Nate's 8

Yuri Elvin is a talented artist and filmmaker in Los Angeles. View his work at www.yurielvin.com.

1. You’ve been a producer, an actor, below-the-line crew… What do you like to do most? Why?

Looking at filming as a whole I’ve found producing to be the most challenging. Unless you own the intellectual property or are a part of point participation, it can feel as if you are just making someone else’s film. As a producer, the responsibility to complete the film falls solely upon your shoulders, whether it’s your decisions or actions or anyone else’s. That can be frustrating during hour 18 of any day, but for sure rewarding when you wrap the work that you have followed through from conception.

For me, most of my “below-the-line” work has been as an AD (assistant director). This is an amazing experience because, you get to direct everything except the actors. Learning the balance between anticipating the next action and executing it well takes developed confidence. It also requires spiritual growth of eyes on the back of your head to be on point and predict the future. Any position, but especially AD, makes you count down the days till you can direct your own project, at the same time knowing that you can shave off the minutes and make your day all the while weighing the schedule versus crew contentment for the best possible result.

But acting is bliss. Knowing your character inside-and-out and being “off-book” is the greatest experience when you show up to a production that is already intact and running smooth. As an actor you carry a scene that helps to move the story. When you hear the words “moving on” you know that your performance is immortalized and you can empty the past to focus on the future. At the same time, as an actor you lack control of the vision of the film, so even though you are an essential artistic part of the medium, you still have to surrender to a faith in “the process”.

2. How did get your start in entertainment?

I began painting at age 2, and would do so on and off as a kid. I drew all through high school. When I was a senior in military school, one of the cadet’s parents came to shoot the weekend parade with 3 cameras. It was Shuki Levy of Saban (Power Rangers). It was so cool seeing it close up, that I decided to make movies.

After graduation my mother informed me that my college money was spent on straightening me out (the Academy), and that if I wanted to go to school I’d have to pay my own way, except for room and board, while I was enrolled. My grades suffered because I began to paint full time, work full time, and took a full load at school. I had to put away the art supplies until I had a career, or so they said. So, I did. I put my art supplies in a box and walked away.

I went from Santa Barbara City College, to UCSB for film studies, and then got a scholarship to AFI Masters Program in producing. That was fun. After school, I started to UPM and AD for a wonderful Kormanesque-producer who operated out of Sun Valley. I worked on low low-budget films for a couple of years. My jobs entailed everything from filing permits and driving the trucks, to convincing people to work for free and replacing them as fast as we lost them. Good times.

Next, I did a post graduate internship at Samuel Goldwyn. I was sitting down for my first day as they were firing their literary guy who had requested every teen vampire and werewolf script from every lit agency across LA. My job was to read all 40 of them and write coverage. The problem was that they all blurred together after the first week and my coverage was useless. When I left, they gave me a recommendation to work at an entertainment attorney/producer’s representative’s office. That was hell: a year at $400 a week, 12-hour days, learning how to lie and burn people, and tolerate his imp. I have never heard so much screaming and yelling about nothing. My step-father, on his deathbed, explained to me that “people only scream out of fear.” I realized it was the truth.

Thus, one day when I was rolling calls, my boss started his yelling, for no reason. I put him on hold. That changed the game. When he returned, he started yelling and screaming again. I waited patiently to speak. He finally quieted so I informed him that the yelling didn’t impress me anymore. I could yell too, and I was bigger than him. If he wanted to impress me he would have to start breaking things; it was my unofficial 2-week notice. I’ve never seen anyone afraid of loosing an employee for fear of what they may reveal about their practice. So I trained my replacement for 3 weeks, I was cut early, and my replacement followed me out the door. Great friend to this day.

Leaving the “office” I hopped back into AD work, joined SAG, and went to work with Wim Wenders for a few years. He put me in his movies and housed me every time my girlfriends kicked me out. God bless him. This would be a great time to not mention my brief yet substantial visit with the world of substance abuse. Lost a lot of friends again…

After I landed I decided to shut-off my mind for a bit. I did background work and a bit of production on the side. I quickly realized that being paid decent cash to sit on your ass, draw, write, talk to beautiful women all day, eat five-star catering at 6 hours in was bliss. I would show up to set for years with my backpack full of library books and just read, write, and research…and write, and write, and write…until the writers struck.

No work, no play, the idleness horrified my mother who was waiting for my life to fold in upon itself again. She drove down to LA and gave me my art supplies (which I had put away 15 years earlierin order to get better grades in school). In all that time, I had forgotten that I was an artist.

Within a year I jumped from smaller canvases to 3′x5′, as well as illustrated a book on psychology, I even had an 8′x’8′ piece hang in Pershing Square. I designed a few tattoos and had 3 gallery hangings.

Getting frustrated with trying to promote myself I decided to shut off my publicity and only paint for me. Through this my writing blossomed. Being on set everyday for almost 12 years made me pretty sharp in the filmmaking arena, as well I had about 100 new friends.

With the pending SAG strike and the whole town waiting for someone to create the work, I decided to do just that. I dusted off some outlines, combined 3 stories, and then shaved off the ridiculous.

3. You’ve recently seen quite a bit of success with painting. Have you always been a painter? If not, what led you into another form of artistic expression?

Yes I have recently had some success with painting, the TV pilot “Eastwick” written by Maggie Friedman just rented over 20 paintings from me for the design of the show. I am very excited to see if the show gets picked up. It will be the most exposure I have had. Maggie is really a very talented writer and it is an honor to be a part of her story world.

I believe that the need to create is somewhat programmed into my DNA. My father, Steve Elvin, was a painter in Marin County, California. My mother began to paint at 40 and is quite successful. I was painting at two years old. My mother says I would awake in the middle of the night and work on my easel. I have a photograph of myself painting as a child with a plastic pipe in my mouth. As a born artist, it frustrated my mother that I never kept steady at it. I picked it up again after high school, dropped it, but picked it up again recently after 15 years of forgetting that this is what I do. Then I wondered what would happen if I transformed my art into filmmaking. So, finally I have.

(End of Part 1)

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To contact Nate Barlow, please visit the contact page of his website at: NateBarlow.com. To contanct Yuri Elvin, email: "> or visit his website at: www.yurielvin.com.

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