This episode of Film Center we interview Indie Producer Andrea Michelle, the organizer of the Pembroke Tarel Arts and Film Festival. We discuss the importance of sound in films and how filmmakers often overlook it. We also talk about the changing landscape! Listen in to this episode of Film Center! This episode was recorded at Priscilla's In Burbank

This is Film Center, your number one show for real entertainment industry news.

No fluff, all facts.

Now, here are your anchors, Derek Johnson II and Nicholas Killian.

Hey everybody.

Welcome to Film Center.

My name's Derrick Johnson II.

I'm Nicholas Killian.

And today we are here with the lovely Andrea Michele.

Andrea, how are you doing today?

I'm great.

Thank you.

It's crazy because, I recently interviewed your son.

Yes you did.

Yes.

Yes, Cassie, that's my son.

Yes.

Cass Carey Entertainment runs in the family because Andrea is a big producer.

She out here in Los Angeles.

Your son's episode was super informative.

It was really nice to see somebody who was actually in the family.

Thick of it.

Yes.

Having to say, okay.

In response to going with solidarity, I had to become a PE teacher.

Yes.

So that I could, sustain himself.

Yes.

What is it like, what is it like 'cause first, before we get

really into the episode, because I know you all a little bit.

Yeah.

Outside of this, outside of the show, what is it like

Supporting your son through that.

What was it like when you heard your son was like, Oh, I'm not

going to cross the picket line.

What was your opinion on it?

Cause you're a producer.

Yeah.

I totally agree with that.

I'm one, I'm an independent producer.

Yeah.

That makes a big difference.

Yes.

No studio supporting anything I'm doing at the moment.

At the moment, not current.

At the moment, currently, right?

That all should change, will change.

But no, I definitely, first of all, I'm someone who really believes

in supporting The underdog, right?

Yeah.

The un underserved underrepresented.

So for me, I felt that the writers and the actors don't get a fair shake.

And I believed that they were well within their rights to

demand what they're demanding.

And I also started out as an actor.

And I've always been a little bit, is that where your son got the acting

skills from, do they, it's genetic?

I think so.

I think so.

Actually it's something that he never wanted to do.

Really?

I always knew that.

This is great.

Please spill the tea.

Please give us the beans.

Yeah.

I always, for me, watch, he's going to kill me for that.

But as a child four or five year old years old, he would.

Come on.

For baths, bath time was storytelling time.

Oh, what he used to do was take all his toys.

Yeah.

And in the tub, create story and then say, mom, come in.

And then I would go in for bath time and he would like, act it out with the toys.

Wow.

Really?

So for me, he was four or five years old.

That's advanced for our five year old to set up like everything.

Yes.

I'm telling you like.

So for me, I think it's innate, right?

It's something that's always been there.

His dad's in the industry too.

Sometimes these things just, I think just, it's in the genes somewhere, right?

What does his dad do in the industry?

He's more on the tech side.

He does lighting.

But he also did music producing, so he was also produced music back

in the 90s, so for those of you who don't know we do Film Center.

We take it on the road, and Andrea gave us her lovely time.

She's a very busy woman.

We're outside Priscilla's right now.

And at Priscilla's Coffee Shop here in Burbank.

And one thing that's quite interesting about Priscilla's, cause we, we could've

gone to a couple different places.

And...

We interviewed her son Cass at BJ's, but Priscilla's for me was really my first

time meeting Celebrity at all, period.

And that's a story for a different time.

So I was like, Oh, I'm going to bring Andrea on.

I gotta have my mojo.

I love Priscilla's.

It's great.

And it's just, Burbank is such an industry place, and an industry town, so to speak.

It's wonderful to be here in Burbank cause I live in Silver Lake.

So let me ask you a question when it comes to when it comes to being an independent

producer, how do you, Cause the WGA now has a tandem deal, but you're an

independent producer right now, currently.

So how do you view the strike from your perspective?

Because you are, you are the producer, but at the same time, your emotions

and your side is on the strikers.

