called Avid, started to replace tradi- tional “scissors and tape” editing. I bought Avid systems and rented them to producers. A colleague and I started a company called Postworks with $5,000 and one Avid system. Postworks is now one of the largest post-produc- tion companies on the east coast. I sold the business in 2000 and went back to filmmaking…once you find a great passion it’s hard to let go, even if you’ve become successful doing some- thing else. That was when I started a produc-
tion company, Tashmoo Productions. The first production was also my first feature film as director; a very low-bud- get movie called Martin & Orloffwhich I made after spending time improvising with members of the comedy group “The Upright Citizen’s Brigade” who had a show on Comedy Central. We also bought the rights to a play based on a true-crime story, which I am adapting now. It’s about a serial killer who falls in love (or does she?) with a young bank robber who wanders onto her remote New Mexico ranch. Our latest film is an adaption of my
mother’s book (young adult author Judy Blume) Tiger Eyes. We co-wrote the screenplay and I directed it. We shot the film in New Mexico last fall and are just finishing it now. We found a wonderful young actress, Willa Holland, to play the lead and I’m really excited to see what the reaction to it will be.
You were named “One of Ten Rising Stars of Comedy” after Martin & Orloff was released in 2002—how did your life change then? It didn’t change at all. I started to learn just how difficult it is to get movies made. The phone didn’t ring once and no one wanted to finance my second film. A very seasoned old producer told me to stop feeling sorry for myself and get out there and sell! That was good advice…no one in Hollywood comes knocking on your door and there are a lot of other people as talented as you who have more energy, more drive, and more ambition. There are about
The Band-Aids group 1981.
400 legitimate feature films made in the US every year so if you think about it, there are fewer directors making a film every year, than there are players in the NBA…those are tough odds! That’s what I always tell young film students who think they’re going to graduate and become the next Martin Scorsese overnight.
What are you drawn to when creat- ing a movie? It takes years to develop and make a movie, and it requires every ounce of passion and energy you have. I only want to make films that interest me deeply and are about something I care enough about to invest that much time in. It’s not really about finding a spe- cific theme or genre, but something I want to explore in depth. Martin & Orloff interested me because I found the comedians I was working with incredibly talented and funny (Amy Poehler, Andy Richter, Janeane Garo- falo, David Cross,Tina Fey). Going to work every day was a joy. With Tiger Eyes it was about diving deeply into the emotional journey a young woman takes when she realizes her parents aren’t always going to be there to take care of her and support her. The transi- tion from childhood into adulthood fascinates me, and this story gave me the chance to explore that idea.
And then there’s the winery… A friend of mine started a wonderful live music venue in New York called The Knitting Factory. After he sold it
he started thinking about what to do next. He had a passion for wine and music and wanted to find a way to combine them. So he came up with City Winery. I share his passions so I became an investor/partner. We make about 60,000 bottles of wine a year on the premises, with grapes from Califor- nia, Oregon, New York State, and Argentina. We host 250 concerts a year and also hold winemaking workshops and a film series; we even have live late-night burlesque! The place has been an amazing success so far, even in a lousy economy. It’s wonderful to be able to contribute to the New York cul- tural scene and it’s a great venue for me to produce shows, host events, and try out ideas that require a large space in a city where space is hard to come by. I’m also really excited to use the business as a platform to raise money for charity. We recently raised $100,000 for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, $75,000 for Haiti after their earthquake, and recently we raised $85,000 for music education programs around New York.
What else should we know about you? I love dogs, ice hockey, sailing and cooking. I’m still single and try to enjoy life to the fullest. I don’t see things much differently than I did as a student at Prep. I’m just a little wiser.
Photos courtesy of Larry Blume.
SANTA FE PREPARATORY SCHOOL MAGAZINE 2011 37
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