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A Conversation with Independent Filmmaker
Tina Mascara
by Renee Hale |
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"I
want Woody Allen's career," professed Indie filmmaker Tina Mascara
during our recent conversation in Los Angeles, "I want complete
creative control without compromising."
After studying both journalism and photography in West Virginia,
where she grew up, Tina moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in film
school. At the same time she began submitting her scripts to the
studios only to have them rejected -- not commercial enough for
Hollywood. Then someone suggested she make her own film. It sounded
like a good idea. Unaware of what she was getting herself into,
Tina jumped in -- head first.
 Together
with producer Brett Vail, they managed to raise 100,000 dollars
in a 9-month period for the first film, Jacklight. Needless to say
the 30 member cast and crew all worked for deferred pay and Tina
found herself doing everything from catering to picking up actors.
Now, with one film under her belt, Jacklight, and another one, Asphalt
Stars just about finished, Tina has learned, through the school
of hard knocks, what it means to be an Indie filmmaker.
I was thrilled to be able to sit down and talk with Tina in-between
her hectic editing schedule. Here's what she had to say about her
experiences in the film business.
RENEE: Did you have an interest in film growing up?
TINA: I came from West Virginia and there wasn't a lot of culture
there. So it was just only when I came out here I realized that
I had this passion to do it [films]. I loved writing. And now the
whole thing together with my background in journalism and my photography
background and going to film school kinda came together. But I wish
when I was four, like yeah I wanna be a filmmaker.
RENEE: So you do it all.
TINA: Yeah, I write, direct and the last time I produced as well.
RENEE: What directors do you admire?
TINA: I love the greats. I love Truffaut, I love Fellini. There's
a great guy out now called Amir Custarica. He's amazing. He's out
of Yugoslavia. American directors? I like Todd Haynes.
RENEE: And being a woman in a male-dominated field hasn't been a
problem for you?
TINA: I think people accept me because, you know, I don't have that
thing of being a woman. I don't know if you do. I don't ever associate
with being a woman. I wanna make a film -- I go make a film.
RENEE: As a person, no gender?
TINA: I feel genderless. That sounds weird but I think it's because
I have such a close relationship with my brothers that when I was
growing up I thought I was one of the boys. Some woman approached
me the other day -- I told her I made these two films. She said,
"Ah, isn't there just a racism in Hollywood about women filmmakers?"
And I was just listening to her thinking I couldn't really relate
to it because maybe there is and I'm naïve to it. For me it's not
a hindrance 'cause I'm not going to go around thinking about it.
RENEE: Maybe there's a hindrance when people believe that there
is one and so they're looking for any little thing to say, oh well
that person didn't like me because I'm a woman.
TINA: I'm like the little dog that thinks he's the big dog. [LAUGH]
RENEE: It's actually helpful to be ignorant.
TINA: That's true. I'm glad I'm from West Virginia.
RENEE: Is there anything "Tina" about your films, like any specific
themes or genres?
TINA: Yeah, they are actually signature films, especially the second
one. They're off-beat. The women roles are much stronger roles.
There's no bias against age and all that stuff you see in Hollywood.
All the characters have an important role in the film. I'm a minimalist.
Everything is really straight to the point. Human dramas with like
an edge of comedy in them.
RENEE: Your first film, Jacklight, what's it about?
TINA: It's a coming of age story about a girl in a dysfunctional
family in West Virginia. In November it played in Pittsburgh and
I remember going with my parents and they'd never seen the film
projected with people around -- like an audience. After the film
was over I had to get up in front and they were asking me questions.
And people were so ignorant as to say, "Oh I heard about West Virginia.
And I heard people are like this film." And I was thinking you know,
there's small towns everywhere.
RENEE: And your new film, Asphalt Stars?
TINA: It's very quirky. It's about these two very, very naïve kids
who get a bus ticket to come to L.A. to spend Christmas supper with
their aunt. The boy is obsessed with a soap star and he writes her
a letter and he says he's coming to L.A. to marry her. So he never
hears back from her and so he assumes she wants to marry him. So
he and his sister go on the bus and they come to L.A. and they meet
their aunt and he buys a soap star map and treks through the Hollywood
Hills to find the soap star -- and he finds her.
RENEE: Where do your ideas come from?
TINA: I don't know. I just write. To me it's more interesting and
fun if it comes from the subconscious. It's always more original.
And as long as I know how to keep it together with a beginning,
middle, end, I know I'm okay.
RENEE: It costs a lot of money to do films, how do you get your
films financed? Where does the money come from?
TINA: This film, me and the producer, we raised the money. We tried
to do a limited partnership. And that's pretty much what we did.
It ended up coming a lot from friends and family. And there was
some investors.
RENEE: What's your next step after that? The festivals?
