2012 SBIFF Panels IntroductionThe process of comedy| 00:00 | (applause)
| | 00:04 | Roger: So let me introduce this
amazing group of directors.
| | 00:10 | Chris Miller, Puss in Boots. Thank you!
(applause)
| | 00:16 | Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Kung Fu Panda 2;
(applause)
| | 00:23 | Terry George, The Shore;
(applause)
| | 00:28 | Paul Feig, Bridesmaids;
(applause)
| | 00:33 | Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist;
(applause)
| | 00:40 | Gore Verbinski, Rango;
(applause)
| | 00:46 | and please welcome Peter Bart, who
has moderated this panel for many, many times.
| | 00:52 | He owns this panel.
| | 00:54 | He is the editorial director of Variety.
| | 00:58 | He also hosts and produces Movie Talk,
which is shown on NBC and seen in
| | 01:05 | eighty world countries.
| | 01:06 | So please welcome Peter Bart!
| | 01:08 | (applause)
Peter Bart: Good morning everyone!
| | 01:22 | So it's nice to be in Santa Barbara,
far from the madding crowd of Los Angeles
| | 01:28 | during award season.
| | 01:30 | The madding crowd of Santa Barbara is
infinitely more congenial, trust me.
| | 01:36 | The thing about this directors' panel
each year that one is reminded how nice it
| | 01:42 | is to be apart from the media
frenzy of the superstar panels.
| | 01:51 | Although a couple of years ago, just
as I said that to Roger, he looked at me
| | 01:57 | and said, "Guys, don't forget that
the entire crew of 60 Minutes is in the second row."
| | 02:03 | So everybody became a little
more cautious about what they said.
| | 02:07 | I do not believe 60 Minutes or
anybody else is here, so I think we can have
| | 02:11 | some fun with this.
| | 02:13 | Paul Feig: No TMZ today, we are safe. Good!
Peter Bart: TMZ is everywhere.
| | 02:18 | Paul Feig: That's true. Wait a minute!
| | 02:22 | Peter Bart: So Paul, let me start with you,
because I am going to throw out a question to
| | 02:27 | Peter Bart: each director, and then we'll just argue at random.
Paul Feig: It's going to get ugly.
| | 02:33 | Peter Bart: But I remember a couple of the actors
in your really brilliant movie reminded
| | 02:40 | me that you shot and shot and shot, and
the thesis being that a film, a comedy,
| | 02:46 | really is made in the cutting room.
| | 02:51 | So did you match Judd Apatow's
world record for most footage?
| | 02:54 | Paul Feig: I think Judd and I are always in the
contest of who can waste the most film.
| | 02:58 | You know it's bad when Kodak shows up
with bottles of champagne on the set.
| | 03:02 | So when we started doing that on
Freaks and Geeks I was told, in no uncertain
| | 03:07 | terms once, that I would never work in
this town again, for all the film that I shot.
| | 03:11 | But you know what it is with comedy, I
find the type, that I like to do and like
| | 03:17 | Judd likes to do, that the worst thing
you could do is just shoot the script.
| | 03:20 | We start out with a great script, but
what happens is you just find with comedy is
| | 03:24 | something that we're convinced is
hilarious we put it up in a test screening
| | 03:28 | and it doesn't get a laugh.
| | 03:29 | And then something that we were kind of
like, I don't know, is that funny or not,
| | 03:32 | that somebody just experimented with or
came up with on the spot, ends up being
| | 03:35 | something that destroys.
| | 03:36 | So it's almost--it's just insurance
really, to make sure that you are covering
| | 03:42 | yourself, because you never want to go
in--that's why we were able to have a
| | 03:47 | movie that has done well with audiences
laughs-wise, because we did about eight or
| | 03:53 | nine test screenings over the course
of putting the movie together and would
| | 03:56 | just find the weak parts and then
slot in the new things that we did.
| | 03:59 | It was through a combination of
alternative jokes that we wrote, improv skills
| | 04:04 | of the girls, and I cross-shoot
when I shoot things, which is I shoot both
| | 04:09 | the actors at the same time, so they
can surprise each other, and it happens in
| | 04:13 | the moment, so you are capturing that
lightning in a bottle, and that's what
| | 04:15 | gives it kind of a
freshness as far as, it feels real.
