EXCLUSIVE: Thomas Jane Talks 2nd Annual 3D Film Festival

Sep 21, 2011 by B. Alan Orange

Thomas Jane has been tapped as host for this year's 3D Film Festival (3DFF), now in its 2nd year of residency at the Los Angeles Film School, from September 22-25, 2011. Besides being Master of Ceremonies during the Opening & Closing nights, Thomas Jane will function as an ambassador of the festival to filmmakers and press throughout the four days of screenings, panels and the new 3D Music Festival Program being held at Avalon Hollywood. The Festival will open Thursday night with a screening of Warner Bros. and Alcon Entertainment's Dolphin Tale 3D. To buy tickets: or

The actor also currently stars on HBO's critically-acclaimed comedy series Hung, which returns for Season 3 on October 2nd with Don't Give Up On Detroit or Hung Like a Horse.
We recently caught up with Thomas Jane to talk about the festival, audience's love-hate relationship with 3D, and what we can expect from Hung this fall.

This is our conversation.

Do you think the 3D haters are hating because they keep seeing all of the wrong movies in 3D?

Thomas Jane: I have a couple of reasons why you might not enjoy 3D. The glasses might not fit your particular head shape. You might have a stigmatism in one eye. If you are color blind, that can throw off 3D. Some people are prone to headaches. But, the biggest reason for those 3D haters is the 2D to 3D conversion. It's not 3D. Its not true 3D. You are looking at two flat images that are combined to make a third flat image. There is no real sense of depth. True 3D is shot with two cameras that mimic the way we perceive depth with our own two eyes. They come from two different perspectives, and they come together to create this 3D image. The thing with true 3D is that it's getting rarer. We don't often see it. It's because of the budget. People think they are saving money by converting the film. But as Jeffrey Katzenberg so famously pointed out, 2D to 3D conversion is killing the goose that laid the golden egg. It is really testing the audience's faith in terms of 3D entertainment. But that hasn't stopped progress or technology from continuing to improve every year. The cameras get better. At this 3D festival, we are going to show off the new Sprint phone, which has a 3D camera. And it has a glasses-less display for the camera. They have had that in Japan for a while now. They have test marketed them. We also have some great family films. We have Dolphin Tale, which we are going to open with. We have Chinese 3D. We have Korean 3D. We have some art house 3D starring Heather Graham. Which I think, Heather Graham and 3D? That's a pretty good combination. We've got music this year. Dr. Steven Greer is doing the Disclosure Project on closing night. To learn more about that, go on http://www.disclosureproject.org/. On opening night we have Alyssa Suede Campbell, which is Beck's sister, and she is going to play. We have Golden State. Some good indie bands. We've really grown. We have panels for the professional 3D filmmaker. We have one on 3D advertising. There will be panels all weekend long. It is really great to be there hosting this show, this festival. It has grown in one year already by adding music and a fashion show. We will have some 3D concert material. The film roster has grown. I see 3D as something that will continue to grow and blossom. Even though we do have, what you call, the 3D haters. Which is also a good thing. It forces us to find solutions that will be satisfying for everybody, not just the 3D enthusiasts.

I had the opportunity to see two movies back to back this summer, which were Conan and Final Destination 5. Conan, which was converted, was terrible. At least 2/3s of it wasn't even in 3D. I took my glasses off about twenty minutes in and didn't ever put them back on my face. That, combined with seeing Clash of the Titans in 3D, really made me loathe this conversion technology. But then I saw Final Destination 5 that same night, which was shot in 3D, and the difference was day and night. It was an awesome experience. What it showed me is that a lot of people, who choose the wrong 3D movie to see, are going to not enjoy the experience just based on their taste in movies. Which isn't there fault. If they don't want to see Final Destination 5 and all its gruesome gore, which a lot of people don't, they're not going to know that there is really good 3D out there...

