Tag: VRP

Bron collaborates with filmmakers that understand the delicate balance between the art of filmmaking and the commercial requirements of creating a story for an audience at the right price-point. Bron has a core team of around 40 with all key departments in place to efficiently develop and execute on creative endeavors. The company’s crew expands and contracts as needed around individual productions.

Bron Studios’ recent productions include Nate Parker’s ‘The Birth of a Nation,” Ricky Gervais‘ Netflix comedy “Special Correspondents,” the Hank Williams drama “I Saw the Light” starring Tom Hiddleston, A24’s Ellen Page-Evan Rachel Wood film “Into the Forest” and “Una” starring Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn. The company is also co-producing Denzel Washington‘s “Fences” with Paramount.

Founded: 2010

Company Size: 51 – 200

The Birth of a Nation 2016 Sundance

Special Correspondents 2016 Tribeca

Into the Forest 2015 TIFF

The Driftless Sea 2015

I Saw the Light 2015 TIFF

Meadowland 2015

Rudderless 2014

Welcome to Me 2014

Might Mighty Monsters (TV) 2013, 2015

A Single Shot 2013

Jabberwock (TV) 2011

Fences

The Willoughbys

The Wildness

Snatchback

The Architect

The Goree Girls

Drunk Parents

Henchmen

Phil

The Layover

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MIPCOM: FremantleMedia’s Drama Head on Developing Scripted Internationally (Q&A) | The Hollywood Reporter | Oct 6, 2015

Heather’s Blog: http://www.heatherlende.com/blog
Facebook (3,360 likes): https://www.facebook.com/heatherlende
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/heather-lende/14/AB4/98
Articles by Heather Lende on Alaska Dispatch News: http://www.adn.com/author/heather-lende 

Find the Good: http://www.amazon.com/Find-Good-Unexpected-Small-Town-Obituary/dp/1616201673/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1461368132&sr=8-1&keywords=find+the+good

Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs: http://www.amazon.com/Take-Good-Care-Garden-Dogs/dp/1616200510/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0RG2J5F29QH9DY71VXDZ

If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name: http://www.amazon.com/Lived-Here-Know-Your-Name/dp/156512524X/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0MD32FPDYWH2ZBCT3XGK

In The Media:
The Inadvertent Grief Counselor | The Atlantic | Feb 16, 2016
Heather Lende has been an obituary writer at the Chilkat Valley News in Haines, Alaska, for two decades. Lende wrote a book, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer, about her experiences and stories from the job she continues to do today. I talked with Lende about her job, why it’s important, and what it means to the people she’s writing about. A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.

Bourree Lam: How did you get this job, and how long have you been doing it?

Heather Lende: I’ve been doing it since 1996, so that makes what, 20 years? I got it because I was working at our local paper, the Chilkat Valley News, which is a weekly, circulation 1,000. I was writing a column called “Duly Noted,” which is our boldfaced social column, for lack of a better way to describe it. [For example], if the Anderson family goes on vacation to Olympia, Washington, and then the names of the family and their children, and that they saw their grandmother who visits here in the summertime. Or weddings, or babies being born, or a picnic that happened, or a fundraiser or something like that.

I was doing that, and a friend of mine was dying. She got into a little tiff with the new reporter at the paper who was an investigative-journalism type. She just didn’t like him. In Haines, where we live, obituaries are news stories. When somebody dies, it’s news. She didn’t want the reporter writing her obituary, and she said so before she died. So the editor said “Heather, why don’t you do it? You write about alive people, you might as well write about dead people.” So that’s how I got it, and I’ve been pretty much doing it ever since.

Lam: How do you start writing an obituary, and how do you decide whom you write about?

Lende: Well it’s not just me, it’s the editor and the publisher of the paper. The idea is that it’s a hybrid of your standard obituary, plus a profile on the person. They tend to be longer than your standard family-written obituary—I’d say around 600 words. There’s always a photograph, and it’s a small town so we know when people die. Depending on the type of death—[for example, if it’s] the tragic death of a fisherman drowned—there’s a news story around that accident, but then I come in and write the story of their life, not the story about how they died. We usually try to do that in the same paper so that it’s not all the tragedy, because their lives are good and if they lose it, that becomes the headline. And that’s not necessarily how they want to be remembered, or how their family wants to remember them.

