Episode 19 - Markus Mentzer
Best Job Ever
Markus Mentzer (This is the End, Neighbors, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Garfunkel & Oates) has one of those jobs that when you explain it to someone who doesn't work in the film business it sounds both bizarre and insanely impossible...which it is. He's a 1st Camera Assistant (commonly known as a "Focus Puller") and among many other things he keeps the image you see in the movie theater in focus. I consider it to be the hardest and most thankless job on a film set and when you find someone like Markus (who is simply masterful at it) you can't help but wonder about how he does...
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Episode 18 - Billy Brooks
Best Job Ever
You may have seen Billy Brooks on stage at Hall H Comic Con 2015 to promote the upcoming Vimeo series "Con Man" (starring Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion) as well as to be proposed to in front of thousands of ecstatic fans and the entire Internet. If you missed that I can guarantee you didn't miss Billy's visual fx work in countless classic films that have are permanently burned into our collective synapses (Transformers Age of Extinction, Xmen 2, Galaxy Quest, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots, Men in Black 1 and 2, The Empire Strikes Back Special...
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Episode 17 - Kathrin Eder
Best Job Ever
Jay met Kathrin just recently while working on the upcoming series "Con Man" (starring Alan Tudyk, Nathan Fillion, and almost the whole Joss Whedon-verse). Kathrin is from Austria and runs a pretty smooth Art Department. That was enough to inspire a little conversation about how she went from a tiny little town in the Austrian Alps to the glamorous landscape of sun baked pavement and cavernous sound stages here in Hollywood. It's the Interntational Edition of Best Job Ever. Viel Vergnügen!
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Episode 16 - Reza Tabrizi pt2
Best Job Ever
Much like The Godfather...pt2 is better. Enjoy
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Episode 15 - Reza Tabrizi pt1
Best Job Ever
Growing up in the 1980's in Tehran, Iran the last place anyone expected Reza Tabrizi to end up in would be Hollywood, CA. And yet the incrutable Reza managed to move to the US without speaking a word of English and (within a relatively short amount of time) create a vibrant career in the film industry. Until recently Reza was an "A" Camera Operator on major network television shows (Detroit 187, Necessary Roughness, Chicago Fire). Now he's in the drivers seat directing Network Episodic TV and killing it. We talked for so damn long I had to break this one into 2 parts....
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Episode 14 - Jon Sperry
Best Job Ever
Jon Sperry is THE GO-TO voice and dialect coach in Hollywood. Beginning with Harvey Keitel in Jane Campion's "The Piano", Jon has had a hand in shaping countless performances in feature films over the last 3 decades. He teaches and coaches actors (in a general sense) but also specializes in voice & dialect technique. If you need to capture what it sounds like to be a farmer in rural Spain circa 1912...Jon's the guy who cracks that code for you. He's worked with Russell Crowe, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Gael Garcia Bernal, Liam Neeson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Zoe...
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Episode 13 - Lex Halaby
Best Job Ever
Lex Halaby has been directing commercials and music videos day and night ever since he quit his day job over 10 years ago and going "all in". The field Lex operates in is a hyper competetive arena in which you see a steady flow of flavor of the month talent come and go. That said there are a few Directors who manage to stay hip, fresh and relevant and stick around for life. Lex is one of those that are here to stay. His body of work (with such acts as Death Cab For Cutie, Islands and Man Man) is unique and diverse. He's got a very distinct voice while always...
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Episode 12 - Lisa Wiegand, ASC
Best Job Ever
She's the 12th female to ever be inducted into the American Society of Cinematographers. She's one of the most interesting and inspiring people I know. Lisa Wiegand kicks ass and takes names. Nuff said. Enjoy.
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Episode 11 - Chad Damiani
Best Job Ever
Chad Damiani is yet another example of that typical, by the book, Hollywood career trajectory you've all heard before...Avant Garde Theater to Pro Wrestling Live Commentating to Studio Screenwriting by day and Underground Comedy Cultivator by night. All kidding aside, Chad's story is anything but predictable. The great Hunter S Thompson once wrote, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn Pro". Yep. Enjoy.
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Episode 10 - BJ McDonnell
Best Job Ever
Jay sits down with fellow Camera Department comrade BJ McDonnell. For being one of the top Steadicam Operators in the world (yes, world) one couldn't have taken a more circuitous route to the top. BJ talks about his youth growing up in Florida and his long tenure on the road playing in the punk rock band "Lick 57". These days he hops from one movie set to another working on some of the biggest and best films being made (Tomorrowland, The Interview, Neighbors, Jack Reacher, Macgruber, The Lonely Island Movie, and so many more). Most importantly though...Bj is metal as...
info_outlineShortly after the original interview was recorded Zakin called up Jay and requested that we do a follow-up interview to discuss some things that we failed to mention during the first session. We discuss a lot of advice for anyone looking to enter the film/tv business as well as the internship program at The Director's Bureau (Roman Coppola's production company). It's a short talk but lots of gems in there.
Michael Zakin started off as Set PA on Beverly Hills 90210. It was there that he caught the bug and joined the circus. Before long he was producing music videos with some of the best bands and directors in the world at Virgin Records. The bubble burst in the music video industry leaving few unscathed but Zakin survived and has been serving a long residency at American Zoetrope as the VP of Film Production. American Zoetrope was founded by Francis Ford Coppola in 1969 and has produced countless classic films since. While at Zoetrope Zakin produced "Life After Beth", "The Bling Ring", "Mozart in the Jungle" as well the upcoming "A Very Murray Christmas" (Starring Bill Murray and Directed by Sofia Coppola) and "Bonjour Anne" (Eleanor Coppola's directorial debut). You can't find a more honest, trustworthy and talented Producer than Michael Zakin.