Expert Talk 9@9 - Film & Television Producer... Diane Cornell

Hey everybody, welcome to the show. You know where you are at 9 @ 9 with me, TGo and you know, I always love bringing Experts to the table, but today this is a passion of mine. I love filmmaking. I love television. I love production. So I called my good friend, Diane Cornell, and I said, Hey,

buddy, want to come on and talk about what's going on in the scene now? And she said maybe, and then she said maybe, and then she said, yeah, what's up Diane Cornell. Welcome to the show. Hey, Good morning. How are you? I am fantastic. How are you? Good, good. Living a dream, Living A dream.

I love it. Okay. So we got to talk about this. We got to talk about what's going on in the world, but first I want to thank you for making it because you know, it's going to be like 113 here today. So definitely AC is important and you've got like AC things going on around you and you still decided to show up with me.

I knew it. I knew it she's family. I knew what she was coming. It's okay. Let's talk about we're in the summer. And usually in the summer, you know, we're talking about film, blockbusters and Fast and Furious 9 is coming up pretty soon. And what was In the Heights went out last week? What is your feeling about people going back to the theater and all that good stuff?

Oh yeah. That's, it's exciting. I mean, you know, I mean, I can't wait to get back into the theaters myself, mostly for the, you know, the fresh, hot buttered popcorn, but you know, seeing the movies, you know, it doesn't get any better than that for me. So, you know, that's what I do.

It's what I love. Do you think I'm probably going to probably going to go see Queen probably gonna go see Queen Bees first though. I don't know that one? It's about a old people in a nursing home and James Caan and Ellen Burstyn and a whole slew of older actors, you know, when they're getting in there and they're in a nursing home and causing trouble.

Oh yeah. I got to go see that, that, that would be fun because A couple of weeks ago, you know, I always say that, you know what the old folks say, and a couple of weeks ago I realized I have become the old folks who say it, I'm 34. I'm forever 34, my numbers. Okay. I promised my mother,

I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't hold. Cause that's, you know, she says, it's a blessing every year you get as a blessing, be proud of it. And, and that's the way I am. So everybody knows I'm 57 going on 90. And I'm cool with that. You know? Well, let's talk a little bit about your history because we only have like five more minutes before evil Allen rolls the credits,

no matter what we're talking about. So cool. Thank you Allen. I wanted to bring you on here. Right? Rude as heck. But you know, I know you love it. You love the roll the credits on me all the time you are in Production, you're Line producer. You're Writer. You know, you understand you, you're my go-to person here lately.

I'm calling you up going, what the heck does this mean? Well, what do we do here? And what does that mean? How did you get into Production? I got into Production through actually doing Accounting and worked in the accounting department for years and then learned what I needed to learn, read every contract. I can get my hands on, spend as much time on set as I could spend on a set and learned everything I needed to know,

got my days, gotten the DGA Director's Guild of America and moved into UPN and then line producing and then joined the Producer skill of America and became a Producer and then Producing and Writing. And I'm moving into Directing some things now. So it's very exciting. So what about today? I mean, I'm sure there's somebody out there right now that, you know,

they have their handy-dandy trusty phone and they think that makes them a Producer and they're dropping. Yeah. I know you were going to say that. What is somebody wanting to get into this now, today? What would you tell them to do? Well, I think they got to pick the field. They want to get into there's so much between, you know,

production and post-production composing or animation or writing or directing. I think you have to focus in on really what it is, what you want to do. You know, focus is important and then you have to be tenacious as hell. If you want it, you have to put in the time you have to work at it. You can't very few of us can just,

you know, have the connections in life to just step right into the spot we want. So you have to work for it. And then part of that process is actually finding out like, yeah, do I really want to do this? I mean, I've seen say, oh, I want to be a Director. Then they get an opportunity to direct a movie.

What happens? They get on the set and they see how much work it really is and how much time they're going to have to spend and how much they don't know and how hard it is. And they turn around at the end of that and go, I'm never directing a movie again. I have noticed I want to Do it, but now you're scaring me.

Oh, it's a lot of work. You know? I mean, when we think about it, the simplest way to think about what is directing directing is you're the person that picks everything that decides everything. And with that power and fun goes up all the responsibility. If it looks like crap, it's all on you. Every single choice was made by you,

the orange bowl, the shot, the location, everything. And when you start thinking about like that, you get scared because you realize how much pressure that is. So, you know, and they wonder why directors are yellers and screamers. Well, they got all that pressure. Wait, I love To yell and scream. Maybe I will do this.

Hold On. We're here. You have been on major sets. I mean, your resume speaks for itself. You've worked with Majors and you're also doing Independent projects. We're actually going to do a few things together. It looks like. So how does that feel? How does it feel to, you know, have the big, big boys and the big studio sound and all that kind of stuff,

and then be independent on a budget of, well, I'm going to tell you right now our projects forget about shoestring budget. We're going to use the little plastic tip at the end of the shoe string. You know, I mean, the thing about it is you can make a movie, all kinds of varieties of budget levels, but the smaller, the budget,

obviously the more creative you have to be, the harder it is with money comes a little bit of latitude. You can't throw money at your problems. You got to solve it. You know? So you gotta be a problem solver on top of everything, Gotta be a problem solver real quick. Cause this man just put up our one minute warning. I see that what

is it a bomb? For the one minute warning? If somebody is doing this for their business, you know, would you tell them to get a professional camera? Just use their phone? Oh No, you have to use a professional camera. It's not going to, it's not going to translate properly. And in post production, it's not going to look the best.

And if you're going to put that much, work into something on a shoestring budget, it's got to look the best it can look. That is Fantastic. I want to thank you so much for jumping on with us for exactly nine minutes, because Allen is rude and you know, just sharing a little bit of your knowledge. I know you're going to be around. We're going to be on and off for all kinds of new projects coming up.

You are the best. I'm so glad you were here. My friend. Love ya! Love ya too it was awesome. Thank you. Bye! And Al...I was just saying Allen. Didn't cut us off. And then what did he do? He cut us off. Hey everybody, as you know, I'm so glad you watched today. I hope you'll be here next time for our next episode.

And as always I'm TGo and I'll talk to ya next time.