I do them primarily in person. I go to the home, talk with the family, I call friends on the phone. All of the obituaries I write, I know the person and I know their friends and neighbors. So even if somebody has been sick for a long time, I’m a hospice volunteer, so I know. That’s a separate thing, I don’t do it because of my job, but I found that being an obituary writer I’m kind of a grief counselor inadvertently. That’s what you do. So I got involved when they were founding a volunteer hospice … I’m one of the deathbed volunteers. Even then, there are all kinds of things that go on when people die, and a time and place to talk about it. I usually find that the obituaries tend to be on people’s to-do list: They’ve got to figure out the body stuff, the gravesite, they’ve got to get family members in and out of town. We live in a remote community, so they’ve got a lot going on and one of the things is “We’ve got to do the obit, let’s call Heather.”

Lam: Why do you think the obituary is so important?

Lende: I think they want to tell that person’s story, they want a good story to go out on. The language of [a typical] obituary tends to be almost Victorian—they’ve gone off to the angels, they never met a person who wasn’t a friend, beloved mother, sister, father—and that doesn’t really say anything. I think what’s different in the ones that I do, and our paper does, is when you write one that’s more of a profile it captures a little bit of that person and their story. People want to make sure that that’s out there. My obituaries aren’t great literature, but the family likes them. They’re done in AP style. They’re done in a small newspaper.

There’s a difference between someone who writes a check for college tuition for a neighbor’s kid, and someone who comes over at two in the morning and fixes a broken pipe—it tells you something else about them. It’s the specifics of it that makes it come alive for the family and the people. I’d like to hope that when people read the [obituary] they learn something about the person, about life or relationships, or a way they might want to be or not want to be.

Lam: I heard an interview with you on Here & Now, that the historical element of an obituary is also an important part of your job.

Lende: Well, that’s what I was told at the very beginning when I first started writing: The Chilkat Valley News was the paper of record. I don’t know now—with Internet and all these new media sources—if it still carries that same kind of weight. But my editor thinks it does and I do, especially in Alaska where non-native people come and go from different places. Maybefive years from now, someone is looking for their dad who came to Alaska when he was 25 and died here when he was 70  and had no contact with him. And if they can find my obituary, and it has some dates and names, they can help piece together their life or their history from what I’ve written about their dad and contact friends and people who knew him. I think that’s of real value.

Lam: What do you think of people asking each other, as a means of reflection or motivation, the question: “Well, what do you see in your own obituary?”

Lende: Frankly I think that’s kind of silly. There’s whole books now on visualizing your life by writing your obituary. I just think that’s weird. A better way to look at it would be: By essentially [doing] what you’re doing everyday, you’re writing your own obituary. I feel like you need to live an authentic life, and not worry about an obituary being the judgment, but more of an obituary being “See, this is how I lived in this time, in this place,” and take it for what it’s worth.

It kind of reminds me of high-school seniors trying to get into a college and writing essays that might not really reflect their actual goals and dreams, but they think that’s what the college admissions want or what their parents admire. And I would hope that by the time we get to be elders and have the privilege of composing an obituary and looking back on a life that we feel is worth documenting—that we have enough wisdom to not want to manipulate it.

Lam: I’ve read my own college-entrance essays (now almost 10 years later), and I think they’re really funny in that I can see some of the values at that point in my life.

Lende: Right, if you’re one of the fortunate few that get to live 10 decades or even seven decades, it’s done by then! You’re in the last inning. You can’t rewrite your life history the way you want your grandchildren to wish that you were. I think people live fascinating lives.

The Surprising Joys Of Being An Obituary Writer | The Huffington Post |  Feb 20, 2015

On the surface, obituary writing sounds like a rather depressing profession. But Heather Lende, who has written obituaries for the Chilkat Valley News in Haines, Alaska, for almost two decades, will tell you just how uplifting, educational and fulfilling those daily assignments on death can be. In her latest book, Find the Good, she shares the unexpected life lessons she has learned from her writing post at her small town newspaper. And those lessons — both big and small — can help reframe the way many of us think and talk about death.

