This First Time Director Is No Odd Man Out | 044 - Actors Talk - Come Inside The Acting Business

Can A First Time Director Make A Good Movie?
Well, of course. But it is not going to be easy.

Every movie director was once a 'first time director' so what's the big deal? Am I using 'first time director' as an excuse in the discussion of Michael Crabtree's ODD MAN OUT? Or maybe as a pejorative term? Neither.

In fact in this case I think the tag 'first time director' can be viewed as something of a badge of honor. Let's think about this 'first time director' thing. How many first time directors in the indie sector begin a project but never finish? I don't have a number but I know anecdotally that the number is LARGE.

How many first time directors take on many - too many - production responsibilities: director, screenwriter, producer, line producer, location manager, cinematographer...and oh yeah, actor?

Wearing multiple hats is de rigueur for the indie filmmaker. I get that. But does that add to the 'casualty' rate for first time directors? How much responsibility can one person undertake and still perform each of those tasks in a professional fashion...and live to tell about it?

What steps can the first time director take to help ensure that his or her project will not collapse from the weight or too much responsibility in too few hands? How can the first time director succeed?

What are the chances that a first time director will succeed in getting the film shot, through post-production and then securing distribution. Well, you might say, those aren't directorial responsibilities, not all of them. True, but the first time director in the indie arena will likely be intimately involved in each and every one of these steps.

So...how did Michael Crabtree do as a first time director? We talk about that in the podcast. We talk about the challenges and the successes and the tasks still to be completed. Read that last part: DISTRIBUTION.

Since I have screened ODD MAN OUT, I can truthfully say that Crabtree has exceeded expectations for most any director, not just a first time director with his work on this movie.

I hope you will enjoy this episode of Actors Talk and if you are a first time director or will soon be, I hope you will let me hear from you in the comments section below this blog post. Was the interview helpful to you in some way? Let me know.

Odd Man Out - The Story

Take two brothers at odds over the beautiful woman they both love. One brother is mentally strong but physically weak - sentenced to life in a wheelchair following a crippling accident. The other is physically strong but plagued by a strange malady called hyperthymestic syndrome that forces him to relive every moment of his life in excruciating detail.

Stir in a hired hand who has a regular poker game with a group of store mannequins and fancies himself a protector of the beautiful woman. Now lock these characters up for the night in a Felliniesque antiques emporium in a small Texas town. What do you get? You get writer-director Michael Crabtree's new indie thriller, Odd Man Out.

It was both the worst and the best two years of my life

About his motivation to get this film produced:

I'm 61. I'm in the fourth quarter here and time's going fast. So I was just determined to try to get this made. We just decided we'd do it out of our back pockets.

Location, Location, Location

It's not just in real estate that location matters. The genesis of ODD MAN OUT can be traced to a visit first time director Michael Crabtree paid to the DeRidder Antiques Store in Forney, TX

First Time Director Big Time Talent

I was nuts [felt compelled] to do my first film. I've written several scripts... I've pitched 'em, I've sent 'em out, I've talked 'em up but never gotten anywhere with them. But this was a smaller story.

I first met Michael Crabtree while on location in west Texas for Dancer, TX Pop 81 around 1997.