TINA: Well you have to submit it [film], it's very tough. Like Sundance
gets a thousand entries and a lot of films have big stars in them
and everybody wants a film with a star in it because it generates
people. The festivals it seems less and less are geared towards
the Indie and it seems like the studios are capitalizing on the
Indie films now. You know Miramax is owned by Walt Disney. All the
big studios are buying the Indie films because they see that there's
a big market in it. I think like 10 years ago there was such a market
for the Indies at the festivals.
RENEE: Once they get popular then they're no longer from independent
people?
TINA: Exactly. I like the foreign films. It's not even about the
star anymore, like the star doesn't matter. It's about the characters
and the actors, an ensemble piece. It's not about Julia Roberts,
big star, you know, generate big box, generate bad movie.
RENEE: And generally the scripts are really poor and what's this
about redoing classic movies?
TINA: I hate that.
RENEE: It's sad because there's people like yourself out there with
fresh, new creative ideas and yet the studios are doing remakes
like Psycho.
TINA: It bugs me when I see like Gloria come out. It was originally
a John Cassavettes movie. And it comes out and Sharon Stone's the
star. And now Thomas Crown Affair. Still how can you make a movie
that Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway did? Diabolique that French
film. Why did they have to remake that film?
RENEE: So, how do you get your movies seen by the distributors?
TINA: It's tough. I mean with this new film I'm hoping to have a
different approach. I'm hoping it appeals to more people. This is
a drama [Jacklight] and it was a really hard sell for a first film.
[Asphalt Stars] It's more L.A. There's all this hip music. It's
done by this guy Win Meyerson; who's amazing. And the new movie,
it's very hip-hop and it has a groove to it and a lot of drums.
RENEE: Do you work closely with the musicians?
TINA: Very closely. This film we've actually been working for the
past year and a half. I've been up with him like every night until
four or five, because there's been a real major deadline. Shark
from Wild Colonials, he just played guitar on my film. We have a
country singer, his name's Wade B. Rowe, that's the character's
name and the reason's he's Wade B. Rowe because he got the name
from -- you know what it is -- and he sings a song. He's in this
country competition and does this song. It was around Christmas,
so we did [SINGS] "It came upon a midnight clear . . . " but like
a really bad cheesy version. It was fun.
RENEE: How does the distribution thing work?
TINA: I'm only learning now that there's a huge market that I don't
really know about, but I need to develop myself more in that area.
Somebody from Palm Springs festival saw the film and they're now
going to be repping it over in Milan at MIPCOM. There's all sorts
of distribution: there's American theatrical, there's cable, there's
TV. There's all sorts of markets. There's foreign sales. And I think
when we first did the film we were like, we'd read stories like
BLAIR WITCH and we'd think oh you make an Indie film and Miramax
buys it and then, you know, you live happily ever after. But it's
really not that way.
RENEE: Take me through the process of a film from concept to finished
product.
TINA: I come up with the idea and I write the script, shop the film
around and get people to actually invest. From there you get the
money and then you go into pre-production. And in pre-production
you do casting, you select your DP, you select a production designer
and they bring on-board their people. You know this guy with music,
I always work with him Win Meyerson, I would give him a script and
we'd start coming up with ideas. Then the producer will do the scheduling
and figure out what the shooting schedule is after you select the
actors. And then you just start filming. And the filming process
is very intense, like long days, 16, 17 hour days. And then all
your film's in the lab and you pick it up and take it to a post-production
house and you do the Telecine. From there you get your editor. Then
you start doing sound, dialogue editing and sound effects, background
ambiance's. And then you come together in a thing called the mix,
which is the same in music, where you get all the elements on different
tracks and you have a guy standing there at the board and mixing
it all. I have a choice to finish it on video or film. Right now
I'm going to finish it on video, shop it around, either get somebody
with a little more connections than I have and try to shop it around
and try to get it into the bigger festivals, like Sundance, maybe
first-time director at Cannes or something.
RENEE: Now that you have one film completed and another one just
about done, what do you see yourself doing in five years as far
as filmmaking goes?
TINA: I guess to keep making independent films and for them not
to be such a hardship anymore for people to finance them. I want
Woody Allens' career. [LAUGH] I don't want anyone to interfere,
moderate budgets, no big budgets, but complete creative control.
I want complete creative control without compromising.
Excerpts from Tina Mascara's first film Jacklight can be found on
this site.
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_________________________________
Watch a REALMEDIA* clip of :
Jacklight
by Tina Mascara,
Magnolia Productions ( 1998 )
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_________________________________
For more information regarding films by Tina Mascara contact her
at tmascar1@ix.netcom.com
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_________________________________
Renee Hale caught up with Tina Mascara in L.A. |
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