All language subtitles for 107 - Collaboration Part 1

directors are meant to

to sort of dream the you know

the movie or the episode or the short film or whatever

whatever it is and you know

visualize it um hear it

and that's all valuable

that's a that's a

that's a level of preparation that's important

and that's also a great sort of foundation

but I have discovered

that if you try to enforce that too rigidly

you're you're

you're losing all the spontaneity

uh and and that sort of organic creativity

that the people around you have to offer

coming to that understanding was

was the beginning of a rule that I just simply call

the six of one rule six of one

half a dozen of another

and that is

I believe that when you're working with

whether it's a cinematographer

an actor a writer a composer

production designer

you know any of the

the key you know

creative collaborators on a project

that your job as the storyteller

as the director is like

you're the keeper of the story right

um your taste is ultimately

what's going to guide the production

the editing and the outcome

but if someone comes up with a suggestion

some talented person that you've come to

you know respect

you respected them enough to hire them

and they come to you with a suggestion that

that they understand

on an intuitive level

on an organic level if that

if that choice still achieves the objective

super objective of the scene

or the moment in the story

um then it's much better to let that person

use their choice

and it accomplishes two important things

and my work

really improved when I began to understand this

first it invests those talented people in the project

um in a in a very important way um

the the other thing is it

it develops a kind of a trust

it's much easier to edit people's ideas and say no

and not have them be frustrated

angry and close down on you

but instead respect

you know your thinking

because they know you're more than willing to say yes

when talented people know that you're more than willing

to say yes to their suggestions

they are also more sanguin about accepting a no

in fact they like it

it's liberating

because then

then they don't have to really edit their ideas

with a sort of a

god forbid he uses it and it doesn't work

that's gone

that's no longer in the mix

instead they're free to

sort of have this dialogue going with you um

the director

and they're excited about the fact that you can edit

that you can

you know exercise that responsibility um

that you have to make those

to make those choices for them

well you know

my my work um

improved now

there are great directors that don't operate that way

um um you know

Charlie Chaplin didn't listen to anyone

um Kubrick was not much of a listener um

there are others

you know who

who who really

you know they

they they they

they they have a vision

and they follow it

that's completely valid

it just doesn't happen to be the way I work

I revel in the excitement of the collaboration

I I think it provides all of us

not just me

with a kind of um

creative safety net

but more than that

um you know

it's just is it just

it energizes um

a set in a great way sometimes

you know you

it you know

it threatens your schedule if you're not careful

which is a reason to be really prepared

and be very efficient

so that you're always making room

for these moments where a good idea

that is a little bit of a game changer um

is is presented

and you have the opportunity

to either try it as an alternate

or direct the scene in that way

in a new way

and you know

it's very exciting for everybody

and I've had a lot of scenes

and entire movies benefit from that

those kinds of adjustments

one of the keys to collaboration

I discovered

is that early on in the process of directing the movie

or the television show um you

you have this opportunity

to engage with your heads of department

um writers sure

producers absolutely

um even studio network executives

but you you have you have

you have these

these these hours

days sometimes where you're you're

you're trying to start to deal with the logistics of

of the project

you're going on location scouts

you're looking at storyboards

you're analyzing production schedules

you'd think that's all kind of hard work and

and just kind of the meat and potatoes of you know

of launching a project but

it's a fantastic opportunity to elevate it creatively

because you're trapped

you're problem solving

and when you're problem solving

it always raises questions

and sure some of them are logistic

are logistical in nature

but it always comes back to the creative

because every decision you're going to make informs the

the the the story

story is is king

and there's this sort of

the overarching understanding of the story

and then the details underneath it that are

are gonna make it possible for you to execute

and maximize the possibilities of that story

well when you begin talking about not just the location

but the themes

what what the location might mean to the characters

what does the location

and the characters say to the audience

how does that relate

to the thematic values of the story

where is the potential

and that helps you begin to define your choices

and it also engages you in a conversation with people

like your production designer

um like your editor

like your cinematographer

like your composer

that are gonna have a huge um

broad impact on the movie

and they begin to make suggestions

what do you guys think

what would be best

