Director Max Albert Interview

Only twenty-four years old, director Max Albert, who modestly says he should be a lot further along in his career, boasts an exciting resume.  Albert, who is a co-partner of The Albert Mason Group, has already worked with a slew of talented rap artists in the industry, not to mention his work on the short Killer Granny that is about to make its way through the film festival circuit, a new Shake Weight commercial, and an interview with Larry King.  Read Max Albert’s interview with us below.

When did you first start to show an interest in the entertainment business?  Did you know early on? 

I actually got started doing a high school broadcast program and it was pretty much around 16 that I knew that this is what I was going to do this was for the rest of my life.

What was your childhood like?  What or who inspired your love of directing?

I grew up watching all the Tim Burton movies. I was born in 1987 so all of those movies, Beetlejuice, the first Batman, those where the movies I grew up watching, so I base where I am with productions off of those scales. More recently JJ Abrams with Super 8, and those coming of age films. I would love to see those come back.

I didn’t do too much narrative stuff when I was younger.  It was interesting; I did a lot if sports, dirt biking, skateboarding videos, stuff like that.  Senior year in high school I started to get into more narrative stuff, from that point I realized music videos and commercials where a short term thing, that directing film was more of a lifelong goal.

Can you tell me about your first project, the Stunnaman from The Pack video?

That was my first project that had a marketing push behind it.  We were all really, really excited after the project and Stunna has still remained one of my friends.  That was really a cool experience.  Between World Star Hip Hop and You Tube we had 100,000 views or something on that video.

Did you learn any major lessons from your first professional experience or was it smooth sailing?

You know organization is so crucial.  My dad is an attorney, he’s been an attorney for 30 or 35 years and he always told me that he wins cases because of the preparation and the details before the actual case. Doing music videos and film projects are very similar in that the majority of the work is done before you roll the first shot.  Organization is the biggest thing I have picked up on because it is so important.

How do you feel about working on music videos and commercials, do you prefer one from the other?

Yes, you know with the music video thing it is a very short lived process.  From the time that the music video is discussed and goes online, and your done production, people are already over it and on to the next thing.  It’s a two and a half week, to maybe a month long period.  So it’s nice with the commercial stuff that I just did with Shake Weight that we’ll be in their commercial campaign for the next year.  Which is nice to see, but with the music video projects it has a very small window.

You recently worked on ‘The Division’ which is said to be about Glasses Malone.  Is this a full length feature or a video?  What else can you tell us about it? 

No, it was actually a short film that was supposed to be released with Glasses’ album that just came out about a month and a half ago, but I don't know exactly what was going on with Glasses’ camp. I know he is with Cash Money right now, but he was also was with Birdman in Miami a month ago, but now he's with Mack 10.  The project for Glasses’ - the whole thing has been shot, most of it has been edited.  I saw a picture of it two weeks ago and it looked really good, I just don't know what the deal is with it right now with finishing it.  I don't know, it was interesting, and a lot of people asked me about the Glasses’ project, and it was the first big project I was doing magazine articles for it. People were calling me and asking me questions, and everyone wanted to know what was going on because it was the first project being released through Cash Money, and then we kind of got bummed out when the release started to slow down, and it started to get pushed back.  It was two weeks, then a month, so we were kind of at a point where we were like ‘look man we could put all of our eggs in one basket for this Cash Money thing’, or we could move on and do something on the same scale, but something different.  Then Larry King came about, and some other big projects.  It's definitely an industry where you have to keep your legs moving.

How was directing the CNN’s interview with Larry King?

It was great.  Larry King is one of the smartest men I have ever talked to.

That must have been great.  Was that your first time directing an interview?

It was, and it was really one of the first times I had stepped into an executive producer space.  I pretty much made sure that everything was handled from the scheduling, to the crew, to everything, and when I got there I directed the shoot on location.  It was a great experience.  We filmed in his house in Beverly Hills, he's just a really down-to-earth guy, and you know my father is Jewish and Larry obviously came from a Jewish background.  He's not the most practicing Jew around, so we talked about that a little bit.  He's a great guy.

Who amazes you as a director now?

Christopher Nolan with the new Batman franchise, it has just been phenomenal. I was down town a month ago and they were shooting for the new Batman film in downtown L.A., and they had the Gotham city signs on all of the buildings and everything.  They had this whole area that looked like Gotham city and it was so cool to see that because like I told you I grew up watching Batman. It was my favorite movie.  So yes, Christopher Nolan, but on a smaller scale Sofia Coppola is an amazing director. She’s phenomenal.  Virgin Suicides was her first movie, it was just out of the park.

What kind of music do you listen to?

Back to the Glasses Malone thing, Cash Money is one of my favorite record labels. Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj are some of my favorite artist, so to be able to work with the same label, even though I wasn't working with them, it was cool to be a part of that by association. I definitely love rap music like most of the music videos I have done has been hip hop oriented, but I listen to everything. I listen to electronics, to a lot of DJs. I don't listen to country music.

What do you have for upcoming projects?

Andy Milonakis and I have been texting after we ran into each other at a studio called Super Human. I have a friend who runs the studio so I'll come in for a studio session when we have a good song that they want to do a video for, so we get started in that discussion path and potentially make a video.

Andy was over there recording at the studio a few nights ago and he recorded a song I really liked.  He shot me a text yesterday to shoot another video, he really liked the previous one.  So we are going to start to plan this week, and in the next month I have another video with Bobby Bracken.  And Glasses Malone and I just had a conference call, he's trying to get another video in.

There is a lot of pre-production going on right now, not as much production. We also finished a few projects this week too.  We worked on a film called Killer Granny, actually it's a short film that they just submitted to Sundance, Tribeca, and I think it already got into San Diego Film Festival. I believe.  We're just trying to keep the ball moving, and the great thing with Killer Granny is we have an awesome cast, who kind of have a mini online following.  The biggest of all is this woman Barbara Goodson who did the voice of Cruella De Vil in 101 Dalmatians (for Disney On Ice), and she also is the voice of the antagonist on the hit television show Power Rangers.  She was great to work with, she was awesome.

Did you executive produce Killer Granny?

You know on a smaller scale project like that everyone kind of takes a cut on things, and kind of bends over on things to make sure the project can get done correctly.  In a way there were a lot of executive producers on that project and funding specifically came from a kick starter campaign. I don't know if you're familiar with that?

No, I'm not.

It's a website where you basically submit your idea and people submit money if they want to see the idea come to fruition, and they don't expect anything in return. It is strictly just to donate.

Check out a few video clips of director Max Albert’s work below.  You can also see more of Max's work via his You Tube channel here.