Original subtitles

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I can't emphasize enough the importance of curiosity.

I think curiosity is how you're going to find your stories.

Curiosity is how you interact with the world

and observe how people are.

Before you can make a film, you have to have observed life,

you have to have lived some life.

And you have to have to have been in relationships,

and you have to have noted things about people

and found people just endlessly fascinating.

Before you can radiate, you need to absorb.

You know, it's the law of thermodynamics.

It's the creativity law of thermodynamics.

So, you know, you have to get good people.

So all right, so you want to understand

the basic technologies of computer animation.

How does it work?

What are the steps involved?

It doesn't just spring full blown.

You're going to start with ideas.

You're going to start with design.

Sometimes it's character design, sometimes it's creature design.

Sometimes you'll go through performance capture.

Maybe someone is playing a creature or a character.

You need to know how to integrate these things

with live action elements if you choose

to go down that path of doing highly

effects oriented filmmaking.

It's really-- I don't want to say it's a separate art form,

because there's a lot of--

it's a gradient.

You could be making the most humanistic simple drama,

but in order to create that scene in 1954

that you want to do, suddenly you're in the effects world.

So how are you going to learn about that stuff?

Well, to start a lot of the tools are readily available.

You can work relatively cheaply in some

of the newer visual effects apps,

so get some nerdy friends to come in

and show you how to do that, or just sit and watch

over their shoulder while they do something

and learn the language.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Personally, I think it's really important

to understand all the jobs on the set and all the jobs

associated with making a film.

So as one is coming up and trying

to find your place in the ecosystem of filmmaking,

I think it's a really good idea to try a bit of everything.

Be the boom operator for one of your friend's films.

Understand how cameras work.

Learn to understand how lenses work.

Don't, I think-- don't fall into the trap

that a lot of filmmakers do early

on when they come to it from, let's say, writing,

or they come to it from acting.

You know-- because there tends to be this sense of dividing

the process of filmmaking into the humanistic, empathetic,

sort of internal--

you know, actor and writing kind of side of it.

And then there's all that technical stuff that people do.

I think it's important to remember that first of all,

it's a fusion of both of those sides.

And you have to inhabit that dualism

where you can speak to the actors,

you can talk to the writers, you understand the inner landscape

of all the characters.

And at the same time, you can ask for a certain lens

and know what it'll do.

You can talk to the DP about a backlight, you know, a desat--

you know, whatever it is, whatever stylistically you're

trying to do.

I think it's really critical to not sort of categorize

oneself going in as a technical filmmaker

or humanistic filmmaker, but understand that they

are two sides of the same coin, and you really

can't be operating in the role of filmmaker

without understanding both sides of those.

And that's one of the things that I believe in and try

to do in my own life-- not get too drawn

into the technical side of it.

So the more you have of the technical expertise--

it doesn't have to be expertise like you're

going to go out and offer yourself

to the industry as a top sound person or a top dolly grip

or whatever.

It's enough to be able to speak the language,

because the art of film directing

is the art of making it happen in real time,

at that moment, when everything has come together.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I think people who are coming in to film these days

are shocked to find out how much is really

a visual effect these days, how much of maybe

the view outside the window is entirely

done with green screen, wasn't there at all.

So you really can't be--

this is going to be a sweeping statement,

and there will be people that reject it--

but it's pretty hard to be a filmmaker these days

without being conversant with simple visual effects,

putting something outside a window,

putting something outside a car, that sort of thing.

So you really need to understand--

you know, like right now, it may not look like it because I

don't know what they're going to do later in composite,

but I'm sitting on a green stage where they can put anything

they want behind me later.

So maybe you guys can switch that off, we

can see that it's just a blank green stage.

And then you can switch it back on and show what it's like,

and maybe you didn't even know that was happening,

or you suspected it.

And I think it's important to know what level of realism

is required.

It's important to find good visual effects people.

It's important to speak their language enough that it doesn't

sound like Greek to you when they're talking about,

you know, what they're going to use as a key-in color.

Is it going to be green?

Is it going to be blue?

How does that affect your lighting?

What are they going to need in terms of the on-set lining

up of the shots, because you're going

to be putting things in later that

have to go in the right place.

So you become very reliant on those people.

And if you're not-- if you haven't come up

in the technology of visual effects, like I did,

for example-- because I come from the technical side--

you need to find good people that

have done good work on the type of film

that you're trying to make.

