Out at the refurbished Del Valle High School football stadium, a staged homecoming football game was filmed last Friday night and into the pre-dawn hours of Saturday. The “game” was the backdrop for the Austin-based NBC series Friday Night Lights. The show’s pilot premieres tonight at 7:00 p.m.

“We wrapped at 4:00 a.m.,” assistant director Michael Waxman said. “I’ve had about 3-1/2 hours of sleep at this point.”

Waxman was talking by cell phone from his daughter’s volleyball tournament in Georgetown. “Five hundred extras. . . I don’t have any voice left!” Not good for the interview we planned, so we rescheduled.

A couple of relaxing days off with the family, and Monday morning was even more hectic. An actor calls Waxman to let him know he has an abscessed tooth and can’t work in front of the camera that day. “We’re reshuffling the entire shooting schedule. We weren’t expecting this.”

Just another day at the office for the director’s right hand man.

Michael Waxman has been a sought-after assistant director, working with some of Hollywood’s directing elite, while making his home with his wife and family in Bastrop. His list of credits reads like a must-have DVD collection -- Heat, The Insider, When Harry Met Sally, Ali, Rudy, The Last of the Mohicans, to name a few. It’s a list that will now include the Texas football story that inspired a book, a feature film and, now, primetime TV series.

While he has the resume to be the big fish in any pond, Waxman is quick to praise his crew and cast on Friday Night Lights. Waxman is one of many local film crew professionals who are counting their lucky stars since the show was picked up for 13 episodes.

Read our interview with Waxman after the jump.

Can you give us your “mini dossier?” How did you get into moviemaking?

I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and had always wanted to, and enjoyed making films with my dad’s wind-up regular 8, and then Super8 camera. When I got into college, I studied television and then film production.

Where did you go to college?

Brooklyn College, where I grew up. The last year of school I took a work/study program through the City University of New York, which allowed you to work and get credit. I did that and worked on a documentary series called, Old Friends, New Friends. It was with Mr. Rogers from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood -- his foray into more adult-type programming. I think we did six documentary shows. What it did was really give me something to say, “Hey, I’ve actually worked!” on my resume.

What was your title on that show?

Production assistant. We had a tiny crew, as a documentary unit would, so you got to do everything. I was probably about 20 years old at the time (around 1977). Once I graduated, a buddy of mine from school had a connection at a commercial company in New York. The way it worked was that if you did a good job, people wanted you to work with them. It was all freelance. So, I did a good job, and started working as a PA in New York. I was on commercials, documentaries, industrials and then some TV films, and then (feature) films as well.

How did you segue into being an assistant director?

If you could accumulate enough days as a PA back at that time (around 1983) you could put in an application to join the Directors Guild of America. I worked my way up from driving trucks, picking up camera equipment, vans, actors and all of that stuff in New York to getting into the DGA. I was working 250 days a year, which is a lot. It worked out well for me. I was having a blast being a production assistant in New York and then becoming an assistant director. I’ve worked on some great stuff. Worked with some great directors. I worked on a film called King of Comedy, with Martin Scorsese and worked on a film called Blowout (with Brian DePalma).

How did you wind up in Bastrop, Texas?

In 1985, I had worked with a gal who was going to work on a film called Manhunter as an assistant director, and she couldn’t start (the production). I started it (for her) and then we ended up co-keying the job. Manhunter was the original Red Dragon, the original Dr. Lector film, directed by Michael Mann down in North Carolina. On that film I met my future wife, whose name is Linda. She grew up in south Austin. At that time she lived in Utah. We dated off and on for three years, and then got married in 1988. We moved to Los Angeles together probably just a little bit before we got married. (Which it turns out) was good, because at that time New York was fading as a film area. (There was) the whole deal with the unions and the teamsters – the producers were just getting sucked dry by the unions there. Production fell off. There was one production a year, and that was Woody Allen. Nobody else really worked there.

