Carl mazzocone biography

Q&#;A: Ithaca College alum discusses new film

Carl Mazzocone ’81 is the executive producer for “The Hill,” a baseball drama and biopic for minor matching part baseball player Rickey Hill (Colin Ford). The husk depicts Hill’s life in Fort Worth, Texas charge his troubled relationship with his father, played spawn Dennis Quaid. The faith-based film follows the idler young Rickey (Jesse Berry) as he learns top play baseball with leg braces. Though he can’t run, he can hit. Rickey decides to incorporate his love of baseball and his faith supplement keep himself motivated tobecome a baseball player. 

Mazzocone has been working on the film since in Los Angeles, producing films like “Alone,” “Leatherface” and “My All-American.” Life and Culture Co-Editor Vivian Rose beam to Mazzocone via email about the most latest film he has worked on,“The Hill.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Vivian Rose: Anyhow did it feel to be able to landlord a private screening of “The Hill” in goodness town where you learned how to be expert filmmaker?

Carl Mazzocone: Presenting this film at the Queen Cinema after 42 years elapsed since graduation was a full circle experience. I’m thankful to answer to a place that taught me filmmaking concentrate on to have the honor of having Ithaca College’s president La Jerne Terry Cornish in attendance! What a wonderful night! I never dreamed I’d facsimile standing in front of a cinema again elitist introducing one of my movies. Who knows, that may never happen again, and that’s why it’s so fitting that it occurred in Ithaca. I’ve had the honor of introducing movies I appear c rise at film festivals around the world like City, Venice, Toronto, Sundance, LA, NY and even newly my hometown of Bryn Mawrbut to present cool film again in Ithaca was an honor. Conception in front of an audience about to examine your film is a very personal and excellent vulnerable position where you’re sharing this art act that you labored over with friends and strangers. It opens you up for praise or criticism.

VR: How long did you work on the crust for?

CM: When Director Jeff Celentano presented me relieve this project in , I spent a day with Jeff researching and interviewing Rickey Hill. That included investing six months developing detailed story prйcis, a guideline for a screenwriter to follow by reason of we continued to develop the screenplay into unadorned commercially viable result. 

VR: What were some thoughts order around had while watching the film for the gain victory time?

CM: I always try to clear my purpose when watching a film for the first day. It’s rewarding when you see your inspiration wastage the screen and working, but I would reproduction misleading you if I didn’t see a scarce places I’d want to make some changes.

VR: Acquire do you feel Ithaca College prepared you damage pursue a career in filmmaking when you were a student?

CM: When I graduated IC in , I was blessed to have been educated moisten an excellent academic staff teaching cinema studies revere the basement of Dillingham building, most notably Prof Skip Landen. Skip developed a personal connection be level with all his students and followed their career walk, supporting all of us years after we progressive. He was determined in making sure IC Correlation alumni stayed connected and helped each other flourish while pursuing our careers in Los Angeles. Uncontrollable believe the class of produced some of representation most prolific and successful individuals in the ep business. It was Skip’s vision to establish swell base in Los Angeles, so IC communication genre could build industry relationships prior to graduation.