From Radio to Motion Picture - How “The Bullet” on the Big Screen Became a Reality

I remember a few years ago Josh and I had a lunch meeting at Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank to discuss a web series he wanted to create. At that time, I was just starting out as a filmmaker and wanted to be serious about a career in the motion picture business. In the middle of the meeting, as we rhapsodized about the future, he brought up a radio play that his father, Sam Dann, had written in the 1970’s that he thought would be a perfect piece to adapt to the screen. It was a mystery drama about a war veteran whose guilt over the death of his friend had escalated into a haunted obsession. I was immediately captivated by the idea but thought it wasn’t the right time because I had a few ideas of my own that I wanted to explore. I told Josh to write a screenplay for The Bullet and we would decide.

A year later, Josh handed me his first draft. As I was reading, I became more intrigued by the concept. I felt that the story had a certain darkness that really fits my style of filming. That was the moment when I knew that The Bullet had to be made into a movie.

So I immediately informed Josh that I was serious about the project but it would require major rewrites. First, the war setting would be too expensive to film. Right away I suggested that we instead use an urban police shootout to set up the plot. The main characters would be cops instead of soldiers. I also asked Josh to incorporate elements of a dark genré which I felt was needed with this kind of story. Josh immediately began rewriting with my recommendations in mind and after a few weeks, we had a screenplay that was almost ready for production.

I started reaching out to line producer Tim Kennedy to begin working on the budget and the initial team of producers was formed. Once the production budget breakdown was set, I asked close friend and actress Monserrat Pérez (Monse) to help me with the casting, fundraising and pre-production. We knew we had a challenge ahead of us but we pushed onward with the project.

One of the most important decisions I have made going in to this project was making sure that we hired the right actors and an experienced crew to achieve the best quality. This was to be my first major film project and possibly my last. So we were going all in.

The Bullet’s plot of mystery and themes of guilt and psychosis provided me with the opportunity to shoot a dark film. Because of the history of the material and the value it presented, I knew that this film would have to be shot with a heavy classic noir influence. This meant that we had to find the appropriate locations to match the production design and photography. Production designer Elijah Flores had had the opportunity to work on another film that shot scenes in a bar at the Elk’s Lodge in Van Nuys. Elijah thought it was a good match and he was right. The bar at Elk’s Lodge has a certain retro look that provided the right atmosphere for our main character’s troubled persona to unwind but would also eventually be the place of his demise.

For Jerry and Maggie’s house, we were originally set on filming in a single level three-bedroom house in Van Nuys. But producer Mari Pollack insisted that the location would be a nightmare for production sound because of its close proximity to the airport. Plus the owners would not allow the actors and the crew to use their bathrooms. There would be the added cost of renting a portable bathroom—not to mention the inconvenience. So the search for Jerry and Maggie’s house began anew.

An unexpected stroke of luck hit the production team just when we were about to give up on the location search. As it turned out, a co-worker of Monse’s knew a couple that owned a century-old Craftsman home in Lincoln Heights. The house had been kept intact and was almost 75% in original condition since it was built in 1910. It was perfect. You couldn’t ask for a better production design than this house had offered. In retrospect, the selection of those two locations was one of the best things that happened in this project.

There was only one candidate I had in mind to fill the cinematographer’s position. Minho Ha has been a good friend for years, going way back to our days at UCLA. Minho understood my vision and he got everything right. His camera and lighting work captured the high contrast images that I needed in the film. Working with him was an amazing experience.

As principal photography was coming near, a much bigger reality has set in. We came up short in raising the money needed for production. Despite the help we received from family and friends and with most of the cast and crew working with minimum pay or for free it wasn’t enough to get us through the four days of production and post production. But the production team knew from the beginning that at some point we would have to use our own money to finance the film. We just didn’t know we would need personally finance most of it. And so a decision had to be made: suspend production until we raised enough money, or forge ahead and make the ultimate sacrifice. I decided to go for the latter and gave up my apartment to crash in my best friend’s spare room rent free for six months. It might seem a bit irrational looking back, but my passion for filmmaking got the best of me.

We got through one of the biggest challenges we will ever face in our lifetime and now “The Bullet” will be immortalized in a motion picture. What was very clear for me from the beginning was that I have this opportunity to be part of the legacy of this incredible story and I was really close to realizing a dream. It was an endeavor worth sacrificing and it was a story worth telling.