“I understand why you may think that what I do is depressing, but compared to front-page news, most obituaries are downright inspirational,” Lende writes in Find the Good. “People lead all kinds of interesting and fulfilling lives, but they all end. My task is investigating the deeds, characteristics, occupations, and commitments, all that he or she made of their ‘one wild and precious life,’ as poet Mary Oliver has called it.”

Experiencing death up close and on repeat has actually helped her identify and savor the positive parts of daily life.

“Writing obituaries is my own way of transcending bad news,” writes Lende. “It has taught me the value of intentionally trying to find the good in people and situations, and that practice — and I do believe that finding the good can be practiced — has made my life more meaningful.”

While obituary writers develop a unique appreciation for life and what it means to live it well, those who read them are able to gather similar takeaways. For example, Marilyn Johnson, the author of The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries, is admittedly obsessed with reading obituary pages. She told NPR’s Renee Montagne that taking the time to read people’s stories after they’re gone makes her feel like she’s honoring them and their memory.

“They have made something of their lives, and we have judged it worth sharing,” she said.

In Find the Good, Lende highlights another upside to obituaries — they find a way to shed a positive light on tragic news.

“Whenever there is a tragedy, from the horrific school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, to here in Haines when a fisherman dies after slipping off the deck, awful events are followed by dozens and dozens of good deeds. It’s not that misery loves company, exactly; rather, it’s that suffering, in all its forms, and our response to it, binds us together across dinner tables, neighborhoods, towns and cities, and even time. Bad doings bring out the best in people.”

There’s nothing like the reminder that life is finite to encourage people to live it in the best ways possible.

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/call-the-midwife/

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_the_Midwife

Facebook (365.9K likes): https://www.facebook.com/callthemidwifeofficial/

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Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/70245163

And so, the new series of Heidi Thomas’s popular midwifery drama Call the Midwife (BBC One) brought with it the winds of change. The fifth season kicked off in spring 1961 with a solid air of optimism: Sister Monica Joan (the always excellent Judy Parfitt) finally had a TV to watch, handyman Fred’s Jersey Royals were coming on a treat, the nurses had pretty, new uniforms with waspie belts and the Soviet Union was sending men into space.

Jennifer Worth’s storylines have all been used up but there seems no end to the inventiveness of the current plots. Indeed, some might say that series four (the first to depart from Worth’s memoirs and to not feature their star Jenny Lee, played by Jessica Raine) was the best yet despite concerns that the narrative would lose its momentum. Those concerns, however, have been allayed – the show attracts audiences of more than 10 million per episode, the 2015 Christmas special was the third most-watched programme of the festive period and a sixth series has been confirmed.

This latest episode showed that Thomas’s gentle observations of character are more prominent, and most evident in Nurse Trixie (recent Strictly star Helen George) who has put her alcoholism behind her and, staying true to the changing trends of the decade, was celebrating the female form by “displaying her outline” in a leotard as she taught a keep-fit class to a bossa nova beat. But what Thomas does best is to balance elements of tragedy and comedy. This series is to feature a historical calamity that the programme is, in the writer’s own words, honour-bound to tell – the use of the drug Thalidomide in the early stages of pregnancy.

And it wasn’t long before the nurses witnessed the birth of a limbless baby, setting up what is anticipated as Call the Midwife’s most challenging storyline, one which on the evidence of this first episode will be delicately and respectfully handled. If Vanessa Redgrave’s doleful fortune-cookie narration about love and life still continues to grate, it’s a small price to pay for a series that brings back events in living memory, contextualises them and consistently entertains.

The Germans invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. Soon after the occupation, Willem joined the resistance. His unit’s main task was to falsify identity papers for Dutch Jews. On March 27, 1943, Willem’s unit attacked the Amsterdam registry building and set it on fire in an attempt to destroy records against which false identity papers could be checked. Thousands of files were destroyed. Five days later the unit was betrayed and arrested. That July, Willem and 11 others were executed.

