Shooting Outside the Lines

Tyrese Gibson. photo courtesy of Brad Furman

Film: The Take (2007)
Starring: John Leguizamo, Tyrese Gibson, Bobby Cannavale, Rosie Perez

I've always admired 1970s filmmaking because of the well-drawn-out characters that feel palpable and real amidst a strong story. To some degree with today's search for the next blockbuster, cinema has moved away from the substantive, thought-provoking work that makes for a great film.

In an effort to capture this lost realism, we shot The Take with a cinéma vérité style, using mostly hand-held camerawork, thus giving the actors freedom to improvise. Further, we chose to consistently put our actors in real environments as opposed to staged settings. We shot on the streets of Boyle Heights and downtown L.A. Because of this, everything you see in the movie is a fine line between documentary and fiction. Spielberg said (I'm paraphrasing from memory), that the magic in filmmaking is truly captured when he has come across happy accidents. The Take became the perfect canvas to achieve this by creating a world, inserting the actors, and letting them find their way naturally. This experiment allowed us to discover the truth in the film.

Rosie Perez. photo courtesy of Brad Furman

Upon reading the script for The Take, I decided to create a modern version of a Seventies classic. In Mean Streets (1973), New York City serves as both a setting and a character. Likewise, in The Take, Boyle Heights (the other Los Angeles) lives and breathes as a main character of the film, depicting the sad results of a violence-ridden community. We live vicariously through our hero, Felix de la Pena (played by John Leguizamo) as he fights to find his way after having violence enacted upon him.

Felix was my Rocky Balboa. Rocky (1976) epitomized the true underdog story. Win or lose in the ring, Rocky had already won because he goes the distance. This is exactly what The Take became: my own personal struggle to go the distance.

Bobby Cannavale. photo courtesy of Brad Furman

In struggling to be a filmmaker, especially in independent film, one strives to make films that can be on par with high-budget studio movies. In the end, a film is deemed "great" not by how much money went into making it but by the strength of its story. When I was in film school at NYU, my professor, David Irving, showed my class the director's commentary of Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi. I was uniquely inspired (outside of Rodriquez's selling his body to science) by his dedication to the love of his craft. Rodriquez kept it simple and made it intimate. It was a man armed with his camera against any insurmountable obstacles that lay ahead. This was the goal with The Take. Against the greatest of odds, we banded together to do whatever necessary to get the movie made, and made well. We bent, broke, abided by and made up our own new set of rules. You learn through the difficulties of independent filmmaking that, in the end, all that matters is what's on the film. That became our mantra.

Interestingly enough - and this wasn't planned - Felix's story of a man who has the rug pulled out from under him and struggles to survive and then rediscover himself, parallels our story making this film. Investors dropped out, we were chased by the police, crew were maced by security guards, the first assistant directors quit, crew members quit, the crew unionized mid-show and gang violence shut us down. We were constantly dealing with these crazy situations and, like Felix, we were forced to find our way. As they say, it was a case of life imitating art, and art imitating life.

John Leguizamo. photo courtesy of Brad Furman

It's truly a crowning achievement for us to have come this far and have our film premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. In the end, I want our audience to realize the brutal reality of violence. Films tend to glorify violence, but we hope that, after seeing The Take, viewers will understand violence is real and it tears apart lives and families. Ironically, the gang police raid footage that bookends the film is all real footage. While we were in the midst of shooting a movie that is a social commentary on violence in society, we had real violence going on in the community, which we captured and used to counter the glamorized ideology often associated with violence in the world today. –MPM

Theatrical run for The Take begins April 11 in L.A. and N.Y.

Furman's directorial debut short film, Fast Forward, received critical acclaim and was showcased at more than twenty-five film festivals nationwide, including the San Francisco Independent Film Festival, Los Angeles International Film Festival (IFF), Phoenix IFF, No Dance Film Festival (Park City, Utah) and Cleveland IFF. The film was honored with the Best Narrative Film Award at the UFO Columbia University Film Festival and Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the renowned Fayetteville IFF.

Furman directed, produced and co-wrote his second short film, The Stranger. It premiered at the Hollywood Film Festival and was the only short film chosen to screen with the feature films at Hollywood's Arc Light Theater. It stars Steve Guttenberg, Xander Berkley, Pat Healy and Dylan Smith. Film director John Singleton (Four Brothers) has said of Furman's directing, "He has got a great sense of rhythm, intensity, and comic timing."

Furman sold two film concepts, Extortion for Universal Films and D.A. Verdict for MGM/Kathy Konrad/James Mangold, both based on his own treatments. Tyrese Gibson, J Records recording artist and actor, is attached to star in both projects. Gibson describes Furman as "the future of music videos and feature films down a road less traveled." Furman also directed 50 Cent and G-Unit in a short film for their raucous appearance at the British Grammys, aka "The Brits."

In addition to his work in film, Furman has directed music videos for such diverse talent as Interscope Records Spitfiya, winner of Showtime's "The Next Episode"; Linkin Park's protégé rap group Styles of Beyond; rock artists Mr. North; country pop singers The Marie Sisters, Dr. Dre's protégé Knock-Turn'al, and New Zealand's hugely popular rock band Zed. The Zed video was number one in Australia and New Zealand for more than five consecutive months. Furman also directed Virgin Records El Pus video "Suburb Thuggin," which went number one on MTV.

Furman has directed commercials for Rogish Street Threadz, a hip-hop clothing line endorsed by DJ Kid Capri, and Fresh Pair Lingerie, a New York-based clothing line.

Unbroken, his PSA for RAINN (The Rape Abuse Incest National Network), was accepted to the Universal Studio/MVPA Director's Cuts. Starring Rachel Bilson of "The O.C.," the compelling film led to Furman's selection as one of the top directors of 2004 by the Universal Studios/MVPA panel.

In addition, Furman was one of three finalists (out of 500) for the Discovering New Artists Award at the ArcLight Cinema's Los Angeles Shorts Festival in 2004.

Prior to directing, Furman worked in the film industry as the business liaison for Hollywood star Julia Roberts and her company Shoelace Productions (Revolution Studios). In 2001, Furman created his own production company, Road Less Traveled Productions, Inc., as a banner for his many directing, writing and producing projects.

Born in Philadelphia, Furman is a Founders Scholar graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for Film and Television, where he was a finalist for the Lew Wasserman MCA/Universal Scholarship Award for Outstanding Student. He began his career in the entertainment industry as an assistant to ICM talent Agent Sue Leibman, and as an Associate Producer for the ABC daytime talk show "The Nancy Glass Show.

Furman currently divides his time between New York and Los Angeles. He is represented at CAA, and his attorneys are PJ Shapiro and Matt Johnson of Ziffren, Brittenham.