKem Film and Video crews keep editing, and we're at two days to the screening. It's getting down to the wire, and they're working day and night to get the editing down. "We're getting dangerously close to locking this puppy and putting it to bed," Mike tells them. "I think it's good." John notes there's still more to do to get it to look like "a real screening." They go to Monkeyland Studios to record more lines for the screening. They all come in and help make the sound, words and script much better. "I guess that's it," John jokes. Then, FotoKem begins to piece everything else together to get it set for the screening. "This is stuff that usually takes weeks or nine months in big movies," John says. They recolor bits and pieces of the film to make it brighter. "We're cutting it real close," Mike worries.
They have one day left now, and they're still trying to put everything else together into the screening cut. "It's quicker than normal," Mike says, "It concerns me a bunch, because Bob Weinstein is going to be there." Mixing usually takes much longer than what they're doing, and they're worried they might not be able to mix everything together, and they have less than four hours to go before it's deadline. They're now down to 20 hours before the screening, but they're still going and trying to mix everything together. "It's a time consuming process," John says. It's now half past four in the morning, and they're still mixing. They finally finish at five in the morning. "The sound is good, to do what we did with one day is insane," Mike says.
At a Pacific Theaters screening, there's about 400 people there to see it, and everyone is nervous. Everyone is anxious. "I'm going to say I think it's going to go well tonight," Mike admits. "You're going to see something that's not completely done," John says, "Hopefully, it's not too rough."
"This film will live or die based on this screening," Joel says as they cut back and forth between the audience and the film as things happen during the screening. "People are sort of responding," John says excitedly. There are people screaming, yelling and reacting. They're showing some of the scenes that were previously shot that we saw filmed live. It's interesting to see everything on the screen as people are reacting. At the end, there's applause and yelling as the rough credits roll. "I think the screening was awesome," Mike says, "It was a validation of all the hard work."
"There were two moments during the screening when they audience started applauding," Marcus says. "Seeing our film being made was a dream come true," Patrick admits. Now, the audience is filling out questionnaires about the film, and they're getting tallied so that they can work with it. Joel explains how the questionnaires work. They need a score of higher than 60 for this to be good. A woman explains the scores, and they weren't as good as it should be for a movie of its kind. Chris is crushed by the numbers, and he can't believe how bad it seemed to do.
Joel worries John will wake up in a nightmare worrying his film will bear the fate of the other Project Greenlight films. The next day, they all sit down together to try and figure out what to do to increase the screenings and cuts. "I was surprised by the numbers, because the movie played better than it tested," Andrew explains. Laurie, the woman running the screening results, discusses how the monsters aren't explained and that the movie has plot holes in it. The appearance of the monsters also were an issue. "The people that didn't care about it [the origin of the monsters] rated it high," Mike says. Bob and Harvey have advised that maybe they should just make the monsters aliens, that they came there, ate and left. This way it's easier to explain rather than how to explain a whole origin of species. "We have not lost any confidence in the movie," Andrew reassures them. "Bob wants to put up more money. He also talked about releasing the movie wide. He also talked about a release date."
"Go fix the monsters," Chris tells them. They have to roll their sleeves up and get some ideas on the table to get the ball rolling. "We're still kind of going over that," John says. Marcus throws out some ideas, but most aren't taken seriously. He goes every which way with his ideas. "We still haven't addressed where they're coming from and what they are," Mike says. "They're delivering pages on the hour," Joel says of the rewriting, "Soon we'll have something for Bob."
"We wrote six openings," Patrick says, "We're just giving them options." John and Mike look through them, and John doesn't know which one even works. "I don't think we like the idea of it being an alien," Patrick sighs, "That's been done before."
They hear back from Bob on the new openings, and he has one he favors. They think a coyote will find a carcass, and he's getting ready to eat it and a monster eats him. They decide to put a budget together and get the shooting back into production over the summer to get everything done. "The real future depends on the Disney/Dimension divorce," Mike says.