Before his execution, Willem asked a friend to testify after the war that “homosexuals are not cowards.” Only in the 1980s did the Dutch government posthumously award Willem a medal.

One evening in March 1943, a building burst into flames in Amsterdam. By dawn, scattered pieces of paper shone through the charred rafters of the collapsed roof. The papers held Dutch citizens’ names, recorded by the Nazis to keep tabs on the occupied Netherlands.

The bomb that struck the building destroyed less than a quarter of the Amsterdam Public Records Office’s holdings, but it sent a message that the Nazis wouldn’t forget: We are fighting back. The bombing is a powerful symbol of Dutch resistance to fascism to this day — but the man responsible for it is only starting to receive recognition.

Willem Arondeus was one of the most dedicated and creative organizers of the Dutch Underground. But because he was openly gay, his name was often downplayed in books about wartime resistance.

Born in Amsterdam in 1895 to theater costume-designing parents, Arondeus grew up one of six children. His parents initially encouraged his artistic inclinations — he loved to write and paint — but his sexuality caused friction between them. At 17, Willem refused to hide his homosexuality any longer, and the following year, his parents kicked him out.

Arondeus took odd jobs while continuing to develop his artistic talents. Then opportunity struck with his first major commission — a mural for Rotterdam’s town hall — which helped him gain a reputation as a serious painter. His style — part Picasso, part Rembrandt — blended radical new abstraction with traditional, somber Dutch tones. Some of his work survives and is on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

As Hitler ascended to power in Germany, Arondeus was enjoying life and a happy relationship — despite financial difficulties. He even published a biography of Dutch painter and political activist Matthijs Maris that sold well enough to keep him and his partner, Jan Tijssen, afloat.

Then the war changed everything.

We’ll introduce you to all the right people.

When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, they were keen to keep the Dutch on their side — no immediate deportations, violence or strict curfews. Maybe the Nazis weren’t so bad, some Dutch argued.

But minorities like Arondeus had no delusions. Same-sex relations had been legal in the Netherlands for over a century, but the new government wasted no time in recriminalizing homosexuality. Inspired by Maris, the activist he’d written about who fought for democracy in the 1871 Paris Commune uprising, Arondeus was among the first to join the Dutch resistance.

His skills as an artist were quickly put to good use. Arondeus joined a group that forged identity papers — precious commodities in any fascist-controlled state. As the Nazis started cracking down on Amsterdam’s Jewish population, his organization focused on providing Dutch Jews with fake identities. He also worked tirelessly to publish anti-Nazi information and recruit people in the community to join the resistance.

In 1943, it became clear to Arondeus that time was running out for both Dutch Jews and others on the Gestapo’s watch lists. So he devised a plan to do away with those lists altogether.

The records office held information on hundreds of thousands of Dutch people, including Jews, and the Nazis used this catalog to check fake identities. The best way to interrupt the flow of information, Arondeus decided, was to blow it up.

He and a group of resistance fighters — some of them also openly gay, including conductor and classical cellist Frieda Belinfante, tailor Sjoerd Bakker and writer Johan Brouwer — carefully planned the attack.

On March 27, 1943, dressed as a German Army captain, Arondeus marched 15 men up to the Public Records Office. They disabled the guards by drugging them, positioned the explosives and made Dutch history.

The group’s success, however, was short-lived. Within a few days, the Gestapo had captured all the resistance fighters involved in the bombing; an anonymous traitor within the organization had turned them all in.

At his sham trial, Arondeus took full responsibility for the bombing. Tragically, this didn’t stop the Nazis from executing 13 of the saboteurs — including Arondeus — by firing squad, while the others managed to flee the country.

Defiant to the end, Arondeus communicated his final words through his lawyer. His message? “Homosexuals are not cowards.”

As a resistance organizer, Arondeus was an inspiration to his colleagues and may have helped hundreds of Jews escape deportation. Nevertheless, his legacy has been largely overlooked in the Netherlands.

