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Photograph by Paul Eric Felder, P.S. Photographic Services
Dan Jinks, the 1981 Los Gatos High School graduate, who won the Academy Award for best movie this year, spoke at the Commonwealth Club.
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Producer Jinks reaps awards for 'American Beauty'
By Mary Ann Cook
The fact that he's won the Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year still hasn't thoroughly sunk in, says Dan Jinks, a 1981 Los Gatos High School graduate. Since then, he's won several other awards for the movie American Beauty, including the British version of the Oscar, the BAFTA.
"I dreamed of winning an Oscar since I was very young," says the articulate and boyish Hollywood producer. "Guess I'll just have to keep seeing the video [of the awards ceremony." Jinks was a recent speaker at the Commonwealth Club meeting at Camera Three in downtown San Jose.
He encapsulated his 15-plus years in show business and talked about the hurdles of filming American Beauty. "I always knew I'd be involved in the business, but when I was young I thought it would be as an actor," he revealed.
Jinks played the lead in the play How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying as a senior at LGHS. At New York University, he wrote and staged a Saturday Night Live-style revue in eight days that was considered the most successful show NYU had ever done, he said.
"It changed my life. I realized that staging could be as satisfying as performing," Jinks said. He learned more about producing and filmmaking as an assistant for producer Aaron Russo for nine years and later for Martin Bregman, working both in New York and Hollywood.
Nothing to Lose was a result of his efforts--he found the screenplay, sold it to a studio and negotiated the contract. Two and a half years ago he and colleague Bruce Cohen formed their own production company, working out of Cohen's home.
When Jinks read Alan Ball's script for American Beauty he considered it "the best film script I had ever read." Later, when he had dinner with Ball's agent, the agent was very impressed that he knew of Ball's works. That went a long way, Jinks said, toward giving the Cohen/Jinks team the inside track on buying the script.
Ball's previous work was for the theater. After buying American Beauty, the next step for the fledgling company was to sell a production company on the script. They approached Dream Works, where Stephen Speilberg is one of the principals.
Shortly after submitting the work, the two producers ran into Speilberg, who talked for a full 20 minutes about the script. The only interruptions came from Scott Frank, a screenwriter--and another LGHS grad whose parents were in the Camera Three audience.
Dream Works bought it. Another plum fell in their laps when their first choices for the leads--Annette Bening and Kevin Spacey--accepted. "We were unbelievably lucky," said Jinks. Another lucky break came when everyone involved lowered their fees to do the movie, including director Sam Mendes.
The producers made sure the writer was involved throughout the filming--a rare occurrence. Ball agreed to some major changes in the script before filming began. To wit: Lester and the cheerleader do not have sex and flashbacks of the colonel in Vietnam were omitted.
Other cuts after the filming included the youngsters being carted off to jail for the murder and the deceased flying over the neighborhood after he's shot. Once completed, were there any surprises for its producer?
"I was surprised that the love story [of the teenagers] came across so beautifully," Jinks says. Another surprise was at the box office: its popularity with young people, and with moviegoers in other countries. American Beauty has grossed $340 million in movie houses and $50 million in videos.
Finding the money remains the toughest part of moviemaking, Jinks says, ranking right up there beside the continual challenge of finding quality material. It costs about $100,000 per day to film a movie.
The costs on this movie climbed from the original projection of $8 million-$9 million to the final $15 million. After the first day's shooting "I was quite miserable," Jinks says, and so was the director. The tone just wasn't right. That day's shooting was thrown out and the next day's looked good: the principles could stop holding their breath.
Jinks defines the most important part of a producer's role as being a support for director and writer. "They're the ones who set the tone; they're the real talents," he says.
What spoke to him about the script was "something relatable in the characters." Not everyone agrees with that appraisal--it's an aggressively satiric script with a hero who's been called a geek and worse.
When asked about a mentor, Jinks names his father. "Even though he's never done anything remotely theatrical, he knows how to deal with people," he said of his father Larry Jinks, the former publisher of the San Jose Mercury News.
"He has such honesty and integrity. If I'm in a bind, I ask myself how he would handle the situation. If I can do my job the way he would, I'll know I've done it well."
Among the movies Jinks likes that are coming soon--not necessarily from Cohen/Jinks, include Nurse Betty, Down with Love and Big Fish. "I love movies that take you out of your world," he says.
Jinks' product is a rare commodity: both a commercial and a critical success. How does he intend to follow up after reaching the pinnacle?
"By continuing to do my best work," he says. "I'm still learning."
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