I've heard filmmaking described, I think best,

as you're laying track in front of a moving train.

The train is not going to stop.

And so the decisions that you make in that real time

are going to be the sum total of everything

you've learned along the way and your instinct, which I've which

I've already talked about.

And to a large extent, they're kind of irrevocable.

And it's important to come prepared.

Fortune favors the prepared mind.

So what's your preparation-- well, you're storyboarding,

and you're writing, and you're pre--

I'd don't want to say pre-visualization,

because that's a process and it's a process

shared with other people.

I'm talking about your pre-imagining of the scene.

Run that scene in your mind.

Imagine what it can be.

Once you're cast, imagine it with those actors.

Maybe you don't have to imagine it.

Maybe you do a fair bit of rehearsal,

maybe you even tape some of the rehearsals.

Maybe you tape the auditions and actually cut

the scene ahead of time.

I've done that as well.

Cut the scene, understand your scene before you go into it.

Know what your important scenes are,

make sure everyone else is prepared.

And I'm not just talking on the technical side.

I'm talking with the actors.

Make sure they're prepared mentally and emotionally

for that scene and they have whatever they need.

They've had the rehearsal time that they need

and that they want.

And so the more you understand the trades, the more you

understand the craft of it--

work with a DP or become a DP on a low budget film.

Understand lighting.

So this is all the craft.

This is the technical craft of filmmaking.

And I think there are lots of great books on the subject.

You can read "American Cinematographer,"

which is a good source.

And there are other magazines, trade magazines,

on cinematography.

Absorb it.

Be a sponge.

Learn it all and make friends with people

who are interested in those specific aspects

of the art, someone who is an aspiring cinematographer.

Make friends with that person and say,

hey, let's make a film.

Doesn't even matter-- let's just make up a story real quick

and go make a film and experiment around,

and get other people enthusiastic about that

and come in.

The only way to learn it, really, is by doing.

I think the thing that's important to remember

about film is that it's a collaborative meeting--

so it's a team, a bunch of people.

But somebody needs to lead that team in real time.

So the director is kind of like a war president,

you know, in the sense that you don't have time

to take it out of committee.

You're dealing with stuff that's coming out you,

1,000 questions a day, 1,000 little decisions

a day-- do another take, don't do

another take, do this, do that, red wardrobe, green wardrobe,

whatever.

So it's a system that sort of rewards,

in a sense, a kind of autocratic system.

And for me personally, my journey

around the leadership of how you do this

started with me being you kind of a tin pot

dictator, because the movie was the most important thing.

And everything, everybody serves the movie.

And I was the representative of the movie.

And so I think I was rough on people.

I don't think I was cruel.

I was just rough because the pace of events

demanded it and all that sort of thing.

But what I've learned over time is

that people don't do their best work

if they're not respected and appreciated and have a voice.

And so if I've learned one thing that I

would like to go back and do differently,

It's not necessarily the choice of lenses

or the choice of dialogue or anything

within the films themselves.

It's the nature of the working relationship.

I could have listened more.

I could have been less autocratic.

I could have not made the movie more

important than the human interaction of the crew.

And it shouldn't be, because I think when we start out

as filmmakers, we tend to think that the movie's the world,

and it isn't.

And years later, you realize, well, I'm still here,

and all those people are still around, and the movie is--

everybody's forgotten it.

You know, I think somebody like Ron Howard, who

is innately a team player, who came up

in the culture of a television show

from the time he was a kid, he's great at it.

When I first saw him work, I was dumbfounded.

It's like, wow, he takes a lot of time complimenting people.

You know, what's he on about here?

And I aspire to, even to today, to try

to be my inner Ron Howard.

Thanks guys.

Well done.

Fun, fun, fun.

And I've told him this, by the way.

This is no secret--

because I think that's how it's done.

And he's a great filmmaker, he's a fine filmmaker.

So the two are not mutually exclusive.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The other aspect of leadership is you have to inspire.

And you inspire by communicating.

If you're not passionate about it,

if you're kind of phoning it in or you

don't know how to express that, or you sit back

with a kind of a blank face, why are other people

going to be excited about it?

You've got to get people excited about it.

And you-- and I don't care if it's day 100 of a shoot.

And if you're starting out, you're

probably a ways away from that, but trust me, you'll get there.

I don't care if it's day 100 of a shoot.

You got to come in with that enthusiasm.

You got to have that lightness in your step.

You've got to see the wonder that's happening right in front

of you and be excited by it.

