For Weber, writing about an aspiring writer was a no-brainer.  Weber, who grew up in New Jersey in the 1950’s about twenty miles from the city, attended NYU and studied creative writing (one classmate was Martin Scorsese), eventually ending up in advertising as a copywriter.  On the side, Weber tried his hand at book-writing and ended up with a work entitled, “How to Pick Up Girls.”  But in the carefree sexual climate of the late 1960’s, no one seemed to need a how-to book, so Weber was unable to secure a publishing deal. 

At the time, his wife was pregnant with their first child, but Weber would not give up on his book.  Determined to see it published, he risked their life savings, approximately $1000, to create his own ad for the book.  Luckily enough, the response was tremendous and the ad returned about ten times its cost.  Without pause, Weber sunk that money into printing copies of his own book, and within a few months, the book was a hit.  After selling a few million copies, Bantam Books purchased the paperback rights and Weber wrote the treatment for the ABC-TV Movie of The Week.  TV Guide called the film “a delightful romantic comedy.”

Afterwards, Weber went back and forth between the advertising business and his aspirations as a filmmaker. Six years ago he decided to just quit and begin making movies.  His first effort was Suits, a quirky, satirical comedy starring Robert Klein about the war between the suits and the creatives at an ad agency.  Writing in The Hollywood Reporter, Duane Byrge raved Suits is, “ Deliriously funny, more than a little bawdy, a consistently entertaining work.” The film was released by Taurus Entertainment in New York in 1999 with a subsequent showing on HBO.  Since that time, Weber has written a half dozen scripts, including a few that have been critically recognized (one won a Gold Medal at WorldFest in 2000), but because the process for Suits was so tough, he was gun-shy about getting back into it.

When he did resolve himself to the task, Weber went at it with abandon.  For someone who on average writes about two scripts per year, the process of writing SECOND BEST was incredibly organic. Weber says, “It fell out like the seventh child.  I wrote it in three weeks in a great burst.”  Of course, Weber was blessed with some incredible inspiration: his son’s words, “write what you feel now,” and the knowledge that he was creating a “platform or forum to help people discover that they’re not alone in their feelings of jealousy and inadequacy and that they can even discover how  to use and enjoy them.”

With the script completed, Weber was ready to get it made, and since at the time he had an agent, he decided to throw it to the wind and try the traditional Hollywood route.  Immediately, one studio exec fell in love with the project and tried to attach Jack Nicholson, which was a dream choice of Eric’s, but in the end, netted a pass and only slowed progress.  Realizing it would have to be a do-it-yourselfer, Weber began the process of getting up the courage to raise the money through relatives.  Finally, two years none the younger, but with cash in hand, Weber was ready to make his film. 

Sensing that he would need a “progressive, young producer” to realize his vision, Weber turned to Lina Todd, his casting director from Suits.  Todd flipped the script to Callum Greene and Anthony Katagas, two relatively fresh producers that were blazing up the indie scene.  “We were coming off the heels of some very serious work including the macabre 3 A.M. and the love-wrought Happy Here and Now, and into that mix Eric brought SECOND BEST, a really biting, satirical script that we loved,” says Greene. 

About the same time, Weber’s lawyer Paul Mayersohn handed the script to another client of his, Joe Pantoliano, and when he agreed to meet for lunch at the Plaza Diner in Fort Lee, NJ, Weber was enthused.

Weber says, “He came in looking like his character in The Matrix but without the gloves… hat on backwards, and a leather coat.”  Pantoliano, a self-effacing personality, responded to the role of Elliot.  Weber reminisces that Pantoliano remarked, “I thought you would be one of those careful Jewish guys who’s obsessed with his health, but when you ordered a BLT, I thought Here’s a guy I can work with.” 

Weber explained to Pantoliano that he didn’t want a “Richard Dreyfuss type” for Elliot.  “He’s supposed to be an educated Jew, but I didn’t want a nerdy Jewish guy.  I wanted a sexual, rough hewn edge, a guy that could be an editor of a New York publishing company but could also talk dirty with the boys.  I was thinking of Italian American actors like DeNiro or Pacino.”   The Hoboken born actor responded, “But all you could afford was Pantoliano.”

According to Pantoliano, who was just coming off of “The Sopranos” and Daredevil, “It was a phenomenal opportunity to do a role that no one would ever think of me for.  I’ve always been anti-typecast, and I like to work out of the box.”  Pantoliano was also curious about working on DV, which he had not done before, and this was a perfect opportunity for him to learn the process while creatively collaborating on the piece.

