Public Republic

Interview with Alan Rosin by Vanya Nikolaeva

Alan Rosin is a commercial producer and a licensed boxing official. Over the years he has worked with countless celebrities, sports figures, and heads of state. He has worked on feature films such as “Blade Runner”, worked for CBS News with Walter Cronkite, videotaped Golda Meir, produced McDonald’s commercials with Michael Jordan and Rice Krispies commercials with Jerry Lewis; he has also been in recording studios in Hollywood with Stevie Wonder, Jackson Browne, James Taylor and many more. He enjoys film, boxing, jazz, blues, art, science, science fiction, theater, good TV, many kinds of music, and travel.

When and how did you realize that your vocation is connected with the film industry?

I began my professional career at CBS News, working as an assistant to the assignment editor. Part of my job was to give Walter Cronkite his daily newspapers, and part of it was tearing the copy paper out of the AP, UPI and Reuters news machines for the writers to use. But the best of it was helping assign news crews to stories all over the world and also to download the unedited Vietnam war footage from the satellites each day for the writers and editors. At the time, I thought of myself as a news person, and not a film industry person.

But we shot film for news in those days, not videotape. I learned about film production while in the news business, but it wasn’t until after I left CBS News in New York, moved to L.A. and began working at the CBS station there, that I realized I was becoming a filmmaker. After about three years in news, I began producing some documentary programs for the station, and realized that in a way, it was the beginning of a career in film for me.

If you did not become a producer or boxing official, what would you be?

This may seem strange to you, but it’s true. My father was an optical physicist. He designed high end optical devices such as missile trackers and bombsights, spectroscopes for the early orbiting astronomical observatories and so on. I always loved science but didn’t think I was smart enough to be really good at it. At Columbia University, they didn’t give PhD degrees in optics, so my Dad got his in atomic physics and wrote his PhD thesis with his close friend I.I. Rabi, the Nobel prize winning physicist. I knew I couldn’t compete in any of field of science with him, so I went in my own direction.

The fact is, though, that I always loved the weather and might have become a meteorologist if I didn’t go into the profession of film. I still have about seven or eight weather sites bookmarked on my browser and check them a lot, during the hurricane season and whenever storms of any kind are brewing.

Who is the most interesting person you have worked with?

That question is really difficult. How does one compare working with Michael Jordan to working with a great historical figure like Golda Meir? Both were interesting and influential in their own way. I like to think that it is the sum of having worked with a good number of influential people, each with their own personality, that made things interesting for me. The fun for me was in talking with them all, seeing their point of view on subjects large and small, that made my career so rewarding.

In fact, many of the more interesting people were not famous. They were skilled creatives: artists and model makers, puppeteers, aerial cinematographers, animators and other technical people with specialized skills that were so fascinating to me.

I met a man who was a bug wrangler in the movies. He supplied spiders and other bugs for filming and was an expert in his field. We shot a sequence of him hunting and capturing tarantulas in the desert. This was his life. So unique, so specialized, so interesting. Over the years, I have met hundreds of people like that and they all were fascinating to me.

OK, you want an answer? Perhaps it was Golda Meir, a woman, born in the Ukraine, who lived in Milwaukee, and rose to become the first female Prime Minister of Israel. She was tough as nails. When I was just a kid in my mid 20’s, I videotaped an interview with her in Los Angeles for a fund-raising tool for the United Jewish Appeal. I was so intimidated by her, I could hardly put the microphone on her blouse. She snapped at me to quit fumbling around and get on with it. This was a woman who made history, and being around her had more of effect on me than anyone I ever met. I was completely in awe of her, more than any movie star or sports figure I ever met.

Which is the best part of working with music/movie professionals?

The best part is the conversations I had with these people. I would usually talk to them about topics other than their profession, areas of interest that we could speak about on a level playing field, as it were. It relaxed them and made it easier to work with them. Quite frankly, I was often just trying to get what I needed from them on film, so I wanted to keep them happy while they were with me, and I often used conversation to do it. But then again, maybe the best part comes afterwards, when I tell my friends things like what it was like to spend another 10 hour day with Michael Jordan, with my wife and my five year old son showing him how to work his Transformer toys.

Is there anything you regret?

Not much. In my career, I chose doing something interesting over just trying to become wealthy, and I know I made the right choice for me.

I will say I always feel in retrospect I could have done something a little better, done this or that to make the commercial better or handled a situation a little better, but I think we all do that, don’t we?

How do you define success?

To me that’s simple. Live your life doing what you like.

Is there a place for true friendships in Hollywood?

I do not consider myself a Hollywood insider. I can tell you from living there for a decade that many of the big people in the industry do seem to follow the stereotypical self-involved personality types we see in the movies and read about in the tabloids. But the people I know who do the creative things in production are for the most part good, interesting and very hard working people. So I would have to say yes, at the level that I worked in the business, there is true friendship, as well as mutual respect.

Which commercial/movie do you consider your best one?

That’s easy. The Internet Movie Data Base lists “Blade Runner” as around number 100 of the best movies ever made. Working on that film was a highlight of my life.

Do you prefer working in a smaller or a bigger team?

As much as I enjoyed working on “Blade Runner”, I prefer working on commercials. I work with an ever-changing group of people with a variety of talents, depending on the project. Each group is different. I go from working with a comedy/ dialogue director, to one who shoots food and package goods, what we call tabletop work. I go from one who directs special effects jobs to another who works well getting a good performance from children.

Each director brings with him a team of people with their own skills. For me, the variety I see from project to project keeps me from becoming at all bored with the process. I like the size of the commercial crew and the length and variety of the commercial jobs.

Which is the best/memorable experience you have had?

There were dozens that I could pick from. Today, on My Space, I wrote a new blog on what it was like to fly in a helicopter in between the buildings of downtown Chicago while filming a commercial. That was one of the most exciting experiences I ever had.

Where is the best place to relax?

After a long day’s work, there’s no place like home. If I have more time, I must admit I enjoyed spending time in Greece more than any other place I’ve been so far.

What should everyone new in the film industry know or be prepared for?

Be prepared to deal with big egos, especially from actors and directors. Be prepared to work long hours, sometimes very long hours. But, if you’re like me, and you’d rather be working than doing anything else, then that’s not so bad, is it?

What kind of music do you compare your life to?

It is classical music. Any production is a symphony. It is made up of many parts, and there are solo artists throughout the process, but a great production requires teamwork and timing. If you get it right, and everyone brings all their skills to the job, then the outcome is transcendent and synergistic. The whole exceeds the sum of it’s’ parts.