Bryan Brucks might be the gutsiest guy in Hollywood. From being an assistant to the toughest, meanest, most notorious producer in town; to starting his own management company with his partner Brendan McDonald; to wrapping his first feature as a producer of “Deep in the Valley,” Bryan continues to stride forward. He recently sat down with Filmmaker.com to share his thoughts on movies, the film business, and getting it done in Los Angeles.

FM.C: How did you first get started in the film business?

BRYAN: My cousin was working on the movie “Apt Pupil.” It was the June of 96. I was driving out here, and my cousin put me on the phone with Bryan Singer. We had a connection cause he's Bryan with a 'y' and I'm Bryan with a 'y.' So I move into town, and the next day they pull the movie.

FM.C: So what did you do then?

BRYAN: So I ask my cousin what I should do, and she said “temp.” So I started temping, and finally got to Walt Disney's Television Animation, and I quickly realized it was much more bureaucratic than I thought it would be. I thought it was just going to be a bunch of dudes and artists hanging out and making people laugh all day, and it was much more of a corporate culture. My friend knew that Barry Sonnenfeld was partnering with Barry Josephson. I had been at Walt Disney Television Animation for a year, getting coffee for people doing what I wanted to do. Which was probably at that time, I wanted to write more -- not answer someone's phones. And I just decided if I'm going to work for someone in the industry, why don't I try to work for someone on the movie side, so I cold called this producer Barry Josephson. I dialed the main Sony number and . . . I was basically Bud Fox on “Wall Street.” I told him I'd be “the best assistant you've ever had.” I tracked him down, and he called me back. I think he responded to sort of my aggressiveness, and for lack of a better word, I wanted to bag the big one.

FM.C: It must have been pretty intimidating.

BRYAN: I remember my first meeting with him. I had no idea he was the head of Sony. All I knew was that he was partnering with Barry Sonnenfeld, and a friend of mine goes, “I think he was the person "Swimming with Sharks"” was based on. I'm like “nah, no way! He sounds really nice on the phone.” I ended up getting the job. I had never really been a assistant before, and I was a horrible assistant for about the first three months. And I quickly realized, 'oh yeah,' this is the guy Swimming with Sharks was based on. But that was sort of the big wigs and kinda of was my start, I would say, in the film business -- working for that company cause that was right after “Men in Black.”

FM.C: What did you learn from Barry and Barry?

BRYAN: Barry Sonnenfeld was hilarious and great, and Barry J. was difficult, but I knew that going in and the work volume on that desk prepared me ten years down the line. You're kind of in the middle of the everything going on in the business. You learn like any other assistant -- your on all your bosses calls and that was my start, and to this day I learned a lot on that desk. It was fun to be twenty-two and have no life.

FM.C: You came out here right after college?

BRYAN: Yeah, right after college, and back then you didn't care if you worked an eighteen hour day. We had “Wild, Wild West” going on. My first day on the job we were trying to buy the “Sixth Sense.”

FM.C: You said back then people didn't mind working eighteen hour days. Do you think mentality and the culture out here has changed?

BRYAN: I think economically the film business has definitely changed since '96. I think the writer business is flat. The studios aren't making as much money. They're not making as many movies. We're waiting to see how the internet, and You Tube, and digital platforms are going to impact the film business. And video games -- they were big back then, but they don't take a big a chunk out of the film business as they do now.

FM.C: I understand that you're a manager and producer. How did you make that jump from being an assistant to now being a producer and manager?

BRYAN: I was fortunate enough to work for Gary Ross and Jane Sindell. After I worked for Barry Josephson, I got that job at Larger Than Life, which was a new company. Gary had just directed “Pleasantville,” and his partner Jane Sindell was the head of motion picture lit at CAA for three years, so I was Jane's assistant. And Gary's the type of person where he was inclusive and wanted you to learn and grow and all that, and I really enjoyed working with talent, especially on the lit and director side. It was 98. I was at the company for three years, and it was just a great experience.

FM.C: Can you tell me about your duel role as both a manager and producer?

BRYAN: One of the benefits is that you can produce when you're a manager. It's something both of us [Brendan and myself] have a passion for. We feel that one of the keys to our business is that you have to be flexible and adaptable. And we feel that if you're a small, lean mean management companies, you can adapt quicker and change your business model, in terms of taking a look at the economic landscape. For instance if there's a writer strike, and the writers can't be paid for their work, we're going to have to produce and get independent work going. The great think about Brendan and I is that we have been good at finding private equity and raising private equity for independent films films. Our specialty is comedies under five million and genre films. We just finished another movie, “Stiletto,” which is a three-million dollar action movie. The great thing about having a partnerships is one can be on set and one can man the store.

