Notes from Overboard

Notes from Overboard: Spanish Caravan

Just as my brain recovers from the trip to Deauville, someone sneaks up from behind and thwacks it with a giant tennis racket. As a result it lands in San Sebastian, Spain about seven hours before me and stubbornly keeps its distance. The five days there play like a slightly damaged DVD with only flashes of coherence breaking through.

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October 22nd, 2009 | Category: Notes from Overboard | By Tom DiCillo

Comments: 8

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Notes from Overboard: Deauville

September 5, 2009
9 a.m.
I’m sitting in the back of a car looking out the window. The driver works through the outskirts of Paris and heads north for the two-hour drive to Deauville. Landed at Charles DeGaulle an hour ago. Slept three hours on the plane. It is 2 in the morning, My Time, which might explain why what rushes by the window melts together in my brain like a stream of liquid confetti.

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September 21st, 2009 | Category: Notes from Overboard | By Tom DiCillo

Comments: 5

Notes from Overboard: Gift Horse

Creating an energized, productive set begins long before you ever get there. It starts with the people you’ve chosen to join the team. Making a decision about who to hire is never easy. No matter how carefully you consider someone, you never really know if the production designer you’ve just hired is going to show up one day and reveal themselves to be a total whackjob.

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June 25th, 2009 | Category: Notes from Overboard | By Tom DiCillo

Comments: 8

Notes from Overboard: Life on Set

I wrote earlier the director is the captain of the ship. I did not mean Captain Bligh. But you’d be amazed how many people say the main reason they want to be a director is so they “can tell people what to do.” Certainly valid. Although it might help to keep in mind that most people who operate under this principle have been assassinated.

Directing is not telling people what to do. It is setting up an environment where everyone feels valued and inspired to give you their best work; from each member of the crew to all the actors, including extras and stand-ins. The director’s vision is not a license to treat people like shit. Tyranny only makes people miserable. They start to hate their jobs and contribute less and less until they’re doing only the barest minimum to keep from getting fired.

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June 8th, 2009 | Category: Notes from Overboard | By Tom DiCillo

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Notes from Overboard: Whacked But Fact—Chronic

After the financing fell through on Box Of Moonlight for the third time I got an e-mail from one Fred Knimble. Fred had a production company based in South Africa that was looking for low-budget independent films. I sent him the script. He loved it. My producer Marcus Viscidi and I quickly worked out an option agreement that gave Fred and Uberlight Productions sole rights to the script for eight months. During that time Fred and his partner in Los Angeles, Daryl Pelts, would attempt to raise $6 million. Marcus and I were ecstatic. We’d never had that much money to make a film.

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May 27th, 2009 | Category: Notes from Overboard | By Tom DiCillo

Comments: 3

Notes from Overboard: Whacked But Fact #1

Here is the first in a new series of posts under the general heading of "Whacked But Fact." These are actual incidents that have happened to me. They will appear when I remember them. For legal reasons and for physical safety, name changes are obligatory.

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May 11th, 2009 | Category: Notes from Overboard | By Tom DiCillo

Comments: 5

Notes from Overboard: Surviving the Game

In 2007, a friend suggested I start a blog. I resisted for quite a while. Take away the ‘g’ and a blog is pretty much just blah blah blah.

But my film Delirious was about to be released and my friend felt the blog could help supplement the film’s promotional campaign. The financiers had allocated $350,000 for the film’s entire U.S. release. This figure included the cost of prints, all advertising, the distributor’s fee and the salary and all expenses of the publicist.

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May 5th, 2009 | Category: Notes from Overboard | By Tom DiCillo

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