Of course, the first film I worked when I moved to LA I did go back to New York for. It was a liner film called, When Harry Met Sally, and that was the last film I worked on as a second assistant director – I think that was in ’89.

I was a Los Angeles assistant director, and stayed that way until we had kids and decided to not bring them up in Los Angeles. In ’94, I was doing Heat, and my wife came here and started building a house. In ’95, we officially moved in.

What’s it like when you have to go on location to Florida, or the Dominican Republic, or wherever, and leave the family behind?

Well, it’s tough. That was the worst part of it. I’ve done one film here in 12 years, other than Friday Night Lights. I did a film called, Home Fries, and that was shot around Austin, in fact, in Bastrop. Other than that, I have been out of town. So, imagine I’m bringing up two kids and doing everything you do and not seeing them grow up. I mean, I take extended periods off after films, and I’ll take four or five months off after I finish a film, just to be home and reconnect. It’s still tough, because you always need to say goodbye.

Tell me about working on Friday Night Lights. You’re working with Peter Berg?

Yeah, Pete Berg is the executive producer. He shot the pilot back in February (which I didn’t work on), and it got picked up by NBC. A gal named Nan Bernstein, who I knew from New York back in the early 80s (recognized) my name. (The production team) said, “Okay, who are the assistant directors that are available in this area?” She heard my name, and people said, “Well, don’t call him, because he’s a big feature guy, and all of that stuff.” She (told them), “You know, I once didn’t call somebody, and he called me up after and said, ‘Why didn’t you call me?’” It really is true. I tell people: Call me, and let me say no. Don’t assume that I don’t want to work on a TV show!

Especially a TV show shooting in your backyard!

Exactly, so it’s just been wonderful for me. You know, I’ve done the big films, I’ve traveled to a lot of different places, and for me to be able to stay home. . . . The way this show is shot, it’s fun and it’s exciting. You get a lot of freedom. It’s been great. It’s really been great so far.

With fingers crossed so Hollywood will see we can do it here in Austin?

That, and we’re trying very hard to get the city – certainly, at least the City of Austin and maybe the county of Travis, and (the state) – involved in saying, you know, let’s make a tax rebate situation for episodic television. Forget about features for a second. Let’s start somewhere. Let’s start with episodic television, because what that would do is open up the door to other episodic TV coming here.

What will it take for the decision makers to see the value in that?

They don’t see it, because that has come up years and years ago when Tom Copeland was the Film Commissioner. We say we want tax rebates for film, and the oil guy says, “Well, why don’t I get tax rebates?” and the cattle guy says, “Well, why don’t I get tax rebates?” Well, they all do, but they’re hidden in different places where you don’t see them as much as you would if you announced tax rebates for film companies. That’s a part of the deal as well, it’s not just us. Once you get a handout, everybody else has their hand out. But we’re pushing, and hopefully, if we can just say let’s do it for episodic television, at least that’s a place to start. Because New Mexico and Louisiana are places where the shows will go if we don’t get it.

Friday Night Lights has invested a lot of money in Austin, with re-doing the old Del Valle Stadium. . . (and have) built an infrastructure here – for our show in particular – and episodic television in general. So, it’s here! Everybody who works on the show is local. Everybody. Except the director of photography and the costume designer and that’s it. I mean, everybody, everybody else is from here.

Most productions bring in key people from LA or New York. What other Austin production can brag like this?

They can’t. It is 100% across the board local. The actors are obviously from different places. Although, down the line from the 10 principle actors that work as the main cast, every other actor – with the exception of the once-in-a-while guest star – are all from Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio. The talent pool is here. Beth Sepko is our casting director. She finds the people, we use them, and they're great! I mean, we just found among the kids that we hired as football players, Wow! Here’s a kid who can act! Great! We created a role for him.

