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On
4th November 2010, Haley Joel Osment and Alison Brie
were among a distinguished group of film luminaries , including
Tim Wassberg, Sylvia Caminer, Artie Malesci, Nic Baisley (
of filmsnobbery.com
), and the legendary Ralph Clemente, invited to do a discussion
panel on the theme "In and Out of Hollywood" with
the audience of the Orlando Film Festival. The hour and a
half long discussion was a wonderful time of discussion from
these film veterans about the Independant Film Industry, and
it is well worth sitting through the entire recording to hear
priceless observations and anecdotes about the Independant
Film Industry.
Both
Haley Joel Osment and Alison Brie provided astonishing glimpses
about their experiences not only Montana Amazon, but also
from their other films and television work. It was interesting
to note that Haley was his usual thoughtful, insightful self,
with answers to questions that had depth that reflected his
years of experience in his award-winning career. Alison Brie
was a real surprise, displaying great wit and a tremendous
sense of self-deprecation. Her rapid-fire answers to questions
posed were hilarious, and showed off her deeply-ingrained
theatrical background and training, and her anecdotes about
what it was on the shoot of Montana Amazon is not to be missed.
I
do recommend highly spending a profitable hour and a half
to listen to the panel discussion, but if you want to get
to the juicy parts featuring our two stars from Montana Amazon,
click on the appropriate links below complete with a transcription
of Haley and Alison's comments. Enjoy !
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Haley
Joel Osment introduces himself
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Haley
Joel Osment
(starting
at the 12 minute 10 second mark) :
Hello,
I'm from California originally but my parents
are from Birmingham, Alabama , so I'm kinda
from around the region down here. My father
wanted be to be pilot when he was in college,
and saw a play when he was at West Georgia College
in Carolls in Georgia and was immediately hooked
with acting. He moved out to California in 1984
where I was born a couple of years later, so
I'm from California originally. When I was about
4 or 5 years old, just on a whim, I went in
with my mom to one of those cattlecall auditions
and ended up getting a commercial or two which
led to a couple of films after that. So since
I've was 5 years old, I've been pretty much
working since then. For the past 4 years, I
studied Experimental Theatre in NYU in New York,
which was very exciting. So my interests certainly
span from film to theatre, but in the world
of film, having had the opportunity to work
with a lot of directors and actors that I respect.
Certainly a lot of producers and cinematographers
and all the people whose extremely unique talents
are needed on the set, I'd certainly like to
try my hand at certain things behind the cameras.
That's one of the most exciting things about
watching independent film, it's the amount of
freedom that creative artists have behind the
cameras, and that's certainly exciting to me.
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Alison
Brie introduces herself
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Alison
Brie
(starting
at the 13 minute 35 second mark) :
I'm
same, from Los Angeles, born and raised. Though
I lived in close proximity to Hollywood, that
was never part of my reality, growing up, although
I was really into performing and into theatre.
And after my "amazing turn" as Toto
in the Wizard of Oz [laughs], at the age of
7, I thought, "This is the life for me"
[laughs]. So I did community theatre for a while,
and went through regular high school, and my
parents really wanted to encourage me to have
a normal education and sort of do theatre on
the side, but once they realised that I was
really serious about it, they were like, "
Well, you have to go to college for it"
. So I went to California Institute of the Arts
and I studied at the Royal Scottish Academy
of Music and Drama, and really cultivated theatre,
and I was all about theatre all the time, theatre,
theatre, and if I aspired to do any kind of
film, it would be independent film, because
that had integrity, and that would be the only
thing I wanted to do... and lo and behold, I
finished college, and needed to make money [laughs]
and you know, started to audition for TV and
landed on two incredible TV shows that I felt
have an amazing, grounded sense of integrity,
and amazing writing, and are smart, intelligent
shows, and it was really the luck of the draw
for me because I was going on these auditions
for a million things and just trying to find
people who wanted to cast me in something. I
was willing to do anything, and luckily landed
on shows where I am able to work with people
I really respect, and it's opened other doors
for me. Even on this film that we did (looks
at Haley), to me it's about finding interesting
characters, deep characters, that you can relate
to, that other people can relate to, maybe just
parts of them because they are so bizarre, they
just run the gamut of all of that.So hopefully
I'll continue to be able to do that.
