Q&A: Brian Netto and Adam Schindler (“Delivery”)
Filmmakers Brian Netto and Adam Schindler have an interesting story to tell about getting their movie Delivery produced and soon to debut at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Here is my Q&A with them:
Scott: So you two were buddies in the 6th grade when you picked up a camera, and it’s been all about making movies since then. Legend or fact?
Adam: That is indeed fact. We actually met in fourth grade and became instant friends. We were bored one summer day in between fifth and six grade, this was 1989 I think, and we ended up picking up one of our parents VHS cameras. I have no recollection of where the idea of making a film came from, but we spent the entire day filming our little movie. It just steam-rolled from there. Filmmaking has been our passion ever since.
Scott: A lot of people get an idea they want to make movies and their interest wanes. A lot of childhood friends drift apart. Why do you think you two have stayed friends all these years and persisted in pursuing your interest in filmmaking?
Brian: We are friends first, but our common love is films and filmmaking… and of course the Minnesota Vikings. Growing up in MN, outside of the industry’s reach, just having someone else that had the same interest was a huge advantage. History has shown that business and friendship don’t mix well, but the best thing we can do is be honest and upfront with one another and remember that what’s at stake is a friendship that spans twenty plus years.
Adam: I consider ourselves extremely lucky to have found something we love to do very early on. I really think the reason our interest never waned stems from the fact that we did find this thing we were passionate about at such an early age. Also, our parents were supportive every step of the way, even if they originally thought it was a phase. Paying for film classes, reading our scripts, watching our little movies and cheering us on. That was huge.
Scott: One look at your IMDB profiles shows the word “assistant” multiple times. What are some of the more memorable assistant gigs you’ve had? Apart from making money, what lessons about the entertainment business have you learned through your various assistant positions?
Brian: The assistant gigs themselves are hardly memorable — but it’s the access they provide that’s invaluable. We’ve been able to sit in and/or participate in creative meetings, casting sessions, test screenings, marketing discussions, notes meetings, etc. It’s a trade off — your time and money (rather, the lack thereof) for the firsthand experience you cannot get anywhere else. The biggest thing we’ve learned from the people we’ve encountered as an assistant is that you — as a writer, producer, director — are the owner and operator of the (insert your name here) company. And your talent is this company’s product — so make sure you’re constantly displaying, promoting and improving that product.
Scott: You move to LA in 2002 and are managing to stay alive working in the business. Cut to 2009 when you say to each other, “Let’s make this movie called Delivery.” How did that come about?
Brian: We had been focusing on writing at the time, but ultimately we wanted to be filmmakers. The only way to do that was create something small enough that we could get off the ground on our own. A script can be optioned or sold, but even then there’s no guarantee it’s going to be made. So it made sense that we give ourselves our big break by writing, producing and directing a project ourselves. Easier said than done, of course.
Adam: Yes, it’s definitely a challenge, but we were very confident in the concept and our abilities to bring that concept to life in a very real way. We were also very forthright with each other at the outset and got all the contractual issues done right away. Since we’d heard all the horror stories about friends getting into business together only to have it ruin their friendship, we decided we’d handle the black and white details upfront. We would co-write the script, Brian would take the sole directing credit and I would take the sole producing credit even though everything was done 50/50. We signed contracts, filed them away and never had to worry about it again.
Scott: Here’s a description of Delivery’s plot: “A young couple agrees to document their first pregnancy for a reality show, but when unexplained events start to plague the production, they suspect something might be wrong with their unborn bundle of joy.” What is the genesis of this story concept?
Brian: The inspiration for DELIVERY came from, of all places, a Pixar film. There was a Pixar short that played theatrically before UP that followed the relationship between a storm cloud that birthed the world’s problem children and the stork that carried them down to Earth. The question about where evil or bad children came from grew out of that. And from the very beginning, the central conceit of the story and the format — that of a mockumentary/reality show mash up — was married to one another. Keep in mind that at the time, the only films in this subgenre that had made any sort of dent with audiences were THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT ten years earlier and CLOVERFIELD less than a year prior. There wasn’t really much of a track record or template for what we were trying to create.
Adam: We’re both huge genre fans. Most of the films we write take place within the genre space, so placing all these reality show characters in the backdrop of a classic ghost story obviously catered to the horror fans in us. Ultimately we decided to write something we would want to see, something we were fairly certain others would want to see as well.
Scott: You decide to write a script. Had you had any formal training in screenwriting? If not, how did you learn the craft?
Brian: No formal screenwriting training, but we’ve been writing screenplays since high school and joined a screenwriting group in Minneapolis after college.
