Sometimes, You Just Have to Do It Yourself

The faded brick warehouse on a dirty and nearly hidden street near downtown Los Angeles looks like the last place in the world for a Hollywood revolution.

The building, located just a stone’s throw from the Lacy Street Cabaret, with its promise of “LIVE NUDE GIRLS,” couldn’t look more weathered and bland. The painted brick that reads “Dyer Industrial Textiles” has seen better days. Only the trailers, cable and cars that line the street hint that there is more happening within.

The inside of the building, which was formerly used for “Cagney & Lacey,” is another world entirely. Brightly lit offices bleed out into a large “bullpen” aisle with people moving quickly and intently along. Behind large closed doors, a film crew is squeezing into a small bedroom set, trying to get a shot of a sexily clad woman lying in bed. The atmosphere is charged with the electricity of deadline, creative vision and the strains of John Coltrane playing quietly in the background.

Orchestrating the whole scene like a jazz concerto is Roy Campanella II, whose production company, Directors Circle Filmworks, is making 10 original television movies for Black Entertainment Television that feature and target African American viewers. The building is the headquarters for BET Arabesque Films, the brand name for the titles. The venture marks the largest single production order involving African American features. Blacks are writing and directing the films, and the crews, though diverse, are predominantly black. The film series, which is scheduled to premiere this fall on the cable network, will also represent an extremely scarce commodity on television: tales of romance, intrigue and suspense featuring characters best described as middle-class black professionals.

What remains untested is whether a market for these stories exists and, if so, how big it is. But the pressure of breaking new ground seems to be far from Campanella’s mind at the moment. He’s too busy coaxing lead actress Wendy Davis to seem a little sleepier as she picks up a fateful phone call. The film is “Rendezvous,” a suspense thriller that is Campanella’s homage to several films ranging from Hitchcock classics to “Pulp Fiction.”

“The way I’m doing this film is like scoring it to ‘Ole Coltrane,’ ” says Campanella, referring to one of the jazz legend’s famous tunes. In addition to directing “Rendezvous,” Campanella is the executive producer of all the BET films. But he’s in the trenches too--filling in on second camera when the need arises.

“I had each of the cast members adopt a different solo to define their characters,” he says, returning to music as the subtext of this particular film. “I wanted something different from an intellectual approach. Davis, who is playing the femme fatale, Jade, is the flute.”

Campanella, the namesake of his Hall of Fame Brooklyn Dodger father, goes on to describe the musicians and solos that he assigned to other cast members and their characters.

“And,” he concludes with a wide smile, “I’m Elvin Jones, the drummer. I’m keeping the beat.”

The dream of such a series of films is nothing new at BET. As Robert L. Johnson, the cable network’s founder and CEO, explains it: “There has always been a desire on our part to deliver filmed entertainment to the black consumer market to tell stories that American television will never tell. We’ve been wanting to do this for quite a while.

“The fundamental difference is that we are approaching this with our own money, that we are controlling the projects and ideas. We have the distribution. We have the methods to market the films.”

Although the purse strings on the slate of films is relatively tight by industry standards--under $1 million each as compared to the $3 million to $4 million average now spent on a typical network film (excluding the mega-events and miniseries)--Campanella, who graduated with honors from Harvard and earned his MBA from Columbia University before embarking on a directing career, is working with veterans who sound eager to participate in the project. There are some young people and interns seeking hands-on experience, to be sure, but most of the behind-the-camera work is being performed by professionals with credits on several shows and films.

Actress Holly Robinson Peete, who is starring in “After All,” which is currently filming at the studio and at various locations around Los Angeles, could barely contain her excitement when talking about the schedule of films.

“This is the most unbelievable experience I’ve ever had,” says Robinson Peete, who also stars in the WB romantic comedy series “For Your Love.” “I’ve been blessed enough to be on television for most of my life, but I’ve never been lit by a black man before now! I go to get props, and the prop person is black. I have never been on a set that’s 85% to 90% black. This is truly a labor of love.”