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Alison
Brie talks about her role in Montana Amazon
| Alison,
your character in Montana Amazon is off the charts.
I mean, the character is funny, and gross, and
cool at times, and you do some weird stuff, so
talk a little bit about your character from Montana
Amazon (starting
at the 26 minute 38 second mark) : |
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Alison
Brie
: Well,
I'm so glad you said "gross" when
you were describing her, because I do feel like
one of things that drew me to the character
is that she is so "out there", and
"gross" was one of the things, like
she's so, all the characters, the whole movie
has that kind of feeling like, "Do I want
to love these people? I don't know..."
and there's something about playing characters
that you don't want to judge, your instincts
will tell you to judge, but you're like "I'm
not going to judge this person at all. I'm just
going to see what the inner workings of them
are." When I read the script, before I
auditioned for the role, it's like I read it
and like, "I get this girl" which
makes me some kind of crazy. [laughter]
But the great thing about independent film is
the artistic freedom that you have, with these
characters, and you work with your director
and to have this collaboration there, working
on Community is a blast, we have so much fun,
but it's interesting even in seeing the difference
working on Community versus Mad Men, which is
a cable show, I would say that they have a lot
more artistic freedom because when you are on
a Network show, there are so many heads in the
mix, there's like there are so many chefs making
this meal. And it can be great, because there
are a lot of different ideas coming, and it
can also be restricting, because you can sometimes
be like, oh, you know, they're doing test audiences,
there are other things at play here. There's
marketing, and ratings. When you're doing an
independent film, and you're doing these outrageous
characters, you really have the freedom to make
them unlikeable, to make them gross, and erm,
not really worry so much if people are going
to connect with them, and hope that they will
on some level, or maybe they won't, and it will
give them some other experience watching them.
So, it was an amazing experience for me to play
this character, and to be in the middle of the
California desert, in the middle of nowhere,
sort of creating this person who wears long
underwear all the time, and thinks she's 12,
and wants to have a lot of sex, and doesn't
really even know what that means! It was a sort
of cool departure from the sort of clean cut
person that people think I am. [laughs]
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Haley
Joel Osment talks about his role in Montana Amazon
| Haley,
we've seen you grow up, and
now to see you play your character on Montana
Amazon...a completely different stretch. You've
got a lot of internal turmoil that's going on
in this film, tell us a little about, you know,
it being a road picture, and being able to work
with 2 great actresses, and being able to bring
what you bring to the table in the film. (starting
at the 29 minute 25 second mark) : |
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Haley
Joel Osment
: Right.
You know, there are some characters where your
..... is based on your similarity to them, and
the common experience that you share with them,
and then there's some like this film where,
you know, normally when you read a script, you
picture the circumstances and you picture the
people that are going to be playing them, even
though you don't know who the actors are yet.
In this film, I had so much trouble imagining
what the world would look like and how we would
inhabit it and everything, so when you're dealing
with something that strange, you know, the technique
with this one was just that it was purely ours
to deal with. This was a story and a group of
characters that had not been dealt with before,
so we would have the experience of discovering
it as we went. If Alison hadn't mentioned long
underwear, I would definitely have mentioned
it. It was kind of a sensual aspect of her character
[laughs] and representative of physical things
that happened and that we picked up just based
on our environment on the way. We were very
dirty, literally dirty in this film, and before
a lot of shots, I mean, we also spent half of
that in the process trailer, you know, with
a car mounted on a trailer, with Deborah our
director, who is in the audience with us tonight,
communicating with us with a walkie talkie,
and Alison and I would, before the shots, sometimes
just go to the side of the road to roll on the
dirt a little bit, and get trashed, and just
kinda do it, we kinda had the licence to take
the grossness and the strangeness of these characters
as far as we could, and that was a lot of fun.
