Potential Actors List

Louis - James Frecheville

Trevin - Thomas Mann

Blake - Evan Breen

Al - Affion Crockett

Vic Perillo

There's a disconnect between cast and crew. It's important to work as a team because it is a team telling a story not a hundred separate roles. You can't demand things because people need time to accomplish tasks. There has to be a connectivity between director and actors. The goal is to make it an amazing experience for everybody. When pitching a script if you have a whole team behind that script ready to shoot it the chances of it being accepted is higher. Don't allow "veterans" in the business to tell you about people and how to work with them because you don't want bias. What message do I want the audience to leave with? Stop with the shot by shot bullshit and focus on the full story. Put yourself in the mindset of the audience. We don't want to watch it to think about how technical it is they want to be encaptured by the story. Why make movies if they aren't meaningful to you? The problem with the industry is that it is a power struggle. Take actor input because sometimes they have really good insights. Keep going back to the script. We've ruined the casting system. It's electronic and too technical. We need to go back to having the person in the room with the director. The director has to cast the part because he has to use them to execute his artistic vision. Workshop your script to get more out of filming time. He has a dream to eliminate resumes and photographs because those can't act, people can.

Von Stroheim Treatment

    Open on a vast desert, there is nothing on the horizon but as we scan we see two men fighting but the fight seems very scripted and poorly acted out. Off camera a man begins to yell and as he steps into frame we see a tall and limber man, Von Stroheim. He approaches the actors and pushes one out of the way and puts himself nose-to-nose with the other actor. “Fight dammit! You need to actually fight. Hate one another the way you hate me!”

Both men cower in fear. Stroheim turns around and leans into the other man. “Do you hate me? Of course you hate me, but you are too coward to show it.” He storms back off camera.

“Again from the top!”

The men begin fighting again as the camera’s roll and we see a sly smile rise on Stroheim’s face. You can see the pride in his eyes.

As a younger man we see Erich Von Stroheim arriving on Ellis Island and signing his name for the first time as Von Stroheim. It is interlaced with narration from the interviews conducted with those who knew or adore Von Stroheim.

Erich’s next big step is when he began to work with D.W. Griffith and this is the moment his vision began. We see an image of D.W. Griffith directing his film and it fades into Stroheim directing on the set of Greed again as he repeats the same direction that Griffith was using.

We look into the eyes of the actors on the set of Greed as they attempt to follow his direction and we fade into the image of a younger Stroheim who is struggling through acting out a scene on one of his earlier projects and he is getting mad at himself while the crew attempts to calm him down and explain that they can shoot it again but he continually is telling them that he can’t fail at acting because this is a Stroheim production.

Stroheim continues to act but after Queen Kelly he begins to get blackballed. This time in his life is intercut with the time on the set of Greed when Von Stroheim kills the burro. It is very symbolic of the death of his career.

Erich leaves his wife for his lover and on the set of Greed we see him leave the set for a moment of alone time. While he is there he talks to himself, “You are a Von Stroheim. This production must be perfect and it will be as long as these damn actors follow my perfect instruction.”

As the scene from Greed plays out we cut to Sunset Boulevard as Erich and Gloria Swanson overcome their former problems. The director on Sunset Boulevard calls for a wrap and it transitions into Von Stroheim calling for a wrap on Greed.