My Dinner with Ovitz

Hollywood uncovered! Gloriously naked for all to see, and what we see isn't very pretty...but it is pretty funny. Watching the so-called powerful falling on their own petards is a venal pleasure, yet it also serves as a life lesson.

Like an elementary school bully, Michael Ovitz used his powerful position in the Hollywood wars to step on, steal from and bad mouth whomever stood in his way of control of the school yard. When he loses his power the bully becomes victim and blames everyone else for his demise.

As laughable as his Vanity Fair interview was for his incriminating of "The Gay Mafia" for his fall, "My Dinner With Ovitz" is even funnier as it rams the actual interview headlong into Coppola's "Godfather." The result is a farcical and sad truth that should make the Hollywood step-upons, stolen-froms and never-beens delighted and perhaps even a little vindicated.

Great subject matter, creatively spoofing "The Godfather." It all stems from Michael Ovitz' fall from grace, and the co-chairmanship of Disney, all of which he blamed on others. But the production itself isn't what's great. The idea of the short is better than it's execution. The acting and pace needed a jolt. And it would have been nice if the actors had also tried to do a bit more to impersonate the people they were portraying. But all in all, a good spoof short. Now why didn't I think of that?

While the story itself and tounge-in-cheek performances in this short are certainly noteworthy, I was doubly impressed when I learned that it was shot entirely on DVCAM using a Sony DSR 500 that is owned by the D.P., John Rhode. He used his knowledge of cinematography to emulate film as closely as possible. By sticking with longer lenses and cheating fore ground and back ground elements farther away from the subject, he is able to recreate the depth of field that you'd get with 35mm film. In other instances he uses modified film lighting techniques to get the same saturation and coloring.

On top of it all I believe they shot the whole thing in four days!

This type of masterful use of the DV format has given me pause in my staunch "film only" attitude. I still perfer film but I now have a better appreciation for the potential of DV.