Also, the physical violence in this film was
certainly a venue for individuality in these
characters. I spent a lot of the film getting
railed on by Olympia Dukakis, and I was so happy
that she did not hold back at all. [laughs]
Not always working with a stunt coordinator
right before the fights and everything, and
she would kinda be like, " Well, I'm going
to beat you up" and that was how it went.
Luckily no scarring [laughs] but that was sort
of a wonderful time. So yeah, there are certainly
major advantages to being on a studio set or
a place where everything has been planned out
for you, and there is no uncertainty... well,
there's always uncertainty... but there's a
lot of fun doing a version like this, where
you can let loose and take the character to
places you normally wouldn't.
Well
you certainly did. Guys, you've never seen
characters like these before. Never ever, ever.
I don't think anybody has. I've never seen a
film with anything as remotely close, so remember,
Montana Amazon, mark it on your calendars, it
screens tomorrow, same theatre, it's going to
be a riot. You'll have a blast.
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Alison
Brie talks about the challenges of an independent film
shoot
| On
independent films, money is tight, and time is tight.
How do you balance
making your day, and staying on schedule, and making
the creative vision that you have ? (answer from
Alison Brie starts at the 55 minute 55 second mark)
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Alison
Brie
: I was going
to say, as the question was about preparation,
I realise I have not produced any film, but just
thinking about making your day. I think that something
that was very helpful to us on the movie (Montana
Amazon) was preparation and creativity. As soon
as we had script, as soon as we were cast in the
film, and this was before production was starting
or any of that was going, Deb (director D.G.Brock)
had us in this little room at this weird music,
sort of rehearsal, space, but it was great because
these characters are so different, and I felt
like so much of the movie was the dire landscape
that they were living in, and what does that entail,
and how to really make it specific. So we had
already gone and rehearsed a lot of it, and, you
know, had lunches, and had talked to each other,
and had the material to go and lay that groundwork.
So when we got on set, and we were fighting daylight,
and we were in the dirt and all this unexpected
stuff that was happening, at least we were going,
"we know these people, we know how they awould
react in this situation". We didn't have
to spend another hour rehearsing here. We would
rehearse the basics of this action that we were
gonna do, because now we've all got that stuff
to build on top of it, but at least we know these
people, we were ready to go. And then the other
thing, in terms of creativity, I think is thinking
on the fly. When you do get out there, I keep
thinking in the middle of the desert, it really
felt like we were stranded in the middle of the
desert sometimes, and daylight can be a tricky
thing. And you get out there, and you have this
vision, and I can't speak for all of Deb's visions
in her head of what the movie was going to be
like, or Bruce's (producer Bruce Stubblefield)
, but you run into things and you go, " well,
can't we make this mound of dirt higher, so that
we can hide behind it more?" and the people
go, "Yeah, but it's going to take a couple
of hours, and we really don't have that much dirt
here... " and as opposed to being married
to that idea and going, "Well, let's do it,
let's all sit around, we need this pile
of dirt to be here..." it was a matter of,
"Well, let's throw some bricks down, what
do you guys have to come up with?", kinda
like opening it up to the group, and working at
it on the fly. And I think some of the best things
in the movie sort of came out of us going, "What
can we make out of this?" There was supposed
to be sex toys in the dirt in one scene, and they
give me a bag with crotchless panties in it, and
we were like, "we can make this work, we
can make this...[laughs] oh my, that's the problem.
What do I do with this crotchless panties?"
[laughter] But Deb instead of standing there,
going, "No, this was supposed to be six condoms
and a plastic bag", she was like, "Well,
do something ..." [laughter] It was a matter
of getting to where we're going, assessing the
situation in that moment, and going, "Here's
how we're going to make it work for these people.
Let's do it. Let's move froward. Fearlessly."
Thank you.
