Filmmaker Tim Carr wins for
Watching the Detectives
Written by Wendy Helfenbaum
Writer/actor/director Tim Carr likes to simplify all of his official titles into
one simple one. “I always call myself a storyteller,” says the creator of the
Accolade award-winning television pilot program,
Watching the Detectives, a
quirky comedy about a group of misfit department store security guards trying to
impart their collective wisdom upon a clueless newcomer (played by Carr).
He currently lives in Newark, Delaware, and says the idea for the pilot partly
stemmed from his own experiences.
“This story had been in my head for more than 10 years,” recalls Carr, who was
born in Queens, New York, and grew up in suburban Pennsylvania. “When I was
trying to get into show business, I took a job sort of like the guys in
Watching
the Detectives. I worked at a department store as a secret undercover detective
that would bust shoplifters. I’d go around with a bag with a radio in it, and
when somebody would say, ‘Hey, there’s a suspicious person that just put
something in their bag’, I’d kind of jump out and say, ‘Surprise! I’m not really
a shopper; I’m arresting you’. I wasn’t very good at it. All things considered,
it was a crazy, dangerous job, and I had nothing but a radio and handcuffs.”
Over the past 15 years, though, the multi-talented Carr managed to arm himself
with many more useful tools in his quest for success.
In the mid-1990s, Carr scored a big break by snagging a small but recurring role
on NBC's
Homicide: Life on the Street. He’s worked alongside such A-listers as
Holly Hunter, Jennifer Connelly, Sydney Pollack and Robert DeNiro, and has
appeared in dozens of films and television shows. But he says he learned most
about show business while interning at casting and talent agencies across
Philadelphia, where one of the perks to fetching lunch and emptying wastebaskets
was gaining access to free workshops and classes.
Carr yearned to be behind the camera, though. On a break from filming a pilot in
New York City for Fox, he wrote, starred in and directed a short film called
The
Wrong Fortune Cookie, which garnered great reviews and ran across the U.S. and
in London and India.
After appearing in Delaware-based filmmaker JJ Garvine's
13th Grade, Sylvester
Stallone pegged Carr for a role in his blockbuster film
Rocky Balboa, which
brought him right back to Philadelphia. As soon as
Rocky Balboa wrapped, Carr’s
screenplay for
A Deeper Shade of Soul was nominated for a screenwriting award in
Hollywood.
Buoyed by the great buzz he was getting, Carr wrote a pilot called,
Life Won't
Wait, which, like so many projects, ended up in a network slush pile. “It just
kind of got onto the stack, and it stayed there forever,” he says. “That’s the
frustrating part. This business is so exciting, where you get to tell this
incredible story, and it goes into development hell. You just feel so deflated.
There’s such a high and such a low.”
Then came a catalyst in Carr’s career. In 2007, he wrote, directed and starred
in
Leaf, a gritty docudrama about the rise and fall of the rebellious,
controversial former NFL quarterback, Ryan Leaf. The following year, Carr’s hard
work on
Leaf won him an Accolade.
“Winning that first Accolade was a real rush,” recalls Carr. “I finally started
to get enough juice so that people were starting to listen to me, and I thought
it would be a good time to unveil another idea I’d been working on for a long
time. I was at a crossroads when I did
Leaf, which kind of tested the waters. It
did okay, so I thought maybe I could take a stab at doing a TV show. Finally,
after 10 years in my brain, it finally took form.”
Carr finally got
Watching the Detectives out of his brain and onto paper in
March of 2009. “It was like a lightning bolt; it was just time,” he recalls. “I
tinkered with it for three or four months, and we went in front of cameras in
July. It was a pretty quick turnaround. At that point, I’d made a lot of good
contacts, especially with the last three projects that were higher profile, so I
thought I could tell this story the way I wanted to.”
Rather than seek funding from a major network that would invariably insist on
creative control, Carr opted to shoot
Detectives on his own dime. “I wanted to
cast whom I wanted, tell the story that I wanted, and edit the way I felt it
should be,” he explains. “I just wanted to do something original. I decided to
take the ball in my court and go for it. Time will tell if that was a good move
or a bad move.”
Carr began pre-production on his low-budget indie sitcom in September 2009, and
finished editing around Christmas. Carr assembled his cast and crew, signed a
SAG short film agreement, deferred about $70,000 in costs and then kicked in
about $10,000 of his own money to complete the project. “We called in a lot of
favors,” he recalls. “I got to work with some great actors, who were all my
first choices. I was so lucky when they all said yes. It was just a chance for
everyone to come out and do something a little bit different.”