Adam: Yes, The Screenwriter’s Workshop. We’d meet a few Saturdays a month and get feedback on scripts we were working on. The ability to have people critique your writing in a safe, creative environment was invaluable. We also spent much of our time reading scripts.
Brian: Finding the latest scripts online was a huge find. We read everything we could get our hands on. Besides that, just trial and error basically… emphasis on the error.
Scott: What was your writing process like for Delivery? How long did it take you to create a draft you felt you could shop around?
Adam: DELIVERY came together pretty quickly, actually. We were still feeling out our writing partnership at that time, so we tried numerous things. Writing separately and sending pages back and forth, each taking different sequences, but ultimately we found we wrote the best material with both of us in the same room. We both use Macs so we were able to connect our computers to a TV and one would write while the other one would sit back and offer thoughts. And then we’d switch. It made for a really interesting way to do it. Writing this way provided two perspectives to each scene. The person typing was very close to the scene, looking at it line by line, in close up if you will, whereas the person sitting back was able to see the scene from a much wider perspective. It’s almost as if we were playing the parts of the writer and the audience at the same time.
Brian: We would meet 2–3 days a week in the evenings and weekends and had a draft within two months. It went through another draft before being sent out, but it was sent out largely for feedback from friends within the industry as we still weren’t sure who we were targeting. It wasn’t for sale like a traditional spec… we were looking for investors rather than a production company to partner with, so our targets had to be carefully chosen instead of just casting a wide net. What we sent out was a “scriptment”. Roughly 60 pages, formatted like a screenplay, but not dialogue heavy. We knew we were going to improvise a great deal of the film and wanted to focus on crafting the character arcs and plot points. It was not something that you would consider a great read, but rather a blueprint. That said, we begin getting very strong responses and meetings almost immediately, so we knew we were on to something.
Scott: You’re repped by manager Marc Manus. How did that happen?
Adam: Marc came to us through a mutual friend. I used to work as an assistant for Producer Lawrence Bender and while there I became great friends (and still am) with his CE Janet Jeffries. After I had moved on from Bender’s office, we started to develop an idea with Janet for a horror script we wrote titled, SUNDOWN. Janet knows Marc and knew we were looking for representation and that he was taking on new writers. She sent him the script as a sample, he responded to it, we had several conversations with him over the next few weeks about the script as well as where we saw/hoped our careers would go and the rest is history. We’ve been with Marc now for five years. DELIVERY would not have been possible if not for all his hard work along the way. He’s been a great asset and is a great manager.
Brian: Yeah, he’s a straight shooter. He doesn’t blow smoke or overpraise — a compliment or a job well done from him really means something. It’s a tough love approach and it’s precisely what we were looking for in a manager.
Scott: Originally you tried to raise funds to make Delivery through outside sources, but then you met Oren Peli, the filmmaker who famously made Paranormal Activity for basically pocket change, and that altered your strategy.
Brian: The meeting with Oren Peli actually happened while we were writing the script. We were looking to get our hands on similar fare since again, mock/found footage films were nowhere near as in vogue then as they are now. So we requested our manager track down a copy of an Aussie mock/ghost story called LAKE MUNGO (excellent film, btw) and a then little known film called PARANORMAL ACTIVITY that was sitting on the shelf at Paramount. We could not get a copy of PA but instead got a chance to meet w/ Oren and pick his brain. Incredibly sweet guy — very open and helpful. Two months later PA opened under that brilliant marketing campaign and changed the landscape completely.
Adam: Needless to say, we were first in line at the midnight screenings of Paranormal Activity at the Arclight in Hollywood. What an experience. The audience loved it. After the screening, on the drive home we were really energized. I think in that moment we both envisioned DELIVERY up on that big screen. We looked at each other and decided let’s make this dream a reality.
Scott: You wrote, directed, cast, edited and produced the movie. What have you discovered are some of the most challenging aspects of micro-budget filmmaking?
Brian: Filming on a budget in LA is incredibly difficult because everyone here is so savvy to the business. A location or equipment rental that might be free elsewhere in the country is going to cost you here. Also, it’s very easy to get put on the back burner when you’re paying reduced rates for post services such as color, sound, visual effects, etc. You’re nudging people just enough to keep the work moving in the right direction but not so much that they’ll decide your little movie is no longer worth the trouble anymore. The thing I’ve learned while working on larger budgeted feature productions however — budgets which were many times greater than ours — is that there’s NEVER enough money. You’re always scrounging to squeeze something out of nothing.
Scott: I understand Daniel Cossu is the film’s musical composer. How did you meet Daniel and how would you describe his contribution to the final product?
