In the midst of the Chicago Marathon, a major heat wave (especially inside our building on a Sunday), and the Chicago Film Festival where he showed his new film STUCK (with Mena Suvari) last night, Stu Gordon made time (at the request and urging of Barbara Pollack) to come by Flashpoint Academy for a tour and a video interview with Perry Havoras who’s a huge Gordon fan and HAT. If you think that this was easy for Barb (or anyone) to pull off (unlike the recent IFP snatch of Robert Townsend), think again and take a look at Stuart’s shirt. Nothing happens at Flashpoint that isn’t the result of hard work and a passion to create a special set of opportunities for all of our students. And nothing good happens by accident or without careful preparation.

Stuart was a terrific sport to sit for an hour session; he was, of course, blown away by his tour of the facilities and said that he hadn’t seen anything in Los Angeles to equal our equipment, technology and environment; and he said he would be back to meet with our students. He also wants to come back to take notes on some of the more aggressive art work which he admired throughout his tour.

We will have his whole interview up shortly, but I was struck by a couple of his basic rules that he shared with us: (1) Be nice – you never know who will be able to help you out; (2) Never quit; (3) Be on time – time is money and punctuality matters; and (4) make sure you tell a good story – it all flows from the script and the writing.

He also said that everyone wants to direct because there’s really nothing to learn about directing and therefore everyone thinks that they can direct as opposed to learning to be a plumber which takes years. He said learning the tools of directing is nothing – the skill that is crucial is making decision after decision in real time – day after day – and making every one of them in the best interests of the project.

To view pictures, click here.

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