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"Deferred Pay and 20 Bucks A Day"
It started with a script. But it wasn't the script for "A Night At Sophie's".
"I wrote a script called 'Coyote Girl Blues'," explains first time director, Scott Schofield. "It was a quirky script, and I sent it around to production companies. They liked it a lot, and then asked 'Great. So who's attached?'" No "names" were attached, every production company had trouble with the idea of a "first time director", and the script bounced from production company to production company. The script was optioned, but never made, and Scott set out to write and direct something he could finance himself.
With the hope that by directing a smaller feature he would establish himself as a director, Schofield set out to write a project that could be produced for under $60,000. "I had this idea for a story that came out of an image: A guy, desperate for the love of a woman he will never have, teaches her dance steps for her wedding the next day to this old scratchy song on a bar jukebox. That was the inspiration for the story and it progressed from there." But it had to be a comedy too. "I love a story that is both funny and sad, because that's the way life is."
With the script finished, Scott showed it to people he trusted for feedback. "Lot's of feedback" Scott asserts. "I showed it to everybody I knew. I asked their opinions, then bounced other people's opinions and problems with the script off them. After a few revisions, I felt pretty confident in the script, collected a few friends who wanted to help, and started casting and pre-production."
First on-board was Vince Gonzales, a friend and Assistant Director. He and Scott had known each other for seven years, since they were both Production Assistants. Vince jumped on as a Producer and as the First Assistant Director. Vince was largely responsible for scheduling, budgeting, and hiring the crew, which he did amazingly without any real money to offer people. Next on-board was Director of Photography Robert Baumgartner, who had recently completed working as the Gaffer on David Mamet's "The Spanish Prisoner". Still, there wasn't any money to speak of.
Extra money was picked up by recycling.
Recycling?
"The entertainment industry throws away a lot of material." Schofield explains, "and some of it still has value. I found the things that still had value and asked for the cast-offs as donations." Scott raised enough money to nearly cover the raw stock budget on the film this way.
The story is set in a neighborhood in one of the New York City boroughs, so the actors needed to have the New York accent and attitude. With a local's eye and ear, Scott cast for that -- a group of people, each with a natural self-confidence and similar attitudes that you could believe were friends. Luckily, Scott was able to cast several native New Yorkers and the others picked up on the rhythms and accents quickly. The cast includes Zack Ward, co-star of TV's "Titus", feature film credits include "Almost Famous"; Dave Ruby, star of numerous TV commercials and a co-star on UPN's "Grown Ups", Dave's feature credits include "Dead Man On Campus" and "Baseketball"; and Glenn Taranto, star of "The New Addams Family" for the Fox Family Channel, other TV credits include "Law and Order", "Brooklyn South." The parts of Harold and Nancy, the Best Man and the girl he loves, are played by Kevin P. Kern and Kathryn Carner, two actors with strong backgrounds in theater and commercials.
The
cast and crew agreed to work for deferred pay and a small gas
stipend. Recognizing the lack of pay as a significant hurdle in
hiring people, Vince and Scott guaranteed the cast and crew they
wouldn't work more than 12 hours a day (the typical work day on a
movie set is a minimum of 12 hours), but that those 12 hours
might start late at night. "Our location budget was $100 a day, and
since a good portion of the movie takes place in a bar and the
surrounding neighborhood we would at least be shooting some
nights, and if we had to shoot in a functioning bar I wouldn't be
able to afford to close it down so we'd have to shoot around the
bar's schedule." Which is exactly what happened. "Trying to find a
bar in L.A. that looks like a New York bar is difficult." Scott
explains, "For one, we needed to see a storefront window in the bar
that looks out onto the street, it was part of the story -- and L.A.
bars don't have windows! It's some zoning law." They found the
solution at a "beer bar" in East LA. "If you don't serve hard
alcohol, and just serve beer, you can have a window." The promised 12
hour days couldn't begin until 12 midnight, and went until 12 noon.
"The one great thing about a shooting schedule like we had,"
remembers actor Glenn Taranto, "is the ride to and from work is easy.
Nobody was on the freeways at that hour!"