{"id":83,"date":"2014-12-01T23:45:24","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T23:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jamesfranconetwork.net\/?p=83"},"modified":"2014-12-01T23:45:24","modified_gmt":"2014-12-01T23:45:24","slug":"james-franco-starred-in-his-former-nyu-students-film-the-color-of-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/?p=83","title":{"rendered":"James Franco starred in his former NYU students’ film ‘The Color of Time’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"color-time\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s one drama on James Franco\u2019s resume that made the actor tear up watching it.<\/p>\n

Not because of his soulful performance in \u201cThe Color of Time,\u201d but the pride he has in the filmmakers behind it \u2014 Franco\u2019s former students from the graduate film program at NYU.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember after seeing it, at the end I was pretty embarrassed because I was actually crying a little bit and I never do that,\u201d Franco tells the Daily News of the film\u2019s premiere at the Rome Film Festival two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really a proud teacher moment. It took me a couple of seconds to stand up because I was a little teary eyed by the end of that screening.\u201d<\/p>\n

You couldn\u2019t script a story like the one behind the student film that finally arrives in New York in December: Franco rounded up a band of his students and several former classmates from his own time at the NYU program, also enlisting famous acting peers like Mila Kunis and Jessica Chastain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of people who would look at a project like this and say, \u2018You\u2019re going to take 12 really strong willed people who are all here because they have a very specific vision and you\u2019re going to make something that is one voice out of that?,\u2019\u201d says Pamela Romanowsky, 31, one of the directing dozen. \u201cIt\u2019s a challenge and a risk, and James is the kind of person who loves a challenge and a risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right from the first act of the movie adaptation of C.K. Williams\u2019 poetry, the fledgling filmmakers got the kind of education you can\u2019t get in a classroom.<\/p>\n

When Franco went off to Detroit to film \u201cOz the Great and Powerful\u201d in 2011, his students followed him to snag time with their teacher each night at 8 p.m. after he wrapped filming his Hollywood tentpole flick.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe budget was so low on this film, that I drove the first equipment truck with one of the line producers from New York to Detroit through a blizzard,\u201d says Shruti Ganguli, 32, who was drafted to be a first-time producer since she was earning an MBA at NYU at the same time as her film degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned what \u2018hydroplaning\u2019 was when it happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It helped that Franco doubled as a casting director. When co-director Gabrielle Demeestere needed to stock a convenience store clerk to shoot her segment, \u201cJames was like, \u2018Oh why don\u2019t we just have (his \u2018Oz\u2019 co-star) Bruce Campbell and this hilarious Detroit driver in Detroit and we can just have the two of them?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know what to expect but they were amazing bantering improvers,\u201d adds the Brooklyn-based NYU grad.<\/p>\n

Armed with a budget less than the catering bill on a Hollywood production, the students split into two teams \u2014 quarterbacked by cinematographers Pedro Gomez Millan and Bruce Thierry Cheung \u2014 to get it done in the two allotted weeks. Everyone pitched in with multiple jobs, says 29-year-old co-director Omar Z\u00fa\u00f1iga Hidalgo, who says that when he wasn\u2019t directing his own segment, he doubled as a script supervisor for another director.<\/p>\n

Franco, 36, may have a rep for flitting from school to school as a teacher, but the Hollywood renaissance man has stayed in many students\u2019 lives long after \u201cThe Color of Time\u201d wrapped. He\u2019s acted in several of his former pupils\u2019 following feature films, including Demeestere\u2019s \u201cYosemite\u201d and Romanowsky\u2019s \u201cThe Adderall Diaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen James says he wants to collaborate with you, that\u2019s a big thing for someone who\u2019s starting out,\u201d says Millan.<\/p>\n

Franco may be somewhat of a film-making Yoda, but he downplays his role as just a \u201chands-off producer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it\u2019s a way for me to use my place in the entertainment industry to help students get their projects off the ground,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

You should know…<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Color of Time\u201d can be seen on iTunes and Amazon Instant Video from Dec. 2, is available On Demand from Dec. 9 and hits select theaters on Dec. 12.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s one drama on James Franco\u2019s resume that made the actor tear up watching it. Not because of his soulful performance in \u201cThe Color of Time,\u201d but the pride he has in the filmmakers behind it \u2014 Franco\u2019s former students from the graduate film program at NYU. \u201cI remember after seeing it, at the end […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-color-of-time","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}