If you've been reading DVD Snapshot for a while, it's no big surprise to you how much we love the 90's television show Nowhere Man. We've been fortunate enough to work with the set's producer, Mr. Noam Joseph Dromi, getting the word out about one of our favorite TV series. We thought we'd pick his brain a bit to give you a peek into the process of producing a DVD. We sat down with Noam recently as he filled us in on how a DVD is put together from start to finish while he discusses Nowhere Man and his other current project, Sunday Morning Shootout. Enjoy!
Mike Spring: How did you get involved with the Nowhere Man DVD set?
Noam Dromi: Long before Lost and the recent resurgence of serialized dramas that are the complete antithesis of procedural shows, Nowhere Man was a complete obsession for me. I made it a point to always be home when it was on and refused to answer the phone or be disturbed in any way during that hour. After cutting my teeth with TV to DVD as a consultant for Davis Panzer Productions on the Xena, Hercules and Highlander shows, I knew I wanted to try my hand at producing some box sets for shows I was really passionate about. My producing partner Evan Geerlings, who had been the head of production at Davis Panzer, decided to join me in starting our own company. It was really slow going at first since studios had gotten wise to the economic potential of what had previously been a nascent business and they were reluctant to license anything in their library to 3rd parties. Our track record with the fantasy/sci-fi genre and the success of Xena in particular opened up some doors that otherwise might have been impossible to get in. During a meeting with Disney to bid on the rights to Moonlighting I inquired about Nowhere Man and its availability. Most of the people in the room had never heard of the show but one of the Disney guys knew it well. He said they were entertaining some offers that would likely close so I forgot about it. Six months later he got back in touch with us and asked if we were still interested. The rest is history.
MS: What was it that attracted you to the project?
ND: I understand what Larry Hertzog means when he refers to Nowhere Man as an anthology series. When the show was first on the air, I remember thinking that the stories presented some really compelling questions about the importance of “the truth” and the role of the individual in society. It was a great mystery to be sure but it definitely felt like it had a deeper ethos about it. Mostly I just wanted to know why the hell those negatives were so important to THEM.
MS: Tell us a little bit of the process involved in producing a DVD.
ND: DVD Producers take on a variety of different roles in determining how the finished product will look on the shelf at Best Buy or Amazon. It’s a job I really enjoy because if you’re doing it independently (as opposed to working for the home entertainment division of a studio) you have to function as a storyteller, a marketer, an archivist, a salesperson, and a fan. You need to produce content that you would be interested in owning yourself. In the case of Nowhere Man, Evan and I had carte blanche to produce the set as we saw fit with no intrusion from (Davis Panzer CEO) Peter Davis, Disney or (retail distributor) Image Entertainment. We worked really hard to create compelling bonus content and commentaries that would address the mythology of the show and really engage the loyal fans and new audiences alike. We tried to do things that went beyond what was expected; from reuniting series creator Larry Hertzog and the UPN executive who greenlit the show to discuss why at the time a new network would take a risk on a show like Nowhere Man, why they let it run as long as it did and why it was canceled to finding someone who was in the CIA to go on camera and talk about whether anything that happens in the show is or could be actually happening. When you turn on the six o’clock news lately, you see that Larry’s vision wasn’t that far off. Beyond that, we were hands-on in developing the packaging to be visually compelling and space efficient. We developed a marketing plan. We took the time to understand the unique inventory management challenges of individual retailers so we could ensure that they gave this title the care and focus it rightfully deserved. Sales will tell if we were entirely successful but it is an amazing feeling to have gone from my initial query in the Disney conference room in early 2004 to seeing the product on the shelf 20 months later.
MS: You got many of the key people involved with the show together for the DVD set. Was that a challenging process?
ND: My biggest disappointment was that Joel Surnow’s schedule prevented him from participating in the interviews and commentaries since I’ve heard many people say that 24’s Jack Bauer (a show co-created by Surnow) is a clear descendent of Nowhere Man’s protagonist Tom Veil. As for the others, we were amazed and gratified by the number of people who remembered the show fondly and were excited to talk about it; from Peter Dunne and Art Monterastelli to Bruce Greenwood and Megan Gallagher. We had to navigate the issues of their agents and managers and the issues of compensation, which were not always easy, but in the end it all worked out. The thing I am most grateful for is the time that Larry Hertzog took to participate. He was so giving of his time, so open to share the good and the bad in the Nowhere Man experience that I don’t think the set would have really been as good without him. Plus, he’s become a really good friend now which is a bonus, too.
MS: Were there any particularly memorable moments from producing the set?
