South Beach Diaries - An Introduction
I began these articles in order to instruct and inform those looking to get into filmmaking through anecdotal accounts rather than through preaching. As we often say, you can’t make this stuff up. Well, almost.
In early September of 1999, I was appoached by a director whose background was in music videos. A record company was willing to finance a feature-length film by a rap artist. He was offered to direct. He wanted a producer who had feature experience. That was me.
To say the least, the next few months were adventurous. We shot the film in South Beach, and encountered everything from a hurricane to working with real pimps to a less than enthusiastic production staff. Lessons were abundant.
During pre-production, I began e-mailing an actor friend back in New York, telling him about what was going on. He re-sent my emails to other friends, and pretty soon, I was chronicling the crazy events in South Florida. They become known among my friends as the "South Beach Chronicles."
The emails had much of my odd sense of humor, as well as a lot of personal material. Remember, I was writing to friends. In bringing this story to a public forum such as this, I was faced with a few hurdles.
It has never been my intention in re-telling stories here to bring harm or disrespect to any individuals. In instances where I have shared potentially negative things about people I have worked here, I have failed to use their names – intentionally.
I have taken the emails that I sent, and paraphrased them. In addition, I have changed the names of the individuals involved, as well as the organizations. I have also edited away from some of my sarcastic remarks in order to make them more humorous than stinging.
Also, the emails are, as most emails are, cryptic. In the interest of making sense of them, I have flushed out information only hinted at in the emails.
One last note about names. The three real-life pimps had very colorful names, and many of the rappers and hip-hop artists also had colorful nicknames. I have changed the nicknames and real names, and substituted them in a way that you might catch the flavor of some of the craziness. In this case, I feel fictionalization is the better choice than speaking "out-of-school" about people with whom I worked.
In this alone, there is a lesson. Film sets are heated places. People disagree, but, as with the real world, it is better to disagree without being disagreeable. Also, I am firm believer that, as it pertains to individuals, things that happen on set remain on set. Years ago, when I was about to begin a film as an Assistant Director, I was told by a member of the staff that the lead actor was rumored to have a heroin problem. Not only were they wrong about that, but it turned out he was among the most professional, prepared, and polite actors with whom I have ever worked. Rumors like that are easy to start, but difficult to put to rest. They are mean, and unfair to the person involved. Don’t get involved with them.
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