Honestly, here's what I think.

First of all, I think that, and I know this is not most people's thinking,

but I think that instead of having, different unions for people within

the industry, there should be one entertainment union because we fight

against each other's benefits, right?

So the producers are fighting against the writers, and the writers of, and the

actors, they were all impacted by it.

If we had a We had solidarity in the industry, then we

wouldn't have that issue, right?

Every, it would all be fair.

So I don't like the idea of the actors having one union protecting

them, the actors used to have separate you after and exactly.

And then now they're, they merged exactly.

And they merged and I don't know that it necessarily changed

anything for us, for the actors.

Because.

We still get the rind of the deal anyways, you make the least money, unless you're

a one percenter, on productions where the last, man in, that kind of thing.

But speaking from an actor's perspective, but from a producer's perspective and

just for me in terms of fairness, I think if there was one umbrella and we're all,

cause we're all, Going for the same goal.

We want a successful product, right?

A successful film.

And for those of us who don't know specifically, when you say successful,

because there are some people who listen to our show and, our show is geared

towards people who are in the industry, but for anyone else who might not be

listening, can you define successful projects like films and television?

Okay.

At least a little bit.

Yes.

Success in my, for me means we get it done.

We get it on time and on budget.

But it also means that it's something that you can put out to

the public and people will see it and enjoy it and be impacted by it.

So you want a product that, you're proud of everyone that's

engaged in it worked on it.

They're proud of it.

They you enjoyed working with the people on it.

You had good relationships.

You even formed families.

As a result of being on set together.

Yes, exactly.

14 hour days.

You get to know people.

And so success to me is having all of those elements, right?

We had a great working relationships.

Everyone was happy.

We got the project done on time.

We didn't have to do a lot of changes to the script.

No page one rewrites.

No page, exactly.

A little bit of history with being Andrea.

I've worked with Andrea on a couple of different projects, and her and I have

had to go through a situation, I'm not going to get specific, but she's already

laughing, in which we had to go through a rewrite on set, and I have to give a

shout out to Andrea because she was very supportive, because I wanted to do some

things, and she was like, those are not good ideas, and But I'm going to, I'm

going to let you do what you got to do as a director and it ended up working out.

Yes, because I was a producer on that project.

Yes.

Not even being specific.

I was like, Oh my gosh, Andrea, we had this incident happen.

I need you to somehow give us, 30 minutes, I need the writer in here, and

then I also need the EP, we need to go over to this room, and we gotta talk.

Yes.

Andrea's she's a real one, she knows how to handle like anything.

One, one question that I would have for you and would want to ask you,

I think you made a very important distinction at the beginning of the

show by saying you were an independent producer and not a studio producer.

Now, of course, the strife between the producers and the writers and the actors.

Can you explain to our audience for us the difference between a studio producer

and an independent producer like yourself?

Sure.

Okay.

So the, basically the studio producers are the big entertainment companies, right?

The big studios, the Warner brothers, the Sony's, those are the bigger studios.

And so the people that work in.

On those lots and in the capacity as producers on their projects, they're

different from the people that are finding the script and going to find

the money, the financing and begging your friends and family to support

your film and getting it done that way.

The studios generally have a budget.

They everything from nuts to bolts they.

Finance, everything.

They take care of everything.

Independence Park, grassroots, right?

Yes.

Independence, yeah.

Guerrilla style, grassroots.

And there, there are smaller studios that do independent things as well.

So your A24 is a smaller studio.

They're not quite as big as Warner and Sony and Paramount and those

other, Companies and they tend to be more do independent projects, right?

They're independent projects as well, right?

And then where would you say the independent producers fall

in line as far as this whole?

Controversy goes because they're they're in the middle.

Yeah, I think we're in the middle only because , you have

the title producer, right?

. Because we don't necessarily operate in the same way that the studios operate

with their writers and things like that.

It also makes you non-exclusive.

So Yeah, there's a lot of producers who, like they work only for hbo O exactly.

Only for Warner.