You know-- and run in.

I've run into a shot when the camera's still

rolling and hugged the actor.

You know, what you just did is fantastic.

You know-- oh, cut, by the way.

Share it.

Share the joy of creation.

And I think it takes a while to be secure enough

to be able to do that.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Film is about compromise.

It's all about compromise.

But it's not compromising from some crystal

vision that already exists.

I always say it's a process of working with a group of people

to get that picture to come more and more into focus.

So I can use the example of creating

elements for a fantasy world, or a science fiction

world, and a whole bunch of designs start to come in.

And you work with artists.

And you look at something and you

say, oh, that's interesting.

I hadn't seen it that way.

Let's pursue that idea.

And somebody else would come with a different try,

and say, well, that's kind of interesting too.

Let's pursue that idea.

At a certain point, one speaks to you

a little more than the other and you make a decision.

And ultimately, all those decisions are binary.

They're one or the other and they're forever.

You know, and you can't let the forever of it weigh on you.

You just have to make it a fun, kind

of vigorous creative process, because the second you bog down

on--

shit, what I just decided I'm going

to have to live with for the rest of my life,

you'll never get anywhere.

You just have to kind of keep your heart in the game.

You make it fun.

You encourage other people.

And you make decisions at a kind of instinctive level.

But that instinct is well cultivated over time.

It really consists of every film you've ever watched

and either enjoyed or didn't like,

but saw something in it that was cool--

every book you ever read, every dream you've ever had.

And by dream, I don't mean ambition.

I mean, the actual mental process

of stringing together random images and bits of narrative

in your head all night long every night.

And I think that's something that one

needs to learn to believe in, to listen to and believe in,

because it's really the sum total of all your inputs

and all of your likes up until that point.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

It's people that are rabid scared and rigid,

and holding onto their storyboards

like this, that can't see the magic and can't incorporate it.

So you got to get past that.

Yes, you got to be prepared.

You've got to come in with a plan.

And sometimes that's the only thing

that keeps the day going along.

You know, go to--

we're doing shot five on the shot list,

it's right here in the storyboards.

And everybody's happy because they know what you're doing.

But it doesn't have to be that.

It's your film.

You can do anything you want.

You can take that out or you can do something different,

or maybe the actors come in with some really cool idea,

or something happens in rehearsal.

Rehearsal's a great, highly fertile time to see new ideas.

So you let the cast off their leash

and they'll come up with all kinds of crazy stuff.

And I've always been attracted to the actors that

are the most inventive.

You know, Bill Paxson being a very good example.

He'd come in, he'd have thought for months about the dialogue

he wanted to do.

He'd be constantly saying, I could do this, I could do that.

I'd throw out nine tenths of it and keep that 10%,

and the movie was better for it.

You know, when he says, what are we going to do now,

we're in some real pretty shit now--

you know, that whole rant that he does in "Aliens,"

he just kind of riffed that up.

You know, you got to keep your eyes open for the magic.

And I think the most important thing is every single day,

working with your actors, lightning is striking.

How do you bottle it?

How do you bottle that lightning?

You can't predict what an actor is

going to do or say, or just a little gesture that they do,

or color that they add to a line that was not maybe

the intention of the line at all,

but it comes out of left field and all of a sudden, that fits.

That fits.

That's better.

And when they sit around in film studies classes,

and you read all the cahiers du cinema stuff,

and they talk about all these brilliant things

that filmmakers do, they tend to forget the fact

that most of those movies didn't have very big budgets.

And people were just doing what they could do in the moment,

and something great came out of it.

It's not quite the highly precise process

that people think it is.

And a lot of the things that we applaud in movies

were basically happy accidents on the day.

And I don't want to say accidents.

I want to say they were moments of taking the opportunity,

seeing something happening, maybe

some particular configuration of where the sun was

at the location, at the time.

And instead of doing the shot that way,

you decide to move everything over to here

to take advantage of it.

All filmmaking is kind of combat in the sense

that you're going into a highly fluid situation.

Instead of having a defined enemy, your enemy is entropy.

Your enemy is that tendency of the universe

to go from a state of order to disorder.

But you can be prepared to the extent that you have confidence

and you have options.

You can switch, you can switch track, you can go around.

I mean, I think of filmmaking like water flowing inevitably

downhill.

It goes around rocks, doesn't go through,

so you've got to go around the obstacles.

You've got to be that flowing water.