Mathew Ferrante
An Inside Look at the process of green-lighting a multi-million dollar studio blockbuster
Mathew Ferrante is the VP of Physical Production at Paramount Pictures.
Listening and editing this week’s episode felt a bit like uncovering a time capsule.
At the time of this recording, way back in January of 2019, Mathew (yes, with one T because he’s cool like that) had been at Paramount for five years.
So, it’s wild to think that in a few short months, he will have been there for six years. The bullet train that is time…
Originally from Arlington Heights, IL, just outside Chicago, Mathew got his start as a PA on one of my favorite indie films, Waitress, starring Keri Russell and Andy Griffith. Eventually, he found his way to the Physical Production Management Trainee Program at Warner Bros., where he quickly grew into a staff coordinator for the president of physical production.
Currently, Matt oversees titles ranging from $5 to $20 million dollars. His most recent credits include The Cloverfield Paradox with J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot and Johnny Knoxville’s Action Point.
Our chat gets a bit inside baseball at times as he explains titles within the studio and deconstructs the importance of tax incentives. We also tackle the challenges of being an executive and making it home in time to put his daughters to bed.
So, in this hour together, you’ll get a taste of a day in the life of a studio executive and a peek behind the curtain from someone who has been at Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures.
You’ll learn:
How the Physical Production department works alongside the Creative department to green-light a movie.
How being at a studio allowed him to be a family man.
How Keri Russell encouraged him to keep going.
His time at Harvard and being a part of Hasty Pudding
Happy listening!
xx cg
"I think I was given six tasks, and I dropped the ball on five of them… I was like, I can't even deal with this. And I feel someone start to rub my shoulders, and it's Keri Russell, and she says, 'It's okay. We're making a movie. No one's gonna die. You're doing great.’”
-Mathew Ferrante
Episode Transcript
