Interview with Scream 4 co-producer Carly Feingold - Part III: Making Scream 4

Part I - The path to being Wes Craven's Creative Exec
Part II - What does a Creative Executive do and what do they look for?

Then you went and did Scream 4, which, you mentioned you were a fan of Wes’s from a long time back, how surreal was it to be a part of the new Scream movie?

The first Scream [was released when] I was in high school and under 17. I snuck into the theatre – it was so packed, it was the second weekend – and I sat in the aisle and watched it. I think I went back the next weekend and my parents bought me a ticket. And as soon as it came out on VHS, I bought it and rewatched that movie, like, 100 times, you know, with my friends. Like on Saturday night after we’d come home from going out we’d watch Scream. So I was so thrilled to get a chance to work on the fourth one.

Scream was one of my favorite movies. I know all the lines, I’ve seen it 40, 50 times, I was following Wes on Twitter when he was doing trivia questions for signed posters and every time I was like “Oh, I hope it’s a Scream 1 trivia question because I know that forwards and backwards!” I’ve seen all of them but I know the first one cold.

I told my parents, “See, this will pay off, me watching this so many times!” Then on set, they’d need to know something about the first one and I knew it. And so much of the original crew was part of it, so to hear all of the stories from them first-hand about stuff that happened on the first three was just so exciting.

I’ve heard all of the stories about how you auditioned actors for this one with scenes from the first one. I imagine this script was top secret, like the interns were not allowed to read it.

No, I don’t even think some of the actors we cast got a full script. We’d only give them their pages. That was all they’d see. At the beginning as the Co-Producer, I was kind of the script master, so I watermarked every single one we sent to anyone. We never sent it to any agencies or managers. We’d only hand-deliver directly to the actors so it wasn’t even emailed to them. For casting, we pulled sides from the first Scream and we also had fake pages – scenes that [screenwriter] Kevin [Williamson] wrote that we’d already taken out of the script that we knew we weren’t going to use. So we’d have the final Billy/Stu kitchen scene [from the first film] for the kids to read and we gave it to each character. Everyone who came in to read, read that scene.

So they all came out of that like, “Oh, I’m TOTALLY the killer!”

We gave it to everyone, all the boys, all the girls.

But there’s a neat kind of head-fake in there, where you’ve got people who are sort of reminiscent of the original, but it’s just enough that I could see people in my audience going “Oh I so know where this is gonna go because this is like in the first one where…” And then they’d go, “Maybe they think I’d think that, so it’s totally not him.” Like with the boyfriend, I could sense them going, “Oh, he’s so the killer. He’s so obvious…. Wait, it’s so obvious he’s not. But that’s how they did it the first time…”

Yeah, exactly! (laughs)

I just thought it was neat the new movie used everyone’s expectations from the first film against it. And it was kinda cool to see the speculation about “If this is a new trilogy, they’re totally gonna kill off the old cast” – which I think was the genius of the new one. I even did an article about how everyone’s expecting Sidney will get killed to pass the torch, and to find out “No, the person we think is going to take over the franchise is actually the killer…”

It was really fun to work on. Even the house we were shooting in for that final sequence, the owners of the house obviously could come around [during shooting.] But occasionally they’d bring people and we’d have to be, “I’m sorry, we can’t let you in your house.”

They’re going to see something you don’t want them to see.

Yeah, it was very top secret. Michigan was wonderful to shoot in, but because film was so new to them, all the neighbors would get so excited and they’d set up lawn chairs and watch until four in the morning – even if we were inside, they’d just sit there and watch because it was so interesting to them.

But at the same time, people would always be taking pictures, so anytime [the actors] had any blood on them we’d throw a poncho over them and get them in the van, in an attempt to not get them photographed.

“They can’t see that you’ve got blood on the carotid!” Was there ever a point where you were like, we should just screw with them and send, like, Neve out there covered in blood?

I think there were times when we let things go so people would think [that certain characters would die.] There was definitely speculation that Gale Weathers was not going to survive, and we didn’t stop that speculation. I can’t remember if we did anything to really tease people one way or the other. Wes would tweet some things like a picture of a bloody couch, or blood on set, and people would be like “Who are they shooting with today? That person must get killed!”

And you were one of the few people who knew, so would you get “Carly, let’s go out for drinks tonight” and have them try to ply you for spoilers?

It’s funny because my fiancée was a fan of the Screams too and he never knew. I never told him. And the script would be at my house but he didn’t read it. My sister-in-law’s also a big fan and she was like, “Just tell me.”

