NEW YORK—Both NBC and ABC are delving into shortform film projects. NBC will be first out of the gate this fall when it begins running mini-movies—most one-minute in length—amidst the commercials it airs in between its primetime shows. Among them is a four-minute film titled Henry Tammer, Prodigy/ Bully, which was conceived and directed by Hank Perlman, a partner in bicoastal Hungry Man. Meanwhile, ABC is developing a series of shorts—likely three-minute films broken down into one-minute installments—that will also air during commercial breaks.
The goal of the NBC project is to keep viewers from changing channels during commercial breaks, according to a story in The New York Times. While a welcome benefit, viewer retention is not the primary purpose of ABC’s mini-movie initiative. "Our project is different," Carmen Smith, VP of talent development at ABC, told SHOOT. "The main goal of this project is to provide an opportunity for creative talent. It brings to a whole other level our commitment to putting diverse voices—in writing, directing and acting—on primetime."
The ABC project is open "to every writing fellow that has gone through our program in the past fourteen years, a director who has participated in any of our projects, and any filmmaker or writer who has participated in our scholarship/ grant program," Smith said. "In addition, it’s been opened up to [advertising] agencies that have relationships with ABC." ABC has worked out deals with the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Screen Actors Guild, allowing the various unions’ talent to participate.
ABC’s mini-movies are in the early stages of development. The network issued a request for pitches last spring and has since received hundreds of submissions, including some from members of the advertising agency community. At this point, Smith said it is simply too early for the network to announce when the scripts that are ultimately chosen will go into production and then air.
HENRY TAMMER
NBC is much farther along with its mini-movie project. While SHOOT could not obtain an interview with an NBC executive involved in the effort at press time, The Times reported that the NBC films will debut later this month, as the network’s fall season gets underway. Each one-minute movie will be split into two :30s, with "a cliff-hanging moment" ending the first segment.
As previously mentioned, Perlman’s Henry Tammer, Prodigy/Bully is part of the NBC lineup. A faux documentary, Perlman’s film tells the story of Henry Tammer, a child prodigy who is also a bully. The humorous short will air over the course of four nights in eight :30 installments, according to The Times.
Television director Paris Barclay (whose credits include NYPD Blue and The West Wing) conceptualized the overarching idea for the mini-movie project. He took it to John Wells Productions (ER, Third Watch), which sold NBC on it. Barclay also directed some of the films, which reportedly include everything from a game show takeoff to a thriller to a musical featuring Carmen Electra. Michael Richards, Tom Arnold, Bill Bellamy and Paula Marshall are also among the talent appearing in the various films.
Perlman was recruited to direct a film by his agent, Creative Artists Agency’s Jeff Jacobs, who worked with Barclay to round up talent. "Paris sent me the presentation they had put together for NBC, and we talked on the phone, and he said, ‘Call me back in a week with an idea of what you want to do for your minute movie, and we’ll take it from there,’ " Perlman recalled.
The director decided to build a film around an eight-year-old actor named Josh Flitter, whom he has directed in commercials for clients such as Ad Council and Toyota. "He is somebody I really liked," Perlman said. "He’s just funny."
Once he settled on Flitter, thoughts of child prodigies began swimming in Perlman’s head. "Child prodigies have always been really interesting to me," he remarked. "I love the idea of kids who can play the violin when they are three years old."
Perlman was then struck by the thought that a child prodigy who also happens to be a bully would make for a funny film, and he pitched the idea to Barclay. "He did exactly what you want a producer to do," Perlman shared. "He goes, ‘I don’t like it.’ I go, ‘You don’t like it?’ And he goes, ‘I love it!’ "
Barclay was so taken with the concept that he granted Perlman four minutes to tell his story; Perlman’s film is the only mini-movie running more than one minute.
Perlman, DP Adam Beckman and the rest of the crew shot Henry Tammer, Prodigy/Bully this past July in two days on location in Jericho, N.Y. "The budget wasn’t very big," Perlman said, "but we shot it on digital video, which allowed me to just keep rolling and rolling and rolling."
The director then spent five days cutting the film with editor Ian MacKenzie of MacKenzie Cutler, New York.
Looking back on the project, Perlman said working on it was liberating. He particularly enjoyed the fact that NBC made the films purely for entertainment value—they contain no product placement or advertising of any sort. "I think it’s a positive development," Perlman mused. "All we’ve heard about the last five or ten years is how advertising and entertainment are going to mix and how there is going to be programming driven by advertising. … I like that instead of figuring out how to make shows shorter and cram more commercials in, NBC is trying to give [viewers] an interesting piece of programming."
MORE TO COME?
Asked whether he might direct more mini-movies for NBC if the project is a success and continues, Perlman said, "Nothing is concrete, but we’re definitely talking about doing more of these mini-movies."
NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker told The Times that the current spate of films should last the network through the first quarter of 2004. He also divulged that the network could try to turn at least one of these films into a series.
Additional credit for Henry Tammer, Prodigy/Bully goes to Hungry Man managing partner Stephen Orent, who was executive producer; Dan Duffy, executive producer in Hungry Man’s Los Angeles office; and producer Ralph Laucella.
For MacKenzie Cutler, Sunderland Procter served as executive producer, Yvette Choy as assistant editor, and Marc Healy as mixer. Matthew Monson of Schmigital, the online company at MacKenzie Cutler, was Smoke editor.
Historic Films of Greenport, N.Y., and Producers Library Service, North Hollywood, provided stock footage.
