Movie Speak

If youre on a movie set and someone tells you, Give me two Ts or a cowboy with the Jack Lord and make sure the BG is visible as you pan and maybe well make that a one-er so just banana left, what do you do?

Well one option is to pick up a copy of a new book called Movie Speak by Tony Bill, which provides a helpful guide to movie slanguage. No, not Variety slanguage the real on-the-set stuff. Having produced a number of memorable films (The Sting, Hearts of the West) and directed a few (My Bodyguard, Untamed Heart) Bill decided it would be helpful to publish an insiders lexicon.

In his new book, Bill also mixes in a few chapters on his own experience, which add up to mini-memoir. Along the way, he concludes that acting provides the best preparation for directing (Bill not surprisingly was an actor) and declares that all directors, even veteran ones, feel in their hearts that theyre really a fraud, and that this time its going to be a disaster. He also provides some insights into the character of the stars that hes worked with, giving Sinatra and McQueen, two very difficult guys, especially high marks for being gracious and helpful.

Bill has earned respect for his willingness to read scripts by first-time writers and provide guidance. He admits impatience, however, with writers who cant figure out an original, imaginative way of submitting a script. You just dont mail it in, he snorts.

Bill sites the example of how Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear, when they were first struggling to get into features, convinced Sinatra to read the script Come Blow Your Horn. One day they hired a moving truck to pull in front of Sinatras house, unload a big leather armchair, a reading lamp and a bottle of Jack Daniels together with, of course a script. Sinatra was sufficiently amused to read their script right away and even agreed to star in it.

Youve got to use a little show biz to get into show biz, Bill recommends. He should know.