Post-Grad Production
A Conversation with CSULB Alum and Producer Wandie Kabul
Folashade Alford, Union Staffer
Illustration by Mariha Lowe, Contributor
A project can have the best cast and crew alive, but it won’t go very far without something to hold it together. That’s where a producer comes in. The producer makes sure everything that is needed is found and most of all that work is getting done. To find out more about what that may actually entail, I talked to Wandie Kabule, a CSULB alum who’s getting a foothold as a producer in LA. She’s worked film festivals such as AFI, had a small gig on the Jimmy Kimmel show, and wrapped her own project Negative Space.
Union Weekly: What made you want to get into producing films?
Wandie Kabule: I’ve always wanted to and this year was the first year that I did freelance production work. Before that I always did sort of the office end of it. I did film distribution, which is when the film has already been made and produced, taking it to festivals—like Cannes—trying to sell the films you’ve acquired. Finally, I decided I wanted to be on the set and see a movie all the way through. I found a director and we created a project. You don’t always do this but, I cast it, found the crew, the money and just kind of made sure everything went smoothly, everyone had been hired and was doing their job. So it’s kind of like overseeing everything but not really getting the credit. The director is the one who sort of does the creative job. You’re making sure that there’s money and that people are getting paid and happy, all that stuff.
UW: Who are your professional inspirations?
WK: Probably my parents. My dad is the most business-minded person that I know and he always taught me a lot about how you work with people. When you’re a production manager, they bring you on and you’re a part of the crew, but this was the first one where I was crewing it up, so I looked to my dad a lot on how to hire people and how to treat people who are your peers but also your employees. Other producers like Brian Grazer, he produces everything from Friday Night Lights to Arrested Development to movies. Having a career like that is what I want, to be able to do a bunch of different things.
UW: Do you have a favorite genre as far as movies go?
WK: I really love horror movies and zombie movies so that’s kind of like a favorite. I’ll constantly watch those, but it’s not my favorite genre. It’s sort of my favorite kitschy genre. I guess for proper films it really depends. I just saw this great documentary called Senna, it’s about this race car driver who died in 1994 and was the greatest formula racer of all time. I don’t care anything about racing, but it was the greatest documentary I’ve seen in ages. I guess it depends. Sometimes I like war movies… I just like a variety of films.
UW: I’ve perused your traveling blog, how many countries have you been to?
WK: You and my mom are like the two readers I have. As soon as I post something she’ll be like, “When did you go to Morocco?” I don’t know, I mean, I think I’ve traveled a lot, but there are people who have spent five years visiting every country in eastern Europe. They have more countries on me. I’m from Zambia so we traveled through Africa quite a bit. Then when we moved here we would travel over the summer, it’s considerably less than when I was a kid because there is less time to do it. I’ve been to Spain, France, and the UK, but I haven’t been to Italy or little places like that.
UW: I haven’t done any real traveling. I’ve been to Mexico but that doesn’t count.
WK: That’s traveling!
UW: No. It’s practically like California.
WK: I don’t think Mexico would appreciate you saying that, it’s definitely traveling.
UW: I’ll never tell them.
WK: I will tell them, I’ll write a letter.
UW: Is there anybody you’d like to work with in the future?
WK: I don’t even know where I would start. This is hard because there are people I would like to work with because they are creatively amazing but there are people who have a huge work ethic. There are directors that are insane. Like David O. Russell is insane. He’s constantly getting into fist-fights with his actors like that rumor George Clooney punched him in the face when they did Three Kings. So it’s not like I’d say I want to work with him, but you know I’d want to work with him. David Cronenberg, I think he has a really cool career. That’s really exciting, someone who’s always doing films. Everyone wants to work with Woody Allen because he has five movies a year and you’d always get paid. There are some people who do really great TV work, like David Simon who did The Wire and he’s always got a new show in development. Aaron Sorkin, I just recently started watching the West Wing and I never watched it when it was on the air. I’m just going to leave it at that—people who are amazing.
