Thursday, October 16, 1997
Amateur director moves over to ‘Plan B’
FILM: Low-budget debut depicts life’s intimate struggles,
relationships
By Aimee Phan
Daily Bruin Staff
You don’t always get everything you want from life. Instead of
begrudgingly accepting this, director and UCLA film school graduate
Gary Leva captured this lesson in his directorial debut of the
independent feature, "Plan B."
After seeing a screening of Kevin Smith’s infamous indie
"Clerks" with his wife, Lulu Baskins-Leva, and fellow screenwriter
Nancy Joslin, all three were inspired to make an independent film
with their own funds.
"At that point in our careers, we all had not ended up doing
what we had been wanting to do for a living," Leva says. "We were
all a little bit frustrated. I was a writer, Nancy was a writer,
and my wife wanted to be an actress. We walked out of ‘Clerks’ and
my wife said, ‘We could do this.’"
After two years, the trio eventually emerged with "Plan B,"
which will be in limited release this Friday.
The filmmaking team of Leva, Baskins-Leva and Joslin handled all
aspects of the film process – from pre-production all the way to
exhibition.
"I’ve loved this process particularly because by the time we’re
done, we’ll have done everything except make the popcorn at the
movie theaters," Leva says.
For his first feature, Leva set out to write a story that
somewhat encompassed the emotions that he and his friends were
experiencing in life.
The intimate story follows five friends who struggle with
everything from relationships, to gray hair, to trying to have a
baby.
"It was originally more like eight interlocking stories, but
then it was too much to handle, and we ended up combining
characters," Leva explains. "But the story is primarily based on
our three lives and reflects what we believe is true about life,
which is that most people end up abandoning their dreams and find a
way to accept what their life really is – which is ‘Plan B.’"
After finishing the last touches to his script, Leva and
partners set out to find the right cast. Leva had been envisioning
comedic actor Jon Cryer in the leading role when the filmmaking
team happened to spot the actor at a short-story reading at the
Getty Museum. Baskins-Leva had no problem approaching the actor to
get him to read over the script.
"I was approached at the end of the evening by this maniac who
said that she and her husband had written a script and if I would
read it," Cryer recalls. "Having made an independent film myself, I
know how hard it is to get your script read. So I read it on a
flight to Europe and I embarrassed myself on the plane from
laughing so much."
Next came the task of convincing Cryer’s agents to let him do
this low-budget film.
"Jon hung in there in the whole negotiation process," Leva
remembers. "He said he loved the script and he really wanted to be
a part of it."
When it came time for production, Leva and his team had to keep
to their $300,000 budget. With a tight 19-day shoot, they had
already decided to use Leva’s own house for the main scenes.
"Basically, it’s like having a big party in your house for 12
straight days," Leva says. "And despite the fact that the crew knew
it was my home, things get broken, smoke alarms go off. But we
couldn’t afford any other location."
Nevertheless, Leva enjoyed the creative learning process
directing "Plan B." Although he graduated from UCLA’s School of
Film and Television, he believes that the bulk of his film
knowledge comes from experience outside the classroom.
"When I went to UCLA, I felt there was a tremendous lack of
training about the actual nuts and bolts about how to get a job in
this business," Leva says. "I don’t know if that’s true or not
anymore, but when I was here, I found that to be very true.
"I have to say that making ‘Plan B’ has basically been my
finishing school," Leva continues. "What I know about filmmaking
now, 95 percent I learned from making this film; 5 percent is from
film school and watching movies."
One difficulty of making an independent film is applying to film
festivals and finding a good distributor. One of Leva’s darker days
was learning that "Plan B" didn’t make it into the Sundance Film
Festival. With the overwhelming popularity of this Robert
Redford-founded festival, Leva was upset that his film might be
handicapped because it didn’t get the Sundance "stamp of
approval."
"You won’t talk to an independent filmmaker that applied to
Sundance that didn’t get in who wasn’t crushed at least for the
day," Leva says. "Sundance has assumed an artificially large aspect
in the world of filmmaking to the point where mediocre films that
go to Sundance very often get picked up because the acquisition
executive who was there can easily defend his decision of buying a
movie to his boss by saying it was at Sundance."
But despite this temporary obstacle, Leva and his team did
succeed in getting a limited national release for their film. As
for future plans, Leva has no plans to remain an indie
filmmaker.
"Our goal has always been working in the mainstream," Leva says.
"We never really wanted to be the kind of rough and tumble
filmmakers that people like Kevin Smith are. I admire him
tremendously – he’s a great inspiration – but my tastes in
filmmaking are very mainstream, and ‘Plan B’ is a very mainstream
film. It’s not a gritty, streetwise kind of movie."
Instead he is hoping that "Plan B" will be his ticket into the
studio system where bigger budgets and famous actors will be within
arm’s reach.
"I would love to work in the studio system," Leva says. "I would
love to have six weeks or eight weeks to shoot a film instead of
three and have more money in the budget so I would have more access
to whatever actors I wanted to have. It’s hard to get anybody for
an independent film if you’re not paying very much. Jon Cryer was a
very lucky exception."
But, like his characters, Leva is going to make the best with
what life has in store for him. He remembers his idealistic
ambitions for the future.
"I was going to be Steven Spielberg and make it at 22 right
after college," Leva says. "I actually have abandoned any thought
of a career plan. That’s kind of the theme of the film, to look at
what life offers you and make the best of it. My career path is to
keep making films that I believe in and that I love."
FILM: "Plan B" opens Friday at the Mann Westwood and the UA
Warner Center in Woodland Hills. Those who attend the 7:30 or 10:00
p.m. show will receive a free pass to the premiere party with the
film’s cast and crew.Puny But Loud Productions
(l-r) Mark Matheisen, Jon Cryer, Lisa Darr, Sara Mornell and
Lance Guest star in "Plan B."