Pantoliano’s presence immediately perked up the project’s profile.  Also named a producer on the film, Pantoliano made an early contribution of bringing good friend, and outstanding character actress, Jennifer Tilly (Bound, Monster’s Inc.), onboard as Elliot’s love interest.  With these elements in place, Weber quickly filled out the rest of the cast with some extraordinary notables including Boyd Gaines (three-time Tony-award winning actor and Coach Brackett in Porky’s), Bronson Pinchot (Balki from “Perfect Strangers”), Peter Gerety (currently on Broadway in Never Gonna Dance), Polly Draper (“thirtysomething”), Matthew Arkin, Patricia Hearst, and former supermodel Paulina Porzikova.  Though it was not a conscious choice to cast actors who were often the sidekicks or fringe players, “looking back on it, it excited me tremendously to have these actors playing the champions of second bestness,” says Weber.

With the cast in place, Weber launched into production.  It was always in the cards to shoot the picture digitally, and Weber’s crackpot cinematographer, Chris Norr, chose to shoot the film with the Sony PD-150 PAL.  The look they discussed for the film was “intimate and tight and not too polished.”  Weber, who was nervous about directing such established actors, took three or four days to find his “sea legs,” but eventually anchored himself.  “I loved the flexibility of shooting on DV because it gave me the chance to shoot quickly, try new things, and not have to sit around and wait for four hours while the DP got the lighting just so.”

Jennifer Tilly, who plays “Carole with an e,” the lusty vixen whom Elliot has a fling with, was perhaps the most dedicated actor amongst the group.  At nights, she would reputedly go home and go over and over her role to think of new lines and physical actions that might make it richer.  Weber says, “A lot of time actors improvise on set, and once in a while I use one of their lines, maybe one in ten.  With Jennifer, I used nine in ten.”

Overall, shooting went very smoothly, and there were no major setbacks.  With all of the locations within six to seven miles of Weber’s current hometown, Tenafly, there were never any worries about getting to set in time.  The biggest stress factor during production was the heat.  Shooting in August, the index hit 95-98 degrees every day.  “Bronson was complaining about heat rash in his private parts,’” says Weber, “and when we had to turn the air conditioners off when we shot in the Chinese restaurant because they were so noisy, the temperature immediately went up to 110 degrees.  There was a lot of stress in that.” 

Besides contending with the weather, there were the usual creative squabbles between Pantoliano and Weber.  Weber would often ask Pantoliano to do another take, and then would be confronted with an earful of criticism and his “irascible, challenging nature.”  Jokingly, Weber once told him, “I know why the Wachowski brothers could handle you, because there were two of them.”  Similarly, Pantoliano said, “Even with all of the on set tensions, at the end of the day, we’re still in the game together, still on the same team, and still friends.”

Principal photography lasted a scant 17 days, and afterwards, there were a few days of 2^nd unit shooting.  Having grown up in the suburbs with mixed feelings, and having raised his kids there after his youthful years in the city, Weber was very particular in how he wanted the audience to view the suburban landscape.  “In American Beauty, there was this very clichéd view of the suburbs; everyone hates their life and their job.  As a backdrop to where these losers all live, I wanted to show the suburbs in a more favorable, lyrical light.  Let’s face it, most of America grows up in the suburbs.  It’s our roots.” 

For a guy who had written and packaged books on the side in his day job as the creative director of a large ad agency, post-production was a snap for Weber and crew.  Two of the highlights for Weber were bringing Craig Cobb on board to cut the film, and Tom O’Brien to score it.  Cobb, who had been cutting his teeth as an assistant editor on all kinds of indie features including Chinese Coffee and Before Night Falls is currently an associate editor of “Sex & the City.”  O’Brien, a tremendously gifted musician who frequently plays the Mercury Lounge or CBGB’s but has not yet broken through, created a melodic transitional score to fit Weber’s design.  Weber was adamant that he “didn’t want music to heighten the emotions.  The conversations would either carry you or not.”  All in all, Weber believes the creative team to have been successful.

“Your father must be very brave,” said a friend of Weber’s son, “to write so openly about himself.”  Weber says, “That’s the trouble.  Everyone thinks the writing is autobiographical.  It is emotionally, but not necessarily factually.  I cringe  when I watch the scene where my hero talks about having a small penis.  I’m sure all of my wife’s friends are thinking, Well, that leaves him out.  The truth is, a writer must write about all of his feelings, even his worst feelings.  I know I don’t have a giant penis, but it’s not miniscule either.  It’s just sometimes walking around a locker room it seems  miniscule. With much chagrin I write about it because I believe the feeling will resonate.”  Perhaps there’s a bit more of Elliot in Weber than he thinks.  Hopefully, with this homage to the “Everymen and Everywomen” of the world, Weber, a second time director, doesn’t resign his film to being only SECOND BEST.