Interview with Screenwriter Marc Fienberg
Writer / Director / Producer of Play the Game
by Jaden
Due to the nature of Hollywood and how hard it is to break in, one
thing I encourage aspiring screenwriters to do is to become filmmaking
entrepreneurs, make movies themselves and find their own audiences.
I am very excited for you to share your story with us as you are a
perfect example of this: writer / director / producer of your new
movie coming out called Play the Game.
Thanks! I couldn’t agree with you more. The best way to break in and
to learn the business at the same time is to produce your own movie.
Sure, it comes with a lot more work, a lot more stress, a lot more
heartache, and a lot more sacrifice, but I think it’s probably worth it
in the end.
Please tell me a little about Play the Game and what was the
inspiration.
Play The Game is about a young ladies’ man who teaches all his dating
tricks to his lonely widowed grandfather. It was inspired by my own
grandfather who started dating again when he was 89 years old, and came
to me for advice. He and I were two bachelors out on the town, one in
his 20′s and one in his 80′s! We were lucky enough to attract Andy
Griffith and Doris Roberts to our cast, as well as Paul Campbell, Liz
Sheridan, and Marla Sokoloff.
Senior citizens are a large market too often neglected, so I am really
glad you made this movie about such a lively topic as dating in the
older years. Did you do any research about your target audience and
apply it to your story?
I saw seniors dating in action every day that I went to visit my
grandfather at his retirement community. It was so touching and
endearing to see my grandfather go through the same emotions as a school
kid, with the same worries as: Should I ask her out? What if she
doesn’t like me? What if she DOES like me? It was so nice to see
him go through all that; I had to tell the story. And after seeing
my grandfather and his friends in action at the retirement community,
and hearing all the stories they told about dating and what it was like,
I didn’t need to do any formal research. In fact, I probably have
enough stories for three sequels!
What is your favorite script that involves seniors?
A film called Boynton Beach Club, produced by a woman named Florence
Seidelman and directed by her daughter Susan Seidelman. It touches on
many of the same issues as Play The Game, celebrating boomers and
seniors not giving up on life, and continuing their search for love,
companionship and sex. Boynton Beach Club was bold enough to show Sally
Kellerman topless. In Play The Game, we only show Andy Griffith and
Mrs. Seinfeld (Liz Sheridan) in bed together.
How did you get from idea conception to writing and then producing
Play the Game, time wise and financially?
That’s a story that spans over 12 years! The first version of the
script was written in 1997 while I was traveling around the world. The
script won some awards, got me an agent and a manager, and earned some
attention from the studios. But ultimately they decided it was more of
an indie film, and since I have an MBA and some experience raising
money, I set out to produce it myself. It took me 5 years to raise the
money, but when I did, I realized that since I raised the money, I was
the producer, and the producer got to choose the director. And I truly
didn’t think anybody could direct this movie as well as I could, so I
made myself the director. In terms of my personal finances, I worked
day jobs throughout most of that process. The smartest thing I did was
to find a job in Los Angeles that was on East Coast hours, so I could
work 6am-2pm for a paycheck, and then 2pm-8pm working on the movie.
What is your academic background?
Strangely enough, I studied business in college, and then got my MBA
from Northwestern University.
When and why did you take an interest in filmmaking and writing?
I was quite good as a businessman, and built some successful businesses
over the years that got sold, but it never brought me the type of job
satisfaction or fulfillment that I was looking for. I have always loved
writing, but it wasn’t until a few years after I spent tens of thousands
of dollars earning that MBA that I decided that maybe I could actually
make writing my career. Finally, about five years ago, my wife and I
quit our jobs, and with our new 6 month old daughter in tow, moved to
Los Angeles with no friends, family, or any means of supporting
ourselves. Our friends and family thought we were crazy, although I
think the words they used were more along the lines of “stupid,”
“irresponsible,” and “idiotic.” Now that the movie is opening across
the nation though, they’re singing a different tune of course, and
praising our gutsiness. In retrospect though, let’s face it, they were
right. It was pretty stupid and irresponsible, especially with kids to
take care of. But thankfully, it all worked out in the end.
An interesting debate that often comes up is how important is film
school versus hands-on experience filmmaking; where do you stand on this?
Well, I can’t really compare the two, simply because I never went to
film school. There’s a part of me that wishes I had, so I would’ve been
much more prepared for that first day on set. However, I can tell you
that personally, there has never been any match for getting out there
and just doing it myself. And I definitely feel like I learned at least
a couple semesters worth of film school while on the set.
Interestingly, I found that the hardest part about filmmaking was the
producing part of the equation, for which my business school education
probably prepared me more than film school ever could have.
In taking on such a huge endeavor as making a movie, surely you had
some moments wherein you thought to yourself: Gosh, I feel like an
idiot, I wish I knew this before. Please talk about something you
learned the hard way during the making of Play the Game that could be
helpful to others.
I learned that many of those cliches they teach you are correct. First
and foremost: “Always trust your gut.” And the corollary: “If something
sounds too good to be true, it usually is.” I hired a few people that
made some big promises of being able to deliver miracles for my film,
and who convinced me that I would certainly fail without their help.
Inevitably, the bigger the promises made, the less helpful those people
were. And I soon realized that, despite the fact that I had much less
experience than those big promisers, my passion and concern for my own
project was enough to get me through the day. Without exception, when
I’ve trusted my gut, I’ve always been happy with the results. And when
I haven’t trusted my gut, I’ve always regretted it.