In New York, Matt and John meet up to talk about everything. "I beg him to come to New York," Matt Damon, "Because I'm shooting a movie." Matt talks about how Don Cheadle, while they were shooting Oceans 12, watched all the sort films that came in and how Don really liked John's short film. "The interview was a disaster, but it's not about the interview, it was about the short film," Matt explains. "They were superior to anything I've ever seen come out of that web site. You were just clearly the guy to do it." John says, "Any movie that gets done is amazing." Matt says, "I'd definitely consider working with John again. I definitely believe in John."
"Right now we are making a movie for a studio that may not exist in the next few weeks," Mike worries, "With him [Bob] leaving, we don't find ourselves in a good position with Feast. We still have no idea what the future of the film will be." Andrew calls them to say thanks for everything and before the divorce officially happens. He talks to everyone, including John, and tells him he's "a true filmmaker." He says he wishes he was there to give him a hug for all his hard work. "Andrew was very gracious and kind," John says humbly.
Everyone heads to Las Vegas, originally, the entire movie was supposed to premiere at the Palms Casino, but due to the divorce, it was scrapped. However, the Maloofs thought it was important to have a wrap party there anyway since the travel arrangements had already been made. They all fly out, and they're also told they will receive some important information about the future of Feast while they're in Nevada.
They indulge in a bunch of food, drinks and share time together during the party. The actors arrive, as well as most of the crew, and they're just living up the life in Las Vegas for all their hard work on the film. John and his family are there, too, and they just can't believe how well things seemed to turn out.
George and Phil, the Maloofs, talk about how proud they are to be part of the film. "Seeing the movie, I love it," George admits. "I hope you all have a good time tonight." Nick takes the floor next and he speaks on behalf of Dimension. "I'm just really proud to be a part of this," he admits. "So, that being said, Bob and Harvey had amicably settled their divorce. Out of a slew of movies, they could only choose a small handful, and Feast is one of the movies they chose to bring with them." John is in awe, speechless, as are the rest of the crew and those involved. "Feast will premiere here at the Palms Casino in December."
"I've been spending three years trying to get someone to say this about a Project Greenlight project," Chris jokes. "I think we came up with a pretty cool little movie," John takes the center stage, he applauds everyone. "He's one of the great cinematographers," Clu says of John. "Nobody knows any of this, except his family."
"Our dreams are worthy," Marcus says, "I'm just really lucky we were rewarded with a chance." Nick told John's girlfriend they would work with him again. "I think he's a hero," she says of John. "This journey feels like it's been forever," John says, "It feels like I've known these guys forever. Been through a lot. Made a movie."
At the end, as the credits roll, they did a fun little spoof on how they introduce each character in Feast, and here they are:
Name: Marcus Dunstan
Job: Writer
Occupation: Chatty Cathy
Hollywood Life Expectancy: 7 years
Fun Fact: Will run a major studio by Fall
Name: Patrick Melton
Job: Writer
Occupation: Straight man
Hollywood Life Expectancy: 6 rewrites
Fun Fact: Still looking for a place to jump in to Marcus' riffing
Name: Mike Leahy
Job: Producer
Occupation: Mr. Level Head
Hollywood Life Expectancy: 99 years
Fun Fact: eBay user name "Bluto"
Name: Joel Soisson
Job: Producer
Occupation: Philosopher
Hollywood Life Expectancy: 21 years
Fun Fact: Holds the world record for most complex metaphor
Name: Nick Phillips
Job: Vice President Dimension Films
Occupation: Snappy dresser
Hollywood Life Expectancy: 22 months
Fun Fact: When getting a haircut, he asks for the "Tom Sizemore"
Name: Chris Moore
Job: Executive Producer
Occupation: Pit bull
Hollywood Life Expectancy: 12746 days
Fun Fact: This was his first trip to Vegas
Name: John Gulager
Job: Director
Occupation: Badass Filmmaker
Hollywood Life Expectancy: 4 sequels
Fun Fact: John is negotiating to have a tub on the set of his next project
Carpesomediem is an aspiring freelance writer from Lancaster, Pa. who enjoys music, movies and writing about the way the world works; you can contact her at carpesomediem@realityshack.com to talk about this week's episode or anything at all.
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