Derek behind the camera
Since our interview last September (read it here), Derek Magyar and I have kept in touch. In early October 2011 he dropped me an email generously thanking me for my article and support and I in turn replied, thanked him, and promptly proposed a follow up idea I had.
Derek is soon to commence work on his next feature film, currently titled The Secrets We Share. With this in mind I thought it would be fascinating to document a filmmaker's journey from preproduction to production and then on to post-production and of course release.
This journal would encapsulate Derek’s thoughts, feelings and mood as he embraces his ‘labour of love’, filmmaking. Derek doesn’t do anything in half measures, if it doesn’t seem or feel right he won’t put something out there for the sake of it, he is constantly honing his craft for the better.
As my previous interview with Derek pointed out, he isn’t just a director. He started out as an actor and as we move into 2012 his slate is already looking busy. In terms of acting, he recently finished doing an episode of Criminal Minds on CBS, which airs February 27th, and he’s currently auditioning as pilot season is in full swing as we speak.
One of his projects I’m personally looking forward to an upcoming announcement about is No One Lives. Derek was lucky enough to see quite a bit of footage during the additional dialogue recording phase of production and enthusiastically tells me it looked fantastic and he thinks it’s going to be quite the ride for its audience.
Towards the end of last year he shot Phantom, scripted by Todd Robinson, who is also at the helm as director. Magyar scored a supporting lead role and plays the right hand man to David Duchovny. Co-stars include Ed Harris, Sean Patrick Flanery and William Fichtner. Not much is known about the film other than this snippet taken from IMDB: The haunted Captain of a Soviet submarine holds the fate of the world in his hands. Forced to leave his family behind, he is charged with leading a covert mission cloaked in mystery.
One thing Derek did comment on was Ed Harris and his performance, which he saw first-hand and which he describes as borderline frighteningly brilliant.
In the first of his exclusive journal entries for us, Derek talks about Secrets We Share preproduction, touching on script revision, casting and when we might hear an ‘official’ announcement, so over to Derek:
"What I can tell you now is that I felt we had to go back into the script and make some fundamental adjustments that were essential in driving the plot. This is a piece about three young women and the journey they go on to find themselves and the relationship they have with each other but I felt like the drive that took them to this place needed the bar raised to another level in terms of circumstance. It is essential in a piece like this that during the second act we keep the audience engaged. As much as I loved Flying Lessons there is no question that it was a heavy, character-based drama, whereas this is more of a thriller-esque drama that is still character driven.
"I am very excited about the new version of The Secrets We Share and we intend on releasing it to everyone by the first week of March. We will then revive the process of casting with a whole new approach because essentially it is a whole new piece. Then we will begin official prep in mid-late April and we will begin principal photography on or around May 21st. This is very exciting and I am so glad that we felt that we needed to do this on the page before we even called action for the first time, although I did do one day of principal, doing strictly beauty shots in and around the Santa Ynez Valley."
Eye For Film and Derek are looking forward to this journey together; please look for another update in a month's time. We’ll leave Derek to have the final word on why he does what he does and why he wouldn’t change it for the world.
“I would have to say, I couldn't do it any other way! If I wasn't always creating art in some sort of fashion, if I wasn't always making forward progress, I think I would be the unhappiest person to be around!"
We’re glad your working hard to entertain us, Derek. Till next month!