“It’s Dewey. You can tell me.”

It was a fun secret to keep.

Were there alternate endings?

No. That’s it.

Because I know they did that on some of the others. The third one, I think.

The ending’s the ending. There was a “button scene” we shot, maybe it’ll be on the DVD. It’s just like an extra little joke at the end.

Can I ask about the Kevin Williamson/Ehren Kruger thing, how much of Kevin’s draft is in the final film?

Oh, it’s his script. He had to go back to Vampire Diaries at the end of May, which we all knew. So there were things that still needed to be tweaked and he couldn’t do it, but it’s totally his story, his characters, his script.

It feels like his. It feels more like a proper part III than Scream 3 does, actually.

Last question: If you could go back to your first day out here working on Cursed and give yourself advice, what would it be?

The best advice would be to “always anticipate.” Try and guess what whomever you’re working for is gonna need or want and have that already done. That’s probably the best thing any aspiring assistant looking to move up can do… of the assistants and interns I’ve had, the ones that can anticipate are the ones that I then recommend for jobs in the future or try to help find their next job. It definitely makes you stick out a little more.

It’s so important to do that and not just be the intern who shows up with the attitude of “I’m not getting paid so I’m not going to do anything.”

And have passion. Be interested and not be like “Right at six I’m going to leave.” When I was the office PA on Cursed, I would always try to end my day with a delivery to set so I could stay on set and hang out. And I would stay there because that was my opportunity to learn more, and I didn’t have to work or do anything. I could just observe.

Interview with SCREAM 4 co-producer Carly Feingold - Part II: What does a Creative Executive do and what do they look for?

Part I: The path to being Wes Craven's Creative Exec

Anyway, we were talking about Wes as a producer versus Wes as a director. Is there a difference in working with him in those roles?

For sure. On projects he’s producing, even watching dailies you’re watching them differently than when it’s your own work. Obviously he respects the director because he’s in that position, so I think for directors he’s an ideal producer to work with. In the editing process he goes in and gives his notes, but he also gives space.

In these remakes, is he very good at divorcing himself from what his movie was and watching this as its own thing?

I think so. He had a lot to do with the Hills Have Eyes remake and let [director and screenwriter] Alex Aja and [screenwriter] Greg [Levasseur] just do their vision. He liked that they had their own take on it and it wasn’t gonna be the same, it was gonna be it’s own thing. The same with [director] Dennis [Iliadis] and Last House. If you’re going to remake something there’s no point in doing it the same way. He wanted a new take on it and for it to feel like a different movie. I think he was really happy with both results. He was very involved [from the start.] He approved it all. He was watching dailies every day and on Hills Have Eyes 2 he was on set in Morocco.

I’ve read a lot of horror scripts, and a lot of bad ones, and I can only imagine the kind of script submissions that get sent to Wes Craven. Do you get any of a higher quality?

Occasionally you get that adult thriller or you get a young adult novel that’s actually pretty good, or a graphic novel that’s a little more interesting. But you also get the – you know – kids in the woods and guy going crazy after them.

Let’s talk about being a Creative Executive, because I know that some of my readers know what that is and some may not know what the day-to-day is. So you’re reading a lot of scripts…

Yeah, I probably read on average, three to five scripts a day. Obviously not reading every single page. My thing was I’d always read every page until page 40 and then I would see if I wanted to continue reading every page or if I would skim the rest if I knew where it was going at that point. You can tell by then you should be in Act Two and get a sense of the writer.

And you know the characters, the tone, where the plot is going.

And I wasn’t always reading it just for that script. I was also reading it for the writer because we had other projects going that we were looking for writers to rewrite or to write. We were also watching films, looking for projects to remake… We were reading books, reading graphic novels, reading other things.

Were you taking submissions strictly from agents and managers or would you respond to queries?

We didn’t accept any unsolicited material. I would accept it if it came from a lawyer. It was just to protect us and the writer from anyone stealing any ideas.

And also as a CE, throughout the day you have pitches coming in, general meetings with writers and directors for any projects we might have been putting together.

I imagine the ratio of scripts read and meetings taken to projects was ultimately pretty low.

Especially because we were such a small company. There were only five of us working there – it wasn’t like we were this place with like 20 people and something’s always happening. Sometimes when we were shooting something, no one would be in the office because we were all on set. I was on-set trying to do both jobs, associate producing or whatever it was on-set, as well as reading scripts daily and taking phone calls.

