Jun 4, 2021
This is a fun conversation with filmmaker Dana Glazer. We start our conversation by discussing how his grandfather would work with Dana over multiple summer visits to create homemade claymation stop-action movies. We explore how his grandfather nurtured Dana's creativity and gift for filmmaking. The lessons learned about just diving in and doing a project and learning along the way is something Dana has passed on to his children. Dana and I talk about his children's projects, Blackhole Producers and No Pizza! No Cake! as well as how to encourage children's creativity.
As Dana grew older, and created his production company called Dane-Gramp productions. This childhood creation with his grandfather manifested itself to become where his films are created, produced, and promoted. We dive into the history of how Dana's movie A Case of Blue was developed. Dana also walks us through the relatively quick schedule to move from the story to casting, shooting, and then promotion.
Dana and I carefully talk about A Case of Blue because there is so much going on with this movie. We try very hard to give you an understanding of the movie while at the same time leaving a lot of the treasures of this movie to yet be discovered. We also talk about the lead actor, Stephen Schnetzer, and what a great job he does as a new retiree, Richard, who is faced with life-altering decisions and circumstances as well as a crisis.
We take a movement to have an enjoyable conversation about acting, actors, storytelling, and filmmaking. As part of that discussion, Dana talks about how good actors, like Stephen and Dustin Hoffman, in the film The Graduate, go into themselves to bring out the character and make the character external for the film or performance.
Dana and I wrap up our conversation with a heartwarming and funny story that Dana shared at his grandfather's funeral. This is a fantastic conversation about grandfathers, becoming a storyteller and a filmmaker in part because of those early home movies made with his grandfather.
Links:
Blackhole Producers - Dana's youngest son's YouTube channel
No Pizza! No Cake - Georgia Glazer's children's book
A Case of Blue - Dana's fantastic movie
Dane-Gramp Productions - Dana's production company
Stephen Schnetzer - Stephen's IMDB page