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© (C) 2008 Mutant Enemy
Neil Patrick Harris in DR. HORRIBLE'S SING-A-LONG BLOG
Internet:
Exclusive Interview: PRODUCER MICHAEL BORETZ MAKES HOUSE CALLS FOR 'DR. HORRIBLE'S SING-ALONG BLOG' - PART 1
The producer's experience making his own short SPLITTING HAIRS was a perfect training ground to aid Joss Whedon in his latest musical endeavor
By T.K. DEHN, Contributing Writer
Published 7/14/2008
Michael Boretz, with David M. Burns, is one of the producers of DR. HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG. In case you missed mention of the subject (in which case, welcome back to the Web), DR. HORRIBLE is the new Internet musical directed by Joss Whedon, co-written by him and brothers Jed Whedon and Zack Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. It premieres for free Tues. July 15 at www.drhorrible.com, with the second act up Thurs. July 17, the third act up Sat. July 19 and the whole thing vanishing at midnight Sun. July 20, but with plans to show up on DVD – with fabulous special features – soon thereafter.
Two important things to know about Boretz: first, he was Whedon’s assistant for about five years, and second, Boretz wrote, produced and directed his own short film SPLITTING HAIRS.
“[Whedon] saw my short film and was impressed,” Boretz explains. “He and I were talking back when I was still his assistant, about me producing an idea he had for a short film. When that didn’t happen, he chose to do DR. HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG, and he asked me to help him produce that. He basically described the thing in two words – ‘Internet musical.’ He was working on it with his brothers Zack and Jed and his [Jed’s] fiancée Maurissa [Tancharoen]. During the [writers' guild] strike, they came up with the idea [but didn't do anything with it, because they were on strike] and it just took a little while [once the strike was over] to get it all in place.”
Like everybody else who knows anything about it, Boretz has been sworn to secrecy on the details of DR. HORRIBLE. Here’s what he can tell us.
“The basic plotline is that it’s about this wannabe mad scientist character [Harris], who is in love with the Penny [Day] character, and it’s about him wanting to do more and be more and change the world. Then there’s a hero [Fillion] who everyone loves who ...” Boretz hesitates on the description. “He always reminds me of Gaston from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.”
Describing his duties on DR. HORRIBLE, Boretz says he helped find many of the key positions from art director to the director of photography.
“Then [Whedon] hired David M. Burns, who had worked on ANGEL for a number of years, to produce as well,” adds Boretz. “I set up all the post-production and have been shepherding it to completion and Jed Whedon has been getting everything ready for our debut on the Net. What was cool for me was, I started working for Joss after [the BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER musical episode] ‘Once More, With Feeling’ was already done and everybody loved it and I heard all these stories about how fun it was to work on. I got to witness this [DR. HORRIBLE] firsthand. Working alongside Joss and his family and the wickedly talented Nathan Fillion and Neil Patrick Harris and Felicia Day was amazing. Throw in some beautiful songs and you have a hell of a shoot.”
Working with Whedon proved to be a dream come true for Boretz, who always wanted to be involved in filmmaking, but when he was a kid, his family and friends actually thought he might go into special effects makeup.
“As a kid, I spent a lot of time on my own,” he explains. “I went to see a lot of movies and I had a vivid imagination, so I always had an interest in creature effects and FANGORIA magazine, stuff like that. I used to really be into the gore and the blood, and my father’s a dentist, so I would have access to lots of wax, [out of which] I would make vampire fangs.”
Coming out to Hollywood from New York, Boretz worked as a production assistant on the horror thriller IDENTITY before becoming Whedon’s assistant.
“After working for Joss for a year or two, I started to have a little bit of time,” he says. “I wanted to do something creative, and I just got so sick of wanting and talking about it and not doing it that I did.”
After a few writing projects didn’t pan out, Boretz came to the conclusion, “I don’t really want to be doing this, I want to direct something. I started writing [SPLITTING HAIRS] while Joss was working on SERENITY. I didn’t shoot it until May 2005, so it took a good year or so to get it going.”
SPLITTING HAIRS, which has now appeared in a number of film festivals and won several awards, could perhaps be described as horror comedy, about a balding man who takes drastic steps to get a full head of hair. Boretz keeps his blond hair cropped, so it’s hard to tell, but he says the premise came from personal experience.
“It bothered me that I was losing my hair,” says Boretz. “I started losing it pretty early. And then when I was looking for something to write about, I had a couple of stories in mind, but for my first project, I wanted to try my hand at a little bit of everything. So the original script had twelve to fifteen locations, it had visual effects, it had a fight, it had gore in it and it had comedy. It had all that and I was like, ‘That’s what I want to do. If I’m only going to get one shot with my money, I want to really try to direct everything.’”
It also had some once and future Whedon colleagues, including leading lady Day (Potential Slayer Vi on BUFFY), makeup effects supervisor Rob Hall and his company Almost Human (the last two seasons of BUFFY, three seasons of ANGEL, FIREFLY and SERENITY) and costume designer Shawna Trpcic (FIREFLY and ANGEL). Whedon also contributed some valuable narrative advice, according to Boretz.
“I was getting close to locking picture [finishing editing]. He had a great note [suggestion] about how when [the character] doesn’t have hair, he’s one way, and when he gets the hair, he has to be a new guy. 'You can’t have him have the hair and then slowly try to figure it out and build confidence.' [In the final version, per Whedon’s comments], as soon as he had the hair, he was happy-go-lucky on the street. Joss’ exact analogy was Batman. ‘When Bruce Wayne is in the costume, he’s Batman.' So that was a great note.’”
MORE ON BORETZ, WHEDON AND MAKING DR. HORRIBLE ON WEDNESDAY!
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