Interview: Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg — Part 1
On December 15, 2011, I received this email:
Hey Scott,
I’ve been following your website since I can remember and I wanted to let you know that your help has been invaluable to me as a writer/filmmaker. I just got my first movie picked up as a writer/director. Check it out.
All Best,
Spenser Cohen
That deal was an action-thriller spec script “The Driver” acquired by Voltage Productions and Solipsist Films. In 2012, Cohen wrote and sold another spec script, an action movie called “High Value Target”, picked up by Millennium Films. Then in January 2013, Spenser sold another spec script: “Pantheon”.
A writer who sells 3 spec scripts within 2 years is someone we need to hear from, so I’m pleased to present my interview with Spenser.
Today in Part 1, I spend time with Spenser and his producing partner Anna Halberg, and they provide background on how they met as well as what their production company is about:
Scott: Let’s start with the producing side of things. You two met at USC film school.
Spenser: Yeah. That’s correct.
Scott: How did you both end up at USC and what were each of your goals?
Spenser: Ever since I was seven years old I wanted to make movies. I saw “Jurassic Park” and I knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I made close to forty short films by the time I got out of high school. I was just obsessed with movies. I knew the one school I wanted to go to was USC. It was the one college I applied to, and I was lucky enough to get in. A lot of great filmmakers, writers, producers have come out of that school, so obviously they do something right there. It was great to be in an environment where you basically just got to make movies, write, and not have to worry about real life things.
You never really get that once you get out of school. You become an adult, and you start working. I think the biggest thing I got out of going to USC was meeting some really great people, especially Anna, but some really great DPs, editors, production designers, and people that I still work with.
Anna: I’m from a small town in Minnesota, and grew up in a household where the arts were really important. My parents would rent a movie every weekend, and whenever a new play came to the Guthrie or the Ordway we’d go see it as a family. I was encouraged from a young age to be creative and tell stories, and I always knew I wanted to be a storyteller in one form or another. I started out acting when I was a kid, and loved being in front of the camera, but I didn’t really understand the process of making movies or what went on behind the camera, and I was fascinated to learn. I only applied to film schools in California, and when I was accepted to USC, it was the obvious choice.
Scott: How did you both get into producing?
Anna: I think that I’ve always known I wanted to produce, I just didn’t know what a producer did necessarily, or that there was a name for it. I’ve always been extremely organized and good at problem solving. When I got to USC I learned the definition of a producer, and it really combined all of my interests, and my strengths into one job. I started taking more production classes and applied for internships at production companies and in production at various studios. I loved it and knew that producing is what I wanted to do.
Spenser: It’s very left brain, right brain. Anna handles a lot of the business…strategy, planning…all that stuff, which allows me to focus on the creative. But Anna is really creative as well, and will come in and help me develop all our ideas. She just has the ability to step back and really see the big picture to give us the Google Maps view of what we’re doing.
Scott: How would you describe the way you work together during the script development and writing phase?
Anna: I think it depends if we’re developing something that Spenser’s attaching himself to direct or if it’s something that we’re developing to produce or if it’s something that we’re going to go out and try to sell. But I think when Spenser and I sit down to develop a script, it’s really important first and foremost that we’re both passionate about the idea. Then we’ll usually sit and talk about the characters and their arcs, and the major beats of the script. We’ll do this for a few days or a few weeks or a few months. Whatever it takes until the idea makes sense and has a structure that’s working. Then Spenser will go away and write a treatment or an outline and we’ll keep talking about it and making changes until it’s in a place where he’s ready to write.
Spenser: Yeah, and it’s nice to have that person who you can bounce ideas back and forth with. A lot of times writing is very lonely, and you sit in a room all day by yourself. You don’t often know if what you’re doing is good or if it’s on the right track. Just in the initial developing stages to be able to sit with someone and spend two or three weeks bouncing an idea and kicking it back and forth, that to me is invaluable because when I get into writing there’s a confidence I feel in the material. I never stop to go, “Is this working?”
Scott: Your production company is called Six Foot Turkey Productions…
Spenser: It’s a line from “Jurassic Park.” That movie had a huge impact on me, and I knew when we were thinking of company names that I wanted it to somehow tie into that film.
Anna: Yeah, and it was also one of my favorite movies growing up. It seemed like a good movie to base our production company’s name off of.
Scott: It seems like for your generation, that’s the big movie. Maybe “Star Wars” for the generation before, but for yours, it’s “Jurassic Park” as an inspiration for so many people to pursue filmmaking.
Spenser: “Jurassic Park” was one of the first movies to have believable CGI characters at a time when no one really knew what CGI was. The illusion was so great it was beyond an illusion. It was real to me. And that’s why I think it resonates so much with our generation.
Scott: With your production company, you mentioned that you’re involved in scripted projects, unscripted TV, music videos, commercial projects. What are some of the projects you have in development?
Spenser: We do commercials and music videos. We do less of them now, but we did a lot of those getting out of school. That’s basically how we paid the bills and survived — shooting a lot of content for people. In terms of what we have in development, we have a ton of stuff. I’m working on new specs. We’re putting pitches together. We are out with a TV pitch right now. We’re taking out another feature next month. We have a digital project. Just constantly generating material.
Anna: We just shot a pilot for E! that’s going to air around Mother’s Day, that we created and are executive producing. We’re out to directors on a spec that Spenser wrote. It’s a lot for two people, but we’re trying to fire on all cylinders.
Spenser: We’re workaholics. We have like a million things going on at once.
Scott: Well, you’re young, you should be. [laughs] What are your long term goals for Six Foot Turkey Productions?
Spenser: We love Bad Robot!
Anna: Love them! I just really admire the working relationship that JJ Abrams and Bryan Burk have, and I think it’s such an asset that they can generate their own material and develop projects internally. Spenser and I cover a lot of bases for two people, but we’d like to expand our company and continue building out on all platforms, film, television, digital and we’d be ecstatic if we could have a company that even remotely resembles Bad Robot.
Tomorrow in Part 2, Spenser talks about how he was introduced to the craft of screenwriting, how he got representation, and the sale of “The Driver”.
Please stop by comments to thank Spenser and ask any questions you may have.
Spenser is repped by WME and Energy Entertainment.
Twitter: @IAmSpenserCohen / @AnnaHalberg
Six Foot Turkey Productions website here.
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