What would catch your eye in a script? What were the things that would ensure that once you hit that 40 page mark you’d keep going?

Strong characters definitely. Characters that you relate to, but that’s interesting enough that I want to find out what’s happening with this person. [Rather than] five college kids are in a car on a road trip and they’re all the same. Give me someone I can really care about. That’s probably the number one thing.

And then [a premise] where you can tell me it in one line and I’m intrigued. I personally like supernatural and sci-fi, ghost stories, things like that, so I tend to go to those more. But I also love straight-up thrillers that could really happen, and what would you do in that situation.

It’s hard to find good stuff there, because that’s kind of my genre too. I’m always excited when I find a good one, but you have to go through a lot of “Oh, I’ve seen this before!”

Yeah, I got so sick of slasher scripts and things with rape – and yes, three of the films we did had rape in it. It is shocking and it is a horrible, horrible thing to have on screen and it definitely affects you. But reading it in script after script it’s hard to be like “Do people want to see this?”

And if you’ve read my blog you know that’s something that’s come up perpetually on it, because I’ve read so many of those kinds of scenes where you’re… very uncomfortable with how it’s written. It’s graphic and there’s a sort of unseemliness to it.

It works so well in Last House – I think – because you needed it to have the parents’ revenge be, [the rapists] get what they deserve.

I absolutely agree.

Because if that hadn’t happened, then the parents killing them would have been like “Yeah, it’s horrible they kidnapped them, but did they deserve death?” But [with the rape] it’s like, “Yeah, they deserve to die.”

Yeah and to be fair, you do wonder who’s coming into this surprised by the violence if they know anything about the original. “You’re surprised this is brutal?! All right…” Actually, they had just seen Music of the Heart and thought, “Oh, I’ll see this guy’s other movie!”

[laughs] A lot of people don’t know that Wes directed that!

Really? I always think that it’s interesting that’s the only outside-genre one he’s done. I always think that – even as a gimmick if he wanted to do a romantic comedy - -

His segment of Paris, je t'aime was a romantic comedy. It’s great, if you haven’t seen it.

I just enjoy the picture of your typical romantic comedy trailer with Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd and then having “Wes Craven presents…” come up. It’s be a great marketing thing.

He’s great with comedy. I can totally see him doing that.

When I was watching the Red Eye commentary, I remember he says, “Oh this is the first thriller we’ve done.” And I thought, “Really, it doesn’t seem like that,” but I guess everything else he’s done counts as horror, but I always saw Scream as more of a thriller.

I kind of think of The Serpent and the Rainbow as thriller.

Yeah, you’re right because that’s not straight-up horror. It’s a little more psychological.

Part III - Making Scream 4

Interview with SCREAM 4 co-producer Carly Feingold - Part I: The path to being Wes Craven's Creative Exec

If you've read my earlier interviews, you'll know that I've mostly interviewed writers and a few writer's assistants. This week's interview is a first in several ways. Carly Feingold was a co-producer on Scream 4, but she got her start like many in this business did, as a PA. In between, she climbed the ladder as Wes Craven's assistant and eventually became his creative executive. If you're among the readers who send me emails asking "How do I break in?" you might want to pay attention and take notes.

I know you went to The University of Texas at Austin – I stalked you on the Internet – were you studying film there?

Yes, I was a film production major. I finished early because I knew what I wanted to do and wanted to get to L.A. And while I was there I was part of a student film club. We organized this thing called Conference where each year we’d bring in professionals in the industry to speak to students about breaking in to the industry. We held workshops and a panel discussion. The year I was the conference director, I was able to get Wes Craven to be our headliner. We also had Wally Pfister there, Dody Dorn, and some more amazing people.

Wes and I just really hit it off that weekend and I kept in touch with him through email after that. When I moved to LA I called him up and just asked if I could pick his brain about what to do. It just so happened he was starting up on Cursed – for the second time – and he offered me a job as an office P.A. Then during that film, his assistant left and I became his assistant.

Wow. How’d you convince him to come to Austin in the first place? It seems like that was the root of all of this.

I was in college and I definitely didn’t have a subscription to Baseline! So I called a lot of people’s assistants… probably cold-called about 300 people in the industry. I picked my top three people that I wanted to come and sent them gift baskets. Wes was one of them. I was always a huge horror fan, and a fan of his, and just always loved the balance of humor and gore in his movies.

