Forum; Blacks in Filmmaking in the 90s

With your support please subscribe please subscribe please subscribe as well From the Longhorn Radio Network, the University of Texas at Austin, this is Forum. While a critical success may be a nice pat on the back it's still not that satisfying to find that large numbers of people were not exposed to your work. You want as many people as possible to see your work and that translates to being successful at the box office. Frank Dawson, independent producer and senior vice president for television for SI Communications, a media syndicator in Burbank, California. The approach needs to be altered a bit in terms of how schools deal with the whole entire arena of communications to make students understand that the marketing of product and the publicity that's given the product and the distribution of product is as important as creating the product itself.

And if all of those components are not served that a project cannot be successful. Today Forum explores the experience and impact of blacks in the film and television industries as seen by some of the participants in a symposium on blacks in film and video production. Held at Houston Till It's Encounter. This is all of the grand. Today Forum explores the experience and impact of blacks in the film and television industries as seen by some of the participants in a symposium on blacks in film and video production held at Houston Till It's Encourage in Austin, Texas. Experience and professional media executives and producers provided first-hand knowledge of the current state of affairs of minorities in the entertainment business. The opening forum concentrated on the role of blacks in the new Hollywood.

The Hollywood that is recently seen a surge of films like Boys in the Hood, New Jack City, and a Rage in Harlem. However new the films are, the majority of black directors, producers and technicians that are an integral part of this wave of product are not overnight successes. The media panelists are representative of this breed of studio and independent executive. Thus they had a few things in common. Their education and work experience in the 70s and 80s were targeted toward careers in the entertainment industries and they obviously came to Hollywood to work and to stay. Reggie Jackson, a production liaison with Walt Disney Pictures, positioned himself through his computer training to make himself necessary to the Disney organization.

The studio was having growing pains because coming from a situation of doing a few films, when I first got there we were doing probably about three films a year. So they were having growing pains because here is a full-fetch studio that went to make 13 films a year and the studio wasn't really equipped for that. So they decided to start a program where they would have lesions to solve the different problems that a production would have. For instance, when you're shooting you don't have time to go through all of the administrative and problem solving things that it needs to be done because that can put you behind schedule. So they brought a couple of us in and the ironic thing is by having a computer background that made me perfectly suited for what I was about to do. At large studios there are no typewriters. Everyone uses computers from word processing of scripts to absolute schedules of different shots that you're going to make. It's a technique they have, they have different software where they decide on if they're going to shoot exteriors, interiors, they put the whole schedule together on computers basically for a situation where they want to make a change.

For instance if it rains outside they will have to change all those shots to a later date on the computer you can do that in 15 minutes where manually it may take quite a while. Rose Catherine Pikney is one of the youngest of the media professionals who address the students. With an undergraduate degree from Princeton and an MBA in entertainment management from UCLA, she came to the industry well armed with credentials and continued to extend her impressive list of internships and contacts. Until she parlated all into an executive position with 20th Century Fox television. What I do as part of my job as a director of current programming is that I'm assigned certain shows that I become responsible for. That means that I am involved in the day-to-day progress from taping to taping to taping in the summers when we're on hiatus to make sure that the show goes on the air. We have producers that are company hires that actually are on the set every minute of the day getting the job done, writing and producing these.

Then there's a network that the show actually airs on and I'm sort of a liaison between the network and the producers. Which means I do everything from air date schedules to reading scripts and giving notes to looking for writers for the shows, handling any problems. The other thing that I do is that I have a very liberal sort of company. I'm also involved in the development of new shows. That means that I read treatments and hear pitches and bring in ideas and go to casting sessions and tapings of pilots in the hopes that the pilots will be so good that they'll pick up the series for next year. Although he spent a lot of time in his early career in radio and advertising, Frank Dawson has found his niche in film and television production. His experience in television drama and comedy got it start when he spent some time after graduation from Cornell University in Ethica, New York, and they newly formed communications program at Howard University, working with Tony Brown. His resume shows extensive network production work for mainstream television studios and series, but for reasons he speaks quite plainly about.