| | 04:19 | That's why I think a lot of people
responded to the girls talking, because it
| | 04:22 | felt like women actually talking and
joking with their friends, which is kind
| | 04:26 | of what it was.
| | 04:27 | Peter Bart: So Chris Miller, on the subject of
laughter, I went to see your picture with
| | 04:34 | my seven-year-old granddaughter and she
laughed a lot and I laughed a lot, but
| | 04:39 | Peter Bart: we laughed at totally different jokes.
Chris Miller: Okay, that's good!
| | 04:43 | Peter Bart: Did you intend it that way?
| | 04:44 | Chris Miller: Well, there's certainly no--
there's no formula and approach, but I just
| | 04:52 | look, I'll make a movie, if I am going
to work on a film--and making animated
| | 04:55 | movie, it's a three-year journey, so
you want to make sure it's going to be a
| | 04:59 | film that you would definitely want to see.
| | 05:02 | And I am setting out to make a film
that I would want to go to a theater
| | 05:07 | and have that experience. And I
think that covers, okay, so that covers
| | 05:10 | some generations there.
| | 05:12 | Knowing full well it's going to be
a family--it's intended for a family
| | 05:14 | audience, but you know, I mean, I
think we just sort of pepper the laughs
| | 05:20 | in as they come and what is appropriate
for any character, in any scene, in any situation.
| | 05:25 | And like Paul was even mentioning,
there is a lot of, strange enough,
| | 05:31 | improvisation and animation so your
always looking for opportunities to keep it
| | 05:36 | fresh, and we come up with so much
material that we'll test in front of
| | 05:40 | audiences or test on
ourselves, and it just works out.
| | 05:44 | There's something for grandpa and
granddaughter in the mix and really, it's really just that.
| | 05:55 | That's how you balance it out.
| | 05:56 | There's no abacus, that's for sure.
| | 06:00 | Peter Bart: And Gore, when I went to see your
picture, early on, I said to myself, this
| | 06:07 | is the most sophisticated,
nuanced animation picture.
| | 06:11 | Why would this brave son of a (bleep)
having just left $2.7 billion in Pirates
| | 06:19 | movies undertake a picture
that sort of defies expectations?
| | 06:24 | So gutsy man, but what got into you?
| | 06:27 | Gore Verbinski: I don't know. I mean, I think when
we first started the first Pirate film, everybody thought
| | 06:36 | we were crazy, and then we kind of
lost--you're not the underdog anymore.
| | 06:43 | When your second film has to make 300
million at the box office, you're kind of
| | 06:47 | carrying this thing on your shoulder,
and it's nice to get back to the unknown,
| | 06:52 | back to the feeling of, you're getting
more spring in your step, and you wake up
| | 06:55 | every morning going, I don't know what
the hell we're doing, and we're going to
| | 06:58 | approach every day and kind
of figure it out as we go.
| | 07:01 | So sort of an uncertainty principle,
I think, is underneath all that.
| | 07:06 | This is the best job in the world
when it continues to be an education, and
| | 07:11 | when you continue to grow and you try
things you're not quite sure you know how to do.
| | 07:14 | Peter Bart: They say louder and funnier.
Gore Verbinski: Yes. I hire people for the funny parts.
| | 07:23 | Peter Bart: Now, again, in terms of gauging
audience reaction, Michel, I find that
| | 07:35 | audiences for your picture, a
silent movie indeed, they seem to be more
| | 07:44 | profoundly moved by silence than they
are when they are snowed in with dialogue.
| | 07:50 | Now, was this part of your seditious
thought process when you started that?
| | 07:54 | Michel Hazanavicius: I think it's a combination of many things.
| | 07:59 | First of all, I think the way the
story is told, in a silent movie--
| | 08:06 | Peter Bart: A little louder.
| | 08:08 | Michel Hazanavicius: I make silent movies.
