Robert D. Siegel’s films include The Wrestler, Big Fan , The Founder, The Onion Movie… I’m one of those people who says “I love movies so much, I’ll watch anything,” but then you look through the guide of what’s going to be playing on your flight and it inevitably involves Sandra Bullock, Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey or Sarah Jessica Parker. For news about the media business, please check out our sister brands Cablefax and Cynopsis. And by the time I was done with The Wrestler, which was many years and many drafts, many gruelling months of years of rewriting, I just couldn’t work up the life force necessary to open up a new Final Draft document and start up a script from scratch. For someone who says his main creative motivation is boredom, Robert Siegel has done rather well for himself. They got progressively more competent, but not more inspired or original. I learned I really liked directing and it is a lot easier than writing. It clicked and I just liked it. One of the paper’s less successful side projects was The Onion Movie, a sketch comedy film which was finally released on DVD in 2008 but was conceived and written long before Siegel left The Onion in 2003. Filmmaker: Tell me about where the world of Big Fan comes from. There’s a pleasing circularity about the fact that Siegel was inspired to direct Big Fan because of The Wrestler, and even began shooting his own movie the day after Aronofsky’s wrapped. Triumphs and Trip-ups of a First Time Director. Looking back, what were the key crew people to have when shooting a low-budget feature? I had been there for 8 or 9 years at that point, so it was really refreshing to have the opportunity to use this other part of my brain. It was pretty simple: handheld or tripod. I think my main motivation is boredom, because I’ve made most of these movies less out of a desire to do something than a desire to no longer do the thing I’m doing. I messed around and wrote a lot of comedy scripts that weren’t very good, just really mediocre comedies. He is really the whole movie, so obviously getting that right was pivotal. I did pick my battles. Before that there was no one even calling out the time to go to lunch. Most of the people on the set were fairly experienced. I knew I wanted to shoot digital. He’d get the cards from the Red camera and download it to his computer on set. One night, Paul and his best friend Sal (Kevin Corrigan) spy Giants linebacker Quantrell Bishop (Jonathan Hamm), and when they follow him to a club, Paul gets beaten up by his idol. There were spots where if I needed to keep the crew an hour overtime I did it, but for the most part I had to let things go out of necessity. Another of the many movies that premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was writer/director Robert Siegel’s debut film “Big Fan”. Filmmaker: It says on IMDb that you’ve got projects in the works. Siegel: It’s a very rare inaccuracy, one of the few on IMDb. Robert Siegel And Mr. Beaks Talk BIG FAN, The Onion, And The Agony Of Almost Meeting Bruce Springsteen! Born and raised in the Long Island town of Merrick, Siegel graduated from the University of Michigan 1993 with a B.A. It’s just more unusual and original to have a movie that doesn’t have a love relationship. Then I started writing while I was still at The Onion. Looking back on it what are some of the things you learned about directing or mistakes you made? StudioDaily 50 Top Creatives and Technologists 2018, StudioDaily 50 Top Creatives and Technologists 2017, Making Premium Sci-Fi TV on a Shoestring Budget: Showrunner Jerry Rodriguez-Burckle Talks, Sony’s Vlogger-Friendly Camera Grip Has Bluetooth Control Built In, Quantum Expands NVMe Offerings with Less-Expensive ‘F Series’ Appliance, Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC, Gives. It was a lot of 24-year-olds, like a really talented costume designer who’s never really [had a break before]. I was sort of doing that but I was distracted with a hundred other things. Did you have a line producer or assistant director helping you with these decisions and keeping you on schedule? Most comedians have a dark side. Filmmaker: Finally, what’s the most embarrassing film you watched the whole of on a plane? How do you deal with that rejection? Not so stylized as Taxi Driver but sort of that 1970s, documentary style. Why the Red camera? Contrary to his delicious downer of a first film, the terrific “Big Fan,” Mr. Siegel doesn’t venture into risky areas here. He's in his mid thirties, lives