Cast & Crew

Caitlin McCarthy

I'm an avid reader of Deadline.com and when I say avid, I mean hourly, that I check the latest Nikki Finke scoop. On Feb 7th, THIS article popped up.

 

WME had been signing talent from various spoof films Nikki Finke has liked and posted. Directing deals, acting gigs, you name it, Deadline.com may be better than the Cobert Bump!

 

I've been out here promoting myself and working on crappy reality and crappy indie films all the while waiting for my own big break for the past decade plus. And big breaks only come to those who work for it, so this is me... working for it. The entire cast & crew worked on this little film with the HOPE that Nikki Finke will laugh, appreciate, post and someone at WME will call… or a studio… or whomever will give us a shot… a better shot then what we’ve been given. It's a lot of 'if's but this business was built on "what if's" and taking chances.

 

"Can a Deadline short film Hollywood parody contest be in our future?"

 

This was the sentence that kicked me into action. I forwarded this email on to Caitlin and asked if she was up for the task of writing something. She jumped on it with various script ideas. I wanted to work fast because if Nikki was to have a contest, I would get lost in the shuffle, like at most festivals, so I wanted to beat her to the punch. I wanted this film to be different from the other spoofs she had posted so I decided to take a very different route. All of the parodies she had been posting were generic to the industry: the studios or agents/managers. I put the focus directly on Deadline.com.

 

The fourth script Caitlin sent me also came with an introduction to Patti for the lead role in... "Deadline Knows". Her spoof on Hollywood borrowing from “The Shadow” was perfect! I instantly decided on shooting film noir.

 

I put up a Kickstarter campaign, which Caitlin championed and pushed over our goal to $900! Having a budget was a huge plus so I was extremely grateful to our sponsors and Caitlin for getting the word out.

 

When I was introduced to Patti, I knew instantly she was a gem. She was not only excited about the project but opened up her own personal “Fun House” of costumes for the film, landed us a location, offered up her dog Dora and her friend, Wenzel, to Co-Star in the film.

 

Our first day of Shooting was not anything we could have anticipated. The Hollywood Sign at 6 am was completely blacked out by fog! We shot all we could before we headed off to Fred 62’s for breakfast, giving Mother Nature a chance to do some house cleaning for us. About 12:30, we trekked back up the hill and there she was in clear view, HOLLYWOOD. We wrapped about 30 minutes later with enough time to gussy up for that evening’s Oscar Awards! (Yes, we were shooting on Oscar Sunday, it was great!)

 

The second, and final, day of shooting was the dog park and office scenes. When I hunted for the perfect Dog Park, I wasn’t thinking of Dora’s long fur coat so I’m afraid to say, this was not her favorite shooting day. By the end she was covered in burs and dirt and sticks and yuck! I apologized to her but I’m not sure she heard me.

 

The office shoot made up for all of that and it was a gorgeous shoot. This is the only scene we actually had a DP and Matt Gully was brilliant, as always. It took about 5 hours to shoot the entire office scene and it was well worth it!

 

Now with the final cut paired with the brilliant score by Carlos Vivas and audio design by Andy Hurato, on a rushed production with true professionals, I am extremely happy with the final product. I hope you are too!

 

MATT GULLEY