You don't have to tell me.
| | 08:13 | The way it works, it's very specific.
| | 08:18 | I mean, because of the lack of sound,
you try to feel the lack of information.
| | 08:26 | So you put a lot of yourself, and
you do it with your own brain, your own
| | 08:31 | imagination, your own references.
| | 08:34 | So it's ironic, but it looks very far
from people, but it's really closer,
| | 08:41 | because people make the move to the story.
| | 08:46 | Putting a lot of themselves, they're stuck to
the character and they're stuck to the story.
| | 08:50 | So I think they are much more
involved in the storytelling.
| | 08:54 | And the second thing, I think, is
even in the real life, I think the really
| | 09:03 | important thing--you don't say it
really with the words, I am sure you--
| | 09:09 | sometimes you just don't--you just
say no word or only a look or you take a
| | 09:15 | pose, and people understand what you
mean, and you don't have to use words.
| | 09:20 | So I am sure it's a good way to say things.
| | 09:25 | Peter Bart: Well, I played the score of your
movie in my car driving down here, and it is
| | 09:36 | beautiful, but my dog kept barking.
| | 09:38 | Michel Hazanavicius: So it was exactly like on set actually.
(laughter)
| | 09:42 | Peter Bart: Jennifer, if I can ask you this, you
are an illustrator by background, and so
| | 09:52 | many of the rest of us on this panel
came from the story background, but you
| | 09:57 | were a storyboarder as well.
| | 09:59 | How does that affect the way you
think about the preparation of a movie?
| | 10:04 | Jennifer Yuh Nelson: I think it's because I am an
illustrator and part of animation's process
| | 10:10 | is so front end, we don't get a lot
of coverage that we can create in the editing room.
| | 10:14 | We just don't have that luxury,
because we just can't animate all that stuff.
| | 10:19 | So what we get to do is we make a rough
cut of the film and we get to write it
| | 10:23 | in drawings, and that's a real
wonderful thing to be able to come in as an
| | 10:28 | artist, because you get to draw your
movie and write it in the picture as you are
| | 10:33 | working on the process.
| | 10:35 | I am surrounded by amazing artists
every day and to see what they do is a real joy.
| | 10:39 | Peter Bart: Interesting!
| | 10:44 | Terry, I am fascinated with the
process by which a filmmaker chooses subject matter.
| | 10:51 | Now, you moved from Hotel
Rwanda to Northern Ireland.
| | 10:55 | What guides you in selecting what your focus is?
| | 11:02 | Terry George: The story, follow the story, and
it's basically, strangely enough, it's the
| | 11:09 | same story each time.
| | 11:12 | It's about communities torn apart and
people within those communities who find
| | 11:20 | inner strength to battle the evil that's there.
| | 11:24 | So even though they are continents
apart and culture is completely different,
| | 11:29 | they were basically the same stories.
| | 11:32 | And I have the great--I don't know
if it's a plus or not, of being on this
| | 11:38 | panel with a film that
absolutely no one has seen.
| | 11:44 | So I can say it's so fabulous.
| | 11:46 | There's not a critic here.
| | 11:52 | There's Pirates of the
Caribbean and then there's The Shore.
| | 11:55 | They are basically the same thing.
| | 11:58 | Johnny Depp was supposed to be on The
Shore, but he couldn't quite make it.
| | 12:02 | But in actual fact, The Shore is--I
hope I would be able to do a version of
| | 12:11 | The Shore for Rwanda, because The Shore,
this little film I made, is the book-
| | 12:15 | end in Northern Ireland.
| | 12:16 | It's an allegory about the peace
process, and it's a comedy, which is a big
| | 12:22 | step for me.
| | 12:23 | Yeah, so sort of get back to the
question, it's basically following that story
| | 12:30 | of individual bravery in horrific
situations, in those situations.
| | 12:36 | Just one thing though:
| | 12:39 | improv and animation,
I've got to hear more about.
| | 12:41 | Chris Miller: Yeah, it's crazy.
| | 12:42 | Terry George: Well, do you do, like, two drones?
Chris Miller: You just do it on the fly, on the fly.
| | 12:48 | Terry George: I want to have that.