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Haley
Joel Osment talks about movie scores and how he stays
in character in his films
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This
question is for Haley. I've been pretty much watching
a lot of your films since, I think the first time
I saw you was in
Forrest Gump. I've been trying to break in as
a score composer, and I try to view myself, kinda
not necessarily compose for the stages as an absolute
jazz composer, but also as an actor , kinda bury
myself into the story, as an actor with the score
as its own emotional entity. When I notice your
acting, from A.I. or Secondhand Lions, you always
seem to do it best for the character, not necessarily
what's best for Haley. I don't know if I am making
sense. You seem to focus on, like, Haley doesn't
exist any more, if that makes sense. Whatever
that character needs. What do you do to prepare
yourself or to lose yourself into the character?
(starts at the 1 hour 10 minute 40 second mark)
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Haley
Joel Osment : It's
interesting that you mention music, because I
think just for me personally, that's one of the
things with films that I'm in, with films that
I am watching, that I obsess over [laughs], there
are certain films that I like watching where a
lot of it is hooked into the song choices or the
score. I don't know why, but I just think it's
important to me. But if there's something that
strikes the wrong note, or there's something that's
out of place, I think the music can be disruptive
to the film as well. So you have one of the coolest
jobs that's involved with film, and one of the
most important even though other people may not
even realise back when they are watching it. But
that's tied in for me, with what you mentioned
about the actor being part of the film, and being
out to take care of themselves, the most basic
thing that people are familiar with, the idea
about staging, or making sure that you are always
getting the most out of it, you know, that you're
getting it for yourself and everything. I've been
really lucky... I can't really think of instances
where I've worked with actors like that. Very
lucky. So in answer to your question, it's just
been watching the sacrifices that other actors
make, you know, I've worked with Robert Duvall
who insisted he would do the behind-the-camera
eyeline shots and everything...that's when you
have someone behind the camera and feeding you
the line and everything, and sometimes it doesn't
even make sense for the actor trying to squeeze
into the room and take that, but he would insist
on being there, for every actor and everything.
So it's examples like that, that I really try
to follow. Again, I just really like you brought
up the thing with music, it has to do with the
timing of it, it has to do with everything at
the correct level, in place within the whole picture,
so that's something that I try to be mindful of
within the film.
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Haley
and Alison talk about intellectual property rights and
preserving the film experience
| Alison
and Haley are asked what they feel about intellectual
property rights and illegal downloading of films
off the internet (answer begins at the 1 hour 27
minute 20 second
mark) : |
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Alison
Brie
: I would
agree with you that once something is on the internet,
it just spreads like wildfire. There's not much
you can do. I also agree that it can be a big
advantage. Take a show like Community which is
on a big network, obviously it's not independent
in any way, nor a film, but I will talk about
it. I think a lot of people are watching it on
Google, and if you limit that, people might not
watch it at all. So it is the people who are watching
it for free who are telling their friends about
it, that are then going on to watch it on TV.
So it's that word-of-mouth that's spreading. If
it were totally limited, it's a touch and go thing.
You want people to see it, but then you want people
to pay for it, but you do want to get it out there.
So I think that's a useful tool, for us (as actors)
Haley
Joel Osment : My
main concern is that people still want to go to
the movie theatre and not because it's financially
sound for all the artists, because you can still
get whatever everybody is owed through Netflix
or however films are going to be distributed in
the future. For me, in the films that I want to
be a part of, in the films that hopefully I am
about to make in the future, I think it's preserving
the fact that it's not the same if you're watching
it on your laptop, and it's not the same if you
are watching it in a big movie theatre. A big
part of the American tradition is to come to the
theatre and to watch it with an audience. I'm
not sure how we can protect that most effectively
but I think the best way to protect our intellectual
property is having it seen best at the venue where
it's supposed to be seen, because nobody really
likes to watch those DVDs that you buy on the
street corners with people's heads in the frame
and everything.
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Be
sure to view the ORIGINAL
VIDEO
video
Copyrighted
© www.filmsnobbery.com
and The
Orlando Film Festival
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