“Project Greenlight”: Pete Jones Interview

Seven Lessons for Aspiring Filmmakers

With a DVD collection of HBO's hit documentary series Project Greenlight set for release on Sept. 24, it seems like a good time to remind everyone that the feature film that emerged from it, Stolen Summer, wasn't quite the train wreck the documentary suggested. We talked with first-time director Pete Jones about his experience working behind--and in front of
--the camera, and gleaned seven lessons for aspiring filmmakers.

Aspiring Filmmaker Lesson No. 1: Get the "Greenlight"

Project Greenlight acts as a community for aspiring filmmakers, and the documentary gave its viewers a fly-on-the-set look at the filmmaking process after a contest singled out one lucky wanna-be, novice writer/screenwriter Pete Jones. Fans of the LivePlanet/Miramax 12-episode documentary--whose executive producers include Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris Moore and Miramax heads Harvey and Bob Weinstein--were able to intimately track Jones' triumphs, trials and near-traumas through the entire filmmaking process, from his pitch to the producers and Miramax execs that made him Project Greenlight's first winner through the heady finale following Stolen Summer's premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

In between, the HBO doc cleverly milked all the drama it could out of Jones' bumpy journey as a fledgling filmmaker. Viewers will remember many tense moments, including casting snafus and countdowns, problems with props, schedules, the kid actors who required more attention than their professional elders, unwelcome noise, uncooperative weather and tensions among crew members. If there were problems during production, the cameras zoomed in for the juicy close-up.

But trials and tribulations aside, as Summer star Kevin Pollak says, the exposure from the documentary "raised the awareness of Pete's movie and of Pete," says Pollak. That can't be a bad thing.

Aspiring Filmmaker Lesson No. 2: Write a Great Script

Of course, all the attention doesn't mean much if the movie's no good. Fortunately, Jones wrote a terrific script, which not only tells a compelling story, but deals honestly with the very important themes of organized religion, faith, prejudice, coming of age, tolerance and responsibility.

Jones was hoping to sell his screenplay to a producer and had not been aware of the Project Greenlight competition when he was writing.

"The topic of the movie, with its focus on religion and kids, said to me that it's not box office gold, so I should probably get it to an independent producer or smaller studio," he explains.

The movie follows an 8-year-old Catholic schoolboy in Chicago, Pete O'Malley (Adi Stein), who decides that his summer project will be to convert a Jewish kid so the kid will be allowed into heaven and Pete will land in the good graces of his teachers/nuns.

Little Pete's mission brings him to Rabbi Jacobsen (Kevin Pollak), a compassionate man who appreciates and honors Pete's sincerity, and Danny Jacobsen (Mike Weinberg), the rabbi's sickly son whom Pete targets as the object of his conversion.

Equally important is the working-class O'Malley family, including dad Joe (Aidan Quinn), a dedicated fireman who loves his family dearly but has a weakness for beer and other macho values and believes that college is for sissies; mom Margaret (Bonnie Hunt), who manages her large brood with a wise touch and ultimately helps tame her reactionary husband; and oldest brother Patrick (Eddie Kaye Thomas), who's determined, in spite of his unshakable father, to get to medical school. Ironically, it's the rabbi to the rescue in this family firestorm.

Despite the fact that the hero's name in Stolen Summer is Pete and the story takes place in Jones' native Chicago the film is not as autobiographical as one might think.

"My father had a successful insurance business," Jones says. "But I am Catholic and come from a large fire-and-brimstone Catholic family and went to Catholic school."

Aspiring Filmmaker Lesson No. 3: Get a Catchy Title

If the biographical allusions in Stolen Summer seem obvious, the film's title is definitely not. Jones laughs. "My script was originally called Fate Quest. But I realized I didn't want the words 'fate' or 'faith' or 'heaven' or 'quest' in my title. Luckily, a friend of mine came up with Stolen Summer, which refers to a summer that never would have happened, that was kind of 'stolen.'"

Aspiring Filmmaker Lesson No. 4: Hire Good, but Cheap, Talent

Besides Jones' fine script, he also had the benefit of extraordinary acting talent. And he recognizes this. "You think they're stars and, of course, they are. But stars are also just regular people. They just love a good character with a good story. My actors didn't do the job for the money or the fame. They got very little money, but they just love the work. Aidan especially. The documentary made fun of him as if he were just some kind of method actor. But if other people had the passion and loved their job the way Aidan does, there wouldn't be so much complaining. All my actors know more about the craft than I could ever know."

Jones had a different challenge directing the kids. "It was like being a cheerleader. I focused on keeping their energy up and reassured them that we all make mistakes. It was a more intimate and nurturing thing."

Aspiring Filmmaker Lesson No. 5: Never Say, "If I Had It To Do Over..."

Project Greenlight played up a few missed opportunities during the filming of Stolen Summer, but Jones doesn't regret them.

There is, for example, the semi-climactic episode when Pete orders Danny to swim to a distant buoy in the lake in order to assure his ticket to heaven. It's a very big moment--the last obstacle that Pete has set for Danny. A segment of Project Greenlight covered the logistical challenges here, which had a lot to do with the fact that both boys couldn't really swim. But Jones is comfortable with how the sequence made it to film. " I loved the beauty and ambiguity of not really knowing whether the buoy was reached."

Is there anything Jones would have done over in his film? "Maybe at the end of the movie," he offers, "in the dialogue between the rabbi and Pete. It's pretty dead-on straightforward in religious terms, but if I could rewrite it I'd go for the same emotion but would speak in generalities. I read that 90 percent of people don't like religion, but 85 percent do like spirituality. So I'd rewrite the scene [to] make it more spiritual and less specifically Jewish and Catholic."

Aspiring Filmmaker Lesson No. 6: Collaboration Is Key

In the final episode of Project Greenlight, which follows Jones at the Sundance Film Festival, he dodges a question fired off at the post-screening Q&A session about the Big Lesson Learned from his first filmmaking experience.

Now Jones elaborates: "I didn't realize how collaborative making a movie is. You have a script and actors, and you're the director, and you know what you want to do, and you believe that you just do it. But there are so many opinions from people all over the place with ideas, from production assistants to the head of the studio. So directing a movie in my case was more about filtering opinions…you really need to pick those few things to focus on, like the story and the actual performances.

"Fortunately, I hired good people to do the other things…so my job was almost as much about managing personalities as it was [about] staying focused on the art of filmmaking. It's like being a sales manager or baseball manager. You're surrounded by lots of talented people, and you have to keep them motivated."

Aspiring Filmmaker Lesson No. 7: Always Have a Plan B

Now that Jones has proven he can make a $2 million movie and survive the ordeal while being scrutinized by demanding studio executives, fiercely determined cast and crew, and millions of television viewers, what's next?

"I'm writing a screenplay and have Miramax and Chris Moore, Matt and Ben behind it. It's about four guys who have grown up together in Chicago. They're in their late 20s and not sure about what it means to be an adult. In tone, it's similar to Diner. I'd love to capture that point of time."

For more information on the Project Greenlight DVD, please click here.