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MICROFILMMAKER REVIEW by Jeremy Hanke

Mr. Badham does something with this book that is almost impossible to do: find a simple way to transfer a lifetime of filmmaking experience to the reader of this book. This is the closest thing to having a microchip with all of John Badham's memories and experience installed in your brain. The amount of necessary understanding about the art of filmmaking and dealing with actors in this book will save you a lifetime of grief at any budget level!

Mr. Badham may be providing one of the most singularly useful and fascinating approaches to the director/actor dynamic that I have ever read.

John Badham shows how the past thirty years of directing have taught him to communicate with his actors and provide a safe environment for them to create their on-screen characters. Despite all the time constraints that he's had to work under, Mr. Badham shows how to take enough time with each actor to insure that they understand what they're doing right, what they're doing wrong, and that you appreciate them as people.

At the same time, he illustrates how important it is to make each actor do his or her homework and grow his or her character without having you hold his hand for the entire process. By emphasizing both sides of the equation, Mr. Badham shows how the deft director will make a friendly environment for actors to do their best work in without putting up with unwarranted crap.




LEADING DIRECTOR JOHN BADHAM RELEASES
‘MOVING PICTURE’ OF DIRECTORS AND ACTORS IN THE BOOK
‘I’LL BE IN MY TRAILER – The Creative Wars Between
Directors and Actors’

Steven Soderbergh, Oliver Stone, Mel Gibson and Richard Dreyfuss ‘Attached’ in Entertaining and Instructive Filmmaking Book to be
Released by Michael Wiese Productions in July, 2006

HOLLYWOOD, CA, MAY 8, 2006 – Leading film and television director John Badham (Saturday Night Fever, WarGames) and journalist-filmmaker Craig Modderno are offering a vaccine for one of Hollywood’s most-contentious and dreaded seven words “left the project due to creative differences,” with their book I’ll Be In My Trailer: The Creative Wars Between Directors and Actors (ISBN: 1932907149, Michael Wiese Productions, 300 pages, $26.95) which will be available nationwide in July, 2006, at Barnes and Noble, Borders, Amazon.com, and at the publisher’s website www.mwp.com.

Trouble on a set almost always means trouble for the finished product. A project can go from a “can’t miss” to a “can’t get made” in the span of one bad conversation. Problems stemming from “creative differences” can hobble a production, especially when those differences are between actor and director.
Now, Badham and Modderno offer a way to build a bridge between creative differences for those who work in the film industry with I’ll Be In My Trailer: The Creative Wars Between Directors and Actors.

Drawing from his own moviemaking war stories to illustrate his points (like the night John Travolta refused to do his scene in Saturday Night Fever or the day Richard Pryor walked off the set of The Bingo Long Traveling All Stars and Motor Kings), Badham imparts hard-earned insights with the wit, honesty, and humility of a man who truly loves and respects his craft. In clear, engaging language Badham details how to create an atmosphere of trust on any creative project, and how to cultivate and maintain healthy, productive, mutually beneficial relationships with coworkers on set.

A veteran of over 30 films, Badham not only drew from his own extensive experience, but he and Modderno also tapped some of the industry’s top directors and actors for their thoughts on that most intimate and delicate of creative partnerships – the one between actor and director. Directors including Steven Soderbergh, Oliver Stone, Richard Donner, Martha Coolidge and Sydney Pollack, and actors Martin Sheen, Stephen Collins, Mel Gibson and Richard Dreyfuss, each share lessons learned and offer opinions and advice on what exactly is needed to create a great film. The book also includes conversations with Hollywood legends John Frankenheimer (to whom the book is dedicated) and Anne Bancroft, who both were interviewed shortly before their passing.

“So many directors are trained in the technical aspects of film, but have no idea how to successfully collaborate with other artists,” says Badham. “This book is about understanding actors and getting over your fear of working with them.”

“Where was this book forty years ago when I started directing?” adds Arthur Hiller, former President, Academy of Motion Pictures & Directors Guild of America.

I’ll Be In My Trailer: The Creative Wars Between Directors and Actors offers movie fans a rare snapshot of how the creative process unfolds behind the scenes, and gives an instructive and entertaining look at ways one can overcome some of the unique challenges an artist is faced with when working in the collaborative medium of film. Badham guides directors on how to articulate their vision to others without alienating their cast and crew, by boiling down the dramatic action into usable, actable verbs.

Both actors and directors can benefit equally from this guide, which includes both practical, how-to instructions on technical matters and invaluable tips on navigating interpersonal issues, which as anyone who’s ever had to work on a team well knows, are far less cut and dried. From minimizing miscommunication to navigating personal politics and harmonizing a cast of contrasting personalities, this book will show directors how they can elicit the best performances from actors…and keep their names attached to projects as opposed to the tabloids.

About the Authors

Badham has earned the reputation of being an “actor’s director” through a career impressive in its range and diversity. In 1977, he guided a then-unknown Travolta to worldwide fame with Saturday Night Fever (a cultural milestone that launched the disco era and went on to become one of the top-grossing films of all time). His career hit another high point in 1983, when two films he directed that year, Blue Thunder and WarGames, received four Academy Award nominations. Since then he’s collaborated with such luminaries as Laurence Olivier, Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson, Johnny Depp and James Garner in films that have won both critical praise and box office success. Other films Badham has helmed include Point of No Return (1993), Short Circuit (1986), Bird On A Wire (1990), Stakeout (1987), Another Stakeout (1993), American Flyers (1985), Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981) and the stylized Dracula (1979).

Badham is also a prominent television producer and director. Currently directing episodes of the hit series "Heroes" and :"Crossing Jordan" he served as an executive producer and director for the Steven Bochco drama Blind Justice (2005). He’s also directed The Shield (2003), Standoff (2006), Just Legal (2005) Night Gallery (1972) and received two Emmy nominations for his work on the ‘70s series The Senator and The Law. His telefilm Floating Away (1998), starring Paul Hogan and Roseanna Arquette, won the Prism award for its portrayal of alcohol abuse. Other projects include HBO’s The Jack Bull (1999), Showtime’s The Last Debate (2000), Lifetime’s Obsessed (2002) and CBS’s Footsteps (2003).

Professor John Badham leads the Graduate Directing Program at the Dodge College of Film and Media at Chapman University.

Modderno is a Los Angeles based journalist-filmmaker who currently writes for The New York Times, Reuters, Hollywood Life Magazine and DIRECT TV – The Guide.

Contact:

Allison Ravenscroft/Kelley Badham
323-449-5030; 310-404-3853
aravenscroft@sbcglobal.net kelley@ldcomm.com