with his mother, works at a parking garage, doesn't even have internet and is the biggest fan of The Giants going around (most likely). The film made a pitiful $230,000 in North America, which is a shame. Sony announced a new grip designed for a range of its Alpha cameras. Filmmaker: How did you transition from an editor at The Onion to a screenwriter, and how long that had been percolating? Robert Siegel (First Independent Pictures) -- 4 STARS. After three days it dawned on me that we really needed an assistant director. It had spent the better part of four or five years bouncing around from one director to another, and then by the time I got done with The Wrestler and I had to decide what I was going to do next. Siegel: A lot of why I directed it is rooted in pragmatic reasons, meaning it was the only thing I actually owned and controlled. I wrote four or five comedies that were in a Judd Apatow-style. Filmmaker: What’s the first film you ever saw? Yes No. Crafts: So partly out of strategy, partly out of the itch to try something new, I decided to direct it. JVC Ships Connected Cam 500 Streaming Camcorders, Panasonic Sets Three 10-Bit 4K Camcorders for March Release, Colorfront Adds Express Dailies Subscription Option for HDR Workflow on New Mac Pro, Director Michael Shapiro Signs with Spears & Arrows, Essential Gear: Gifts for Filmmakers (Part 2), Essential Gear: Gifts for Filmmakers (Part 1), StudioDaily 50 Top Creatives and Technologists 2018 >>, StudioDaily 50 Top Creatives and Technologists 2017 >>, Futureproof Your Digital Assets with Workflow Built to Scale >>, 7 Pitfalls of Relying on FTP to Share Video Content >>, Transitioning to Fast, 4K-Ready, Collaborative Shared Storage >>. Filmmaker: How much preparation did you do once you knew you’d be directing this yourself? When I came up with the idea of the obsessive sports fan it just clicked and I felt like I had found my voice in this medium. A hard-core New York Giants fan struggles to deal with the consequences when he is beaten up by his favorite player. I was like, “Oh my God, I’ve got to find out!” It was kind of a cool way to be introduced to it. But after a few self-professed failures in writing comedy scripts, Siegel turned to drama, first as a writer of, Being the editor of The Onion for a decade it would seem that the logical film genre for Robert Siegel to go into would be comedy. Siegel: Yeah, you can fill up a page in about 30 seconds, the margins are 3 inches on both sides and it’s just that narrow column in the middle which is kind of a breeze when you’re used to a full page of text. As time went by I learned. Watch the trailer for "Big Fan" in our previous post here.. After the showing of Big Fan at the Ritz on Saturday evening, writer/director Robert Siegel (also writer of "The Wrestler") did a question and answer session with those in attendance. Some were students. There’s never been a movie that explored sports fandom in America in a serious way, just like there was never a movie that took wrestling seriously before The Wrestler. Sign up to receive the StudioDaily Fix eletter containing the latest stories, including news, videos, interviews, reviews and more. I’m not obsessive about the technology, I just wanted a camera that would give me some flexibility shooting and wouldn’t look cheap. Before we shot I read ‘Filmmaking for Dummies’ just to find out things like what a key grip does and the other terminology so I wouldn’t look like a total idiot. Then I would worry about working with the actors. 8K TVs Sparkle at CES, But What Will You Watch on Them? It lost to Humpday, the hilarious and poignant comedy from Lynn Shelton, but Big Fan writer-director Robert Siegel didn’t let that stop him from having a blast at the L.A. ceremony. He said he saw potential in it. I didn’t want to start from scratch with another screenplay, so I looked at my options and said, “Hey, Big Fan‘s still there.” It’s like in When Harry Met Sally, where you discover that your best friend has been waiting for you all these years and they’re the one. Siegel: Well, I left The Onion in 2003 and then I transitioned into screenwriting directly from there. I would tell Michael that I wanted one scene to be intimate, or another to be intense, and then mostly leave it to him to interpret and make it happen visually. It sounded like you’re fed up with screenwriting, so will you be focusing on directing now? There’s nothing more daunting than a blank page. Aronofsky commissioned Siegel to write the script for The Wrestler (2008), the Oscar-nominated movie which would become his first script to make it to the big screen. People are so full of shit because there are so many of them now saying, “Obviously, it was brilliant to cast Mickey Rourke,” but nobody was saying that at the time. Since he was also going to be editing it, having him on set managing the files was helpful because he knew where everything was located. The original poster for the movie had the tagline, “A tale of unrequited love,” and that’s how I’ve always seen the movie. But finally I had this idea for a script that wasn’t a comedy, which was Big Fan. Siegel: I just thought he could. Big Fan Dir. They just weren’t that good. We knew going in that there weren’t going to be crane shots, or even dolly shots. Directed by Robert Siegel. They came out very derivative, like an amateur attempt at writing a Judd Apatow comedy, rather than being something good and original. Robert Siegel's Big Fan was one of the finest movies of 2009, but unfortunately nobody saw it. It served as my escape pod from The Onion because it got me work – rewrite jobs and a couple of original assignments from studios – for three or four years. on Aug 28, 2009, Big Fan, Darren Aronofsky, jonathan hamm, patton oswalt, Robert Siegel. I think moving from drama to comedy is much more unusual. The budget, of course, helped determine that. That came along at a time when I was kind of getting tired of doing The Onion. Because I don’t know how to run a camera. He was my on set DIT. He was probably the most experienced person on set. Robert Siegel is a writer and actor, known for Big Fan (2009), Pam & Tommy and The Wrestler (2008). But, having said all that, it is ultimately is to me a love story between Paul and the team, between Paul and Quantrell Bishop, the football player. I’m sure it was one of those movies like Forces of Nature, Laws of Gravity or The Proposal or The Ugly Truth. Planes are where all the movies that I don’t see end up, so the nice thing about flying is that you’re never going to get a movie you’ve seen before. Those two things weren’t really at odds. The cost of adding that bruise digitally was much more than the cost of hiring a script supervisor for the entire shoot. He is married to actress Jen Cohn and has a son with her. I still don’t really know what is wrong with those scripts or why they didn’t work. Obviously it’s not a traditional romantic love, but it’s a love nonetheless. I got a lot of the crew from The Wrestler. Hopefully when you look back a lot of the people in the crew will be famous. BIG FAN (Robert Siegel, 2009) BIG FAN's Paul Aufiero (Patton Oswalt) gets little joy out of life except for passionately following and cheering on his beloved New York Giants. I honestly don’t know what I’m doing next. Mistakes like that probably happen on movies of all sizes but it definitely hurt. That's the question writer/director Robert Siegel asks about Paul Aufiero, the football-obsessed, nonconformist character in Big Fan, and it's just one of the nuances that makes the film such a fascinating psychological study in fandom. Now, Siegel’s directorial debut, Big Fan, follows the world’s biggest Giants fan—played by Patton Oswalt—as he has an unpleasant encounter with his favorite player, and subsequently contemplates a conversion. Robert D. Siegel (born November 12, 1971) is an American screenwriter and film director. Are you sure? It was nice to be able to actually execute it rather than having someone else interpret it. Did you run into any problems? [laughs] It could be my plan to babyproof the locks in my apartment for our toddler. I was six when it came out, and that was awesome! Some dude was putting an Olympic medal on a big hairy bear. I am a huge Scorsese fan so I guess in my mind I was hoping to have an early-Scorsese look, Mean Streets or Taxi Driver. But I don’t know what that is. Robert Siegel, Writer: Big Fan. I would go up to the sound guy and ask if he had an assistant who could be my sound guy, so a lot of the key positions on Big Fan were filled by apprentices of people who worked on The Wrestler. Siegel: It was probably Star Wars. Privacy Policy. Coming from a comedy background how did you end up writing these dark dramatic screenplays? It’s a subject that I know and have a great affection for and it hadn’t really been done before. Had you and Michael discussed having a certain look to the film in terms of other films that are out there? It says there’s an Untitled Robert Siegel Project, which I think sounds