That’s when Nicole Brydon Bloom stepped in. The chips weren’t just down - they’d fallen through the gutter. Understandably, the actress had to bow out.Īfter this trifecta of shit news, we made the decision to delay production by a week, though we weren’t sure at that point that we’d ever get to shoot. Her husband had collapsed and been rushed to the hospital. And maybe don’t also hire that person’s friends.Īs we were licking our wounds at a bar, we got a call from the rep of the older actress in our film, a hard-working, well-respected character actress who has worked in the business for years. Lesson: Don’t trust the word of an actor you don’t know too well. Then we found out there was more fucking to come, because when she dropped out, her YA show friend dropped out too. I dropped to a knee in Aisle 9 and tried not to throw up, because I thought we were completely fucked. Our lead actress had abruptly dropped out. That’s where we were, in a grocery store with a cart full of feminine energy drinks, when we got the call. Indie producers wear many hats, including being a modern-day Gunga Din bringing feminine energy drinks to their leads. So Shane and I had to run to our local store to buy a case of the drink ourselves. Our producer Nic Izzi very smartly negotiated a sponsorship deal with the company that makes said drink, but the product wouldn’t arrive until the third day of production. One thing our female lead required in her contract was a feminine energy drink. You’ve read all the stories about legendary bands and their riders-some legit, some not (that green M&M story is true, and brilliant for safety purposes). and not knowing the way the city is arranged, was understandably nervous, so I made a trip to the Valley, where we’d be shooting, and took cell phone footage of our apartment location, to prove to her that there was no smoke and that we’d be nowhere near the fires. We didn’t even know if the building had burned.Īs an interim solution, we moved the production office to my home, out of the immediate danger zone. Police and firefighters told us our offices were off-limits and shut us down. Our office was in the direct path of the massive, Mordor-like blaze. By December 2017, with production about a week away, everything was going surprisingly well.įirst, the Skirball Fire happened. As producers, we thought we had hit the jackpot.Įverything was coming together, and we thought we were so lucky. He seemed like the dark, handsome, mysterious type that we needed for the role. He was on a YA show that I had never watched, but it seemed like he could act and he had a sizable social media following. With this popular actress signed, she persuaded us to cast her friend in the male lead. We had even had a name TV actress approach us, wanting to play the lead. Our executive producer, Peter Phok, had amazing relationships in the festival world and brought a wealth of experience to the table. Nic Izzi and Sam Sandweiss were brilliant with production. Allard Cantor and Jarrod Murray were David Marmor’s managers at Epicenter-they were very connected to the agencies. We assembled a great set of other producers to shepherd 1BR. What could go wrong with two first-time producers and a first-time writer/director? We connected with director/screenwriter David Marmor. My friend and former colleague Shane Vorster and I shared a love for elevated horror films-the really scary ones that always stay a step ahead of you. If I wanted to make movies, why not now? I had the passion, and just as important, I had years of experience studying what real moviegoers want to see.Īlso Read: How 1BR Abandoned ‘Save the Cat’ Completely (Podcast) It turned into one of those what-does-it-all-mean moments. A divorce (spoiler: mine) shook me out of that. Producing my own films was always my goal, but the market-research lifestyle-nice salary, social connections, and all the other things it brought-made me complacent. “Film Market Research” is the industry term, which is just a nice way of saying “come see a free screening so my company can give bad news to the film’s producers, who will shoot a new ending nobody is really going to like (until the director’s cut).” You know, the folks that ask if you want to come see a free movie. I tested mainstream films across the country for almost 20 years for the big-name companies that do those things. Here’s Alok on how 1BR was almost shut down by a ridiculous series of obstacles, and how it overcame them all. Alok Mishra worked in film market research for 18 years before he and his partner produced 1BR, under their Malevolent Films banner. 1BR, currently one of the most popular films on Netflix, is the story of a young woman (Nicole Brydon Bloom) who moves into an apartment complex with very strictly enforced rules.
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