Set in the world of television journalism, “After All” stars Robinson Peete as an ambitious newswoman. As the story unfolds, her character becomes involved with a news cameraman (D.B. Woodside of “The Temptations” miniseries) and is forced to confront her past and her true aspirations.

Based on Arabesque Line of Romance Novels

Another film is the romantic thriller “Incognito,” starring Richard T. Jones (upcoming film “The Wood”) and Phil Morris (“Seinfeld”) and directed by Julie Dash, the director of the acclaimed “Daughters of the Dust.” Actress Allison Dean (“Ruby in Paradise”) plays a high-powered insurance executive who falls in love with her bodyguard (Jones) while being pursued by a ruthless killer (Morris).

Campanella’s directorial effort, “Rendezvous” stars Davis as a beautiful woman being pursued by the mob and joins an impressive list of credits that bears his creative imprint, including the 1992 PBS film “Brother Future” and episodes of “I’ll Fly Away,” “Life Goes On,” “Wiseguy” and “Frank’s Place.”

All of the films in the BET project are being adapted from the Arabesque line of African American romance novels, and are contemporary in feel and tone. Many of the props and settings have a deliberate African American motif. However, the casts, though predominantly black, do have some diversity. Veteran actor Ed Lauter, whose film career includes “Leaving Las Vegas” and “Breakheart Pass,” has a featured role in “Rendezvous.”

The venture is also launching at a time when interest in cultural stories and minority characters in modern settings seems to be at its lowest ebb in years. New series premiering this fall on the four major networks--CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox--have no black characters as leads, and few blacks are in supporting roles.

“I mean, there is nowhere else an actress like Wendy Davis, who is experienced, talented and beautiful, would ever get to play a lead femme fatale in a television film,” says Campanella of the actress whose biggest credit thus far was a stint on the short-lived ABC police drama “High Incident.”

Still, BET’s Johnson said the cable network was not motivated by the relatively low visibility for African Americans on the major broadcast networks.

“Hollywood is irrelevant to what we’re doing here. The real point of what we’re doing is to have black people telling black stories,” Johnson says. “If all the studios decided to do something like this tomorrow, it would be fine, and they would be smart to do it, but it doesn’t matter. [We] see a great business and creative opportunity here.”

Looking Back 60 Years to Find a Similar Effort

Sandra Evers-Manley, head of the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center, said the BET project is the first major black filmmaking project geared toward black audiences since the early days of cinema, when producer-writer-director Oscar Micheaux ran his Film Corp., which operated from 1918 through the 1930s producing and distributing 30 films with black casts.

“People in the industry have tried to do different kinds of efforts like this through the years,” Evers-Manley says. “No one else has ever been able to take it to the next level. It’s been a long time coming, to give black writers and directors an opportunity.”

The project, however, is not being universally embraced. Robinson Peete, who is the most prominent name associated with the movies so far, concedes, “Even I was confused at the beginning about what BET was trying to do, because it was so unprecedented. I needed a really clear explanation. I got it, but there are some people I know, actresses who say, ‘I’m not doing that because there’s no money in it.’ They’re missing the point. There are all these actors and actresses that wouldn’t get a chance on the networks to play a lead in TV movies, but they can do it here. Everyone’s complaining about where are the parts? The parts are here.”

Johnson has heard the grumbling. “I’ve heard this reaction that it’s not enough. . . . Well, everyone wants to be paid more. But what I’ve got to do is prove that this economic model works. And the model is to keep the costs low. The payout will come down the road, on the back-end participation.”

That strategy is fine with Campanella. “Yes, we’re doing modestly priced films, but with the same artistry and talent found on more expensive movies. These are not cheap-looking movies. They are the highest possible quality. There are no frills here, no big motor homes, no assistants to the stars. But there is a high degree of professionalism.”

He smiles. “It’s guerrilla-style filmmaking, and for all the right reasons. I’m having a ball. There’s nothing better than this.”