Exactly.

And being independent, you can kind, you can work on, you can work on anything.

Yes.

And those production companies, they can get writers from different places.

They can get, scripts and they mine projects from different places.

Whereas the studios, first of all, You have to have a representative to even get

in the door to as a writer to get there.

And then they hire the writers.

So the writers are on staff, as opposed to with independent companies and things.

We don't necessarily have the writers on staff.

It's more contract based.

Project based.

Exactly.

So yeah, and a lot of times with myself, once I take A project, for example, I'll

get a writer and I option their script, or we agree that I'm going to produce it.

I don't really we pay the writer a fair thing, or we have a fair deal negotiated.

And the writer has a lot of say in what they negotiate.

Whereas with the studios, that's not necessarily the case.

And with, I think one of the things that the writers were discussing too,

was the fact that with streaming.

They weren't getting residuals and things like that, right?

So with an independent producer, especially now,

those things are negotiated.

It seems as an independent producer, you're a bit more

hands on with the projects.

Oh, absolutely.

And you, if I could say, care about them a bit more from

ground to, complete building.

You're on the producers are a lot of times on the development side anyway,

but it feels like you're on it for, Every bump of the ride compared to

those who, or studio producers where they can just pass off some stuff.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

We as independent producers and for me in particular I take projects

that I absolutely care about because I'm more on the side of

like socially relevant content.

So I like projects and things that are going to be impactful.

So what's it takes what does it take for a producer like yourself?

To get interested in a project outside of just straight up because I know

there's a lot of Variables to consider because you just said oh, I like

things that I think they're gonna be impactful What else do you think?

What else about a story or project that catches your interest be like,

okay I think I'm gonna be a part of this because there's a lot of work.

It's a lot of time, it's a lot of effort Going to go find funding

is a whole headache by itself.

So what About a project make you say, okay, I want to be part of it.

To be fair, I would consider myself more of a creative producer than

a funding producer, because that's something that I'm really working on.

Like getting to the place where I have the network.

Number one, to be able to approach people for money.

So I don't necessarily do a lot of that currently.

But it's something that I like for my own projects I have to do, but it's

not something that I enjoy doing.

But anyone likes.

No, there are people that love to find money.

It's a very certain breed of people.

It is, and I need to find more of those people to work with.

And they're always being scooped.

Every time I I have a funding partner, every time I talk to him I'm like,

Oh, hey man, what are you doing?

And he's Oh, I'm in London for the next four months.

Yeah.

yeah.

And I'm like, in fact, he's booked up for the next two years.

Yep.

Especially after the strike.

He I talked to him the other day, he said, yeah, I have work for the

next two years, because I can't even.

Because a lot of, that's one of the, talking, in, in looking at

filmmaking and how film, where filmmaking is going, you're like, oh,

you can make a movie on your phone.

Come on.

Let's be real, right?

It's so I think, people, it's so simplistic to say that and to say

that the filmmakers to and so we have people on tick tock, maybe people

on instagram making films on their phone that does not make it a quality

film that I really want to see.

See, or a quality film that you could sell exactly.

Or something that I'd be interested in taking on.

If you come to me and say, I have a project, but I'm

going to film it on my phone.

I'm going to be like, no, unless it has something to do with the story, right?

Yes.

And that it's, that's a way to tell the story.

Speaking of which so Barnes first agency recently said that we're in a film

reinventing era, and it's interesting that you brought that up because.

He also said that, Oh, he was one of those people who said, Oh you

can just make a movie on your phone.

But recently he stated that because of the way films are working now and I don't

want to say post strike because there's still a strike going on as of October 9th.

But.

What do you think that really means reinventing film, or what

is your perspective on that?

Because, you also run a film festival, right?

Yes, I sure do.

You've been doing it since 2016?

Mmhmm.

And as someone who has seen a billion and a half films, and judges them, and

is like running a festival herself.

You're basically on the forefront of seeing these films be

reinvented and how they're done.

Yeah.

