Suzanne Weinert is the president of Flatiron Pictures, located in Austin (TX),which specializes in producing independent feature films throughout the Southwest. Her short “A Good Son,” which she directed, just had its World Premiere at SXSW. Thematically, it bears some resemblance to a Burt Reynolds film, “The End.” (1978). It is playing at the Boston Film Festival April 11-16 ; the hope is that the feature of “A Good Son” (存在）可能会吸引波士顿的电影制片人和像艾伦·阿金（Alan Arkin）这样的明星。
苏珊娜（Suzanne）一直在制作，写作，现在正在执导电影，因为她在哥伦比亚大学的一名学生中回答了一家实习生广告，并最终协助导演罗恩·霍华德（Ron Howard）担任“Paper”(released in 2004). After that start, while still working on her MFA in Filmmaking, Suzanne began working for Julia Roberts’ Production Company, Shoelace Productions, and rose to become Vice President of that organization.
Suzanne has worked on such films as “Conspiracy theory” (1997), “Notting Hill” (1999), “Runaway Bride” (1999) and “The Paper” (1994) and also on “Hellion” (2014) and as the writer of the 2009 film “The ExTerminators” (希瑟·格雷厄姆（Heather Graham），詹妮弗·柯立芝（Jennifer Coolidge）和琥珀) which, after it ran at SXSW that year, she says, “changed my life.”
The write-up in this year’s SXSW program for her short “A Good Son” is this: “When Tommy, 75, asks his son Mike to put a Hefty bag over his head and suffocate him to death, neither believes the other will really go through with it. Until Mike’s son, Chris, 17, devises a plan that will satisfy both his father and grandfather.”
When we spoke about making movies and the theme of this particular effort, Suzanne shared these insights: “I’ve had a lot of people say to me, since they saw the short, ‘This is a conversation that’s actually going on in my house.’” She mentioned the “sandwich generation” (as the group of young people caught between caring for their own families and caring for their elderly parentsis sometimes被称为) and asked me if I’d seen the appearance of Bea Smith’s husband on “The View.”
Bea Smith was a famous restauranteer. Several years ago Bea and her spouse sat down and talked about what to do in the event of either of them got Alzheimer’s or dementia or some other debilitating illness that would require extensive assistance. They spelled out everything each would want. Bea’s husband has done everything she asked, but when he brought another woman to their house— someone he met after Bea’s condition worsened— who has helped him care for his ailing wife, that was controversial to many, if not to the couple themselves.
最近的一篇有关86岁喜剧演员蒂姆·康威（Tim Conway）的新闻文章分享说，康威（Conway）的妻子多年和他的成年女儿在法庭上争论了卡罗尔·伯内特（Carol Burnet）的喜剧团的前成员，他的痴呆症患有严重的痴呆症，现在很大反应。斯坦·李（Stan Lee）的死也引起了争议，几个月前在媒体上。
As Suzanne said, “They (Bea Smith & her husband）进行了对话。在美国，我们似乎已经决定垂死是可选的，所以没人愿意谈论它。但事实是，它将发生在每个人身上，我们所有人都需要谈论它。”
Q: I asked Suzanne, “What is your background?”
答：“我去了哥伦比亚大学。我有学士学位从巴纳德学院（Barnard College）获得硕士学位。我在戏剧写作方面开始了硕士课程，并很快意识到这不是我想做的，因此我转移并最终获得了编剧和电影制作的MFA。
While I was there, Ron Howard was looking for an intern. It was on the internship bulletin board. It said, ‘Director is seeking intern for feature film.’ I ripped off the thing and I called the number. It was Ron Howard. He was looking for an intern to work with him. So, I went down and had the interview. Kathryn Bigelow was my idol, and I remember having this conversation with Ron about Kathryn and how she’s my idol. When I was done and walked out, I thought, ‘I can’t even believe I said all these things to him.’ But he called me the next day and said, ‘I think this would be a good job for you.’ So, I was literally his intern. The Paper was a big movie. It had Michael Keaton, who had just done 2 Batmans, Glenn Close and Marisa Tomei, who had just won the Oscar for My Cousin Vinny, Randy Quaid, Robert DuVall, Jason Robards, Jason Alexander, Catherine O’Hara, Spalding Grey. The film was ‘The Paper.” (released in 2004) I was still in film school. I was in my second year. I said, ‘Oh, my gosh. I got this thing.’ It paid no money.”
Q: What was it like working for Ron Howard?
A: “I was so lucky to work with someone at that stage in my career who was so wonderful, so kind, so personally generous. Ron Howard set the bar on how you should behave. I remember after just a few weeks—a teamster was coming to pick him up every morning from New Jersey. He had to come down the west side, anyway. Instead of leaving me to take public transportation at 5 o’clock in the morning, Ron would have his teamster come and pick me up first. So, I would get 15 minutes alone in the car every morning with Ron Howard.
