1st Assistant Directed by blake brewer

I absolutely LOVE this guy. I’ve been trying for years to find an AD that I could take with me on every project and I finally found that when I met Blake last year.

My latest film is a Lionsgate movie starring Zachary Levi called The Unbreakable Boy. We shot this movie in Oklahoma in the height of Covid with only a few weeks prep and it was an extremely complicated schedule. And I mean it when I tell you we never would’ve made it through without Blake. He built us a rock solid schedule leading up to production, and then 8 hours before rolling cameras on day one, our lead actor got a (false) positive Covid test, which completely destroyed the schedule. But as everyone was panicking in the middle of the night, Blake calmly sat down and rebuilt a new WEEK ONE in 25 minutes. And then rebuilt it again about a dozen times throughout production due to other Covid issues and weather. It was spectacular. 

I honestly can’t say enough good things about Blake. He's smart as hell, is tough when he needs to be, keeps a great sense of humor in the worst of circumstances, and is just an absolute pleasure to have on set. I’ve never been so happy to have an AD by my side every day. 

As director of Son of the South, I worked closely with Blake Brewer as my 1st Assistant Director. It was a very difficult shoot – frankly the film was underfunded and there were unavoidable problems that reduced our schedule from 30 to 25 days. However, I still wanted to capture the film I had envisioned which meant that everyone had to show up on their toes each and every day – we couldn’t afford to have any problems with organization that would slow us up at all.

On the contrary, we had to make up time and we had to constantly be clever about how to cover scenes and move on to the next. We had to “make every day” without exception and we did. Blake was brilliant. He kept the machine working – I barely remember a moment waiting for actors to appear out of make-up and hair or any of the other million details of a set that can often feel like just waiting for people. The best example of this was the riot scene. We had a day and a half to shoot a riot that had to be impressive – it couldn’t look like something done too quickly or too cheap. We had less than 100 extras for a scene that had to be populated with 300 to 400. This required a massive amount of preparations in order to get it done properly. Take a look at this scene, if you can. You will be amazed that what we got was anywhere near possible given those restrictions. Without Blake, we would have failed. He kept us on the clock and shooting and no overtime either those days. I believe that what we captured is one the best riot scenes ever filmed. I would proudly compare it any other and they all had days and days to shoot. 

I cannot say enough good things about Blake. Besides his dedication, he is a very easy, calm and pleasant person to work with. When I do another film, he will be at my side.

I am a big fan of Blake. We hired him literally days out from filming when a previous A.D. didn't work out and he jumped right in and didn't miss a beat. As a producer, I found he did a great job of staying on top of schedule and time extremely well. As the director, I appreciated the fact that he didn't try and bluster his way on set and badger the crew, but was always authoritative without being an asshole and was respected by cast and crew. The actors were also big fans which as you know is not always the case. 

I've worked with good, bad and mediocre A.D's and I have to say Blake was at the top of my list and I wouldn't hesitate to work with him again. I think if you do hire him, you'll be very pleased with his work, competence and demeanor.

Blake Brewer is a fantastic first assistant director. Not only is his ability in his craft top notch, but he works well with others, takes criticism well and is determined to put in the effort required to make a film successful. I first worked with Mr. Brewer in 2020 on my film The Inheritance. This film was unusual in that it was one of the first movies made in Georgia during the Covid-19 pandemic. We operated in uncharted territory, each crew member and dept having to find their direction in unusual circumstances. Not only did we complete the film, but we did so without a single case of Covid-19 infection. Mr. Brewer followed our producing team’s lead and became a leader to the crew, determined to keep the disease off of our set. That is a responsibility that did not exist a year before and Mr. Brewer took that yoke without any complaint or hesitation. It is not common to find a person who can carry extra weight without complaint.

 Although that was my first experience working with Blake Brewer it was not the first time, we tried to hire him. Two previous projects I could not hire Mr. Brewer because he had too many jobs lined up. He came strongly recommended from producer friends of mine and I now understand why that is. I look forward to hiring Blake Brewer again, provided he is available to work on my film!