Orientation Issue 2008: Q & A with Andy Sacks

As TNT’s hit cable series “The Closer,” starring Kyra Sedgwick, goes into its fourth season, the Daily Bruin’s Kim Wong joined Academy Award-winner Andy Sacks, UCLA alumnus and producer of “The Closer,” for an in-depth Q&A followed by a tour of the set. From traveling to exploring jobs, discovering interests and extracurriculars to producing, Sacks tells all of his transition, from Westwood to Hollywood.

Daily Bruin: Tell me a bit about yourself.

Andy Sacks:I was actually an electrical engineering major at UCLA, not in the Film & TV department.

I realized that I didn’t want to pursue a career in engineering. At the time, I was involved in the Campus Events Speaker’s Program, and realized that I kind of always wanted to do TV or film, but I didn’t have any connections, so I figured it would be pretty tough to do. I thought I’d get a “real career,” so I ended up being the Speaker’s Program director by the end of my senior year.

DB: It seems like a lot of students have trouble figuring out what they want to do as a major and as a career. What did you end up doing?

AS: Junior year, I went to a counselor and said I want try the communications studies major. I didn’t think I’d get into Film & TV because it’s so hard, especially having been in school for two and a half years. They said, “Well, basically you’re starting all over again. Nothing you’ve taken applies to anything but the math and sciences major,” so I just decided to complete my degree and focus on campus events to try and learn more about the business.

DB: So how did you break into the industry?

AS: When the writers strike ’88 happened, there was no production going on, so I worked at a theme park company called Landmark Entertainment, which I thought would be a temporary job. I ended up getting put on a project in Japan so the temporary six-month job turned into three years!

I started off as a production assistant, and then when this company went from 50 to 150 people, they made me the project coordinator for the park. I assisted the producer of the park, and so I was in from the initial design of the park to the actual construction of it in Japan, so I had the opportunity to live in Japan for a while, and when I came back, I ended up getting my first job as a P.A. on “Beverly Hills 90210″!

DB: What got you into production? Why not any other aspect of film and TV?

AS: I’ve always liked the organization of putting all the pieces of the puzzle together to make a show work … working with all the departments, with the directors and the writers to make their visions become a reality, and making sure they have all the tools they need to make it happen.

DB: What’s it like on shooting days?

AS: On television, you’re prepping one episode and shooting another, so it’ll be going back and forth between prep meetings, production meetings, sets and locations meetings, going on scouts to find locations for the director and the production designer and also managing the operation of the set, the shooting crew.

I’m also the liaison between the network and the studio and the show, so it’s a lot of dealing with the network and the studio, particularly with all the publicity that goes on that’s all gone through me. Dealing with the actors is a big part of my job.

DB: How do you deal with the actors?

AS: After they’re hired, I deal with the cast and their needs. My nickname has become the “Camp Counselor,” because I’m always trying to keep them happy and all together in line. I’m dealing with their schedules, and when they have things to do outside of the show, I’m helping to keep them available with what they need to do. A lot of it has to do with the day-to-day running of the set; I’m like the manager of the set.

DB: Sounds tough. What would you say is the best part of your job?

AS: I think the best part is just working with 150 people to pull off what we do in seven days, to me is a pretty amazing feat, that how many things have to go right and do go right with everyone bringing their best game and just being a part of that team. We get a script, and seven days later we’re shooting it, and seven and a half days later it’s completed, and then there’s weeks of post, which is a whole other team of people that do post production to get it on the air. I think it’s really fun to be part of that creative process and putting the show together on a weekly basis.

DB: And the worst?

AS: The worst are the hours. I work pretty much 14 hours a day. I can start as early as 6 in the morning. The other day we started at 6 in the morning and we wrapped at 10 at night, or there’s days when we start shooting at 6 p.m. and we wrap at 6 a.m. Which is the other worst part of it, it’s hard to … schedule anything outside of work a week because you never know what time you’ll be off of work, or what your hours will be and we’re usually recovering on weekends. … Not that we don’t all go and have fun.

DB: So what do you do when you have that free time?

AS: Eighty percent of this crew is from the first season, and it’s a really good gang. We all hang together after work. Friday nights we usually have some sort of party here, or we go out, so it’s pretty fun. I’m also really involved in a group called the Sunshine Kids Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization that G.W. Bailey, one of our actors, is executive director of. I was also involved in UNICAMP at UCLA for many years, even after I graduated, which is ironic because now I’m the “Camp Counselor” on set.

DB: How did the recent writers strike affect production?

AS: We started shooting two months later than normal, but we’re only airing a month later so that we have two seasons this year. Normally we air 13 episodes during the summer and two in December, but this year we’re going to show 10 during the summer and five during the winter, just because we can’t get them done in time.

DB: What’s it like working with award-winning actors?

AS: They’re all extremely down to earth, very fun, we hang out a lot, they’re really great. Kyra is the hardest-working actor I’ve ever worked with. She has an immense amount of dialogue every episode to learn, she’s always working on it ““ not only the dialogue but the accent, and the hours it just takes to shoot the show and prepare, she amazes me every day to get the job done and to do it so well. And the rest of the cast gels really well together, I think it shows on screen that we all like working together to bring our own individual talents to the table.

DB: What sets “The Closer” apart from shows such as “CSI”?

AS: We don’t like to mention those “other” shows. Those other shows are not based on reality. Our show is extremely realistic. We have an LAPD detective on our staff who’s always making sure that we do things that are actually possible, we don’t have magic computers that can figure out who did the crimes.

We’ve had several people from the LAPD tell us how much they enjoy the show because we keep it realistic. Including our sets: we toured Parker Center when we did the pilot, so they’re extremely messy and outdated ““ that’s how it actually is.

We have great respect for the LAPD, and they in turn respect our show and actually honored us a couple of years ago at their annual True Blue Dinner for portraying the police department in a good and truthful light.

DB: Having a female lead, what message does the show deliver in terms of female empowerment?

AS: I think it’s great that there’s an opportunity, there aren’t that many. I mean Kyra will be the first to tell you she turned 40 on the show and we did an episode on it (in real life, and on the show). She’s not one to hide her age. She’s a strong, beautiful actress, and I think it’s great that she’s kind of started the ball rolling. There have been many shows since we premiered that now have strong female leads, and I think there was a definitely lack of that on the air before. This proves that there’s an audience for it.

DB: Advice for aspiring producers or students breaking into the industry?

AS: Being open to getting any job you can. I was a production coordinator at the theme park company and when I wanted to move into production I was unable to find a job as a P.A. because I was “overqualified.” I was willing, at 27, to be a production assistant and learn as much as I could, but I told the production coordinator that I only wanted to do it for one year “so teach me everything you know.”

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