and that conversation um

can often inspire you

as the filmmaker

to make decisions which are um

maybe surprise you and

and continue this process of discovery

and that's what fuels the inspiration

and it keeps the you know

the project fresh

because the choices that you make on dubbing stage

the very very end

after two years of working on a movie

when you might just be

you ought to be exhausted

and entirely sick of the

of the project in fact

can you know

re energize um

your sense of inspiration and possibility

uh for that

for that project

because it says something about the characters

it communicates to the audience

in a way that reinforces

the themes that inspired you

at the very

very beginning

to even take on the project

the idea of working in threes

is something that I Learned

through a very good friend of mine

George Lucas

who had a mentor of his own

Akira Kurosawa

and I I was in Japan publicizing Willow

a movie that I directed for

for George Lucas um

and was invited to this

this dinner with the greater cure Kurosawa

and one of the things that he began talking about

was working in teams of three

and he believed in the power of that triangle um

for very simple

practical reason

was that ideas could quickly be voted in or out

odd numbers work

could be three

could be 5 7

probably gets a little unwieldy

but I have found over the years that um

three passionate

focused people uh

trying to address a problem

often come up with you know

a wider array of options faster

the movie Parenthood uh

was a great example of that

that was my original idea again

Brian Grazer as producer

myself directing

the writers were Logan's and Bobbloo Mandel

now that you'd think that's

um you know

sort of a um um

and undercuts the idea of the tripod triangle

but they're

they're very unified in their thinking

so I think we can count them as one voice

they're the writer

we were all contributing um

experiences of raising kids and of being kids

and evaluating what was funny

and that was one of the most challenging screenplays

ever to solve

because it seems very

very simple on the surface

but in fact

it's kind of a matrix for um

different stories and ensemble um totally

it shifts from being very serious to very funny um

and um and it tries to

in a comprehensive way

sort of explore the whole um

process of being a parent it it

we failed with drafts

um many times

until we finally clicked with

you know the script

that was undeniable

and a lot of that came out of

just hours and hours and hours of kicking around ideas

and discussing the

the um you know

the strengths and weaknesses of the

of the idea

and the new possibilities

and I I just think that that kind of um

creative problem solving

really sustains the

that sense of inspiration

because director's job

is to maximize the potential of a story

to fulfill the possibilities that a story offers

and you know it it

it it really

really get serious

during that screenplay process and

and especially the rewrites

of that screenplay

and when collaborators begin contributing in that way

it's incredibly exciting

a beautiful Mind was such an inspired

ingenious way to look at

the tragedy of a mental illness and

and the triumph of the possibility that

mental illness could be overcome

but as I went into it

I really thought of it

you know more as an examination of the disease

and Akiva Goldsman

screenwriter

presented the characters

um the imaginary characters as real

I thought that was very interesting

but I didn't understand a way to suggest

to the audience

that we didn't fully understand John Nash

played by Russell Crowe and Akiva

who not only had this ingenious notion

of these characters that were more or less like ghosts

his his hallucinations

we were meant to believe in

and then have the rug pulled out from under us as

as we you know

kind of understand

that our own reality can't be trusted

just as John Nash can't trust his reality

we did something else

something called affects

in that schizophrenics

um um have to

have to cope with and um

Keith Goldsman

both parents

psychiatrists

of course well informed on the subject

suggested that I look at some documentary footage

and I began to study some of the behaviors of people

you know dealing with schizophrenia

and other mental disorders

and I I sat down with Akiva

Russell Crowe

and it was myself

so there's a triangle

and we were just looking at these at the screen

out of that conversation came the possibility

that we could play very fair with the audience

if we would choose some of those effects

and minimize them in the first act

so that we just think that he's a lovable

quirky guy um

but Russell

got very excited about what he could do with them

is he would

he would identify a few that he was comfortable with

that he knew he could work with

and then gradually exaggerate them

and then by the time we know that that um

his illness is full blown

and we're all aware of it

it's the same effects

only now they're beginning to look the way

you know it was looking in that documentary to me

I had one where he would sort of like

rub his eye

in the beginning

he just did it kind of cute

and later it was almost like he was hurting himself

and that was an idea that was born completely out of

you know a triangular

creative conversation that was really just

what do affects look like

and it developed into this

this um you know

foundational idea that I could work with as a director

and Russell Crowe could build upon as an actor