Do you feel like we're in like a reinvention time or a renaissance

or what's going on with that?

I think that we're in a reinventing time in terms of the

type of content we're seeing.

I think that in terms of the way films are made, I don't know that...

Okay.

Given technology, it's making it a lot easier, right?

For people to make film and a lot less expensive, but it's still

expensive nonetheless, right?

I think it's important to people to understand that they think

that somehow, you can't have filmmaking as a hobby, right?

And people try to do, it's not a hobby and it's a collaborative experience.

And you need all hands on deck.

You need the gaffers.

You need the grips.

You need the DPs, the cinematographers the actors, the scripty.

A lot of people try to do it without a scripty and you should not, right?

Script supervisor, script supervisor, for some people who might not even know.

What that is, because there are some people out there who do grassroots stuff.

And a script supervisor is, which you should know what this position is.

And even if you're doing grassroots stuff, you need to have a script supervisor.

That's why you see the cup in one place on the set and on the thing.

And then the next scene, the cup is on the fridge.

Come on guys.

You need someone to talk.

It's called, it's about continuity, right?

Making sure that everything looks the same one.

I just.

Literally saw a film where the girl had like a braids in one seat one day

and of shooting or in the scene and the same day in the scene, she had a weave.

What?

Yes, so because they probably shot the thing on out of sequence on separate

days Yeah, and when she came back to set no one said hey you had braids you

have a different you have different hairstyle We need to change that One

question I would have for you would be As a producer, as a grassroots producer,

creative producer it's funny that you say that you need a script supervisor

and you say that filmmaking is expensive.

Everybody's always trying to save on costs when making a production.

As a producer who has been doing this for a while, what is it that

people try and skip on that they should not skip on because it's going

to really affect the production?

You just opened up a giant can of words.

The most important thing is sound.

Yes.

People try to skimp on sound and sound will ruin your entire film.

Sound is definitely one of those things that you must have get a good

sound person, pay the money, get them.

That's number one.

What is this, nursery?

You said that in one scene, she's wearing a different

hairstyle than in another scene.

Do you think that this could possibly have been because the scriptee was not either,

was not paying attention or was like...

No, they didn't have a scriptee.

Yeah, there's no way you have a scripty and do that, right?

And plus, it's one of those, once again, independent, low budget project, right?

So a lot of times when you don't have the money, those are the

things that you get rid of.

Or you skimp on a script supervisor and sound two things

that are absolutely necessary.

Maybe it.

Because I know you've made so many films, and I'm sure that some have

needed something else more than others.

I'm sure you've been on some produced some films where you're like,

Oh, I wish we had better sound.

I'm sure you've been on some films where you're like, Oh, I wish we had better PD.

Right?

Is there anything that you think filmmakers should not worry as much about?

Because everything is important.

The camera.

Really folks.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

Like an Ari is a camera.

So is a black magic.

So is a Sony.

I don't know the numbers and the names of the Sony's, but I just saw a film

that was made on Sony and it was amazing.

You know what I mean?

So people are spending thousands and thousands of dollars to make sure

they're on an epic or Ari or whatever.

And that's not the, The film quality is important.

But the camera that you use isn't as important.

So you could just do it on your phone.

No.

No, I will not endorse that one.

There's too low budget.

Yes, exactly.

As someone who's been on a whole bunch like a whole bunch of films and then

you're producing a whole bunch of films, excuse me, and then you're seeing

Films come in to your film festival, is there any crossover that you see

those you're like, man, everyone is just messing up on outside of sound.

No, I think it's just the writing.

So really, yeah, some of the writing is just for lack of a better word, I

think it's just, no, it's just not good.

Let me just go.

It's just not good.

I think what I do love about my festival is that.

So for those of you, for those of them, people who don't know your festival,

what it's called and where it's at.

Okay.

So the festival is called the Pembroke Tapperelli Arts and

Film Festival and it focuses on social justice and social change.

So we're all about filmmakers and artists in general using their voice for social

change to make this world a better place.