FM.C: You said “Deep in the Valley” was your first experience producing. Can you tell me a little more about that?

BRYAN: I had met Christian Forte the writer/director as a development executive for Gary Ross at Larger Than Life. I would call Christian and say “hey, is this a movie?” And he said “what's the idea?” And I said “two guys get stuck in a porn movie.” He said, “Hold on let me think about it,” and he called me back and said “yeah, that's a movie.” And he wrote it in about five days. This was maybe four years ago, and we went out with it on spec. It was one of those where every reader said consider, consider, and I even have the coverage framed on the wall. But the minute it came to a studio pulling the trigger, the porn of it all scared them. We were sort of a no-holds-barred and no apologies. We were a comedy, and the tone was a “Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure” or “Dude Where's My Car.” We thought ourselves a silly-cute love story almost. We tried to set it up at a studio, and one of our friends Judd Payne who has a company with Matt Rhodes called Persistent Vision said, “hey guys, I think we can do this movie at National Lampoon and bring half the financing in.” His friend from college ended up reading the script and loving it, and he goes” I wanna finance this movie.” It took about four years to get to there, but once we raised all the money, it was Christian's directorial debut. And it was a lot of fun. I think if you're making comedy, no one cares how much a comedy costs if you look at “Super Troopers” or even “Napoleon Dynamite.” Watch a trailer for a comedy. You're not judging it on special effects. It's are you laughing or not laughing, and I think we made a movie that people will laugh at. Right now, it's in post. We made it independently, and we don't have domestic distribution. So our hope is to get theatrical, and if we don't get theatrical, then I think we have a strong straight to DVD title.

FM.C: From that movie, what do you think is the most important lesson that you learned?

BRYAN: I think it's to get as much money as you can, and make sure whatever your budget is, you can tell that story for that budget. If you can't, be ready and able to pull a scene and pull it together and shift it so you don't lose the tone of your movie and can make your day. The original script Christian wrote -- we had some huge set pieces where the town was singing . . . and we all loved that scene, but we were like “hey we can't make that for two million dollars; we can't have a cast of thirty people in the movie.”

FM.C: As a producer how do you go about telling someone that you need to modify this scene.

BRYAN: It's really easy -- 'we don't have the money to shoot this. Come up with something else.'
Christian wrote “Albino Alligator.” He was very familiar with independent filmmaking, and he wanted to tell a story as well. And if he didn't have the necessary funds, he could change his vision, and the great thing about Christian and working with writer-directors is that they can change on the fly. He can change the scene and make it funnier, and often times enough that day we'll be like “we have to change some stuff up.”

FM.C: What do you feel works or doesn't work in a comedy?

BRYAN: What's that famous Bill Goldman quote . . . “nobody knows anything.” But if I did know, then I would write a book, and we would be millionaires. So I don't presume to know, but I would say if you are laughing then that's the most important thing in a comedy. And for me I go back to if you can pitch it in ten seconds and you know what the movie is and if it's relatable. If you look at “Knocked Up,” “Super Bad,” or even “Liar Liar” and “There's Something About Mary,” those are all things you can pitch, and you get it. The trend is to have reality-based comedy, but they all come from relatable place. Who can't relate to buying beer for the first time or the scare and horror of knocking someone up?

FM.C: What are some of the components of a great pitch?

BRYAN: For me it's the title. If you hear a title and you know what it's about in about thirty seconds or less. And also it's who's pitching it. Some people are really good at pitching, they're almost like a salesmen, There's a guy, Bob Kosberg. I remember he came in, in 96 and he was selling stuff left and right. He had it down to an art form. For me it's what's the title, what's the hook, and is it funny; and I have a group of three or four people, and if they're all laughing during in my pitch then I know there's something funny about it.

FM.C: How do you go about gathering the funds and the money for a production?

BRYAN: You hopefully know people with money; or you have someone in your family with money; or you know someone who knows someone with money. And then you try to meet as many people as you can. You have to take meetings and one meeting always leads to another meeting and to leads. We have people who approach us, “hey we have the money will you produce this?” Or people willing to invest. It's very difficult, and we'd love to get as many studio movies going. Our goal is to be lot-based producers.

FM.C: You said your company Brucks McDonald also specializes in genre pictures. What type of genre pictures?

BRYAN: I would say comedies or horror/thriller or action or thriller. There's a direct-to-dvd model where you have companies like MGM and Sony who make direct-to-dvd movies. It's almost like the sixties and seventies where you have a lot of directors coming out of T.V. with Donner, Spielberg. Now you look at people like Sylvain White. It's sort of like a training ground.