He left the last of them, Universal Studios. For a number of reasons in 1986, I became an independent producer. The biggest reason is, and I think a number of blacks in the industry face this problem, I call it hitting the glass ceiling, getting to the point where you can see the next job on the other side. For whatever reason, you can't get there. I happened to be in a situation where my boss, the head of comedy development, left the studio and the position was open. I had more experience in comedy than anyone else at the studio, and I felt I should have gotten the job. The studio decided to go outside and bring in another executive who had no network television experience at all, and named him the vice president. And when I challenged that decision, they just told me that they couldn't give me that job for whatever reason, but what else could they do for me? It was clear to me why I didn't get the job.

That position would have empowered me to make any kind of deal that I wanted, as far as who got to direct right and produce shows for Universal Television. It's a business in which people tend to do business with their friends and people that they have relationships with. And certainly the friends that I have and the people that I was doing business with were not the regular Hollywood crowd. And so the decision was made and is made every day not to give that kind of authority to people like myself. But the good thing about it again is what they did is I was able to make an exclusive deal as a producer at Universal and to form my own company. And so basically I was bought off and I took the money and ran. Frank Dawson took the opportunity of his departure to found Regis IV Entertainment and to develop and produce features, series, and specials for first MCA Universal and then CBS. Stephen J. Canal Productions and Universal Pictures. He is now a senior vice president for SI Communications. Yes, I don't know if in this market how much exposure our programs have gotten.

But the most recent shows to air were a syndicated special called the Black Road to Hollywood, which was hosted by Mario Van Peoples and Cheryl Lee Ralph, which just finished airing in February of this year. And a laugh at tear, which was hosted by Woopy Goldberg, which was a two-hour special that took a look at the history of Black comedy and comedians in America. And this show in fact will air again in May and June. In fact it's just starting to air again nationally. I'm not sure if it's running in the Austin market. I know we're in Houston. We're in 80% of the country. And we're currently in production on our next story of a people, which is called Expression in Black, which takes a look at the areas of dance, theater, music, and art. And we're currently in production on that. We just, in fact, night before last just got back from shooting a week in New Orleans with various music artists. We're doing a special segment on the Neville family, the Neville brothers and Diane Reeves and Taj Mahal and Bradford Marcellus.

And that program will be airing nationally in August. SI has been in business for 11 years and was started by an African-American as a radio syndication company and branched off into television five years ago. And I have to say that I am happier now at doing what I'm doing than I've ever been at any time in my career. For the first time, I really feel like I'm in control over what's happening. I get to make all the decisions about what projects we develop and we make and we carry forward. And again, because we go directly to television stations and we go directly to advertisers, we really have control over what we're doing. At the same time, I've been able to use my experience in network television to bring the company into the network television business as well, which is much more lucrative and also gives us an opportunity to not just spend our own money for production, but to utilize someone else's money, which you find when you're in business is very important as well. So this television movie that John and I are developing for NBC will be produced by SI Communications, be the company's first foray into network television.

And we're very excited about that and looking forward to that. We also, just the day before yesterday, landed a major contract with the state of California, with the California Lottery. And we will now, we will be the first African American company to produce and syndicate all of the California State Lottery's television and radio programs. It's a major contract that's worth about eight and a half million dollars over the course of the three years. And so this is a really significant step forward for the company as well. Thank you. A graduate of Washington State and Syracuse Universities, independent producer John Forbes, has extensive production experience through his work with ABC, PBS, and the Metro Media Producers Corporation.

He is currently with Regis IV Entertainment. I really wanted to produce, so I started developing movies for television. I produced a project called James Dean, Portrait of a Friend. I eventually moved on to some documentaries on Reverend Jesse Jackson and his push organization, had projects in development, met Frank Dawson when he was working at Universal Studios. And we put together a TV series called He's the Mayor and produced that currently. We are developing a project now for NBC, along with Frank. We just sold about three weeks ago, which will be a two hour movie for television, and we're developing feature films. As you know, there's a new wave of black films and filmmakers out there now, and we're in the midst of all of that and developing projects for the various studios.

Mr. Forbes is president of the Association of Black Motion Picture and Television Producers. When asked how he feels about the subject matter of the black-oriented film from the new Hollywood, he responded that these films provide a new lens directed at the black community for all to see. What we're happening to do is looking more inwardly at our own community, what's happening in our own community, what propels our community, what destroys our community, what's the positive aspects of our community, how can we rebuild what we are destroying our community. I think those are the type of films that are being made today. I mean, New Jack City. Perfect example of showing you that there is a major drug problem in the African-American community. And we show you in that film that there's a problem, but we also show you that there are people in the community who's willing to fight to clean it up. So when the producers of New Jack City released that film, those are the things that they were illustrating and wanted to show that there is a real problem with drugs and at the same time that we have to come together to solve that problem.