So the films that come into my festival, the artwork that we see all have to

do with some social justice issue, something that is relevant to that space.

We get films from all over the world.

It's an international festival.

So we get films from all over the world.

That focuses on that.

So the good thing is that I love the fact that filmmakers are out there

tackling these subject matters.

They're tackling racism, they're tackling domestic violence, they're tackling

food insecurity, they're tackling medical apartheid, they're tackling

these issues, so I'm, gender, issues.

I'm very excited about that.

But I just think that a lot of times it's people, it's filmmakers Who don't

spend enough time either researching their subject matter and or spend enough

time doing rewrites, we get excited.

They write it once and they just start filming.

It sounds like you're talking a lot of, and you got to correct me if

I'm wrong, but it sounds like you're talking a lot about fundamentals.

You're talking about hey.

Yeah, everyone knows you gotta have a camera and you gotta

have sound, but you're like, they're not doing well on sound.

Everyone knows there has to be a script, but then they

don't spend time on the script.

They spend time on the lenses.

And so it seems like a lot of the fundamentals are not doing that.

They're doing all the bells and whistles, but aren't focusing on the fundamentals.

Yeah, but come on, how many times have you watched some big budget

film that didn't make sense?

The script was horrible.

Yeah, so yes, it doesn't, it's not, it's fundamentals, but it's not

just beginning filmmakers, right?

It's an industry of people that.

We're in a microwave society where everything should be

fast and ready, already done.

People aren't really doing the work, and the industry's following suit.

We're in a society, they say to you that, oh, we can't do anything over

five minutes because of attention span.

Which isn't true because how do you live in a society that says, Oh, our

attention spans are getting shorter, but Netflix has proved that people

binge things more often than not.

Exactly.

So that's why I don't ascribe to that.

And that's why people complain to me about the length of the name of my festival.

Oh, it's too long.

It's too.

Really?

Okay.

You should change it.

You should change.

When I first started it, I had people who were interested in working with me on it.

financially.

And because I wouldn't change the name of my festival, they backed out.

But I'm not going to change the name of my festival.

You ask me what it means and, or go look it up.

Look up the word Tapparelli.

You'll see Luigi Tapparelli.

He coined the phrase social justice.

How can I exactly.

How can I have a festival about social justice and not be willing to honor the

person that coined the phrase in 1834.

It's a little funny because you're like, you had to have

some of your own social justice.

About social.

Suggested exactly.

One, one question that I would ask you, which I think would be very interesting

to know is you said that this film festival was international, right?

Yes.

From countries from all over the world.

, are there certain countries that have certain signatures that the content

from this country focuses on this and the content from this country focuses

on this and is interestingly enough.

I would say Iran.

I get so many submissions from Iran and a lot about gender issues.

Really?

Yes.

And I was surprised at how much material comes in related

to gender issues from Iran.

And a lot of the films are not being able to be shown in Iran.

How do you handle Those cut because you're your film festival isn't like others where

it's all just there's not a whole bunch of like tons of crazy action films and like

that, so how do you handle so many it's about social justice, which is the common

thread But how do you handle it being from so many different cultures, right?

But that's the beauty of it, right?

Cuz that's one of the reasons why I did this and did it that way was

because I wanted to learn How other people were dealing with these issues.

I wanted to see how gender issues were being impacted in other countries and

how the film make because the filmmakers are the ones that we learn about

other cultures through film, right?

Yes, we learned that land exactly through their lens.

So that was one of the reasons for doing this is, we experienced racism

in this country as a black person.

I experienced racism in this country.

So I wanted to see how racism is impact, affected Affects others, I

should say, in other countries, other parts of the world is it an issue?

I want to see how, we talk about domestic violence a lot in this country.

No one thinks about domestic violence in the Netherlands.

That's true.

But it happens.

We've had films.

It was important for me to see how other countries and other people

were dealing with these issues.

And we learn about that through the lens of the filmmakers.

Where when does this so when is it happening this year?

It's happening November 3rd and 4th.

