The film guru who has launched thousands of film careers chats to Close-Up Film writer, Gus Alvarez
The memorably monikered Dov S-S Simens arrives on these shores with something of a reputation. A small, tough looking man ('Dov' is Hebrew for 'bear' - a thoroughly appropriate nickname that he picked up as a Green Beret in Vietnam), Simens is credited with launching thousands of filmmaking careers with his revolutionary two-day film seminars, which promise to condense four years of film school theory into a single weekend. The list of graduates that have come through his no-holds barred, fact-packed boot camp is certainly impressive: Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Guy Ritchie, Christopher Nolan and the Wachowski brothers all number amongst his ex-alumni. Even established Hollywood players such as Will Smith and Queen Latifah have taken his course in an attempt to further understand the realities of producing innovative and marketable low-budget features. In the UK last month to present his London masterclass, in association with Raindance, I met up with the formidable and ferocious Mr Simens for an insight into his methods and how he became known as The Champion of Independent Cinema.
"I used to be as naïve and ignorant as the students that come to my class now," Simens admits. "I know where they're coming from because I was them! I took a few classes at UCLA, but I went with real attitude, I thought I knew it all. But I didn't even know how to buy film!"
Nevertheless, by the early 1980s, Dov was working successfully as a line producer for the King of the Bs himself, Roger Corman. It was in this ultra low-budget arena that Simens felt he gained his real film-making education, in what he calls "the true school of hard knocks".
"I was the guy who wrote the cheques for Roger Corman. He made over 500 films and always made a profit. He would never put it in north American theatres, but he would licence it to Italy , Germany , Japan , Ecuador , Brazil , Turkey , South Africa . $10,000 to $100,000 from each nation, we'd recoup $2-3m in 24 months."
In 1982 Dov produced his first feature film, The Final Hour , "a courtroom drama set in a rocket ship". Shot in a weekend on a vacated Corman set with a borrowed crew, it was not the most auspicious of debuts, but it certainly demonstrated the entrepreneurial, maverick quality Simens encourages in his students.
"It cost me about $20,000, I shot on a 1:1 and a half shooting ratio, it was in focus, had dissolves, titles, props and was in sync. I took it to festivals and although I got no sales, I learned about the business - all the information I wished I'd known 18 months beforehand!"
Having been in this enviable position, I wondered what made Dov make the change from being aspiring film-maker, to inspiring other filmmakers?
"I was broke. In America they say those that can do, and those that can't teach. I admit it. I am a failed producer and a failed director who stumbled into a job at UCLA to pay rent. And you know what? I like it! I travel all around the world and make a great living. I work very hard to be a great teacher."
Indeed, in the cottage industry of the seminar circuit, Simens is most definitely The Man, garnering plaudits galore from his famous ex-students. Having perfected a stripped down, quick-fire style, he is also fully aware of his limitations.
"I can't teach you the art, but I can teach you the business. If you take Spielberg, Lucas, Scorsese or Tarantino and put them in a room as a teacher, there will be 3,000 people in a classroom. And you know what they're gonna learn? Close to nothing. They're gonna tell you you need passion, talent, to hire the best people. It's wonderful theory and it's all correct. But have they taught you how to buy film? Nah! Let's get back to Ground Zero, people!"
While his approach may seem bullish, Simens does have a valid point. His class aims to make his students stop dreaming about festivals, awards, fortune and fame (for now) and ground them into the reality of the no-budget filmmaker.
"I'm not one of these expensive, theory laden film schools, teaching how Hollywood does it. That's just not relevant to my students. These film schools, they're always teaching you how to start in the middle. Unless your father owns the company, that DOES NOT HAPPEN! You will start at the bottom, just like everybody else. So the first thing I ask my students is: 'Who knows how to buy raw, unexposed film?' How many feet? Where from? What's the retail price? How you going to get a discount? How are you going to buy from the white market or the grey market at discount prices? A class of two hundred students - come on raise your hands! But if you get it wrong and waste my time, and the class's time, I'm going to embarrass you so bad you're gonna have to sneak out of the room! You will find not one person will raise their hand. Two hundred wannabe filmmakers, and they don't even know how to buy film! I will teach you in fifteen minutes! You will know more than David Puttnam! I still don't think he knows how to buy film! Just ask him next time you interview him: 'Hey Lord Puttnam! How many feet you gonna buy?'" At this Dov leans over and chuckles, "That'll be the last time you interview him!"
Simens does a nice line in sound-bites, one-liners designed to demystify the film-making process. In a way, this is his whole modus operandi - to use a movie metaphor, he aims to pull back the curtain and reveal the Wizard.
"The movie industry is all about renting a seat and selling sugar. A 90 minute movie has the same admission price as a two and a half hour epic, doesn't it? The popcorn still costs the same! And the movie theatres can rent that seat twice as many times with the 90-minute feature. So which one you gonna do for your first project? Ninety pages of problems and headaches or 120 plus pages of problems and headaches? There - I just saved you 25% of your problems and headaches!"