In producing these prosocial kinds of films, can you guarantee that they'll have enough entertainment value to sustain themselves as product? The films that are being produced there, I think yes, I think we're getting them also beginning to get into a wider range of black experiences. I mean, that's what has to take place. We can't just produce one genre of film as filmmakers. We have to do a variety of experiences that take place in the black community from romantic comedies to action pieces, to dramatic pieces. All of those must be explored. Music

UCLA Film School graduate Darrell Upshaw has worked in all the major production areas for many major studios. Learning the ropes on feature film projects and popular television series such as Rockford Files, Colombo and the $6 million man. Since 1987, Mr. Upshaw has operated as an independent film editor. His recent film credit was The Five Heart Beats. Film viewers who seek out the work of blacks behind the camera will have some difficulty. He addresses the apparent anonymity of the work of a film technician. Unless they meet me or see me, say like on a television interview show or something like that, they probably won't have any idea that I'm black. But a lot of work being shown on television, whether it be in commercials, 30-minute sitcoms, hour-long dramas, movie of the weeks or feature films, have been directed, edited, lit by the camera work has been shot by black men and women in the industry. The only thing I can tell the people out there that don't know that we exist is that we do.

It's just not publicized because you cannot identify us by our last names. We have our white slave names still attached to us. So just know that we do. If you come to Hollywood, California, you'll find that there are perhaps ten or more organizations of black men and women that network together in Hollywood. The subjects of release dates and distribution came under discussion during the forum. Using the film The Five Heart Beats as an example, the film's editor, Darryl Upshaw, sights how these issues, among others, are crucial to the success of a film. The film was released at the wrong time. I believe that since New Jack City was already in release, that Townsend's film could have been released later. So that the audience would have a chance to earn more money and have extra money to see Robert's film. But that is not a decision that I think Robert had total control over. I believe that since 20th Century Fox was doing the distributing, they left that in the hands of their people.

So I don't think it was Robert's decision because it just doesn't make good economic sense. Frank Dawson describes the bottom line of the distribution problems of black film producers. The only way theaters are going to deal with you if they know you're going to have a continuous, flora product. Because we have not had control over that continuous, flora product. You know, the exhibitor knows if he does business with an independent distributor, he's not going to do business with the major distributors. I mean, theater distributors anymore. It's, I don't want to mention, you know, organized crime or anything, but I mean, is that insidious? If you're an exhibitor and you're going to take product from an independent distributor, you got to know that that distributor is going to be able to continuously deliver you product because you're not going to get it from anybody else anymore. That's what's going to happen politically. And again, because we have not had control over production, there has not been that continuous, flora product.

Okay. And that's, I think that's one of the gray areas as far as why we don't have distribution companies, why exhibitors don't make deals with independent distributors. That's the reality of it. Yo, this is Queen Latifah. We're going to songs to you about a place you might live. In case you don't understand, it's called New Jackson City. In case you still don't understand, I brought up on the curtain to check the ballistics. Come on. Film editor, Darryl Upshaw, offers a technicians critical observation of some of the current product. In terms of New Jack City and the film to come out rage and Harlem, New Jack is directed by Mario Fan Peoples. I like that film even though some of the images are the same ones that we dislike and that stereotype us. It was well directed. It was high quality in terms of the cinematography, the art direction, the set decoration, the costumes, the ambience that the film had.

That is, it's a look. It was lit well. The timing, the musical score was excellent. I like rage and Harlem, which was directed by Bill Duke. It had a fantastic opening. It created a very believable period. Peace, the acting was terrific. And again, the music track, the lighting, et cetera. They were all done very well by some very talented people. In addition to the film being shot well, I'd like to state that rage and Harlem did have too much violence in it. And it did have some cursing that went beyond the necessary. I think that although I did appreciate its adventurism and its caperism, I think that when we start making films that our children can appreciate, and they will not be detrimental to their mental, emotional, and psychological, moral development, then we're going to be better off as filmmakers, better off as teachers, better off as parents. And that's going to be reflected in the behavior of our children because they have no real positive images.