Thomas Jane: With the 3D film festival, we are really trying to get across that 3D is an esoteric mode of expression. Used correctly, used to its full potential, it is an experience unlike anything else. Which it should be. Again, because of its success, we are now seeing the bastardization of 3D. We are against that. We have seen people insert a few 3D scenes into a film, then call it a 3D film. That is not fair. Not only are they not shooting the movie in 3D, they are not converting the whole movie into 3D. Now, they convert a few action scenes, and they leave these other scenes in 2D. Now, you are really raping the audience's expectations. You are creating an antagonistic relationship with the audience. They are going to get a bad taste in their mouths. It is stupid.

It seems like a disservice to the filmmaker. I couldn't honestly tell you if I liked Conan on its own merits or not until after I watch it again in 2D.

Thomas Jane: It's a disservice to the whole industry. The audience is now going to shy away from 3D. You, as a filmmaker, are going to get screwed, because you are not giving the audience an enjoyable experience at all with your movie. Not only is the filmmaker getting screwed in that way, now the audience is not going to like the filmmaker either. The studios have decided to bastardize 3D with these 2D to 3D conversions. Especially by converting a portion of the film instead of the whole movie. But, you know...You are killing the golden goose. Maybe 3D does deserve to die, if they want to abuse it as much as they do. Our 3D film festival offers an antidote to these studios' unscrupulously abusing the audience's good faith. We offer the true 3D experience.

You made your directorial debut with Dark Country, which was made in 3D, but it was converted to 2D for its home video release. Will we be seeing your original 3D vision at the 3D festival? I know you said it would get a 3D release on home video? Is that still a ways off in the future?

Thomas Jane: So far, the economy has put a kibosh on a lot of the 3D technology. It has really slowed down. You've got the movies. But the ones being released on Blu-ray and 3D? There really aren't as many as you'd think there would be by now. The 3D TVs are expensive. That market is slowing down. The 3D Blu-ray players aren't flying out the door like people thought they would. Its because we are in a shitty economy right now. We can't afford the luxuries of a 3D TV and a 3D Blu-ray player. That said, Dark Country was put out on 3D Blu-ray in France. I thought that was really fun.

If we import that, will we need an all-region player? I am not up to speed on the region coding of Blu-ray players...

Thomas Jane: I don't know, either. You can look it up online and figure it out. You'd probably need a French Blu-ray 3D player. The fact that anyone even has an American 3D Blu-ray player is a pretty big deal. Oh, well. The percentage of those people who can play a French Blu-ray on their Blu-ray player? Who knows! But, it is out there in France.

Do you think a lot of people are abstaining from a 3D TV purchase, because they keep hearing that glasses free 3D is just around the corner?

Thomas Jane: Right. I think 3D in the home theater, with glasses, is an intermittent stage of development before we get to the glasses free TV. I think a lot of people do see this coming, and they are waiting. Not having to use glasses to watch your 3D TV set, though? That is quite a ways away. To get a premium TV set that allows you to watch 3D from multiple viewing points without glasses is a long way off. Right now, they have it, but you have to be sitting right in front of the TV screen. You can't be sitting off to the side. To sit off to the side and have the 3D still be strong? We are still quite a few years away from that happening. But it is coming...

Is there ever going to be 3D projection for the home? Because I like watching my projector much more than I like watching the TV...

Thomas Jane: They have it. You can get a 3D digital projector for your home. I have one. Those are fantastic. They work really well. The 3D, in my opinion, is better than the 3D in the theater. The resolution is so high. The refresh rate is so fast, and the resolution is so high, that I find that 3D in the home is way more affective than 3D in the theater right now.

Before you go, can you give me an Update on Hung Season 3? The show had a slow roll there at the beginning, but its really taking off, and HBO has another hit series on their hands...

