The first couple times, he said no.
But like most people in the entertainment industry, Andy Zolot wasn’t working much. So when the offer came around again to work on an independent film starring Shirley MacLaine, he agreed.
“Fuck it,” he said. “It’s Shirley MacLaine. And I need the check.”
The film — “People Not Places” — offers a case study in the desperate state of the business.
The budget was probably too low, but Zolot hoped the production could pull off something special. He did not know how bad it would get once he and a couple dozen other crew members showed up for pre-production in March in Atlantic City, N.J.