His family received a medal from the Dutch government commemorating his bravery in the 1980s, but despite his final message of defiance, his sexuality was omitted from history books until the 1990s.

Belinfante, the cellist and lesbian who helped plan the bombing and suffered similar neglect of her war legacy, recalled how another member of the resistance — a heterosexual male — was credited with leading the group and bombing for years.

“[Arondeus] was the great hero who was most willing to give his life for the cause,” she said, setting the record straight.

Company Size: 11 – 50

Founded: 2013

Judy McGrath Founder and President

Nick Shore Chief Creative Strategist 

Amina Canter COO & SVP Business Planning

Raul Celaya Head of Production

Megan Westerby VP Social & Transmedia

Sami Kriegstein Executive Producer, Development

Alesia Glidewell Supervising Producer

Caleb Drewel Design Director

Sarah Flanagan Associate Social Producer

Colin Woods Associate Social Producer

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In the Media:

Greg Poehler to Star in DirecTV Comedy ‘You Me Her’ (Exclusive) | The Hollywood Reporter | Aug 25, 2015

Greg Poehler won’t be out of work for long.

The Welcome to Sweden alum has nabbed the starring role in DirecTV comedy You Me Her, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The 10-episode comedy series from John Scott Shepherd (NBC’s Save Me) has also enlisted Fargo and Flight of the Conchords’ Rachel Blanchard, who will star alongside Poehler.

The series centers on Jack (Poehler) and Emma (Blanchard), a happily married couple who are coming off several years of “baby sex” and fertility struggles. A waning sex life and a sequence of surprising turns are about to spin their relationship in a direction neither could have imagined.

Shepherd will pen the scripts and exec produce the series, from Entertainment One Television. Golden Globe winner Nisha Ganatra (Transparent, Shameless, Married) will direct all 10 episodes of the comedy, set to air on DirecTV’s Audience Network.

“I was such a fan of Welcome to Sweden, the casting process for Jack ended the second I knew Greg was available,” Shepherd said. “In my opinion, he’s one of the best naturalistic ‘everyman’ comedic actors in the business. I was a fan of Rachel’s long before her wonderful turn in Fargo, especially the amazing British comedy Peep Show. We’re aiming very high with You Me Her, and I feel like Greg and Rachel areJack and Emma Trakarsky.”

The comedy was originally inspired by John H. Richardson’s Playboy article “Sugar on Top.” Alta Loma Entertainment’s Peter Jaysen will exec produce alongside Alan Gasmer; eOne’s John Morayniss and Gerard Bocaccio will oversee.

You Me Her comes less than a month after NBC opted to cancel Welcome to Sweden, which Poehler — the younger brother of Amy Poehler — created and starred in.

Poehler and Shepherd are repped by Paradigm; Blanchard is with DBA and Sanders Armstrong. Ganatra is with ICM Partners and Sher Law Group.

Greg Poehler and Rachel Blanchard Set to Star in John Scott Shepherd’s “You Me Her”

Greg Poehler and Rachel Blanchard Set to Star in John Scott Shepherd’s “You Me Her” | Entertainment One Press Release | Aug 25, 2015

Greg Poehler (creator, writer, EP and star of “Welcome to Sweden”) and Rachel Blanchard (“Fargo,” “Flight of the Conchords”) have been cast in the lead roles in DIRECTV’s new series, “You Me Her,” from Entertainment One Television (eOne). The series was created by EP/showrunner John Scott Shepherd, author of “Henry’s List of Wrongs” and creator of “The Days” (ABC) and “Save Me” (NBC).

The ten half-hour episode series will be directed entirely by Golden Globe® winner Nisha Ganatra (“Transparent,” “Shameless,” “Married”) and will air on DIRECTV’s Audience Network.

In “You Me Her,” Shepherd has crafted television’s first “polyromantic comedy,” infusing the sensibilities of a smart, grounded indie rom-com with a distinctive twist: One of the two parties just happens to be a suburban married couple.

Jack (Poehler) and Emma (Blanchard) are happily married but coming off several years of “baby sex” and fertility struggles. A waning sex life and a sequence of surprising turns are about to spin their relationship in a direction neither could have possibly imagined.