Thomas Jane: Yeah, they do. I think the show was really well received by the critics. I don't think it's a surprise that we are still on, because it was a hit from the beginning. Every show takes a little flack for something. We were lucky, because we were both critically well received, as well as it being a popular show on HBO. I think Hung Season 2 was a little bit of a downer, because I get divorced, and we deal with some somber subject matter. With Hung Season 3, we really get back to fucking. Its younger, its faster, its funnier. This year, Ray has decided to have some fun. With Hung Season 3, the economy still sucks. But its boring to wallow in misery, with no money. So, we have taken Ray and put him in a whole new place where he is not teaching any more. He is whoring full time. He is making a lot of money. He buys a new car. He has fixed up his house. Then a younger gigolo comes into the picture, and starts stealing his clients. Ray has to defend his turf. We've really had a lot of fun with the show this year. We have a lot of terrific actresses on the show this season. Like Kaitlin Doubleday. She has a great arc on the show. There are some really good, younger women that come on the show. Its good. They get to do stuff with me. So it's a blast. It's my favorite season, Hung Season 3.

As far as the audience is concerned, I think they want to see a character like Ray take charge of the situation, stop rolling around in misery, and go out and spend a little money. Its visceral, and a vicarious thrill for them. It makes people feel better...

Thomas Jane: I hope so! We are waiting for anything that will make this situation a little better right now.

How soon will we see Hung in 3D? That has the potential to have some pretty iconic 3D moments...

Thomas Jane: Yeah! I don't know. You can catch some porno in 3D if you're really angling to see some 3D penis. There is 3D porn, for those who want it. There is probably a 3D porno channel by now.

Have you gotten your hands on any of the new 3D video cameras that people can buy at the local electronics store?

Thomas Jane: Yeah. They are amazing. I am especially excited about this 3D phone. We will be displaying it at the 3D festival, and it is super cool. I like the glasses-less display. All of the smaller screens have glasses-less displays on them. The cameras and the phones. That is a little taste of what will be coming with your home entertainment system. Ultimately, I would like to see glasses-less movies in the movie theater. We will. We will see that. That is the ultimate goal!

To buy tickets for this weekend's 3D Film Festival in Hollywood: or

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EXCLUSIVE: Director Thomas McCarthy Talks Win Win Blu-ray

Aug 24, 2011 by B. Alan Orange

Struggling attorney Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti), who volunteers as a high-school wrestling coach, takes on the guardianship of an elderly client in a desperate attempt to keep his practice afloat. When the client's teenage grandson runs away from home and shows up on his grandfather's doorstep, Mike's life is turned upside down as this Win Win proposition turns into something much more complicated than he ever bargained for.

Co-written and directed by Thomas McCarthy, Win Win is an inspirational comedic drama that shouldn't be missed. The film makes its Blu-ray and DVD this week. In honor of this release, we caught up with Thomas McCarthy to chat about Win Win's home video debut.

Here is our conversation.

Can you take me through some of these special features and why you included them on this disc? It looks like you have quite a bit of material on here...

Thomas McCarthy: Do we? I didn't know that. I didn't think we had that much on there. I actually don't have a copy of the DVD, so I can't do that. I can't take you through there. Unless you have it in front of you. Maybe you can tell me.

Right off the bat, you do have some deleted scenes. Why did you think it was important to show these off to people?

Thomas McCarthy: This happens because the studio says, "Hey, do you have anything?" We say, "I think we do." It just gives people a little extra incentive. Honestly, I don't know why we do it. I think the deleted scenes we choose to share were pretty innocuous. Any time you make a movie, you are going to shoot some deleted scenes that you actually like. I think we have one scene in there where Paul Giamatti is interviewing a woman and her son. A good friend of mine, Craig Walker, plays the son. I just thought that scene was hilarious. I loved how Paul played it. It just didn't fit with how we were putting the beginning of the movie together. It's actually nice, now that I think about it. From my perspective, I say, "God, I love this scene. It just doesn't fit in the movie!" Well, guess what? People will still get to see it if they really do care about this movie.

Are you ever worried that a scene like that may alter how someone initially views the movie as a whole? That it could change their perception of the piece?

