From Films to CORE; John Palmer Expands his Producing Skillset
Filmmaker John Palmer explains how his passion for the camera translates into his professional life.
by Joe Syracuse
Producer John Palmer ’17 lives by a creed, one he got from Liberace: Every day, wear something that scares you. This is odd since, when I sit down with Palmer, he’s dressed in a comfortable gray T-shirt and jeans. Maybe he had on something scandalous underneath–like leather socks–but I doubt it. What I came to learn about Palmer is that his interpretation of Liberace’s creed isn’t so much about fashion. It’s about passion. Palmer lives loudly, even if he’s wearing an organic cotton jersey. This confidence is how he ended up working with another artist who is known for his big personality—actor/director Sean Penn.
Palmer co-produced the acclaimed drama Flag Day (MGM/United Artists, 2021), the first film Penn both directed and starred in. There are no aliens, or quantum portals or superheroes in Flag Day. Instead, the film finds its mojo with a device rarely seen these days on the big screen: raw emotion.
Based on the memoir Flim-Flam Man by Jennifer Vogel, Flag Day tells the story of a ne’er do well dad whose grandiose American dreams lead him to commit a series of crimes. Penn plays the con man; his real-life daughter and son (Dylan and Hopper Penn) play the con man’s children. Dylan described the scenes between them as being a bit like family therapy, which meant that Palmer, in his role as producer, had to help create a safe space for the actors to be vulnerable. It was a heady assignment for a first-time feature producer and recent USC Cinema School grad. But Palmer met the challenge the way he seemed to approach all things in his life. If it scared him, he jumped in.
Originally from Idaho, Palmer was primarily raised by his grandparents in Las Vegas, Nevada. His grandfather was a carpenter and his grandmother a retired mill worker. Pursuing art was not a career path anyone in his family had followed. “When I was a Junior in High School, they opened an arts magnet school. It blew my mind open as to what was possible in the world.” It was there, at Liberace’s mansion (yes, you read that correctly), that a gold cummerbund-wearing Palmer was named prom king at his high school culmination party. Palmer later applied to the San Francisco Art Institute, and was the first in his family to go to college. As a cinephile, he studied experimental filmmaking and curated film programs that featured underrepresented voices. He was hired by American Cinematheque as an assistant programmer, which brought him to Los Angeles.
After working various film-related jobs, Palmer founded his own company, a creative agency that specialized in entertainment marketing and design. Growing that business led to the chance to direct a national PSA. “I walked onto set that first day and I was just like, ‘What am I doing with my life? Why am I working a desk job when I should be doing this?’ That night I called my business partners and said, ‘Look, I'm going to apply to USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. If I get in, I’ll have to leave the company.’” We know what happened, or you wouldn’t be reading this article. He got in.
USC introduced Palmer to all the facets of filmmaking, including producing. His USC mentor was producer Bill Horberg (Milk, The Queen’s Gambit), who gave Palmer an insider’s look at the business, sharing scripts in development, budgets, and cuts in progress. The top-to-bottom view helped Palmer direct and produce his thesis short film, Elwood Takes A Lover. Made on a shoestring budget, the film is reminiscent of Norman Jewison’s Rock Hudson/Doris Day comedy Send Me No Flowers, but with a twist. A terminally-ill woman arranges a partner for her husband once she’s gone, but (spoiler alert) that partner turns out to be the man he had always loved. The short became an official selection of The American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
A little over a year after graduation from USC, John was working for another creative agency to pay the bills while trying to get his own projects off the ground. That’s when he got a call from his mentor Horberg with an opportunity to support Sean Penn for pre-production on Flag Day. One hour later, John was discussing the project at Penn’s house. The Oscar winner hired him in the room and asked if he could start immediately. “No,” said Palmer. He had to quit his job first.
What began as a ten-week gig turned into a full-time job once Penn realized the collaborator he had in Palmer–someone who could manage multiple fronts, allowing the director/actor freedom to do his best work. Palmer was with the project from pre-production all through post, when they were forced into hiatus due to Covid. That’s when Palmer began collaborating with Penn on another emotional project: CORE, or Community Organized Relief Effort, which Penn co-founded with humanitarian aid expert Ann Lee.
With production down on the film and everyone sitting at home, Penn and Lee realized there was a very real crisis right here in Los Angeles: a lack of testing sites. After a meeting with Mayor Eric Garcetti, CORE began collaborating with the Los Angeles Fire Department to provide testing for underserved parts of Los Angeles County. CORE’s testing site at Dodger Stadium was the first large-scale operation of its kind in LA, and became a model for other cities.
Palmer started out volunteering at the drive-thru centers, but soon realized producing films had given him a lateral skill set for disaster response. “In a crisis, you’re setting up your own little temporary circus with tents, food services, transpo. You’re bringing together groups of people who don’t know each other to work long days towards a single goal. I had just done that on Flag Day.”
Palmer became CORE’s Chief of Staff under Penn and helped with efforts to offer Covid testing and vaccines, tracing, and wraparound services throughout the United States and Navajo Nation, as well as Brazil, India, and Haiti. He was also a part of CORE’s early months on the ground in Ukraine, Poland and Romania, providing services to refugees and people internally displaced by Russia’s offensive on Ukraine. What makes CORE unique in terms of relief organizations is their approach: CORE’s mission is to mobilize local communities to respond to their own crises, because communities know how to address their own recovery better than anyone else. As Palmer explains, “It’s not a parachute NGO that comes in and says, ‘We're going to fix this for you.’ CORE’s different. They come in and say, ‘How can we help you fix this in the most efficient and lasting way?’”
The effect is a sustainable infrastructure that pays dividends into the future. One could say it’s like the difference between entertainment that is enjoyed then forgotten, versus classic films and television shows that are viewed for generations.
Palmer’s focus is on making classics. He eventually had to take a step back from CORE to focus on his producing projects including the upcoming film Black Flies, a story about paramedics in New York City, directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, starring Penn and Tye Sheridan. Palmer is also on the School of Cinematic Arts faculty, teaching production.
Harkening back to his Liberace credo, I asked Palmer if there’s something he wears on his first day to set that scares him. His answer? “Yes. My producer’s hat.”