What's the BuZZ?

Robert Griffiths, Carey Dissmore, Benjamin Bernard and Robert Campbell - "How do people make a living wage in production in a time of downward price pressure?"

A round-table discussion on how to make a living wage in production in a time of downward price pressures.

Robert Campbell hails from the California Bay Area, and studied editing and documentary filmmaking in New York in 2003. He moved to Los Angeles, and founded his demo reel company, QuickNickel, in January 2004. QuickNickel was voted a runner-up in the 2006 Back Stage West's "Best of Los Angeles" for Best Demo Reel Producer. He is based in Valley Village.

Benjamin Bernard, recently turned 21 years old, decided to move from Orange County to Los Angeles to persure editing and digital production. He was attending Saddleback College and decided that he wanted to be a film maker. He was lucky that his father had a old friend from college who was an 1st AD and Production Manager, he got Benjamin his first job on a TV show and from then on was able to keep working here is a list of my credits.

• Zombie Stripers - Sony Pictures - Assistant Editor - In Production
• Noon Blue Apples - Shoreline Entertainment - Online Editor - In Production
• Songcheck Live - Ten Acre Films - Director, DP & Post Production - In Production
• Who's Your Caddy - Element Films - Assistant Online Editor - Complete
• Superman Returns - Warner Bros. - PA - Complete
• World Trade Center - Paramount Pictures - PA - Complete
• Sleeper Cell - HBO - PA - Complete

Carey Dissmore is the principle of Carey Dissmore Productions and has worked on both sides of the production equation: as a freelancer and as a producer.

Robert Griffiths is a producer/director/editor at FireDancer Productions.

The BuZZ Beat

David Hewlett - Director and Co-writer A Dog's Breakfast

A Dog's Breakfast was written and directed by David Hewlett from a story by Jane Loughman & David Hewlett. The film was produced by Jane Loughman and John Lenic.

The majority of A Dog's Breakfast was filmed on a fourteen day schedule and with extremely limited funds in January 2006 when Stargate Atlantis (the TV show David Hewlett stars in) was on hiatus between seasons. Some scenes were already filmed on Saturdays during the Atlantis season.

Originally, David Hewlett planned to shoot at his own house, but legal problems due to its US location forced the production to rent a house in Canada.

In addition to several Stargate producers and crew members, this film also stars and co-stars several actors of Stargate fame, who were all on hiatus from the Stargate franchise. A Dog's Breakfast used Stargate sets and equipment as well (see the Stargate crossovers section). Hewlett mentioned he wrote the script especially around those availabilities. This had made it possible to produce the film with a budget of less than $1 million.

Pick our Brains

Your chance to get your technical and creative questions answered.