ND: When Bruce Greenwood and Megan Gallagher did their interview together you could see a lightness and playfulness in both of them that was really a lot of fun. They hadn’t seen each other in years and since the character of Allyson was so deliciously evil it was really a pleasant surprise to see how fond of each other they were. Other than that, our anonymous CIA operative was a really great interview. I think the actual interview was over 3 hours long and some of the stuff he was telling us was WAY out there. I’m not sure if I believe it all but we did our homework on the guy and he is legit so I feel really fortunate that we were able to include that feature on the set.
MS: Tell us a little bit about your other DVD set, Sunday Morning Shootout.
ND: Sunday Morning Shootout was developed as a “Film School in a Box” for what I like to call “the wannabees and the wanna sees” (people who want to be in Hollywood and people who want to see anything about their favorite stars or directors). Evan and I tried to approach the set to ensure that it rose above the type of content that might be relegated to the Special Interest aisle. So far the reviews have been really positive.
MS: How did you get involved with that show?
ND: In another life I worked for Mandalay Pictures Chairman and CEO Peter Guber as the head of the new media division of his company. For such an established player I was really impressed by his passion and enthusiasm for the role that technology would have in the evolution of storytelling. I was also surprised by how important it was for him to educate the next generation of filmmakers and [how he] regularly sat in on the courses that he taught at UCLA in his role as co-chair of the film department. One of the courses that students there loved and always had a waiting list has a lecture series he taught together with Peter Bart, the editor-in-chief of the entertainment industry trade paper Daily Variety. Guber had invested in a distance learning concept called “The Global Film School” and he came to me at one point to discuss how to go about putting the lecture courses online (you can read more about that here: http://www.newarchitectmag.com/documents/s=2286/na0203e/). This was about the same time that he and Bart used the framework of the course curriculum to write a book called Shootout: Surviving Fame and (Mis)fortune in Hollywood. The book was really well received and there was interest in turning it into a television series that would be the entertainment equivalent of the Sunday morning political talk shows. About two seasons into the show I sat down with Guber and started exploring the possibility of packing the episodes for DVD. Since most talk shows are very ephemeral in their subject matter we were concerned that it wouldn’t translate very well to packaged, collectible media. Evan and I decided to go back to the basis and approached the creation of this box set as the “definitive guide to mastering success in Hollywood”. Thus, the concept of “Film School in a Box” was born.
MS: What's the most exciting part about producing a DVD? What's the most challenging part?
ND: It seems like the goal with making a movie or television show is to get people to tune in. I really like being tasked with the challenge of taking that content or, better still, original content and making something that people are actually going to want to own. That is the type of challenge that really motivates me. In terms of what’s not so great about it – I recently read that almost 13,000 DVD titles were released in 2005. Since consumers only have so much disposable income that means that often times a title I put my blood, sweat and tears into gets lost in the shuffle. Ultimately, it’s about making money. I love being really creative and trying to raise the bar but if people don’t buy the product it doesn’t matter. The failures have sucked but I’ve learned important lessons from each and every one of them. In some ways the failures were far more important than the successes.
MS: What's next on your plate?
ND: I woke up January 1st with a renewed passion to try new things and build on the momentum of some of the past successes. I’ve started a new media company called DLR with two amazing partners named Brad Rowe and Justin Leigh. DLR is going to focus on independent theatrical features and television from the entertainment side but also function as a strategic marketing and creative services company for partner/clients who want to take advantage of our resources and expertise in production, new media/technology, and distribution. I’m also working with another colleague to launch a mobile entertainment business that will try to push boundaries (with apologies for that overused cliché) in the creation of really compelling ring tones, ring back tones, wallpapers and portable media content. I also remain active in a variety of charitable causes that are near and dear to me including the National Foster Care Fund (http://www.nationalfostercarefund.org).
MS: Anything else you'd like to share with our readers?
ND: As you embark on your individual journey always remain intellectually curious, never assume that anyone owes you anything and if you’re going to fail then fail brilliantly. The lessons learned will make your eventual success that much more rewarding. I’d also like to take a moment to extend my warm and heartfelt thanks to Mike Spring for his incredible support of Nowhere Man and the generosity of spirit he has shown my colleagues and me to help promote these two titles. Keep checking out www.nowheremandvd.com and www.shootoutdvd.com for new content and some great contests and promotions coming up soon.
MS: Thanks a lot for your time, Noam!
ND: Happy New Year to all the readers of DVD Snapshot.
Look for our review of Sunday Morning Shootout to be posted in the next few weeks, and don't forget to pick up the highly recommended Nowhere Man on DVD, available now!
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