18½ Movie Storyline. In 1974, a White House transcriber is thrust into the Watergate scandal when she obtains the only copy of the infamous 18½ minute gap in Nixon’s tapes. A 1970s-era Watergate conspiracy thriller/dark comedy about a woman in the Nixon White House who tries to leak the 18½ minute tape to a reporter.
18½ is an American political drama film directed by Dan Mirvish and starring Willa Fitzgerald, John Magaro, Gina Kreiezmar, Marija Juliette Abney, Lloyd Kaufman, Alanna Saunders, Sullivan Jones, Jon Cryer, Ted Raimi, Catherine Curtin and Elle Schneider. The screenplay was written by Dan Mirvish. The film was released on May 27, 2022 in the United States.
About the Production
The day after the presidential election of 2016, Dan Mirvish went out to Shelter Island to show Oscar/Pulitzer-winner Jules Feiffer dailies on their film, Bernard and Huey. Inevitably, the conversation turned to comparisons between the new president-elect and former president Richard Nixon. Feiffer had drawn countless cartoons in the Village Voice about Nixon and even published a compilation of his Nixon cartoons in the early 70s.
The conversation drifted towards Watergate and Feiffer’s memories of the scandal (“I’m still pissed off I never made the enemies list!”). That night, Dan stayed at his pal Terry Keefe’s motel in Greenport just north of Shelter Island. Terry, an indie film producer in his own right, was running the motel that his grandparents had first built in the 50s and 60s.
He’d preserved its mid-century vintage look and often rented it out for fashion shoots, music videos and episodic shows, but never a whole feature. He told Dan, “We’re closed in the winter if you ever want to shoot a film here.” Hmm, Dan thought: Watergate as a theme, and the Silver Sands as a location. That’s a movie!
To write the script for 18½, Dan teamed up with recent USC-grad Daniel Moya, who’d also worked on Bernard and Huey. Coincidentally, Daniel’s aunt helped run the Front Street Station Diner – a converted railroad car that’s just a half mile from the Silver Sands. Another perfect location for the film! The team workshopped the script at the University of North Texas’ Film Department in Spring of 2019 where Dan was guest lecturing.
The team started casting and raising money in earnest in Fall, 2019. With a very successful crowdfunding campaign through Seed&Spark as well as 501(c)3 fiscal sponsor, The Film Collaborative, they leveraged that into enough of a budget to start shooting the film in March, 2020. After filming successfully for 11 days, with about 80% of the movie in the can, the film went on a “pandemic pause” for six months. About a third of the crew spent stayed at the Silver Sands subsisting on left over product placement steak, beer and coffee.
Director Mirvish had returned to Culver City, California, with hard drive and started editing the footage that he had. During quarantine, the team recorded the Nixon tape with actors Bruce Campbell, Jon Cryer and Ted Raimi all performing remotely from their respective homes. Dan worked with composer Luis Guerra and Brazilian singer Caro Pierotto on the soundtrack and score.
Principal photography picked up where it left off in mid-September, 6 months to the day after “pausing,” following strict SAG-AFTRA, DGA and New York State Covid-safety protocols. Since then, the team has primarily conducted post-production remotely, and made the most of it: Working with musicians in Mexico and Brazil, visual effects artists in Mexico, post-sound artists in Baltimore and Burbank and a colorist in the heart of Orange County. Mirvish was able to shoot insert shots of the reel-to-reel tape player in his garage with his kids and neighbors helping out. And writer/producer Daniel Moya worked from New York on essential accounting, fundraising and other aspects of post-production.
Note that 18½ has already met and far exceeded The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences new Oscars® Representation and Inclusion Standards for Best Picture consideration, which were approved on September 8, 2020. Though the Academy is not strictly enforcing these standards until 2024, adherence to them now is still a priority.
18½ (2022)
Directed by: Dan Mirvish
Starring: Willa Fitzgerald, John Magaro, Gina Kreiezmar, Marija Juliette Abney, Lloyd Kaufman, Alanna Saunders, Sullivan Jones, Jon Cryer, Ted Raimi, Catherine Curtin, Elle Schneider
Screenplay by: Dan Mirvish
Production Design by: Monica Dabrowski
Cinematography by: Elle Schneider
Film Editing by: Dan Mirvish
Costume Design by: Sarah Cogan
Art Direction by: Sarah Cogan
Music by: Luis Guerra
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Adventure Entertainment
Release Date: May 27, 2022
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