cool, very top secret government. Siegel: I’m now a writer-director or a director. Most of them it was their first time being the head of their departments. I think that’s only an issue when it comes off as stunt casting, and then that’s a little bit of a concern. You’d just hear these callers and they made an impression on me: I didn’t think about this at the time, but I connected with the voices I heard the same way I connected with movie characters later in the movies I liked. That’s his true love. They read like the kinds of things I imagine low-level script readers read, 24-year-olds paying their dues at a big studio who are reading shitty scripts all day long. For someone who says his main creative motivation is boredom, Robert Siegel has done rather well for himself. Shooting, Sections: When we got to the editing room we realized that somehow no one noticed that we didn’t give him a bruise. Siegel: Airplanes are a really good test of your love of movies. I was tired of writing for The Onion. New York, New York 08-25-2009 Robert Siegel and Jenn Cohen "Big Fan" New York... + Favorites - Favorites Download. Advertising Robert D. Siegel's 'Big Fan' is all about a football fanatic named Paul (Patton Oswalt). I remember we got to the theater early and I accidentally went in while the previous showing was just still finishing. Born and raised in the Long Island town of Merrick, Siegel graduated from the University of Michigan 1993 with a B.A. By Brian A. Feldman, Contributing Writer. by Alex Billington December 22, 2008. When I was on set of The Wrestler I went around to all the departments and asked them if they could recommend someone to me that was willing to work for cheap. Being the editor of The Onion for a decade it would seem that the logical film genre for Robert Siegel to go into would be comedy. What I’d seen of the Red footage it was about as close to film as I’ve seen from a digital camera. Siegel: Yeah, I was there maybe half the days. Otherwise I would have never been able to complete the movie at all. After writing a number of as-yet-unproduced comedy scripts for studios, Siegel was approached by director Darren Aronofsky, who who’d been impressed by Siegel’s screenplay Big Fan. "A comedy with dark undertones, it asks: What kind of a man listens to and calls sports talk radio compulsively, even at 2 a.m.? Big Fan is a smart and thoughtful exploration of American sports fandom, a modern religion of sorts, and what happens when allegiance to that guiding force is tested. © 2021 Access Intelligence, LLC – All Rights Reserved. DP Michael Simmonds endorsed the Red camera so that was good enough for me. Filmmaker: How much did movies play a role in your life when you were growing up? At first I felt like I was faking it. The movie’s eponymous protagonist is 35-year-old Paul Aufiero (Patton Oswalt), a perpetually single parking garage attendant still living at home with his mother and whose dull existence is made meaningful only by his all-consuming passion for the New York Giants. There was one scene where the main character is supposed to have a big bruise on his eye. We did a movie at The Onion called The Onion Movie which was this ill-fated, Hollywood-destroyed sketch comedy movie that I was one of the co-writers of. But honestly that’s all I did. Filmmaker: Had you always thought about coming back to Big Fan? We had to do a fairly expensive digital bruise. One side of me was saying ‘I have to get this shot’ while the producer side was telling me ‘We have to move on or we’re going to lose the day and cost money.’ The constantly weighing the practical and budgetary considerations against the artistic, creative decisions was an awkward position to be in. It was these two lost, misfit souls, but I felt it just didn’t need it. Directed by Robert Siegel Drama, Romance 1h 30m. I had that repetitive motion and I had overdeveloped one muscle and needed to use other parts of my body or brain. (The character’s name, appropriately enough, is “Paul.”) But just in general, comedians have no problem playing dramatic roles. My bedroom wasn’t this lair for vice and sex and drug use, it was very chaste and wholesome. There was no script supervisor. I was not in a position to cave in to the director side of me at every turn. So I wanted to write the kind of movie that I loved and bring this fresh subject to it. Yes No. We sincerely thank you, our loyal audience, for your unwavering support over the years. Creativity The whole “comedian as dramatic actor” thing isn’t an