“I was such a fan of ‘Welcome to Sweden,’ the casting process for Jack ended the second I knew Greg was available,” said Shepherd. “In my opinion, he’s one of the best naturalistic ‘everyman’ comedic actors in the business. I was a fan of Rachel’s long before her wonderful turn in ‘Fargo,’ especially the amazing British comedy ‘Peep Show.’ We’re aiming very high with ‘You Me Her,’ and I feel like Greg and Rachel are Jack and Emma Trakarsky.”

Shepherd also said, “Nisha Ganatra is one of the hottest directors in television, had a hand in ‘Transparent’ from prep through post including directing three episodes. She brings exactly the kind of story and visual taste and style a show like this requires.”

eOne will finance, produce and distribute “You Me Her” worldwide, with John Morayniss and Gerard Bocaccio overseeing for the studio.

The series was originally inspired by the Playboy Magazine article “Sugar on Top” by John H. Richardson. Alta Loma Entertainment’s Peter Jaysen will serve as an Executive Producer along with Alan Gasmer (“Vikings”).

Greg Poehler and John Scott Shepherd are represented by Paradigm. Rachel Blanchard is represented by Don Buchwald & Associates and Sanders Armstrong Caserta Management. Nisha Ganatra is represented by ICM Partners and Sher Law Group.

‘You Me Her’ Comedy Gets Straight-To-Series Order At DirecTV | Deadline | July 8, 2015

DirecTV has made a straight-to-series order for the Entertainment One TV comedy You Me Her, created by John Scott Shepherd and inspired by the Playboy Magazine article “Sugar on Top” by John H. Richardson. Ten half-hour episode series will air on DirecTV’s Audience Network. The news means a reteam of eOne and the satcaster, whose drama series Rogue starring Cole Hauser, Richard Schiff and Thandie Newton is in its third season.

The series is described as a twist on the indie rom-com, a “polyromantic” comedy that centers on a three-way relationship — two of the parties a suburban married couple.

Shepherd, who will serve as executive producer/showrunner, created and executive produced TV series Save Me and The Days. The Paradigm-repped scribe and novelist also penned the screenplays for Life Or Something Like It and Joe Somebody.

EOne will finance, produce and distribute You Me Her worldwide, with Gerard Bocaccio, SVP US Scripted Development, overseeing for the studio. Playboy’s Alta Loma Entertainment’s Peter Jaysen will executive produce with Alan Gasmer (Vikings).

Benjamin Kramer is a Film Finance Agent at Creative Artists Agency (CAA). He has spoken at the SXSW, Toronto International, and Zurich Film Festivals.

Kramer works in the Los Angeles office and specializes in film financing and distribution. Kramer has been deeply involved in the packaging, financing, and sale of such films as the James Cameron-produced Sanctum; Rabbit Hole, starring Nicole Kidman; Robert Redford’s The Conspirator; and the Michael Mann-produced The Fields. In addition, he has helped to secure financing and distribution for a number of upcoming independently produced and financed films, including The Grey, Peep World, The Expatriate, Higher Ground, The Good Doctor, and Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie.

Most recently, he has financed and packaged 2016 Sundance hit Frank & Lola.

Kramer began his career at the William Morris Agency. He joined CAA in 2005. He graduated from Wesleyan University with degrees in Political Science and Film Studies.

IMDB Credits
Free State of Jones Special Thanks 2016

The Neon Demon Special Thanks 2016

Maggie Special Thanks 2015

Child 44 Special Thanks 2015

The Search Special Thanks 2014

Breakup at a Wedding Thanks 2013

End of Watch Special Thanks 2012

Frank & Lola

Sanctum

Rabbit Hole

The Conspirator

The Fields

Blood Ties

The Sessions

The Grey

Peep World

The Expatriate

High Ground

The Good Doctor

Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie

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In the Media

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Shannon plays Frank, an ambitious Las Vegas chef. One night he meets Lola (Imogen Poots), an enigmatic woman, and they hit it off. Lola cheats on Frank. Frank mistrusts Lola. But just as he is about to turn his back on her, and head to Paris, he delves further into her hot mess of a life and learns she’s not what she’s cracked up to be. Such is the tortured relationship in Matthew M. Ross’ feature directorial debut, Frank & Lola.