过了一会儿,他对我说,‘我们应该付给你omething.’ So, any little job along the way he would throw my way. I got to be in a scene one day, and I got paid for that. Another time I got to work with the second unit for a day as a P.A. (production assistant). Everyone took care of me. The Teamsters took care of me. I remember the last day of shooting I gave my teamster driver a pie. I’m not a cook, but I baked him a pie. For my first time on a film set, it was so magical.
但是，它的美丽是，如果罗恩在那里，我必须在那里，实习生并非总是如此。我记得的一件事是，成为导演意味着一次能够一次处理1000个问题。It was amazing. The script was written by David Koepp and Stephen Koepp who went on to become some of the biggest screenwriters of all, at the time, but this was one of their earlier works. It was 1992. This was one of their first ones before they started doing, like Jurassic Park, Stir of Echoes and Spiderman (2002).”
罗恩（Ron）做完之后 - 他正在准备“阿波罗11”（Apollo 11） - 该部门的主席知道有人在纽约成立了一家制作公司，她想到了我。我去接受采访，得到了这份工作。It was Julia Roberts.
They wanted someone to read scripts and to work hard. I was really lucky. They made it really easy for me to have responsibility. And, I got to stay in New York. I was living on 16Th街道。After a few months we moved the office to 19Th街道。她的生产总裁是一个如此友善，如此亲切的人。她有一个从那里将脚本录制到屏幕的过程。他们非常热情 - 在您听到好莱坞的所有故事中都没有。我想，‘我会呆2年。我会得到一些经验，然后我就去某个地方开始写剧本。’但是我度过了7年和½年的美好时光。我呆了4倍，比我想在那里的时间长4倍。
问：朱莉娅·罗伯茨（Julia Roberts）的其他故事，除了研究“失控的新娘”，“阴谋论”和“诺丁山？”之外，除了工作之外。
答：我喜欢旅行。我是一个大旅行者。我一直自愿为人居栖息。有一次，朱莉娅（Julia）有机会去婆罗洲（Borneo）呆了一段时间，并对Orangutangs做事。刘易斯·莱克（Lewis Leaky）有3位他派往非洲的研究生：黛安·福斯（Diane Fosse）和简·古道尔（Jane Goodall）和布鲁特·玛丽·加尔迪卡斯（Birute Mary Galdikas）博士。简仍然是这个美丽的女人。不幸的是，黛安被杀。第三名妇女仍在婆罗洲，并经营奥朗顿救援，这就是我们与之待在一起的人。”
My habitat work, I’ve slept on church pews for a month in Alaska. I’m used to roughing it, so when Julia said, ‘Come on…do you want to go to the Borneo jungle?’ I said, ‘Sure!’ So we did that one and a few years later we did one in Mongolia. We went to Mongolia and out to the Gobi Desert for several weeks. So, the job changed, too.We just kept doing things that were personally fulfilling. To me, to go to these exotic places with these wonderful crews from Britain and elsewhere…it was so fantastic!”
Q: After the orangutang experience, what was next?
A: We did orangutangs in ’97 and then we came back and did a bunch more movies, and then we went to Mongolia. At that point I had been writing scripts, and I just really wanted to jumpstart my writing career. I had just sort of gotten sidetracked for 7 years having a great time. I think I was like 34, maybe. It just seemed like a good time.
我真的总是有这个愿景，我会坐在看，并写作。我认为这有点像“现在或从未”的事情。所以我离开了。我认为发生了33、34左右的事情。您开始思考：好的。因此，然后我花了很多时间在纽约写作和生活。我写了灭绝者（Heather Graham，Jennifer Coolidge，Amber Heard，由John Inwood执导）。它在SXSW展示，改变了我的生活。我最近在得克萨斯州拍摄了12部电影。”
问：是否有片刻您必须决定是否留下来还是要离开担任朱莉娅·罗伯茨（Julia Roberts）鞋带制作副总裁的职位？
答：我只是知道。有人就您每7年改变一次的理论发表了一篇论文。你与众不同。你身体上不同。我认为那是其中的一部分。
My short this year (“A Good Son”) screened on the first Friday, which was great for me, but a lot of my friends couldn’t see it. .” ‘A Good Son’ really is based on a true story. Tommy Ryan really is a very virile 75-year-old man. I wanted to be honest that this is a man who has lived, by his own admission, a full life. He feels satisfied. Married to the same woman for 40 years. Raised a couple of decent kids. He doesn’t want to become feeble and have the last few years of his life be a drag. I really wanted it to say, ‘Sometimes, you’re just done.