And we should be trying to put out as many positive images of our own people as we can, irregardless of the money to be gained or lost. John Forbes, president of the Association of Black Motion Picture Producers, measures the recent crop of black filmmakers and tells viewers what to expect of current and future film product. There's only one spiky out there. And all the other black filmmakers should not be judged on his level or to what he has done. They have to be judged individually. And just as there's one spiky, there's only one child's burn out.

There's only one Bill Duke. You know, there's only one Stan Latham. So what I'm saying is that there are a number of black experiences again, and stories that need to be told. But black filmmakers will not get that opportunity to make black films on a consistent level until we do a number of things. One is that we have to start producing our own product. Two, we have to get more black executives in key positions in the creative side. And I can't express that more deeply to say again, we need more black producers on the creative side of the industry. Because that's where the decisions are made in the studios. You know, we need those black executives there again. So when a creative person goes in, just pitch an idea.

You won't get those blank stairs that you get coming back at you. Say, why are you exactly going to look at you? And totally does not understand what you're talking about. So therefore, we have to be able to have African-American executives there. Because it's time that we start choosing and picking our own heroes and our own stars. The movie business is not just about the glamour and the stars. It is about money. Independent producer Frank Dawson describes the fertile field for the production of films about the black community. Over the past 25 years, I don't believe there's been one black feature film produced that has not made money. It's for a variety of reasons. The average negative cost of a feature film today is somewhere in the area of $30 million. The amount of money expended on black feature films is significantly less.

I think we're up to the point now where the benchmark is about $10 million. Two years ago, it was maybe $4 million. Maybe $10 million. Right. Five heartbeats was about $8 million, I believe. New Jack City was about $8 or $9 million. That's a significant increase. But still, when you look at the average negative cost that the studio spends on a feature film being around $30 million, I mean, that's cheap. You know, it's a third of the cost. And because there's a birth in audience, there's such a voracious appetite in the black community to see images of ourselves. That if you can do a film for that kind of money, it's almost a guarantee you're at least going to make your money back. And again, there's this myth that if you do a black film, that the only audience for it is going to be black people. And that is not true. That's not true at all. Although people would have you believe that. So again, you know, the economics of doing black films is basically you've got a niche in the marketplace.

You've got a built-in audience that you know is going to be supportive. And then if it crosses over, you get other people to come in. And that's all gravy. And so black films have been tremendously successful. There's a company called New Line Cinema that made a decision about a year and a half ago to look into exploring black films. Because so many companies had really gone on the rocks in terms of particularly smaller production companies in trying to compete with the major studios and doing feature films. Dino De Laurenti's entertainment, you know, went under, went out of business. New world pictures folded in trying to compete with the majors and a number of companies. And New Line Cinema took a look at the economics of black film and said, we're going to do some black films. You know, they did the the first house party was produced for what 2.3, 2.3 million dollars, 2.5 million dollars, movie made, $26 million. You know, that's that's phenomenal. Anybody in business can take a look at these figures and say this seems to be a wise investment.

And again, despite the continuance of racism in this country, the bottom line is that it's dollars and cents is what it's about. And people are really looking at it and seeing that this is a good investment and then it makes sense. And that's why there are more films being done now. Today, form has featured remarks from black television and film professionals who are part of the new Hollywood. They were among the participants in a symposium on blacks and film and video production held in the spring of 1991 at Houston Tilletson College in Austin, Texas.

They included John Forbes, a producer with Regis IV Entertainment who is president of the Association of Black Motion Picture and Television Producers. Frank Dawson, senior vice president for television for SI Communications, a media syndicator. Rose Catherine Pinkney, director for current programming for 20th Century Fox Television. Reggie Jackson, production liaison, computer analyst and troubleshooter for Walt Disney Pictures, and Darryl Upshaw, independent film editor. The views expressed on this program do not necessarily reflect the views the University of Texas at Austin or this station. Technical producer for Forum, Cliff Hargrove, production assistants, Elliott George Garcia, Todd Morris, and Michelle Malak. I'm your producer and host, Olive Graham. Cassette copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing, Forum Cassettes, Longhorn Radio Network, Communication Building B, UT Austin, Austin, Texas 78712. From the Center for Telecommunication Services, the University of Texas at Austin, this is the Longhorn Radio Network.

This week on Forum, Black filmmaking in the 90s. While a critical success may be a nice pat on the back, it's still not that satisfying to find that large numbers of people were not exposed to your work. You want as many people as possible to see your work and that translates to being successful at the box office. Blacks in the New Hollywood, this week on Forum.