I have to get my head around it.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Filmmaking and anxiety| 00:01 | Peter Bart: In the filmmaking process, which
element, which decision in the process do
| | 00:08 | you find most anxiety producing?
| | 00:12 | And tangential to that is a related
question: How the hell do you know when a
| | 00:18 | movie is really done, I mean when you
stop shooting, when you stop editing, when
| | 00:22 | you finally say, okay, I am at the
mercy of the idiots in marketing?
| | 00:28 | So Gore, could you start with either
of those two questions, and then we
| | 00:34 | would go down?
| | 00:35 | Gore Verbinski: Well, it's been very bizarre to
make an animated movie, so a completely
| | 00:41 | different experience than a live action movie.
| | 00:45 | I think the anxiety in Rango was when
people said, you have to put actors in a
| | 00:50 | room in front of a microphone one at a
time. I think there was tremendous fear.
| | 00:56 | And then there was sort of, wait,
we don't need--why is that a rule?
| | 01:00 | Why do we give up a process that we use
all the time, we are comfortable with?
| | 01:05 | So we had twenty days, put
everybody together in one room.
| | 01:11 | Everybody comes to set
with a plan, with an agenda.
| | 01:15 | I mean, as a director you come with your
shots and you have how you see the film
| | 01:19 | exactly, and then every actor comes in
and kind of has drawn notes in their
| | 01:24 | script and has a line reading that they
think they're going to do on that day.
| | 01:30 | But when you collide all that stuff
together, you say something that I didn't
| | 01:34 | think you were going to say, and then I
don't say exactly what my intention was
| | 01:39 | in response to that.
| | 01:41 | So I think the anxiety on Rango was
with this animation process that we just
| | 01:49 | sort of said, we are not going to do.
We are not going to play by those rules.
| | 01:53 | Then I think the reward was having the
actors kind of do this bizarre Montessori
| | 02:01 | school play, where they showed up and
they put on rubber guns and a hat, but
| | 02:08 | you're basically in street clothes and
the boom man is in every shot because it's
| | 02:11 | just about the audio track.
| | 02:12 | So they were running around, and it's
very childish, and they were doing ten pages
| | 02:18 | of dialog a day instead of two.
| | 02:19 | So there was a journey there.
| | 02:23 | Peter Bart: I've got to ask, was Johnny Depp,
whose persona is somewhat opaque anyway,
| | 02:29 | was he comfortable with
the process of being a voice?
| | 02:33 | Gore Verbinski: I think what was uncomfortable for
Johnny in this process is that he is part lizard.
| | 02:44 | I mean, he is really--and we kind
of caged and plucked and prodded and
| | 02:49 | extracted this kind of reptilian juice
that we use then and is the lifeblood of
| | 02:54 | this entire endeavor.
| | 02:56 | But there's no place to hide
when you're in street clothes.
| | 02:59 | You're not going to have lizard eyes.
You don't have any of the stuff.
| | 03:04 | So I think there was a little bit of
extra bravery required on his part.
| | 03:11 | Also, actors, when we do these larger
movies, they're going to their trailer,
| | 03:18 | there's forty-five minutes, they come out,
they do two lines, you're re-rigging
| | 03:21 | something, they come back.
| | 03:23 | It's so bitty and piecemeal, because
there's usually some boat blowing up in the
| | 03:29 | background or something.
| | 03:30 | So to come and do ten pages, and as
many times as you say you have to be
| | 03:36 | off-book, this is going to be
differently, I think everybody--the first day
| | 03:39 | everybody has got their sides
crumbled up and like, whoa, ten pages.
| | 03:43 | By the end I think they were sort of,
oh yeah, acting, and that feels good.
| | 03:48 | We get to, like, do whole scenes.
| | 03:51 | So there was a transformation. I think
by the end everybody had a great time,
| | 03:54 | but certainly the first
couple of days were a bit rocky.
| | 03:57 | Peter Bart: So I would love to be at the meeting
when Gore explained to Johnny Depp who
| | 04:04 | Tonto is, but that's a later
discussion, with the next movie.
| | 04:08 | Michel, in the end process, which
decisions were the most anxiety producing for you?
| | 04:15 | Michel Hazanavicius: Anxiety is not really a motivation for me.