Thomas McCarthy: No. We don' ever include anything that would allow you to reimagined the movie. That particular scene, you have to figure that Paul Giamatti's character Mike must have hundreds of interviews like that a year. We see one or two of them. This feels like an extension of that. Its not like we have included something that would have ended the movie differently. If I had that experience, where my movie changed wildly from the page to the screen...Sometimes, I think it can be really interesting. There were a few more scenes...If I would have had my druthers, maybe I would have included those scenes. You have to work with the geometry of the film sometimes. So it turns into, "Eh, not happening!" Honestly, would I add that stuff back myself? No, I would probably just release the movie. But everyone asks you for that stuff now. I say, "Alright. I'll play."

In terms of the script, a lot of the stuff we see in the movie is autobiographical, but a lot of it is not. How did you pull those real moments together, and weave them into this work of noted fiction?

Thomas McCarthy: Yeah, I think saying this is autobiographical is a stretch, right? I grew up in that town. I grew up with Joe Tiboni, and we both wrestled. For me, that's where it ends. It was personal in a sense, because I felt like I understood this community. I understand these people, and where they are at. That was exciting for me to go back and explore. With Joe, who co-wrote this, he grew up in that town, and he is an elder law attorney in that town. He is married with kids. He gave me enough to really get inside this character. Joe Tiboni brought a lot of added material to the screenplay in terms of his own personal experience. Now, he is a very different person from Mike Flaherty. He has a successful law business, thankfully. But to that, we were able to really talk about things. How much money is enough? How do people struggle? Why don't they get along. What are common day threats, both professionally and other wise, that affect the people out there? We banged a lot of this around. That informed us production wise, in terms of the production value. It even helped us get into the costumes. We looked at how Joe dressed. How would that work for Mike Flaherty? And how would it change after spending time in this town. I will go as far as to say that this is not autobiographical in any way. It is, probably, very personal. That is more on the nose.

How did people in that town react to the movie? What was their opinion after they saw it?

Thomas McCarthy: Joe would be more privy to that then I was. I haven't really been back to the town since we shot this. My parents live there. My brother and sister live in the town next door. A lot of people reached out. Certainly more reached out to Joe. Because they know where to reach him. From what I understand, they were really enthusiastic about it. And they enjoyed the movie. They felt it was an honest portrayal of the people out there. That is what we were going for. We weren't trying to sensationalize or sentimentalize the situation. We were just trying to present it, to see if that was compelling enough for people to get caught up in the story.

I know Bobby Cannavale mostly through his stand-up work. He is terrific in this movie. What did you see in him that made you feel he was right for this role?

Thomas McCarthy: To be honest with you, I don't think Bobby does stand-up. I knew Bobby Cannavale because we met doing a play fifteen or sixteen years ago. He was nominated for a Tony on Broadway this past winter. I have only known him as a stage and film actor. If he does stand-up, he has been hiding it from me. I will have to have a talk with him about that. Bobby Cannavale was in my first film, The Station Agent. We became really close friends, and we continue to be friends. I love writing for him. He brings so much to the movie, in terms of heart and comedy. He is a very talented guy, whose voice I really like. That was an easy decision for me to make.

Maybe I am a complete idiot. I am looking at his bio, and yeah, he's not a stand-up comic...

Thomas McCarthy: No, you sound like a pretty smart guy...But I can safely say, he has never done stand-up.}

Who am I confusing him for? Who does he remind me of?

Thomas McCarthy: I just don't know. He just did this play off Broadway with Chris Rock. We all know he is a stand-up. So we talked a lot about that, but I am pretty sure Bob has never done it.

He must be an extraordinary actor. He has been in a lot of movies that I have seen, and I don't remember him from the guy I saw in Win Win.

Thomas McCarthy: Bobby is just one of those guys. He is so naturally funny and talented. He is so charismatic. He makes this look easy. But if you saw him on stage? I just saw him in Mother Fucker with a Hat. It's a great play. And Bobby is amazing in it. He plays a strung out, recovering addict. He is so heartbreaking and hilarious. You see someone like Bobby do Win Win and Mother Fucker in the same year, and you realize, here is someone with great, great talent.

