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| Gary Kohn, James O'Brien, Eric Kopatz, and Devon Greene (left to right) Cannes, France. May, 1995. |
In 1993, James O'Brien and Eric Kopatz, both recent transplants to Los Angeles (from New Jersey and Washington DC, respectively), met in Hollywood and teamed up to make Bastard, a black and white short that took the audience through the fractured mind of a hitman. The film was later selected by the American Cinemateque to open for Werner Herzog's Nosferatu at a DGA retrospective of the director's work.
It was during casting of another project that O'Brien met L.A. actor Gary Kohn. Kohn contributed his talents to Bastard and soon after, offered to fund and produce a feature-length film, provided they could keep the budget as low as possible. What resulted was Venice Bound, a love letter of sorts to Venice, California from a select group of artists and actors banded together by O'Brien, Kohn and Kopatz, who operated under the production company name: The Artists Coalition. Venice Bound was a noir film for the '90s; a story of Generation X slackers from various parts of the country converging in Venice and agreeing to engage in a heist together. Filled with action, suspense, double-crosses, and a tour through the Venice Beach area, it was an ambitious and daring film to shoot on a shoestring budget.
The Artists Coalition was rounded out by Devon Greene, then known as Dave Greenberg. Greenberg was an assistant editor who had just begun utilizing the latest technology in post-production: digital editing. Greenberg was on the editing team of a project directed by Oscar-winner Maximilian Schell when Kohn and O'Brien approached him to be their editor. Greenberg obtained a digital editing system for a very low rate. In fact, Venice Bound may have been the first movie of such humble beginnings to edit digitally. O'Brien and Greenberg took advantage of the independent nature of the film and took some risks in the editing room. Later, reviewers would compare the editing to the work of Goddard, and the purposely fractured timeline to Pulp Fiction, though Venice Bound was completed before the release of Tarantino's film.
Despite the low budget, even throughout post-production, Venice Bound was able to put a few feathers in its cap. The original mix was conducted on the board that was used for Michael Jackson's Thriller album. The sound editors were experienced professionals who had just completed working on the much larger budgeted film The Mask.
The Artists Coalition secured the Director's Guild of America for their first press screening. After a blow up from 16mm to 35mm film, Venice Bound had its first public screening at downtown L.A.'s historic Orpheum Theater on April 22, 1995. Soon after, the film went to the Cannes Film Festival for its international premiere, where it was invited to a number of international film festivals: Leeds, Hamburg, The Welsh Film Festival, Italy's Mystfest, and, most notably, handpicked as a Rosebud selection for the Edinburgh Film Festival by festival director Mark Cousins.
VENICE BOUND REDUX: After years spent working on other projects (see producers' individual bios), The Artists Coalition has dusted off their original debut feature, re-editing and re-mastering Venice Bound for the 21st Century. Updated with a new, modern score by musician Michael Sean Colin, the indie gem that was Venice Bound is now available for worldwide release.