FM.C: How do you go about making a modest action film?

BRYAN: You have to be smart, and there has to be a concept. And I think action is very difficult, and we're learning as we go along as well, and I love the eighties golden era. You look at “Blood Sport,” those eighties kick ass movies. They had a good concept.

FM.C: When you are looking at the piles of script on your desk. What is it that catches your eye?

BRYAN: As a producer or manager?

FM.C: From both sides.

BRYAN: As a manager: can I sell this? The first ten pages: is it gripping, original; is there a voice behind it? If I can't sell it, can I get this person work; is it a style of writing I haven't seen before; are their great characters? Everything goes back to is it character based. It goes back to, I might not sell it, but it's a great writing sample, and lets find the right idea to match that voice with.

As a producer: do I want to spend three years of my life with this movie? Do I want to wake up at three am and go watch a movie fall apart? Do I love it enough to do that? You know it's a big investment.

FM.C: How do you balance your role as a producer/ manager?

BRYAN: You know it really depends. That's where having a partnership works. I think a majority of our time is managing for our clients -- looking for jobs, working on scripts, reading on scripts, giving notes on scripts, hunting down open writing or open directing assignments. When you're not in production, most of the day is working with our clients and that is our companies priority. And many of the skills you use as a development executive is what we use as a manager.

FM.C: How many clients do you represent?

BRYAN: I think right now we're at 15, which is small and allows us to focus, especially writers. It's tough to break writers. It's a big investment on our part, especially when they're staring out. We'd probably like to grow and add, but we have to have passion for a script. Can we put in our time, and can we help them achieve their goals and dreams?

FM.C: How do you go about attaching yourself to your clients projects?

BRYAN: We’re upfront with our clients. They know that Brendan's background is in production, mine in development, and we came to management from that side. Usually, if we help come up with the idea or are there from the beginning (working on the first draft) and put in a lot of input and creative decisions they want us attached. They view us as an asset because we care more about them and want the project to be as great as it can, probably more than a producer who might view it as a for hire gig. I think if you look at the recent success of managers-become-producers such as Mason Novick (producer of his client’s film JUNO) that there’s something to be said about being much more invested in an idea as a producer when it’s your client.

FM.C: What's the process of finding new writers?

BRYAN: Word of mouth. Calling up people. Reading a ton of stuff. Reading the nickels and the script winners. Going to pitch fest. I would say the majority of people is referrals either from us reading and calling people . . . or people saying go and check this out?

FM.C: What are some of your favorite movies?

BRYAN: It's everything from “Blade Runner” to “Caddy Shack” to “Blues Brothers,” to “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” We grew up with a passion for the movies. We see at least three movies a week, whether on dvd or going to the movie theater. I would say as far as favorite movies: “Rocky,” “Big Trouble in Little China.” When my wife said she loved that movie, I knew that she was the one.

FM.C: Where do you feel like that industry is heading as far as the type of movies that are being made?

BRYAN: I think it's big tent pole, presold titles. One of the things we're doing: Brendan works for the “Speed Racer: rights holder, so we're putting together a project “Gatchaman” that actually was something called “Battle of the Planets” from the creator of “Speed Racer.”

FM.C: What is it about these tentpoles?

BRYAN: Well, the average cost of the movie is 100 million dollars. It's the engine that drives everything. You look at a film like “Transformers” or even “Spider Man Three.” You gotta to come out and be a big event and get people to go. Make it a spectacle. How are you gonna get people with all these options and diversions and entertainment to put down the tivo, to turn off the tv? Hey, it's a sunny day -- why should we go sit in a movie? Make it like an event, like your going to miss something if you're not there opening weekend and be able talk about it with all your friends. That being said there are always films like “Napoleon Dynamite” which just catch lightening in a bottle, that become the little engine that could. But that film is different and that audience likes to discover that film.

FM.C: Finally, what advice do you have for people out to Los Angeles or for those people who are starting out in the industry?

BRYAN: Never take “no” for an answer. If you're writing, keep writing. Don't be discourage if it doesn't sell. Don't get hung up on one script. Don't let one script become an albatross. If you're a director with a short, and you're not getting the press or attention, do another one. If you're in development, grow up in the business with your friends cause you're friends five years later, ten years later -- they're going to be running the studio's one day. And as far as development, don't do Hollywood. It's easy to be consumed with what opens big. Read a book and read it. Don't just skim it or read the coverage. And for studio executives, give me a project we can produce, and hire our clients; and if there are any studio heads who want young producers on the lot, we are willing to do that too.

FM.C: Thank you for your time.