Directors Guild of America (DGA), something he had been trying to do
for three or four years. "They have a test every year for their training
program. Twenty-five hundred people apply and twenty-five get picked.
Being a white male, I never qualified. I was desperate to get into the
Directors Guild."
Blomquist arrived in San Francisco to discover that the picture's
$750,000 budget was already spent, but filming was only halfway fin-
ished. "I had to figure out how to get the movie done with whatever
money they were still raising, and get them to the finish line."
Once he was admitted to the director's guild, Blomquist was informed
that he needed to work 400 days outside of Los Angeles to get on the
roster. He earned the required days during the next year and a half,
working on whatever projects he could find. Once the specified time was
completed, he worked on a variety of television and low budget produc-
tions, until a friend called to ask for his assistance on the PBS movie Lone
Star Kid. One of the ADs on the picture had worked for Taylor Hackford
on An Officer and a Gentleman, and recommended Blomquist for a low
budget film called La Bamba.
La Bamba was made for $6 million and earned more than $60 million,
its success propelling Blomquist to another level in his career. When it
wrapped, he worked on the series Sledgehammer and other projects, until
Hackford was ready to begin production on the $25 million picture
Everybody's All American. For it, Blomquist was asked to co-produce, and
serve as both line producer and production manager.
"It was a huge leap. I was in really, really deep water. In those times
you either sink or swim, and I happened to swim." Blomquist called on a
friend who was also a production manager, who talked him through the
budget. "I had worked on a low budget movie, so the budget was maybe
twenty pages long. On a $25 million movie the budget was 120 pages.
Everything was inflated. I was completely adrift. He sat me down and
explained, `It's all the same categories. There are more entries, because
there are more people and there is more money to spend, but it's the
same process.' You're building an apartment building instead of a single
family house.
"Basically, I reinvented myself two or three times. The biggest reinven-
tion was from being a grip to assistant director to becoming a production
manager. Then going from production manager to producer were two big
leaps. One was sort of by my own sheer force of will, and the other one
because Taylor Hackford saw something in me and gave me an opportu-
nity when he didn't have to. He could have hired somebody who had
lots of experience and credits. Instead, he said, `This is the guy I want to
do it,' and Warner Brothers went along."
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