Shot with high-definition digital cameras over five days at two stores in
Newark, Delaware,
Detectives was one of those rare productions that actually
went smoothly. “It couldn’t have gone better,” says Carr. “I’ve been behind the
camera for four projects, and every time, I’d think, ‘Oh, God, what’s the worst
case scenario?’ But from the very first day, it went better than I thought.”
One of the few challenges Carr faced was trying to schedule a cast that was in
demand elsewhere. “These guys were all working. We only had Brian Anthony Wilson
for one day; he was on a TV show called
The Wire, a very solid, well-written
drama. He said, ‘I’m just glad someone’s giving me the chance to be funny’,” he
recalls. “I really had to be smart with the juggling. I figured if we could
start crazy-early, and manage to get everyone in one spot, that would be a great
move for the TV show.”
Carr also had to make two smallish boutiques look like the same big mall
department store, all on a shoestring budget. “Because I stripped down
production to go so indie, I wanted to capture the flavor of the store and use
their props. Also, I knew if I wanted to go to a major department store, I’d be
up to my ears in paperwork,” he adds.
As a result, Carr didn’t ask for the stores to close down; he simply shot around
the regular customers. “People were wondering what was going on. They just
walked through our shots. If you watch the pilot, you’ll hear doors open and
close, and a couple of random bells. Those are customers coming in. In a way, it
worked,” he says.
Shooting in Newark, Delaware is not the same as shooting in New York City, as
Carr quickly found out. “The tough sell was trying to move something into a town
that isn’t well-known for having things shot there.”
Carr’s favorite scene takes place in the store dressing room, where the
detectives hold an impromptu meeting. “There were six of us actors standing in a
four-foot space, plus the lighting and sound guys. Everyone was ad-libbing,
which was really fun. But the store was open, and the next dressing room was
open, so if someone wanted to try on a shirt, there were 10 guys, plus lighting
and camera equipment there; I can only imagine what customers thought when they
left,” he laughs.
Contrary to the indie film scene, where producers strive to showcase their work
at every possible festival, Carr notes that television pilot creators must keep
a lower profile. “It’s a little more political. I miss being on the road; I was
dying to show everybody what we did,” he explains. “We did screen it for free in
February at a bar, and the feedback was great. In March, we spoke to some major
agents in California and New York, and now we’re trying to see where we can go
with this. We’re talking to a couple of big networks. I have a notebook packed
with ideas for crazy adventures these guys could have after this first pilot
episode.”
Receiving an Accolade award further boosted Carr’s confidence, both
professionally and personally. He feels honored and privileged to be recognized
for his hard work. “It’s great to be able to achieve this,” he says, “Winning an
Accolade means that people are noticing your work and recognizing it with really
well-respected awards. When the pilot was finished and edited, I wanted the
Accolade people to take a look at it, because they genuinely appreciate
filmmaking. They were among the first to see this, and I couldn’t wait to get it
there. It’s nice to be able to say that out of a handful of people to see this,
someone thought it was good enough to redeem with this award. Here’s something
we did on our own; we didn’t sell out to do it, and this award is definitely a
highlight in my career.”
Carr currently has several projects in various stages of development, yet
remains philosophical about his career. “People ask me if I consider myself
successful, and I always say, it depends on what day you get me on,” laughs
Carr. “I look at colleagues I’ve done commercials with who are gigantic now. I’m
kind of on the cusp, so for me to be able to do this pilot on any scale was
pretty special.”
Carr thoroughly enjoys passing along lessons learned to newbie actors and
filmmakers. After all, he’s been on every conceivable side of this business. “I
spend a lot of time on MySpace and Twitter and Facebook, just answering
questions and giving advice. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to help,” he
adds. “I’ve been through every phase of it – the good and the bad.”
Perhaps the most important lesson Carr passes on to young performers and
filmmakers is to believe in their talent. “This one took me a couple of years to
learn, and if I could get a young up-and-comer to know this, it would save them
a couple of years of hating themselves: Find a very good balance of confidence
and skill in your craft,” he advises. “At auditions, I used to try and be
everything to everyone. Instead, I would say now, go in and bring your brand,
your style and your flavor, and be confident in what you bring to the table.
Once you get to that point, where you feel comfortable with who you are, I think
the rest of it starts to make a little more sense.”
Contact Information:
Tim Carr
Parking Lot Films
40 East Green Valley Circle
Newark, DE 19711
ParkingLotFilms@Gmail.com
(302) 981-4396
www.MySpace.com/ParkingLotFilms
(Wendy Helfenbaum is a writer and television producer in Montreal. Visit her at:
http://www.taketwoproductions.ca.)