FilmBuff believes in giving our audience a real behind the scenes look at making movies. We also know the value of reading firsthand experiences from filmmakers. In the following post, director Daniel Davila reveals part of his experience in making Harrison Montgomery.
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Daniel Davila - Director, Harrison Montgomery
It is only the 4th day of production on Harrison Montgomery, and my nerves are wearing thin. We’ve been on location in the Tenderloin neighborhood (“The TL”) of SanFrancisco since we started, and while the passing whispers of OC , Vicodin and chiba from the locals still have the opiate intrigue of privilege-slumming-it, there is a pressing reality that has me distracted – our lack of an actor to play the title character.
We always thought Harrison was the man to build the movie around – the man that an actor of a certain age and repute would jump at. But the fact was we’d built the movie, and started the machine without its core. Ill advised, perhaps, but the entire enterprise of independent film is folly, and I was an ardent fool.
It wasn’t for lack of trying. Our number-one choice, the legendary Martin Landau, had considered us, even agreed to be attached, but schedule and resources did not allow us to seal the deal.
Martin Laundau
We made lists, long lists, tried to imagine who else could fit the bill. But we always came back to Martin.
His generations-spanning career that included roles in the films of some of the legends of our art form including Alfred Hitchcock, Woody Allen, and Tim Burton was a fun, cocktail-party bit of information.
The opportunity to tell friends and family that out of the gate I would be directing an Oscar-winning actor had its appeal.
But that had nothing to do with why Martin Landau was the only Harrison Montgomery I or my partners, Karim, Catherine and April could envision. Martin with his thin figure, weighted now by years, his long face, and scratchy voice was tailor made for a character whose concern was the fate of the world. Martin Landau was Harrison Montgomery.
And yet, he was not. The part would fall to someone else. Someone down the list. Someone my producing partners were breaking rules to get to set in 48 hours.
The Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco's Tenderloin Neighborhood
As the sun set over San Francisco, the crew scurried in frenzied picture-wrap activities, and the fog poured in through the nooks and crannies of the city’s Victorians, I found a spot on the curb with a view of the copula of the Golden Gate Theater and settled into a soul-rattling panic. We had no Harrison, and 4 days in, we needed an actor by the next day.
Sweat broke on my brow, as the indigent man behind me, whom I assumed to be a fairly stable, drug-induced catatonia, stirred and grumbled.
Perhaps filmmaking had driven him to this state.
Quietly folding in on myself, a shadow crossed my face and I looked up – looming over me, like summoned super heroes were Karim, and Catherine. They were both flushed, but serene, like they’d just finished running their first Marathon.
Two producers at once – oh man, must be bad. We’d had to fire a key crew member that morning, who was it now? Catherine, my sister, smiled at me – “It’s Martin, Harrison is Martin.”
I didn’t ask how. I didn’t ask why. I just sighed. We were making a low-budget indie. We’d climbed one mountain and while I was happy to take off my pack for the night, I knew there were many peaks left to summit in order to render the magic of our ambitious film. At least now we had our lead magician.
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Filmmaker Daniel Davila immigrated from Ecuador to the United States as a child. Pursuing a lifelong love of theater and film, he spent a year working in development at DreamWorks SKG before co-founding Momentum Cinema, a feature development company whose first project is Harrison Montgomery. Harrison Montgomery enjoyed festival success including screenings in competition at Deauville, HBO NY Latino Film Festival, São Paulo International Film festival (nominated best feature) Method Fest (winner Maverick Award) and SF Indie Fest (winner best feature). Off this success, Daniel co-founded Divisadero Pictures with his producing partner and sister Catherine. Divisadero’s first documentary feature, Splinters premiered at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. It’s second narrative feature, Knife Fight, starring Rob Lowe and Carrie-Anne Moss is currently in post production.
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