November 3rd and 4th.

Yes, in downtown L.

A.

So this is in L.

A., it's gonna be downtown at Artshare L.

A.

Where can people buy tickets to it?

Online at www.

ptaff or at Afton Tickets.

A F T O N tickets dot com.

You can find our festival P T A F or Pembroke Taparelli Arts and Film Festival.

You can find it on our website, which is P T A F dot org.

Or you can find tickets at Afton Tickets as well.

Okay.

Yeah.

It's been so great talking to you and and especially, I know that you're very busy.

Is there anything else that you think that people who want to talk about

social justice really need to consider?

Is it just that you just got to get it out there?

Or is it more about focusing more on the story?

Because some of them are like, even the fictionalized versions

of Command are based on real life objects, real life obstacles.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think one thing I would say is that a lot of filmmakers don't

address social issues in their films because they're afraid of it

not being able to be commercial.

So that's one of the main issues.

I remember reading about a filmmaker.

And I don't want to say his name.

Cause I'm I want to say it's Michael Bay, but I'm not a hundred percent sure.

But I believe he did like transformers, right?

He

did all of those movies and he had a passion project that he wanted to do,

but he did all of those films first.

And then he embarked on doing his passion project.

And I forget the name of it currently but I believe it had to

do a war or something like that.

I want to say Patriots or something.

I can't remember specifically.

But that's a lot of people's attitude, right?

I'm going to go do the big blockbusters first, and then I'm going to come

back and go into my passion project.

A lot of them never come back.

A lot of them never get the opportunity.

They never get the opportunity.

And I think it's so important that we use our voice to make

this world a better place and who better to do it than Filmmakers.

Remember we're creators, right?

So as creator, right?

We're close to God as creators because God created so on some level

you're God in the film world, right?

Because you're creating content, you're creating.

Create things with a purpose, right?

Focus on, don't, I, maybe I'm wrong with this mentality, but I

do believe the money will come.

Do what you love.

The money will come.

I do believe that.

Use your voice.

The money will come in some capacity, some way or shape or the other.

Recognition will come.

Use your voice.

Make this world a better place.

That's really what I believe.

So are you saying that, that recognition, money, profit, all

of that is a byproduct of a good film that you have a passion for?

I think so.

Yes.

I think so.

There are a lot of people who spend years making, for example, I think it

was called the, was it the Apostle?

I think was it Robert Duvall?

See, now I'm not 100 percent sure, but I believe it took him a

very long time to make that film.

One, because it was a passion project and two, he couldn't

get financing for it, right?

Because it was a great film.

Now when he finally got it done, I think it took 10 years or something like that.

Finally got it done.

It was a successful film.

Now, sometimes success doesn't necessarily mean money, right?

So we, you have to define that for yourself.

Exactly.

Success is a byproduct of Telling your story in your own voice making an impact

on society, making an impact in the world.

Now, once again, like you just said, you have to define what success is for you.

For those who were looking for money.

I'm not, I can't say that it's always going to be money as a by product, right?

But I can't say that.

You're going to sleep well at night that you got it done and you got it

out of you gave birth to it, right?

Andrea.

I thank you so much for Coming on to our radio show and talking

to us Is there anything else you want to tell the listeners?

Oh, yeah, just to go back to the reinventing Cinema here.

I think the reinventing that we need to see is moving move away from

franchise Away from the franchise.

Away from the franchise.

Create independent stories.

Stop going with the formula.

Up on, but now it's time to do something different.

It's time to move beyond it.

Yeah, move beyond it.

Yes.

Fantastic.

I thank you so much for coming on and guys go check out her film festival.

It's going to be in November.

What day were the dates again?

November 3rd and 4th.

November 3rd and 4th.

And guys, this has been Film Center.

I'm Derek Johnson II.

I'm Nicholas Killian.

And we're here with...

And we'll see you next time.

See ya.

See ya.

This has been Film Center on Comic Con Radio.

Check out our previous episodes at FilmCenterNews.

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