Sundance Pre-Production: BOOK OF LOVE Director Alan Brown

From:hollywoodbitchslap.com
Date:01/07/04
By Chris Parry

THE 'BOOK OF LOVE' PITCH: Elaine (Frances O'Connor) and David (Simon Baker) seem to have a wonderful marriage, but one can see the beginnings of marital complacency. When they meet Chet (Gregory Smith), an innocent fifteen year-old full of youthful wonder and energy, a bond forms instantly. Elaine and David welcome Chet into their lives, but trouble arises when a momentary lapse in judgment threatens to rupture the core of the trio's seemingly idyllic lives. A tale of what 'is' and what 'should be',BOOK OF LOVE is an adult drama with strong emotional resonance. Good people doing bad things.

Q. Will this be your first time at Sundance? If not, what else have you been to Park City with?

A:I was at Sundance last year with my first film, a short, O BEAUTIFUL.

Q. When you were 14 years old, if someone asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up, what would your answer have been?

A:A parapsychologist.

Q. How did you get started in filmmaking?

A:An accident. I came to it from writing.

Q. How have things changed for you since your film was accepted into the festival?

A:I have more people I need to talk to on the phone and more people to email everyday.

Q. When you were shooting the film, did you have Sundance in mind?

A:Absolutely. Because I was at Sundance last year with my short, I really wanted to finish this one in time to submit for this year. Sundance meant a lot to me last year. I felt part of a community of people who truly cared about independent film.

Q. How did you get your film started? How did you go from script to finished product?

A:Wow. Big question. I guess the most important thing we did was to raise enough enough development money to hire a casting director and start getting the script out to actors. Once we had our actors, the rest just fell into place.

Q. What's the one glaring lesson you learned while making this film?

A:Time is everything, and there's never enough of it.

Q. When you were in pre-production, did you find yourself watching other great movies in preparation?

A:No. But my DP and production designer and I watched a handful of films from the past few years that had a look I liked.

Q. Two parter - which actor would you cut off an arm to work with, and which relatively unknown actor on your own film do you want the world to start recognizing sooner rather than later?

A:Same answer to both: Simon Baker. He both amazingly talented and incredibly generous and hard-working.

Q. The festival circuit: what could be improved, and what couldn't be?

A:I haven't been on it long enough to know.

Q. Have you 'made it' yet? If not, at what point will you be able to say 'yes'?

A:Made what?

Q. A film is made by many people, as well as the director, but often films will open with a credit that says 'a film by...' Did you use that credit in your film? If so, defend yourself! If not, what do you think of those who do?

A:I did use that credit, because I both wrote and directed the film. Itimpossible for any one person to completely understand and master everything that goes into making a film. But I do feel that what I did well was to find talented, smart, generous people and bring them together on this project and hold them together, and keep everyone on track towards a coherent vision. And I am the one person who was on the film from the first day of script-writing to the last day of post-production.

Q. If a studio said "we love this, we love you, you can remake anything in our back catalogue for $40m" - what film, if any, would you remake?

A:I can'timagine anything I don't want to remake.

Early buzz is that BOOK OF LOVE is a sensual tale of the complexity of marriage in contemporary times. Written and directed by Alan Brown with a visual and emotional assurance, the film examines the choices we make in our daily lives and the consequences that follow. It will screen five times for the public at Sundance and is entered into Dramatic Competition.