Cinema Canada (May 1980)

a ee ee “Mainly, I just work hard and hope I’m talented enough to make something happen.” That kind of self-deprecating yet positive remark is typical of Danny Goldberg, writerproducer of Canada’s most successful film, Meatballs. Talking with Danny is like getting shot up with a few hundred grains of pure positive energy. His speech is riddled with terms that seem to spring from a textbook on Psycho-Cybernetics. He makes you aware that, with enough hard work, it’s amazing how lucky you can get. The financial success of Meatballs (top Canadiangrosser ever, and No. 16 and No. 110 respectively, on Variety's 1979 and All-Time Profit lists), seems to have done little to alter Goldberg’s daily schedule. He, and his writing partner of ten years, Len Blum, (cowinner with Goldberg and Janis Allen of the 1980 Genie for original screenplay for Meatballs) start work at 8:30 a.m., six days a week, and — save a lunchbreak — force themselves to keep filling empty pages until six in the evening. Though backbreaking, the schedule is the only way he feels a writer can stay focused on his material. Admittedly, the pressure, on occasion, drives the two into an adjoining room to pick up drums and guitars and wail their brains clear for a few minutes. But after a week spent hammering out a structure (“On our latest, it was about Jim Henshaw is an actor and writer who lives in Toronto. cine Service Western Canada’s Full Service Laboratory and Sound Studios 35MM — 16MM ALPHA CINE SERVICE 916 DAVIE STREET, VANCOUVER, B.C. PHONE; (604) 688-7757 TELEX 04-507757 12/May 1980 two weeks, with an average of 1.3 new structures every day.”), the synopsis is nailed to the wall, literally, and the two split up scenes and begin to write separately. “Len sits here, | sit there. If we do talk, it’s along the lines of...Is this funny ? Is that funny ?” The finished pages are put ina pile and corrected together. What works and what doesn’t is discussed, and interminable rewrites begin — one often rewriting for the other. First drafts are long. Too long. Jokes that keep topping each other, scenes and characters that go off on tangents... “Thirty to forty percent of writing is confidence : getting an idea and just doing it. Not worrying that it might be terrible.” But the ultimate goal of the rewriting is a script that amounts to 115 pages: a size Goldberg feels is the right length for feature film comedy. “Every scene has to both move the script forward and be funny; fifteen lines honed to six or four that get the same point across. For us six lines is a lot of dialogue.” Danny’s experience with Meatballs and his years of working with John Dunning and André Link of Cinepix have taught him that, as much of the creative work is done after the last frame has been shot, as before. “The attitude at Cinepix was, ‘Let’s screen it and let’s change it.’ Films were cut and mixed thousands of times to make them better.” In its completed form, Meatballs ran three-and-ahalf hours. “With fifteen major characters, the ad-libbing became kind of algebraic.” During editing, entire new scenes were shot between Tripper (Bill Murray) and Rudy (Chris Makepeace) to strengthen what was to become the prime relationship in the film. Long editing sessions and constant screenings restructured the movie several times. Many good scenes were lost, but as Goldberg puts it, “I feel so great when I take something out and the film works better. I’m tied to it for maybe five seconds.” This hard-nosed approach to his own written work seems to be reflected in his approach to producing a film. “When I’m writing! don’t think about producing. I don’t do scenes because they'll be easier to get together, or anything like that; although I do try and think about who ’'m writing for.” He feels that casting properly is as important as the quality of the script, but that that has to apply to acquiring the other members of his creative team in addition to actors. “You choose people not because of names or track records, but because of creative energies. And those creative energies should be able to withstand a lot of clawing and fighting to make the best film: possible. Among creative people there is no fear. The same way you have to let the actors play it, you must realize that the art director knows more about art than you do.” Enamored and impressed as he is by Ivan Reitman’s direction of Meatballs, he feels film is not a one-man medium : that it is up to the producer to stand up to his director on creative grounds and supply perspective on the level of... “I don’t care how meaningful the scene is, it isn’t working.” Because making a good film seems to be Goldberg’s major ambition in life, the growth of the Canadian film industry excites him. He feels that here is the greatest opportunity to experiment. To risk failure. To try things you would never be able to attempt in Hollywood because