HBAD: So, tell us about yourself. Who are you, what do you do, what does that position involve?
DB: My name is Dana Brunetti. I'm Kevin Spacey's business partner, the President of Trigger Street Productions, through which I produce movies, and I'm also a co-founder of TriggerStreet.com. My job primarily involves finding source material for film and television projects, whether it's scripts, books, pitches, articles, biographies, etc; and then setting it up, finding financing, either through a studio or independently; packaging it with talent and overseeing all aspects of development and production.
HBAD: How did you get your start?
DB: I started as Kevin's assistant 12 years ago and learned the business by doing, being a sponge and absorbing as much information about the business that I could.
HBAD: What advice would you have for someone just starting out in this business, looking to become a feature film producer?
DB: Get your foot in the door and farm that opportunity. Work for free as an intern and make yourself indispensable. Hopefully, you can then land either a low paying assistant job there or with another company or person. Networking is key. Even getting a job as an intern working for FREE can require you knowing somebody who knows somebody.
Keep your expectations low and expect to put in long hours for little or no praise or recognition. There is no quick way to the top, and ladder climbers are easily identified and weeded out. On the occasional instance when someone does leap frog, they're usually eliminated when their lack of knowledge and experience becomes clear.
Remember there are 10,000 people a month that come to LA in hopes of making it in this business. There is a line of people standing behind you who are willing to do whatever it is you won't. Welcome to Hollywood...
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Here's some more info on TriggerStreet.com, an excellent resource/community for young and emerging filmmakers and screenwriters:
TriggerStreet.com was founded in 2002 by two time Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey and producer Dana Brunetti as an interactive mechanism to discover and showcase emerging filmmaking and writing talent. With the legal -- and attendant procedural -- restrictions on outsiders in Hollywood, Spacey and Brunetti sought to democratize exposure, providing an avenue of communication between Hollywood and emerging talent everywhere, thereby working to overcome the barriers they so often encounter.
Responding to the enthusiasm and high quality of work produced by its burgeoning film community, TriggerStreet.com evolved as a social networking utility to provide an evolving platform for emerging artists in different media: the strength of the peer-based review system and the positive impact of the resultant constructive criticism catalyzed the addition of several new specialized communities. Beyond its Short Film and Screenplay sections, TriggerStreet.com now provides opportunity for feedback and exposure for Short Stories, Books, Plays, and -- most recently -- Comics. By nurturing an environment where users collectively strive for creative excellence by reaching out to others, TriggerStreet.com has grown with the mission of facilitating the kind of collaboration and communication necessary for success in the entertainment industries.
It is the belief of the founders that exposure to the film and publishing industries provides a strong potential career boost to those actively committed to creative excellence. But perhaps more importantly, TriggerStreet.com builds craft, talent, and careers by encouraging the kind of objective criticism and analytical skills which allow members to help each other.
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