For most people, winning the Academy Award for producing the best picture, starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman, would have been enough of a career milestone. But not for Tony Bill. Bill, who produced the 1973 Best Picture winner ‘The Sting’ with Michael and Julia Phillips, and directed the 1980 film ‘My Bodyguard,’ has found success in every corner of the entertainment industry, including acting. He will sign his first book, ‘Movie Speak: How to Talk Like You Belong on a Film Set’ (Workman Publishing Company), at Village Books on Thursday, February 12 at 7:30 p.m. ‘This will be my first book signing,’ Bill says. The Venice resident, 68, tells the Palisadian-Post how ‘The Sting’ took three years between script and shoot, but once it got going, the production ran smoothly, with no pressure from the success of ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,’ the previous Redford/Newman vehicle. ”The Sting’ made three times more box office.’ In 1980, Bill directed his first film, ‘My Bodyguard,’ recently echoed in last year’s Owen Wilson comedy, ‘Drillbit Taylor,’ produced by Palisadian Judd Apatow. ‘I haven’t seen it but it sure does sound pretty much like a descendant of it,’ Bill says. ”My Bodyguard’ is a role model for many movies that have followed it.’ Bill considers ‘Bodyguard,’ along with ‘Five Corners,’ and ‘Flyboys’ his greatest directorial achievements. He also helmed two Dudley Moore comedies”’Six Weeks’ (1982) and ‘Crazy People’ (1990). He misses the late comic actor, with whom he had co-owned a popular restaurant, 72 Market Street, from 1984 to 2000. They opened it as a place where Bill could hold lectures and events, and Moore could play impromptu piano concerts for diners. As an actor, Bill enjoyed a role as a Warner Bros. executive in Tim Burton’s first feature, ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.’ ‘Movie Speak’ is equal parts movie-set etymology and career anecdotes. ‘There’s considerable advice for screenwriters,’ Bill says, ‘but it’s a director’s book. On a ship, the captain has to speak the same language as the crew. You don’t say, ‘go to the right,’ you say, ‘go to starboard.’ Moviemaking has its own specific language.’ Case in point: MOS (‘mitt out sound’). ‘Many people believe it came from a German director in the early years of film who’d yell ‘Mitt out sound!’ In my research, I found out it means something else.’ ‘Movie Speak’ contains glossary explanations of such familiar terms as ‘dailies’ and ‘in the can,’ and less common-knowledge phrases such as ‘buff and puff’ and ‘snot tape,’ plus essays drawn from Bill’s experiences. Aided by assistant Karen Svobodny, whom he calls ‘Detective Karen,’ Bill tracked down former Los Angeles Times illustrator Katie Maratta in Texas to provide the visuals. The idea for Bill’s book came ‘about a dozen years ago when my wife suggested that some of the movie set terms are poetic, mysterious and odd. So I started writing them down to make myself a dictionary of this almost endangered language.’ Bill’s wife, Helen Buck Bartlett, works as a producer and partner in the couple’s Barnstorm Films production company. In addition to their projects, the pair has produced daughters, Madeline, 11, and Daphne, 8. Bill says his book stands out from other filmmaking guides because he has home-court advantage. ‘Immodestly,’ he says, ‘I think that most books about the movies have not been written by people who have been there and done that.’ Village Books is located at 1049 Swarthmore. Contacts: (310) 454-4063; and www.palivillagebooks.com.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