我写了简短，因为我想向他人展示一些东西。因此，下一步是在短暂的节日巡回赛之后（它在波士顿4月11日至16日在波士顿举行）将展示该功能。我想看看这部电影在功能级别上制作，但没有人会给我3000万美元的$。艾伦·阿金（Alan Arkin）将是我的梦想。或罗伯特·杜瓦尔（Robert Duvall）。我的一位朋友指挥“低矮”，比尔·默里（Bill Murray）在其中扮演。（杜瓦尔（Duvall）在《纸》（The Paper）中）对我来说，艾伦·阿金（Alan Arkin）似乎仍然非常坚强，活泼和活着。波士顿球队 - 棕熊队等是短片的重要组成部分。所有这些波士顿演员和波士顿导演。乔恩·哈姆。 Mark and Donny Wahlberg. Matt Damon. Ben Affleck.
Then you start to think about what Boston-based or Boston-bred actors and directors might actually want to direct a movie about a bunch of guys from Boston. That’s kind of the direction I’m taking. There’s already a network. There’s no women in it; I don’t know exactly how to get them in there, but I want the short to do well and then ask the Boston-based directors, ‘Here’s a film about your town.’” How do I reach out to the Boston directors/actors?
问:这是更好的路线:大学费尔m making program or starting to direct on your own when young?
A: Columbia’s under grad at the time did not offer a film program. U.T. (University of Texas)has a good program where you actually get to make a short. My undergrad degree is in dramatic writing—plays and things like that. I actually had to go back to film school to study that; it was a different era.
我现在要说的是，如果您离开学校，而您所拥有的只是英语单身汉，那么您可能处于不利地位。我学会了如何在套装上使用每件设备，但我仍然有一个最亲密的朋友圈，这些人是我信任的人，所以这给了我一个很好的开始。
It helps to be in a place where film is considered a possibility. I enjoyed having that background. It gave me a great team of people who are still in play. You need to live in a place where film is considered an option. Austin is a great town. (Suzanne winters here; spends the hot summers in Auckland, New Zealand).
仍然在这里的人（行业已经大大缩小）愿意帮助刚开始的人。我们这里有一个愿意帮助人们的电影社会。奥斯汀是一个很好的小镇。达拉斯，休斯敦，亚特兰大 - 他们都组织了一个电影学会。我不知道其他方法，所以对我而言，研究生院是唯一可能的方法。我的朋友们走了不同的方式。
他们开始广告。他们从未越过。一旦开始做广告，您就会留在广告中，因为这笔钱是如此良好且一致。我从来不必住在洛杉矶。我可以写作的任何地方。我在纽约长大了一个孩子，但是2009年后，我搬到了奥斯丁。我于2012年加入奥斯汀电影协会的董事会，于2014年成为副总裁，然后在2016年成为总裁。这是一个纯粹的自愿职位。董事会上的每个人都捐出了时间。我真的很想在通过Flatiron写作和制作电影时回馈社区。我拍摄的每部电影我们都在德克萨斯州的某个地方拍摄。我在德克萨斯州拍摄了12部电影，每个月都去洛杉矶，因为我的经理在那里，我的法律团队在那里，我与之合作的许多董事都在那里。 You have to go there, but you don’t have to live there.”
问：生产者筹集资金的工作是否不是？
答：是的。
问：如何做到这一点？
A: It’s really hard and it’s gotten harder. Extra funds seem to have dried up now. Oil is not as high, per barrel, as it used to be. People are not as willing to take a risk.
Q: What are the best states that offer perks to aspiring filmmakers?
A: Atlanta is pretty consistent. To the best of my knowledge, that’s in perpetuity. They’re just going to keep doing it for a long time. Louisiana. New Mexico. Oklahoma has a very good program, but it has a cap on it. Michigan tried it for a while. Indiana. Massachusetts. New York. States like Georgia have found it to be successful. New York is clued into the fact that it is really successful.
Q: You’d like to see top notch talent attach itself to the idea of the short?
答：是的。Then, my production company owns the rights to about 10 different projects. My immediate goal is to get the feature of “The Good Son” done.
Q: What’s next for Suzanne:
答：我的简短实际上是基于几年前写的功能脚本。正如我所说，我希望一旦短暂完成节日的演出，就可以购物。Scriptwise，我写的一部名为“ Ghost乘客”的恐怖电影将于今年夏天开始预生产。我最近在Intrepid Pictures上建立了一个名为“以前订婚”的ROM com。导演明智的是，我将拍摄我今年秋天创作的位于奥斯丁电视连续剧的飞行员。因此，2019年正是很忙的一年。”
