Introduce Yourself : Boston based Filmmaker Mike Henry by Mike Henry

Amazing that you've had a front row seat to so many iconic directors and performances Mike Henry ! Can you share any of the biggest lessons you've learnt? What kind of movies do you want to make yourself?

Welcome aboard Mike Henry. Fantastic to have you and your talents in the community! I echo Joanna Karselis's curiosity regarding some of the lessons you've learned along the way. Love to have you share!

Welcome Mike! Nice to meet you. Glad you're here.

Welcome to the community, Mike Henry. It must've been something to be on set on those movies! I just read your comment about "The Pixiestick Incident" on David Abrookin's post. Your script sounds exciting!

Hi Mike, I'm from Norton, MA not far from Boston. Grat to meet another East Coaster

Welcome to the Stage 32 community, Mike Henry! We're so excited to have you here!

The best way to network here on Stage 32, is just to put yourself out there by posting, commenting, and connecting with people from all over the world. The most effective networking comes from building genuine relationships over time. A great way to start is by checking out the Filmmaking Lounge where you can join discussions, pose questions that you may have, provide advice or insights, and share news/announcements that interest you.

You can find the lounge through the toolbar at the top of your browser window. Simply click on "Lounge", which will direct you to a new page listing all of the current lounges available to you. Then select "Filmmaking/Directing". I hope to see you over there!

Welcome. This is a great place to make connections and friends.

Welcome to Stage 32 Mike Henry ! Feel free to reach us directly at edu@stage32.com for help with anything education related. And keep an eye out on our upcoming education. We have some great courses coming up!

Mike, I am happy you're here :)

Pleased to meet everyone! I'm still getting familiarized with the site. I was doing a Titleist commercial today and just got home. but it was great to see that people actually reach out. I'm hopeful we can all get something started!

Pleased to meet you too, @Mike Henry. Titleist golf equipment?

Here's a blog that'll help you navigate Stage 32: www.stage32.com/blog/navigating-stage-32-for-your-best-experience-3095

This is one welcoming, friendly and collaborative community Mike Henry. Glad you're feeling it already.

You should have no problem finding work here Mike Henry

Welcome Mike Henry! We'd love to learn more about what you are working on and point you to all the resources we have to offer on Stage 32. Shoot us an email at success@stage32.com and let us know a little more about your scripts and goals! Cheers!

I guess I'll just write everyone back in a chunk here. I still havent found the button to reply on the line for one person at a time? I'm a bit of a luddite, and I've taken to trying to learn social media and things like this to help learn how to become a better filmmaker.

RB and Joanna Karselis! Yeah, I got real lucky. Boston when I started working on set had been a bit slow, we used to have 1 or 2 big movies come here to shoot a year. from like 2000-2006ish a lot of my work was on indy films. When the tax incentives passed, we started to get 4-5 big shows coming here. Then when the tax incentive became reinstated in 2011 it was busy as hell for a long time after that. some years we had about 12 big movies or tv shows come shoot here...as more shows came in, more people got more experience and moved up the ladder.

At this point we have a pretty solid crew base for whoever is looking for experienced crews that know how each other work. We can run a pretty tight ship because a lot of us have worked together on many motion pictures.

I guess the best lessons I've learned about directing recently was from time on the set of the Tender Bar and time on Holdovers. On Tender Bar, I was standing there holding a flag I set as a courtesy over Clooney's monitor. There's some time that Affleck is standing at a doorframe getting ready to go through and Clooney was just trying to get him to turn his face a bit more for the camera. We did a couple of takes already, and Clooney knew he had more important shots later in the day so he said something to the effect that was like "Why am I being so precious about this shot....lets move on..."

Sometimes on some shows people get so hung up on the actors position to the camera that they forget the authentic performance is probably right for that actor in that role. Seeing the movie, I didn't even remember to try to look for it. So Clooney was right.

On Holdovers, I think the best lesson I learned about directing was from how present Alexander Payne was. As the best boy grip on that one, a lot of my job happens off set as much as on set, lining up equipment and moving equipment and making sure the next sets are ready for work. So, during our scout days when everyone is still meeting each other, Alexander sees me and walks up to me and introduces himself, and I said something like "I'm Mike and I probably won't see you so much if I'm doing my job right, I'll be away from set prepping whatever we're moving onto next-" and he says something witty and we have a nice little conversation-

But what was best about him, was he was so present day to day. He knew everyone who worked on set with him and what they did and which department to call to do what work on set. He knew their value as tools in his toolbox, and valued their experience as we were working. He would spend setup time on set, often not walking away in order to make sure things were going to look and feel appropriate for the scenes we were shooting.

I just enjoy being on set. I enjoy being on most sets I'm on. I like that I can work on movies to make my mortgage when we're all not striking.

To follow up on my personal goals I suppose-

The types of movies I would love to make are mostly comedy/horror type stuff. Joe Dante type stuff. The Burbs, Gremlins, Eerie Indiana... Creature movies would be a lot of fun if they had enough comedy. I love that stuff myself. I love the blend of magical realism when it works- if I was clever enough, that would be something that would attract me to a project.

That said, I'm trying to figure out what types of short films cut through the veritable sea of content and get seen. I have an alien abduction short script that I'm working on, so I can shoot over wintertime, if i can pull together a decent budget. A feelgood Halloween trick or treat movie with a monster in it. And a golf comedy feature based a bit on my experience gambling at amateur golf on a public course.