Some first time filmmakers keep their story lines simple, but not Ross (who shouldn’t be confused with American Horror Story actor Matt Ross; also here in Park City with his sophomore outing Captain Fantastic). The former Variety reporter and Filmmaker editor has crafted a complex psycho-sexual love story here, with hues of Jacques Audiard’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation and Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris among other titles.

Ross drew inspiration for Frank & Lola from a close friend, who endured a hellish relationship with a predatory boyfriend. States Ross about the angle he took,“I wanted to tell a fictionalized story that imagined the immediate aftermath of that real experience, before the character, Lola, is ready to confront what has just happened to her and is still acting out and avoiding full the truth of it all, and how that denial affects both her and her new boyfriend, Frank. I chose to tell the story from Frank’s perspective, who comes to the table with his own complicated history and emotional baggage, because I felt like that would be a more honest perspective for me to write from (as opposed to telling it from Lola’s point of view). I also had always wanted to tell something of a ‘what if’ revenge fantasy, where a regular guy finds himself, through an unfortunate set of coinciding circumstances, in a position of avenging a wrong, and does so in a way that goes well beyond the usual conventions of what would be considered sane or normal behavior.”

Parts & Labor producers Jay Van Hoy and Lars Knudsen initially mounted Frank & Lola and kept it alive through the lean and mean times when stars and financing fell in and out of place. The duo were previously behind Beginners which won Christopher Plummer a best supporting actor Oscar and last year’s Sundance entry The Witch. Frank & Lola was further fastened together by EPs Christine Vachon and Killer Films’ David Hinojosa, film financier and sales agent Kevin Iwashina, Ross’ manager Michael Diamond and producer John Baker. Through Iwashina, Lola Pictures, a Nevada-based financing and production company committed to the project.  It was then that Ross decided to change the film’s setting to the opulence of Las Vegas — a perfect match that mirrored two outsider, mysterious protagonists. After Lola Pictures signed on, production commenced with financing from Robert Halmi’s Great Point Media. Stated Ross in notes, “The other financing had fallen through at the last minute, and Great Point, along with CAA’s Ben Kramer, who found them, saved the movie at the last possible moment.” About a year ago, Arclight films acquired all foreign on Frank & Lola out of Berlin.

Michael Nyqvist, Justin Long, Emmanuelle Devos and Rosanna Arquette also star in the film. CAA and Preferred Content are handling domestic sales for Frank & Lola. The film’s press and industry screening will be held on Saturday.

From Fast-rising tenpercenters | Variety | Oct 27, 2012

Benjamin Kramer
Film Finance Agent, CAA
In the world of indie film financing, Kramer, 33, is a key player in the evolving definition of what actually makes a film independent. As true indies now break the bank with budgets in the nine figures, Kramer says careful handling of investors is required. “The world has changed from what was pure indie and pure studio,” he says. “You work with a spectrum of investors today.” He’s helped find funds and distribution deals for films like End of Watch, Blood Ties and The Sessions, and also uncovered opportunities to transition actors and writers such as Matthew Weiner, Ralph Fiennes and Vera Farmiga into filmmakers. “It’s not just about playing matchmaker with investors and directors,” he says. “It’s about helping people be smart with investments.” And being at CAA, says the Wesleyan grad, helps him appreciate how everyone gets into the fray for every challenge. “Armchair generals are distasteful. I’m impressed by people who lead from the front.”

From The full 2010 Black List | LATimes Blog | Dec 13, 2010

9 votes: “Dark Moon” by Olatunde Osunsunmi

Using found footage, the story explores the possibility that manned moon missions did not stop with Apollo 17.
Agent: CAA — Billy Hawkins, Ben Kramer
Manager: Caliber Media — Dallas Sonnier
Dark Castle Entertainment. Weed Road Pictures producing.