Was there a person on your crew or in the cast or in your support group of family and friends who brightened your every day? What was it about their personality that made him or her a valuable addition to the filmmaking process?
By far, the most valuable person during this whole process was my
Executive Producer, who also happens to be my wife. She was the one
person who knew the project as well as I did, and the one person who
cared about it as much as I did. Having her on board was like having a
second director to help me out, because I trusted her judgment
implicitly, and I empowered her to make the decisions that I didn’t have
time to make. While I was off scouting locations, she was casting
actors for the film. While I was paying attention to the actor’s
performances and the camera movements, she was paying attention to the
nuances of the dialogue and emotion. While I was dealing with one
crisis on set, she was off solving a different problem. And by the way,
she did all of that while 9 months pregnant with our third daughter.
Luckily, she didn’t give birth until 6 days after filming ended.
Wow! Congratulations.
You are doing something unique with a grass roots publicity campaign;
please tell us how this came into being, what sorts of things has your
team done, and what successes have you found as a result of this
technique.
Whereas most studio films have marketing budgets measured in the
millions of dollars, ours is measured in thousands of dollars. But we
realized early on at film festivals that Play The Game had spectacular
word of mouth. Most people that see the film love it, so we decided to
embrace that and bring the film to the people to do our advertising
for us. We’ve taken a page from President Obama’s marketing campaign
playbook, and we’ve mobilized a huge volunteer force through our website
and Facebook page. We’ve done dozens of advance screenings all over the
nation, because when people see Play The Game, they tell their friends
about it. We’ve mobilized a set of Grassroots Grandmas, who are baby
boomers and seniors who loved the movie, and, since they’re retired,
they don’t mind spending several hours of their day telling their
friends about the film. I saw with my own eyes that word travels faster
among seniors at the country club or beauty salon than it does across
Facebook or Twitter. And the best thing we did was release the film
early in Florida, where over 60,000 people saw the film during the
winter, many of whom have now returned to their homes up north for the
summer and are telling all their friends to see the movie on August
28th. Right now, as a result of all of our grassroots efforts, Play The
Game is one of the top five independently distributed films of 2009, and
on August 28th, we’ll probably rise to number one or two. And it’s all
because people tell their friends about it. In fact, since I can’t ever
stop marketing the film, I’d encourage everybody reading this now to
email 50 friends with a link to this interview or to
http://www.playthegamemovie.com/ just to help us get the word out!
One thing people outside the business have a hard time understanding is the difference between being an independent filmmaker as opposed to a studio filmmaker; can you talk about this and your place in it all?
Well, I’ve never been a studio filmmaker, so I can’t really address what
that’s like. But I imagine it to be a surreal fantasy world where
people in suits give you large sums of money to rent cool camera
equipment and hire lots of big actors and a huge crew and serve them all
lobster thermidor for lunch every day. I suspect though that, in
reality, it’s much like being an independent filmmaker, except that you
have a much better chance of seeing your film on the big screen. I also
suspect that as the budgets get bigger, the headaches get bigger too.
That said, I hope to be able to come back after my next film and
describe the differences first hand after seeing the studio side of
things…
Thank you, Marc, for your time and for sharing your personal adventure making Play the Game.
Thanks Jaden. Much appreciated!
Comments
7 Responses to “Interview with Screenwriter Marc Fienberg”
Got something to say?
I love reading interviews and stories about screenwriters who are sucessful in making their own films, when they can’t get “big studios” to make them for them. The one thing I see though is they somehow manage to get at least one well known actor attached to their projects – which would obviously help the success of the film. But how do they do it??? If you are an unknown screenwriter with relatively no credits to your name, how do you get a known actor to even read your script and then work on it with you???
Great interview! I’m a novelist who harbors desires to write screenplays, too. (I’ve finished the first draft of one feature film.)
It always fascinates me to see the parallels between various creative fields. Movies and novels may be very different media, but on the business side, it’s become much easier for indie authors to get published. Producing a movie on one’s own is probably much more expensive, but similar, in that you don’t get the backing of the industry big wheels. In publishing, indie authors don’t have the gravitas and (small, but significant) promotional help authors with the big houses get.
Either way, it takes real guts and determination to go it on your own. My hat’s off to you, Marc!
Marc Feinberg, I note that you attended the U.of Mich. in ann Arbor, as did I about 60 years ago. A classmate of mine was Joel Feinberg. -your grandpa maybe?????
Jerry Cohen
Marc,
I just completed a script “Take Me Home” (WGA)
The story is about a man who spends three months at a nursing home due to a heart attack. He felt his life was ending only to find that life was just beginning.
Conflict is with his only daughter and her expectations on how her father should conduct his life after the death of her Mother.
I would love to send you my script for your review.
Please contact me at [number removed].
Thank you.
Irene
Irene & Jerry — This was a one time interview with Marc, unless he comes back here to read comments from time to time, please be aware that he may not see your comment.
Irene & Caroline — Please read:
Do I Need an Agent? @
http://www.screenwritingforhollywood.com/connections/do-i-need-an-agent
Having an agent is how you get actors on board and get a movie made; the agent makes those connections and tries to sell your script. Good luck!
Irene, please send your script to WhoGivesAFuck@gmail.com. Thanks!
Marc – Thanks!