Maurice! Yeah- the golf equipment company Titleist is based here in Massachusetts, so every now and then we get lucky and get some commercial work for them.

And Thesy Surface.... I'm not sure how I can help- but let me know...

Sorry if i did this wrong- I'm still figuring the online world out-

You've certainly had a lot of great experience on some films I enjoy. Welcome!

I've certainly been lucky. Its been a lot of hard work and a lot of sacrifices, but I've had a lot of fun too

Cool, @Mike Henry. I've heard of Titleist. I don't play golf, but I like watching it.

Comedy/Horror is one of my favorites genre mixes to write and watch. "The Burbs" and the "Gremlins" movies are some of my favorite movies. I'm looking forward to "Gremlins 3."

You can reply to people separately by putting @ in front of their names. Sometimes you have to refresh the page for the tag to work, but Stage 32's Tech Team is working to improve tagging.

It's great to meet you here in the community, Mike Henry! You've done amazing work on some incredible pictures. I'm the Detector of Education here at Stage 32 (and a lifelong production wonk). If I can ever recommend any of our eduction or be of any service on your Stage 32 journey please email me directly at edu@stage32.com.

That's awesome Mike Henry! So nice to meet you. Grips are such an important role. Thanks for all your hard work! I hope you continue to move forwrad in your pursuit of directing.

That's awesome, Mike! I agree with Dustin - grips are very important. I hope you get to directing soon!

Maurice Vaughan thank you- I hope I can get the hang of all these different social media sites- even little things like the response thing confound me-

I sure hope they make Gremlins 3. And I hope they have a great sequence in it like the sequence in the first one where his mother is home alone! I remember watching it in the theater breathless and being like...."Oh shit. His mom...." Such great tension and pacing. At least watching it when i was a kid-

Dustin Richardson At a certain point, the body won't be able to handle the physicality of the job anymore- so I better get busy movin in the right direction! Good to meet ya- let me know if there's any way I can assist

Sam Sokolow Thanks Sam- I've also done some crappy work along the way, but hopefully those shots went right to the cutting room floor! Will do, thanks for any guidance...I'll send ya an email sometime soon.

Sydney Summers Thanks! I'm glad to feel like I can plug into a community of likeminded people and maybe get a little help. Here in New England I know about 1000 filmmakers, but with everyones lives going on, sometimes its hard to meet up and just chat about what we're writing (or even thinking about writing...)

Abeeha Alam Hey! Hows it goin! Whatcha working on these days?

Yeah, most people don't even know what we do as grips(my parents included). But, there's a lot of things that a good grip can do to move the shooting day along so you hit less snags when you're lighting or moving from location to location. Also, a good gaffer has already been a great grip if anyone is ever hiring lighting people.

One thing I'm trying to do, is to just help other filmmakers in my area get some stuff done. I know several people that remind me of me when I was in my 20s or 30s and before I was married and carried a mortgage. So, I'm just trying to help a few people produce some stuff, and meanwhile writing and rewriting several of my own scripts.

I got this little alien abduction script I'm thinking about directing in the winter if I can find a extra chunk of cash somewhere. Ants ate through the cement in my basement and its taking all my budget for filmmaking to fix it!

You're welcome, @Mike Henry. Sorry to hear about your basement. Hope you find funding for your movie.

I think I had the same reaction when I saw his mom home alone. Have you seen "Arachnophobia"?

Mike Henry I think a set would be a total disaster without decent grips and gaffers. But you're right - not a lot of people know what a grip is and some are vaguely familiar with the term if they've watched credits on a major feature film. I enjoy technical aspects of filmmaking and that's probably because I have an engineering background.

I'm sorry about your basement! I hope the issue is resolved and that you are able to work on your alien abduction film.

Hi Mike, welcome! It's lovely to meet you. Make sure you get in the Directing Lounge and start connecting with other directors. https://www.stage32.com/lounge/directing

Have you ever considered the DGA assistant program in NY or Cali? That would definitely get your foot in that door since you have some experience already.

Antonio M. I haven't. The directors assistants are all usually young folks just out of college. I think if I Hot Tub Time Machined back to the Late 90s, I totally would have done that if I knew it existed. Maybe they'd take someone older like me, but I doubt it. I couldnt even figure out how to reply to people individually on here without help!

Abeeha Alam my family is full of engineers. I always kinda wondered if I got into gripping cause I couldnt do the math to be an engineer. But I like building things!

@Maurice Vaughan Yeah I saw Arachnaphobia in the theater!!! Someone told me the spiders were real and from another country and I never wanted to travel after that! At the time, it was so creepy! Now with all the videos of critters you can see all over the world, its amazing I dont stay home all the time...

That said, at work, I get spiders on me all the time. Fortunately in Massachusetts they usually don't get that big or scary. And there aren't many that pose a big threat except maybe the brown recluse or an occasional displaced black widow.

But, while working on Madame Web, we were in a forest area for like 13 hours without a break. I was just helping the steadicam operator for the day on C Camera, and that day I counted about 7 spiders and 3 ticks on me over the course of the day. And that was with bug spray! Ticks are far scarier than spiders at this point.

I saw "Arachnophobia" growing up, @Mike Henry. The scene when the woman put her hand under the lamp freaked me out!

That "Madame Web" shoot sounds like it was brutal.

I was scared of ticks as a kid. Have you seen the Horror movie "Ticks" (1993)?

Mike Henry You're an engineer as far as I'm concerned!