In my defense, he was recently on Louie, which is about stand-ups. Maybe that's why I'm thinking he was a stand-up.

Thomas McCarthy: Yes! I think he and Louis C.K. are good friends. That is very funny.

Did choreographing the wrestling scenes in Win Win come easy to you, seeing as how you have a history with the sport?

Thomas McCarthy: Yeah, I did wrestle for quite a long time as a young guy. Joe wrestled as well. We spent a lot of time going back to watch the practices and the tournaments. We really soaked it in. Ultimately, we hired wrestlers. Every kid you see wrestling in that movie is either a very good or bad wrestler. Alex Shaffer was a very good wrestler, and all the guys he went up against were really good. We could loosely choreograph these matches. But then we would let them really go at it. We would pull back the camera and just film it. That really produced the effect we were looking for. Which is as though you are sitting in the bleachers and watching this match, to some extent...

What keeps you from appearing as an actor in the films you direct?

Thomas McCarthy: Just the work. Writing and directing is enough for me. I highly respect people that can do all three. I just don't think I'd be able to do it. I have had the opportunity in three films, and it just hasn't occurred to me in any concrete way. I don't see it happening anytime in the future, unless someone drops out, or there's a role that looks easy, and as a filmmaker, I am more confident. But I don't feel the need. I love acting. I'd love to be acting right now. I enjoy it tremendously. But when I am in the writer/director mode, that takes my full attention. I foresee a time when no one is going to want to hire me to act in movies. So, either way, I will have something to fall back on.

How does that work for you, when you go on the set of another director's project, and you've gained this reputation as quite an accomplished director yourself? Does that director ever look to you for guidance or an opinion?

Thomas McCarthy: (Laughs) I am the last person to look to in that situation. I enjoy nothing more than shutting down and focusing on one thing. That is the beauty of being an actor. You are there to do one job. It's a very difficult job. It takes a lot of focus. You try to block everything else out. Other than having sidebar conversations with people on set, I just go there to do my job. I love working with other directors. Now, it's really interesting to me to see how they may approach their material differently. Ultimately, I am only working on projects that I want to do at this point. I am there to do my job. I am there to support the director, do well, and go home. I don't think that ever creates any tension. Whenever you are on the set, no matter what you may have done in the past, you are there to serve the vision of the director. It's not a democratic process. It's a very collaborative one. Understanding that is important.

Win Win is a very funny comedy. It also has quite a bit of drama going on. In your eyes, is the comedy more reliant on the drama? Or is the drama more in need of the comedy?

Thomas McCarthy: To have that balance, you can't shy away from the drama, or the sincerity of the world. If you are just focusing on the laughs, it's hard to have the audience invest dramatically or emotionally. Because you are coming from a place of 'let's get that laugh'. I think a lot of comedy comes out of drama, especially in the most difficult times. It can get ridiculous. Things can be said on miscues, and miscalculations. There is so much there. It is a constant challenge. It becomes a balancing act. Thinking back to the deleted DVD scenes, we had some scenes that we wanted...I am not sure if these have been included or not...But there are some really weird, funny scenes later on in the movie, and they were either just too funny or too weird for this movie. We had a scene that dealt with this boy's fate, and we couldn't include that. There were wonderful actors involved. They were good in the moment. And I was like, "Damn, I wish I could have included this." But that is part of the process. It can be very humbling in a way. When I am writing these scenes, there is a lot of energy that goes into them. But at the end of the day, you are like, "Eh. That doesn't work." It doesn't mean that you didn't get it right. There were some great performances. That scene just doesn't work in the movie. You have to throw it to the left.

Win Win is on Blu-ray and DVD today!

Win Win was released March 18th, 2011 and stars Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale, Jeffrey Tambor, Burt Young, Melanie Lynskey, Alex Shaffer, Margo Martindale. The film is directed by Thomas McCarthy.

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