From hip hop and hard partying to high art
Matthew Garrahan
July 28, 2009
Adam Yauch is ambling through the lobby of the Landmark cinema, stopping to chat with people attending the Los Angeles Film Festival.
A founder member of the Beastie Boys, Mr Yauch – or MCA as he is known on stage – is on the west coast to talk about his film company, Oscilloscope Laboratories. Watching the besuited, greying 43-year-old hip-hop star at work, it is hard to believe that he was once deemed so serious a threat to British decency that morals campaigner Mary Whitehouse led calls for him to be barred from entering the country.
That was in 1987, when the band he formed with Adam Horowitz (Ad-Rock) and Mike Diamond (Mike D) had its first UK tour – a huge, hydraulic penis formed part of their stage show. With a hard-partying reputation and a penchant for dubiously procured Volkswagen badges, the Beastie Boys sparked a tabloid frenzy.
But the New York band shed the bad-boy antics long ago and have become one of hip-hop’s most respected acts. Mr Yauch is still a member of the band but recently embarked on a new phase of his career that has taken him to Hollywood.
Oscilloscope Laboratories has existed for only 18 months but has already made a name for itself in film circles thanks to its acquisition of several highly regarded movies. Privately financed by Mr Yauch, the company buys independently made films and takes them to a wider US audience.
“The vision was to start small and grow incrementally,” explains the teetotal Mr Yauch over an orange juice in the Landmark bar.
Oscilloscope is not a vanity project – Mr Yauch is intimately involved in day-to-day operations. He has enlisted David Fenkel, an executive with Think Film, which specialises in independent movies, as a partner and together the two have crafted Oscilloscope’s acquisitions strategy, buying films at festivals such as Cannes and Sundance.
They have scored several critical successes since starting the company, buying 16 films and, so far, releasing 10 of them. Dear Zachary, a harrowing documentary about the life of a murdered man, won a slew of awards on its release last year while Wendy & Lucy, starring Michelle Williams, was also well received. The company recently acquired The Messenger, starring Woody Harrelson and Samantha Morton, and will release it in the autumn.
Oscilloscope’s offices and the 12 people who work there are in the same Manhattan building as the Beastie Boys’ studio, where the band is recording its latest album.
The album’s release and upcoming tour have been postponed, however. Shortly after meeting the Financial Times, Mr Yauch discovered he was suffering from cancer of the salivary gland. The disease is localised and was discovered early, and in a relatively upbeat YouTube message, Mr Yauch describes the cancer and the treatment he will receive as a “pain in the ass …it’s something that’s very treatable and in most cases they’re able to get rid of it completely”.
While he is undergoing treatment in New York he plans to continue working on Oscilloscope.
It is a good time to be involved in independent film in spite of the economic gloom. The sector had become overcrowded in recent years as big Hollywood studios launched their own speciality labels. But in the past 12 months the landscape has changed, with Paramount and Warner Brothers closing niche labels to cut costs and switching their focus back to big-budget blockbusters. This has created opportunities for smaller operators like Oscilloscope.
“Film acquisition costs have come down because there is less competition around,” says Mr Fenkel, who plays basketball with Mr Yauch when the two aren’t working. “So we’re in a good spot.”
He and Mr Yauch decline to comment on what they pay for their films, or how much their releases have generated. The cost of a typical independent film can range from a nominal sum to more than $500,000. Oscilloscope will weigh up the cost of marketing and promoting the film when making an offer to buy a title.
Their deals have been structured in different ways: sometimes their filmmaker partners are promised more of the “back-end”, or profits generated by a film after its release. Other filmmakers prefer a larger upfront payment in return for a smaller share of the profits.
Mr Yauch wants the company to be seen as filmmaker-friendly. “There’s a real stigma attached to film distribution,” he says. “The assumption is that if you produce a movie you will never get paid on the back-end. That won’t happen here.”
His background as musical artist and performer has helped when dealing with filmmakers. “They know I will identify with what they are trying to do,” he says. “I’ve dealt with companies and been screwed. We won’t do that …we want to do simple, transparent deals and pay people on time.”
The next step is production.
“So far, the films we’ve released have been picked up from festivals. But now we’re being approached by filmmakers – directors with scripts,” says Mr Yauch who has already directed and produced a film for Oscilloscope, a basketball documentary called Gunnin’ for that Number One Spot.
But producing films is expensive and requires fresh capital. He and Mr Fenkel are considering several scripts and are talking to producers but say there is no rush.
The longer-term aim is to turn Oscilloscope into a creative force. “Part of the idea is that if we continue to put out great films people will recognise the brand.”
It is easy to lose money in the film business but Mr Yauch and Mr Fenkel say they are content to build the business slowly. They also have little interest in becoming fixtures on the Hollywood circuit.
“Some people are really passionate about film and some just want to be stars,” explains Mr Yauch, who has little to prove in the star stakes. “I’m more interested in film.”
"He looks like Robert De Niro. It was after a show at the Métropolis in the outdoor backstage. After that pose, I asked him to give me a more natural stance; I was curious to see what he'd look like without playing it up. But he said, 'Oh, but I always pose!'"
A smiling Horovitz saw a lot of girls on rollerskates at Hunter College in the last part of September. The event he attended was Gotham Girls Roller Derby.
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