Agency producers, production house execs, feature/TV pros offer advice to new directors, producers
By A SHOOT Staff Report
Getting your foot in the door, opening the door, crossing the threshold, building a sense of belonging are among the key steps for new talent to establish itself in the industry. But attaining each step is a challenge—one we hope made a little easier by career advice offered by a cross-section of producers from the ad agency, production house, TV showrunner, and feature sectors.
To help foster opportunities for those aspiring to gain a meaningful foothold in the business—and in the spirit of SHOOT’s 15th New Directors Showcase event set for Thursday evening, May 25, at the DGA Theatre in NYC—we invited agency heads of production/executive producers, production company execs spanning features, TV and commercials to offer career counsel to aspiring directors and producers.
To gain prudent career-building advice, SHOOT posed the following four questions to industry pros:
1) What advice do you have for new directors?
2) What advice can you offer to up-and-coming producers?
3) Learning is an ongoing process even for the most seasoned producer. Would you share a recent lesson learned on the job, perhaps related to a project involving new technology (i.e., VR, AR, AI, etc.) or another experience?
4) What recent project are you particularly proud of—and why?
Click here for a slideshow of survey responses, or click on the headshots below.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More