Charlie McSpadden's (Trinity '10) new film "A Nice Indian Boy," which he co-produced, released in theaters across America on April 4th, including the AMC Southpoint. The Chronicle talked with McSpadden about his time at Duke, his career, his experience making "A Nice Indian Boy" and his advice for aspiring creatives.
The Chronicle (TC): At Duke, what did you study and what activities were you involved with? Did you come in wanting to work in the film industry or was that a pivot while you were at Duke?
Charlie McSpadden (CM): I was an English major. I also got the film-video-digital and the Markets and Management certificates. I came in and I knew that I had an interest in film. When I was in high school, I wrote movie reviews for the newspaper, and I also made short films with some friends. So I had an interest in [film], but I also went to Duke to figure out what I want to do. And I took an Econ class, and I was like, 'wow, this is not for me. I do not care at all about this.' I just kept gravitating towards English classes and literature and film and all that. And so very clearly, I realized that film is what I want to study. And in terms of activities, I did what you [the interviewer] do. I was the film editor for Recess. I did a bunch of film reviews, and I did a couple pieces for Tower View. I also was in what was then called Dukes and Duchesses, the student ambassador program for the Office of the President. Those actually prepared me quite well for the job that I have now. Because, with film reviews, you are watching and consuming and writing and critiquing films and that helps me in my current job when I talk film with writers and directors at meetings. With Dukes and Duchesses, in my job you have to constantly schmooze and talk to people and [Dukes and Duchesses] was great preparation for that.
TC: Building on that, in what ways do you think studying English and Markets and Management prepared you for the career you're in?
CM: So much of my job is reading. I have to read novels really quickly. I have to read scripts, pilots, and articles. With the English major, a lot of people are like “Oh, that doesn't do anything for you.” But it actually was, at least for me, great preparation for this job, because I learned how to critically break something down. And we do a lot of work with adapting novels to the screen, or taking non fiction books and turning their stories into features or TV shows, for which being able to read quickly and critically is very important.
As for Markets and Management, we have spent the last seven months taking an unconventional path with “A Nice Indian Boy” where we are putting up the P&A funds to release the film ourselves. And so I've actually had to get a crash course in how to market and communicate the ethos of what the movie is. Obviously that process changed since I took classes, as social media has transformed the process in a way that my classes did not cover. But a lot of what I learned still applies. I can analyze advertisements and go ‘How are you communicating the message of this product that you're selling?’ And that's what we're doing with the film. A lot of what I've had to do this last month is work with this media agency that's come on and has been asking us ‘Okay, what is the ethos of this film? What is it in? In eight words, how can you break this down?’ Having worked on the movie for six and a half years and seen it through all these different stages, I’ve learned that stories really have to work at all these different levels. I've definitely learned a lot, and we've got excellent partners who I've learned a lot from and who have been very patient with me. My [Markets and Management] tools helped me a lot. And the film program taught me a lot as well. I learned a lot about how to make a short film and to communicate with your crew and your collaborators. While it was on a small scale, a lot of those same principles apply on a larger scale.
TC: Diving a bit into your film career, what has that journey been like? I know you've moved between bigger and smaller budget pictures. What has that looked like?
CM: I got my start right out of college. My resume ended up on the desk of a filmmaker named Whit Stillman, a beloved indie filmmaker who made three films in the 90s. His first one was called "Metropolitan," it was a comedy of manners. He was the predecessor to Wes Anderson, Noah Baum Beck and Greta Gerwig. And so I ended up working on his movie “Damsels in Distress.” That summer we shot the movie on Staten Island, and I just did whatever they told me to do. They told me to drive around Staten Island and find these types of locations and I did. I drove the actors in the morning, I would pick Greta Gerwig, who was the lead of our movie, at 5am from her apartment in Chinatown and then drive to Staten Island. We were in the car for an hour and a half every morning, and then another hour and a half in the evening.
I got promoted to be the producer's assistant and I acted in the movie as an extra. I was the first team production assistant, and that was a really formative experience. Granted, it was my first job, and I think anyone's first job ends up being quite formative. This was a low budget film, I think the budget was around $2 million. When you're working at that small scale, it really does feel like a family and you're doing everything for the love and the passion. It was an amazing first job, and one of the producers brought me along to his next movie “Shame,” the Steve McQueen film starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. I was an office PA for that. And then from there I worked on three different films. “The Great Gatsby” was the next movie I worked on. That was quite an engaging, interesting, and unique experience. We prepped in New York. I was the office production assistant running around and doing errands for that whole office in New York, before they went and filmed in Australia. That's also how I met Tobey Maguire. It was definitely a surreal moment. For Gatsby, [I was just involved in] the pre-production.
For two weeks, Baz Luhrmann brought all the actors into our office. For every movie, he does something called a play shop, which is like a really intense dress rehearsal. So we had everyone read through the script and get into hair and makeup and get into their costumes, and then we shot a couple scenes. I was less than a year out of college, I was standing with the other crew members, we're shooting a little scene on a staircase in our office in Tribeca. Baz says ‘let’s bring the actors in’ and then says ‘Oh, Charlie, just [shoot] the same thing over again.’ That was definitely memorable.
After “The Great Gatsby,” I worked on “Thanks for Sharing,” and then Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah.” For those five movies, which spanned about two and a half years, I was living in New York and I was working in physical production. I was hired for a set period of time: you prep the movie, you shoot the movie, you edit the movie, and then you're done. And then you have to go find another job. Through that experience, I realized that [being a production assistant] wasn't the most stable career, because you're constantly needing to find something else. Once I figured out what development was through a couple friends who were doing [development] on films, I realized I really wanted to do that. Through my experience with Tobey [Maguire], I got an interview with him and his producing partner in New York. His assistant at the time was a friend of mine from Duke, and I met with [Maguire], and told me ‘You should move out to LA and come work for my company.’ And then I got in my car and drove to LA and started as his assistant, and then worked with him for about five years.
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Zev van Zanten is a Trinity junior and recess editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.