Adam: We met Daniel almost nine years ago when we all worked at Border’s in West Hollywood. We were all doing the day job to pay the bills thing and he became a good friend. We worked in the music department of all places and during our down time we’d try to one up each other by coming up with the most high concept movie ideas we could. It became a real game and I admit I spent many a shift neglecting customers and daydreaming about movie ideas. Daniel would school me on composers, jazz and music theory. Once we all moved on from Border’s we kept in touch. And ultimately he formed his own company, Cinetrax, a successful trailer music house. Flash forward to 2009, we pitched him the idea for DELIVERY and were wondering if he’d be interested in scoring it. He agreed to do the music after reading the script and hearing our take on how we envisioned it coming together.
Brian: Daniel’s super smart and has a great sense of story so he was a really great sounding board for all aspects of the film, not just the music. It’s an unusual film in that it’s comprised of so many parts — part documentary, part reality show gone wrong, part found footage. Each format required it’s own signature sound — sometimes blurring the line between score and sound design. You might expect that Daniel, as a composer, might have reservations about creating something like a really low register droning sound to lay under a scene versus something that’s more noticeable or traditional, but he had absolutely no ego and wanted only to better the picture. He’s like a mad scientist, pulling sounds from some of the most unusual places and he was a great partner.
Scott: Delivery has been selected to screen at the Los Angeles Film Festival. How did that happen?
Adam: The whole festival process is really a world in its own. I guess, from the outset we were a little naïve as to how you actually get into the festival circuits.
Brian: I don’t know that anyone outside of fest programmers truly know how the selection process works. I think we went into this process thinking that if you know the right people, you can secure a festival spot — not the case. Have heard countless stories about people that knew programmers or festival founders, people they would consider to be friends… and their films still did not make the cut. It’s incredibly subjective and a huge coup just being selected.
Adam: DELIVERY is very much an LA film so we had always targeted LA Film Fest as a great potential spot to world premiere the film. We finished post on DELIVERY in mid-February and made a list of potential festivals and their deadlines and signed up with Withoutabox to lead the charge.
Brian: We submitted blindly to LA Film Fest and fortunately the film connected with their programmers. Our brethren in this year’s genre section are Adam Wingard’s YOU’RE NEXT and the latest from Takashi Miike, LESSON OF THE EVIL… so we’re in pretty great company.
Scott: When does Delivery screen in the Festival?
Brian: Our world premiere is Tuesday, June 18th, 9:50pm at the Regal Cinemas at Downtown LA Live. Our second and final screening is Friday, June 21st, 7:30pm at the same location.
Adam: Tickets go on sale May 21st. Sooner if you’re an Film Independent member. Tickets available here. Sorry for the plug.
Scott: What do you think you will be feeling as you sit in a movie theater alongside an audience at the premiere of your movie Delivery?
Adam: I know for me it will be shear excitement. I’ll definitely be watching the audience and their reaction more than the film itself. I’m sure Brian will be a ball of nerves though.
Brian: It’ll be mix of relief, pride and extreme anxiety. For the select few that have seen our film, it never fails to garner a strong response, so I’m really looking forward to seeing it play for an audience.
Scott: What’s next for Delivery?
Brian: We have a domestic sales agent, XYZ films (producers on THE RAID) and are currently close to signing a foreign sales agent.
Adam: The next step is to secure that ever elusive distribution deal and get this baby out into the world.
Scott: What’s next for Adam and Brian?
Adam: We’re currently polishing up the script for our next project. It’s another high concept ghost story called METHOD we hope to find funding for and shoot next Spring.
Brian: Adam will direct and I will produce. After METHOD, we have two other projects outlined and ready to go, and of course the reception to DELIVERY will dictate how large of a sandbox we’re allowed to play in moving forward.
Adam: Also, our goal is to secure an agent.
Scott: Finally what advice do you have for budding filmmakers?
Brian: My advice is to make something… anything, and get it out there because you never know who’s watching. Also, that 30k or 50k you were planning to spend on short? Don’t — make a feature instead. There are plenty of great outlets for short films at festivals or websites, but it’s next to impossible for you see a financial return. Features have a better shot at distribution AND some sort of financial return and if nothing else, it demonstrates that you know how to tell a story over a full ninety minutes.
Adam: I still consider ourselves budding filmmakers, but what I would really say is perseverance. Believing in yourself even after that one-hundredth door has been slammed in your face. Study your trade like a class. Read tons. Write tons. Watch tons of films. Especially bad ones. Figure out what makes films work and what makes films fail. Support your friend’s endeavors so they’ll support yours.
The movie is a staff pick by the LAFF:
Movie site
Best of luck to Brian, Adam and everyone associated with Delivery.
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