Filmmaking / Directing : Development Hell by Beth Fox Heisinger

My worst experience was when my DP decided he was going to direct. Threw my shot-list on the floor, got his camera and said "we're going to do it my way".

This is the result. It looks nothing like anything I have ever made. It just looks like his stuff. http://youtu.be/AVIttA_iNlQ

Paul, did he stomp his foot too, like a toddler? Good grief... the egos! I took a look. I assume it is extremely painful to see your name on it when the production skewed so far from your original vision. Were you unable to fire the DP? Were you trapped in this situation?

Everyone there was doing this for free. I thought it was fair to go ahead with the shooting schedule. In hind sight, I should have cancelled everything and started over. It will never happen again.

Chalk it up to a learning experience... That's a great way to look at it. :)

Even though I didnt like the final product I went ahead and made it public and entered it in festivals. It was even accepted in a few.

Well, some good did come out of it. That's great, Paul. :)

Paul I had the same situation happen to me ...It was not fun

I spent nearly four years developing a feature when I worked for a 3D animation company out of France. It was to be their second. We had over 50% of the financing lined up along with brisk foreign sales underway to close the gap. A few months before production was to begin, the housing market collapsed. The sole shareholder in the animation company had all of his money tied up in real estate. Due to his investment losses, he could no longer cashflow the company so he closed it down and the rights to the screenplay reverted to the original screenwriter, (who was a friend so I had made sure he was protected in case the company went under). Later, the director with whom we'd been developing the script for the last year called to tell me a good friend of his was now a top development exec at Dreamworks Animation. He'd pitched the story to Katzenberg and the man himself liked the premise and wanted to read the script over the weekend. I called the writer with the good news and he told me that under no circumstances would he let Katzenberg look at the script! He threatened to sue me if I sent it to him. The writer claimed he'd heard that Jeffrey was a thief and he was afraid the famous studio boss would "steal his ideas." I explained that not only was that not the case, Katzenberg was the only person on the planet who could still get this movie made, everything was registered with the WGA and US copyright office and he had nothing to worry about. The screenwriter (who I co-wrote the script with) would not relent. To this day, one of the best projects I've ever worked on is dead to the world with no chance of resuscitation because the writer was/is, I don't know, too angry, bitter, or afraid to let a professional studio take a look at it...

What a story, Laddie. Frustrating. That screenwriter certainly is his own worst enemy.

Yes, Sabine. Do tell. :)

Worst moment: When Doug Lieman tells me he needs a tree he saw, dug up and moved 20 miles away and placed into another wooded area. Did I mention this is a 200+ year old live oak? "Big" does not describe this tree. Gigantic. Also, it's 1:30am, he needs it set by 8:00am. I had 6.5 hours to plan, initiate and execute this feat. Best moment: I did it in 6 hours.

You moved a frickin' oak tree?! Wow, that is a helluva feat!

Ha. Yes. Root system and all. Over course I was told "what ever it takes". 10k later, the tree was there. Funny how that works.

Ah, the power of the almighty dollar... ;)

Worst - Selling a TV movie to Fox only to have 911 hit and we had to pull the rights because of National Security. It was a real-life spy thriller and the rights owner got pulled into Homeland Security.

Yikes! That is awful, Mark! ...Actually, scary. :/

Laddie: That is a NIGHTMARE!!! D: Wow... I can't even imagine. :( Stephen: Dear God please tell me you had a backhoe or something to be able to move that tree. O_O Mark: D: That is terrible! I'm sorry that happened. Mine? When I was making my short a well-meaning computer tech lost over 300 frames of hand-drawn animation. I was so angry I drew them back ALL IN ONE DAY.

My girlfriend and I did background work for a period of time and we were on set together for a Stallone (flop) film. The scene called for us to dance, while Stallone pushes through the crowd to his dying partner. Little did we know that this particular actor was a diva (fighting with director after breaking his hand the day before) and has a history of abusing insignificant cast and crew. The 1st take, he barreled through the crowd and literally slammed into several people and knocking them onto the ground. One of whom was my girlfriend and she did not want to do another, but I had a plan. 2nd take, this time I spun her around to the other side of me and prepared to take a hit, because my ego was excited to boast that got hit by an A-list celebrity. However, instead of a linebacker hit, I felt a very wide and muscular hand press against my butt and lift and tossed me. Apparently he was told not to hit the extras, so pushed them around by their butts. And that is how i was groped by Stallone because he hit my girlfriend.

Talk about taking one for the team, Mike!