So I started a dialogue with his assistant and at the time, luckily, Wes wasn’t shooting anything. We only paid for speakers airfare, their accommodations and their transportation. They didn’t get paid to be there. We got about 12 speakers to come… so I think the gift basket really did it. For the other people I think it was just my persistence – calling every week until finally they were like “Okay, we’ll just tell this girl ‘yes!’”

It sounds like you did the right thing in making them feel special and important, and appealed to them personally. That’s a lesson right there, I guess. You never know who’s going to say yes when you try.

Exactly. It’s worth trying.

So you were an office P.A. for the whole run of Cursed?

I began on Cursed when it started up for the second time. Cursed was an interesting project. On the weekends I’d do Set PA work on music videos and commercials, just to get more on-set experience. During the very end of Cursed, Red Eye was starting and by then I was Wes’s assistant. We were still doing post on Cursed when we were shooting Red Eye.

Does a complete cut exist of that first version, or is it a case where they stopped so early in the process—

I never even saw the very first version. I think I’ve been told there was 8 minutes of the first version that was shot that ended up in the final movie. They recast parts and rewrote the script entirely. I think the problem was that when they started the first time, the script just wasn’t there yet.

So then Red Eye was the first time you were on the set of a feature?

Yes, as Wes’ assistant I was there every single day.

When you’re assisting a director, what’s the day-to-day job, if you can give us an idea?

I’m trying to remember what I did back then…. There’s a lot of making sure he had coffee… making copies of the shot list, making sure he had storyboards, and then just sitting next to him, really observing and being there if he needed anything.

Red Eye was unique because we had the same background actors for six weeks straight. They formed groups and had different holding rooms to retire to. I thought that was so interesting that I started doing a documentary on the background [actors]. I’d go around filming my own behind-the-scenes thing everyday, which was really fun. Then the editor’s assistant and I cut it and made a documentary on that.

How is that not on the DVD? That would be so cool!

I know, we interviewed Wes for it. We interviewed all these people and we gave it to [the DVD producers] and we don’t know why they didn’t put it on. It’s on YouTube.

Well, I’ll go look for it and maybe put a link in the article. That is really cool.



It was really fun and just gave me something else to do on set, because when you’re there 14 hours a day, you’re not busy every second of the day. I was reading scripts that were coming in for Wes but that wasn’t really my job at the time because I was hired at that point for the film and not for his company. Then after that I became an employee of his company.

Wes is such a great guy. He’s a wonderful person to work for and learn from. He used to be a professor, so I think he instinctually teaches. I’d ask a question when I didn’t understand something and he’d explain it to me without making me feel like an idiot. He is just so warm and generous.

So anyway, after you transitioned to Wes’s company as his assistant, were you reading scripts for him and the usual assistant stuff? Filtering through submissions and all of that?

And fan mail. He gets a lot of fan mail… some from prisons and all kinds of places.

Really?

A lot from Japan and Russia and all these other countries and you’re like “Really? Okay.”

And then how’d you transition up to being Creative Executive?

I think I was probably his assistant for about two and a half years before I became a CE there. At that time, other executives had left and the company had changed a bit. The other executive there – he would focus more on stuff for Wes to produce and I was trying to find stuff more for Wes to direct. Of course those things overlap a lot, but that was how we separated it. Most of the producing projects were the things he owned the rights to—

Like The Last House on the Left.

And The Hills Have Eyes, The Hills Have Eyes 2. Wes also did a great segment for Paris, je t'aime in there. So when we were on a press tour for Red Eye in Europe, we stopped in Paris to do location scouting and then came back a month later to shoot it. That was a great experience. It felt like film camp for professionals. All these [filmmakers] were there and would be like, “Hey do you want to come be in [my segment]” or “come help in mine.” That was one of my most fun film experiences.

Was there a point in there where you were like, “I didn’t even need to go to film school.”

Texas was great, but I probably learned more in one day on a feature set than I ever did in film school. When I was in high school though, I went to a wonderful film camp in Maine called, the International Film & Television Workshop. I went there for a two week camp, and I learned more in those two weeks than I learned in film school.

Were you making movies in film school?

Yes, but mostly I made shorts.

Same here.

I mean, I never made a feature. I started making my own movies when I was five years old – not that I was good at it, but you know, after school all my friends would come over to my house and we’d make a movie. That’s what we did all day. So that was what I always wanted to do and what I was working towards.

Part II - What does a Creative Executive do and what do they look for?
Part III - Making Scream 4