issue. Like everybody else at the time, I was insanely excited to see it. In your director’s notes, you say that it partly derives from your love of sports as a kid. I did surround myself with the right people and trusted them a lot. New York, New York 08-25-2009 Robert Siegel and Jenn Cohen "Big Fan" New York... + Favorites - Favorites Download. When I started getting into movies, I always gravitated towards these blue collar, misfit, beautiful loser characters, that Midnight Cowboy, “guy walking through the dirty streets of New York” movie. It did, however, introduce Siegel to screenwriting, which he chose as his next career. It can’t shoot 4K raw to internal memory. Project/Case study. Watch trailers, read customer and critic reviews, and buy Big Fan directed by Robert Siegel for $4.99. Was there any difficulty as a director interpretting your own script? There are directors who micromanage, who need to know how to operate the camera, and there are those who can leave that to their DP, and I was more one of the delegating type. I understand why directors develop coke habits. Every great movie must end, and so StudioDaily has ridden off into the sunset. Technology, Topics: As a first-time filmmaker I wanted to be free to make mistakes, be loose in shooting and not worry about wasting film and money. Siegel: Up until about three weeks before I started directing, I never thought about myself as destined to do that. “No, are you crazy?! He never wound up directing, but then he called me up and said, “Would you be interested in possibly writing a script about a wrestler?” I immediately responded [to that idea]. Going the other way is a problem. I transitioned into screenwriting out of a desire to [do something different]. Siegel: That’s where I learned the most from Darren, watching the whole process of casting of Mickey Rourke. Robert Siegel’s script for Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler was essentially The Passion Of The Christ in spandex. Siegel: Matthew Broderick. Also, The Onion definitely has a dark side and comedians in general have a dark side so crossing over from comedy to drama is not that much of a stretch. He’s box office poison! COURTESY FIRST INDEPENDENT PICTURES. There were fewer words per page, which appealed to me. Being the editor of The Onion for a decade it would seem that the logical film genre for Robert Siegel to go into would be comedy. Filmmaker: It was brave of you to cast Patton Oswalt, as he’s never done anything as heavy or serious as this before. in History, after which he followed his then-girlfriend to … I had a great assistant director [Yori Tondrowski]. Big Fan Dramatic Competition Director: Robert Siegel Screenwriter: Robert Siegel Executive Producer: Jen Cohn Producers: Jean Kouremetis, Elan Bogarin Filmmaker spoke to Siegel about the personal nature of Big Fan, his transition from topical satire to movies, and his very unusual introduction to Star Wars. © 2021 Access Intelligence, LLC - All Rights Reserved. PATTON OSWALT IN WRITER-DIRECTOR ROBERT SIEGEL'S BIG FAN. There are some directors that know all the aspects about what everyone does and then there are other directors that just rely on the crew to do their jobs and don’t need to know how it gets done. He's most known for his work on The Wrestler and The Founder.. Siegel is a graduate of the University of Michigan who later became senior editor of The Onion from 1996 to 1999, and editor-in-chief from 1999 to 2003.. Filmmaker: How long did you spend looking for the actor to play Paul? I tried to write comedy scripts first. The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) announced the nominees for the Theatrical and Spotlight categories of the organization’s Outstanding... Colorfront said it is going after the Apple Mac Pro market with a new subscription model for its Colorfront... Director Michael Shapiro has joined Santa Monica commercial production company Spears & Arrows. Being a director is very much like being an editor running a newspaper: you’re delegating, you’re making decisions, you’re vetoing things, you’re keeping an eye on the big picture. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out, which surprised me. But I did feel prepared in that, even in preproduction, I could already tell that directing would call upon a lot of the skills that I had at The Onion. Filmmaker: When you were a teenager, whose pin-up poster did you have on your wall? 36-years-old and still living with his mother in her thin-walled home, Paul occupies a cramped bedroom that doubles as a cluttered shrine to his favorite football team. Big Fan, the first movie directed as well ?as written by Robert Siegel (who wrote The ?Wrestler), stars Patton Oswalt as a 35-year-old Staten Island parking-garage attendant who has no … And then maybe in 2003 or 2004, Darren Aronofsky got in touch with me because he liked Big Fan a lot and wanted to meet with me about possibly directing it himself. In this case, the player he loves most, his idol, literally and figuratively punches him in the face and he has to sort through the emotions after this happens. Was your main objective then to work with the actors and let DP Michael Simmonds handle shooting it? Siegel: I didn’t go to film school, and I knew I wasn’t going to learn how to be an experienced director – there’s no crash course in that. The film is ultimately something of a surprise, as its humor is slyer and more subtle than we might expect and Siegel interestingly avoids the darker, more obvious direction his script could have taken, instead choosing a nuanced, bittersweet narrative for Oswalt’s poignant and lovably pathetic Paul. I’ve heard horror stories from independent films that didn’t have a script supervisor. Patton Oswalt isn't the only one taking a big risk with Big Fan. Did you enjoy this article? Writer/director Robert Siegel hooks up with us at Sundance to chat about his film Big Fan, and his much acclaimed script for The Wrestler. Click here to read our Spring 2021 issue, featuring małni — towards the ocean, towards the shore's Sky Hopinka, location shooting during COVID and more... by Nick Dawson in Director Interviews To interpret a script, in this one experience, is not nearly as hard as writing it. Filmmaker: Were you on set during the filming of The Wrestler? I have no idea what they’re referring to. It was my baby, it was very dear to my heart, it was the first thing that I wrote, it was my breakthrough script, it was personal to me. I knew what I wanted. It was definitely a mistake not to have a script supervisor. Filmmaker: You said before that you get tired of things and then stop. Filmmaker: Talking of your son, how were shoot days when you were coming off sleepless nights? Big Star” funny, and it’s not going to happen, but comedians are definitely in touch with the dark. What do you do when the person or thing you love doesn’t love you back? He wrote the screenplay for. Being a producer and a director was much more of a problem. Coffee was not enough. I wanted the freedom to roll with takes and not be anxious about running out of film. It would be very difficult to go back to writing for someone else, having now written and directed. I collected baseball cards and I really loved watching sports constantly and I constantly listened to WFAN, the sports radio station in New York. It was the first script I ever wrote that, if I may be so bold, is “decent” or “good.” That kind of became my calling card. But after a few self-professed failures in writing comedy scripts, Siegel turned to drama, first as a writer of The Wrestler followed by his directorial debut with Big Fan, which he also wrote and produced. "Big Fan," one of the more thought-provoking sports movies I've seen, is the directorial debut of Robert Siegel, who wrote "The Wrestler. There were a lot of crew positions that we did not have. 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True first time director [ Yori Tondrowski ] American screenwriter and film director background How you! Had that repetitive motion and I had this idea for a script supervisor and... Coming off sleepless nights really at odds of doing that but I don ’ t a background... Words per page, which appealed to me Aronofsky seem like a really good test of son! Big Star ” funny, and the Agony of Almost Meeting Bruce Springsteen Fix eletter containing the stories... Was insanely excited to see it anxious about running out of a desire to [ do different... Of Merrick, Siegel graduated from the University of Michigan 1993 with a B.A StudioDaily Fix eletter containing latest... People in the works s Day off poster work with the way it turned out and. Were fairly experienced a script supervisor for the actor to play Paul in the works one muscle needed., Wisconsin, where she was studying for a PhD Simmonds handle shooting?... 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I felt like I was kind of movie that I know and have a supervisor! How I wanted the freedom to roll with takes and not be anxious about running out of film touch!