The way we do our show is just I mean, we have just got a great director of photography, David Boyd. He’s fantastic and the operators – who are all local operators – are just great. We get to the essence of the scene. We shoot with three cameras all the time, and get the scene done. We do it by letting things go, and shoot it semi-documentary style, even though it’s a drama. We give the actors a tremendous amount of freedom and see what happens. And that’s all Pete Berg. That’s Pete saying, here’s how I want to shoot the show, and we followed suit with that. That’s something that has stayed with the show, that style. . . we’re excited about it.

The critics seem happy.

It kind of depends on Dancing With the Stars. (laughs) It depends on if we stay on long enough next year to go up against American Idol, or they’ll move us. You know, when it comes to television, there are so many other variables.

There have been some successful football feature films recently, including Friday Night Lights last year, and Invincible this summer. That should put football back in the minds of the audience.

There’s no question, and in this film-to-TV series, I think that we will get that “guy audience” for football, but it’s so much more than that. I showed the third episode to my wife and my kids, and it’s emotional. They were all in tears. I mean, it’s that kind of show. It’s a reality that is just an emotional reality. It’s about teenagers, their emotions and what they go through. And episode 2 is great! October 10th, that show will knock your socks off. Jeff Reiner is the producer/director on the series who oversees all of the directors. He directed episodes 2 and 3 that we did together, and he’s great. I mean, just super. He knows football, knows performance. He just brings so much to the table, I mean really carrying the torch that Pete lit.

You’re currently working on episode 7 of 13 that the studio has ordered and it looks like the show will make a strong showing this fall?

That’s the idea. We’re on the sweeps episode right now, so it’s a big episode. You know, we’ve had a football game. We’ve had a homecoming celebration – which we did by Decker Lake. We did a rave party in a pasture – an anti-homecoming party.

A rave Texas style?

Exactly, a pasture rave, anti-homecoming party. We’ve done three big set pieces on this one. I mean, that’s the thing about all the stuff we do – including the football – all of these things are just a backdrop for the drama of Friday Night Lights. This television show is about the characters. We’re servicing TV in a way that really hasn’t been done too much. We’re (looking at the work), and I think “Oh, boy, I don’t know if television deserves this. It’s so good.”

What does your future agenda hold for you professionally? Any big features coming up?

Right now I’m taking it as I go. I’m trying to stay home as long as I can with Friday Night Lights and not go off and do another feature. I was gone 11 months last year on Miami Vice from January 15th to December 15th. That was a long time to be away from home. The only thing I’m thinking about now is trying to make the show successful, so that I can stay home. I’ve been out (on location) so much, (for instance) doing The Insider, it was in Los Angeles, New York, the Caribbean and the Middle East.

Do you ever find yourself working with Michael Mann and thinking, “I don’t know what he’s doing, but I totally trust it!”?

You know, not lately. (laughs) When I started with him, I was like “Golly, that is a really weird decision,” and would find out that he’s making these decisions based a lot on cast performance, maybe more than anything else. He’s just a really, really, really great filmmaker. One of the few great filmmakers in our country.

You’ve done some directing yourself. Do you see yourself getting into more directing?

Absolutely. There’s no question about it. I hope to direct some episodic TV with Friday Night Lights. To be able to get on an episodic television circuit as a director is a find. At this stage of the game for me it would be great to work less and make more money. I read a lot of scripts. People call me all the time and send me scripts. Plus, I’m trying to write some stuff myself. I’ve got great aspirations. It’s a matter of finding the time now and that’s something that I just kind of do as I can. I would like to direct another short film if I could. It’s a matter of finding the time. The folks here in Bastrop want me to direct a historical documentary for their visitors for the hotels here in town, so I’m kind of working on that as a local writer.

Thanks for taking the time on such a busy shooting day.

Today is supposed to be an easy day! We finished up our hard stuff. I thought we were downhill on this episode, since we’ve done so much great stuff (up to) now. I was like, “I could do the rest of this episode with my eyes closed.” Boom! Last night, actor calls, “Urm, I cran’t talk. My mrouth and frace are swrollen.”

Photos courtesy Waxman Family & Google