Asked what the single most important thing a first time film-maker should equip themselves with, Simens is in no doubt: "The great script is by far the most important thing. Not just a script, or a good script - 'good' is just mediocrity. It has to be great! And once you get that great script made and you don't muck it up, you're in the system. Then you can be mediocre. Hollywood can get away with mediocrity - they have the money to create a buzz on a piece of crap, then cash in with the video and DVD sales. But the independent film-maker has to be great with their first project. It's got to have that amazing story that grabs the audience in the first 10 seconds and holds them for the next 90 minutes."
The script may be the most important thing, but as Simens points out, it's not the most expensive. "How much is two reams of paper here in London ? Five pounds? So put that in your budget - Script: Five pounds!" He also warns against falling in love with your first draft. "Nothing is written - it's rewritten. That's how you get that polish. Stop thinking you're Michael Jordan as soon as you pick up a basketball! You have to work at it."
So how ambitious should that first script be? "Keep it simple. Your script should take place in one location with 'blood, zombie, slime, nightmare, fatal, final, instinct, part six, seven, toxic or avenger' in the title! Seriously, just take 12 kids to a house and chop 'em up! That doesn't necessarily mean 'slasher film' - look at Reservoir Dogs!"
By this point, Dov is well and truly on a roll: a shouting, banging-fist-on-the-table, roll. It is something to behold, and gives me an immediate insight into his teaching method.
"The gift of dialogue, or what we call a good ear, is what will elevate your script up to the next level. Anyone can learn to type or take story structure classes and learn where the plot points and twists should be - that stuff's been standard for millennia: Shakespeare did it, Plato did it, Socrates did it. The high point , the low point, the rollercoaster ride. Maybe one out of fifty people are born with it and don't know it. And if you have that good ear, it'll be around your fourth script that you'll begin to develop the craft. But if you don't have that good ear, you're never going to get it, I don't care how many scripts you write."
And if you don't have that 'good ear', well then you could always approach a writer for hire with your dynamite pitch. This route, however, heralds a new set of problems and pitfalls, which Dov insists must be addressed from the outset.
"You've gotta get this simple concept through your head...YOU DON'T OWN THOUGHTS! YOU DON'T OWN IDEAS! If all you are is a wimp with no work ethic, and you think that you're gonna walk up to people inside the industry that have a work ethic and tell them your thought, basically for free, thank you, we will probably do it without you. I'm sure you're gonna yell, complain and bitch, but down the road if you ever sue and go to court, everybody knows YOU DON'T OWN A THOUGHT!"
So how does the first-timer go about protecting their intellectual property in the cutthroat and unscrupulous world of filmmaking?
"You take that thought, you write it down into a three to five page treatment, double space type it, with a beginning, middle and end and descriptions of the five main characters, and register it with the Writers Guild of America or Writers Guild UK - and then you go to a writer for hire. Instead of just an idea in your head, which a little way down the road he's going to think he created himself, now you've got a registered treatment for a feature film. If you like this writer, say: 'I'd like to hire you for two drafts. I'll pay you £500 per week for five weeks by which time I want a first draft. Then we take a week's break and then I want a second draft delivered three weeks later. If I get a good writer, that's two drafts for £4K - but I OWN IT! I'm the employer, the writer is the employee! If you don't like it, get your own money!"
If you prefer not to originate your own idea, you could always take on somebody else's. Throw a stone at any script or filmmaking seminar in town, the chances are you're going to hit a writer with a completed script they're eager to get made.
"In London right now there are thousands of spec scripts. You as a producer read someone else's script and love it - 'like it' is not good enough. If you think it needs work that means it stinks! It must be perfect, you have to LOVE it! Then you purchase it. And being a good business person, you only pay a deposit, usually 5-10% of the purchase price. This is called an option agreement and ties it up for about four years. Now you use that time to secure the finance and try to make it."
With the UK so famed for its acting and technical talent, it seems perverse that our film industry is so spartan, relying on one or two breakthrough hits a year to keep British Cinema's profile alive internationally. This assertion does not go down well with Mr Simens: " England is in an explosion right now for making films. You've doubled your output in the last three years. Stop complaining here! There's an amazing amount of production going on in an industry that has a population that's about a quarter the size of USA . It makes me laugh when people say it's really hard to define independent film-making. It's really simple guys: GET YOUR OWN MONEY! You don't get it from the system. You're independent of the system. I'm a big kick in the butt for you English people! Stop thinking socialism! This is a capitalistic industry, people!"
Dov's courses promise to banish this typically 'English' attitude and replace it with a more entrepreneurial, can-do mindset. Taking it from pitch to script, through funding, production and distribution, Simens aims to equip his students with all the practical information you'll need to start your career. " And whichever way hits first, whichever way delivers a cheque, that's the way that God wants you to go!"
www.raindance.co.uk
Gus Alvarez |