| | 04:22 | Peter Bart: How about fear and loathing?
| | 04:25 | Michel Hazanavicius: No, I mean, what's really scary
with that movie was financing it.
| | 04:39 | And actually what I did, I said to
the first AD, we've got to go to the
| | 04:45 | office every day, even if they
don't say yes, if they don't say a no, it's like a yes.
| | 04:52 | So we'd go the office every day.
| | 04:56 | So we went here in Los Angeles to
scout for location and everything, so we
| | 05:01 | started the preparation, and we got some
money, but we didn't have enough money.
| | 05:06 | So every morning, because of the jet
lag, every morning I had like three
| | 05:11 | message from my producer.
| | 05:13 | This was really scary, because I thought,
okay, this is--we have to go back to
| | 05:18 | France, and it's done.
| | 05:21 | Actually, we found a way.
| | 05:25 | I mean, he found a way.
| | 05:26 | He put his own personal money to fill
the gap of the budget, and I agreed.
| | 05:35 | Gore Verbinski: Informatiche.
| | 05:35 | Michel Hazanavicius: Yeah, exactly Informatiche,
it's exactly what it is like.
| | 05:42 | And I agreed to make the film in thirty-five days.
| | 05:48 | So we found the combination to make it.
| | 05:50 | But to me, I don't know if it's about
anxiety, but the most important thing is
| | 05:56 | what you said just before. When you
choose a movie, I think it's the most
| | 06:01 | important, because you have a hunch
of what could be the movie, but nobody
| | 06:07 | worked on it really.
| | 06:09 | So you have to, maybe because I write
it and direct it, there is nothing at
| | 06:13 | the beginning, so you have to--you
take a decision without knowing exactly
| | 06:18 | what will be the movie.
| | 06:20 | That could be scary.
| | 06:21 | Peter Bart: Well said! Paul.
| | 06:24 | Paul Feig: For me, the biggest anxiety is the
script, is getting the script right. And I
| | 06:30 | find--because I always feel that in
any movie, especially the one that doesn't
| | 06:36 | work, well, mostly ones that don't
work, there is what I like to call the
| | 06:39 | fatal flaw, which is, there is
something that we overlooked, and it can be
| | 06:45 | something as silly as the monster is
designed wrong, or in Hook, Robin Williams'
| | 06:52 | hair is crazy, when he is Peter Pan,
| | 06:54 | but that then just obliterates all
the rest of the hard work that everybody
| | 06:59 | puts in, because an audience just goes
to the one thing they don't buy or they don't believe.
| | 07:04 | For me, it's all about the script,
because if that story is not right and it
| | 07:09 | doesn't have the bones--
| | 07:10 | like for us, we do a lot of improv, but
we don't go in without a script that we
| | 07:13 | could shoot verbatim.
| | 07:14 | I think it would be pretty good,
because you have to lay this emotional base.
| | 07:18 | So it's getting all those emotions and
all those moves that the characters do
| | 07:22 | correct and real and then you
build the comedy up from that.
| | 07:25 | But that's where I think a lot of
comedies fall apart is they go for, "this would
| | 07:29 | be funny, this would be funny, this
would be funny," and then they go, okay,
| | 07:32 | well, now we have got to
get the dramatic story in.
| | 07:35 | So that's why you see a lot of comedies
kind of, they're going up here and then
| | 07:38 | maudlin scene and maudlin third
act, and it all kind of goes down.
| | 07:42 | So it's just really being hard, hard,
hard on that script and developing the
| | 07:47 | script for so long and not settling
for anything and just beating it up.
| | 07:52 | So once you kind of go I think we
have it, but then you never know, so
| | 07:55 | that anxiety goes all through
production, because you're like, I hope this is working.
| | 07:59 | Peter Bart: But you had such a sensational cast though.
| | 08:03 | I know when you talk to Marty Scorsese
about the process, he says, "I won't go
| | 08:08 | until I'm in love with the cast."
| | 08:10 | And it seemed to me, you had this amazing cast.
| | 08:15 | Did you know Melissa McCarthy
would become this character?
| | 08:18 | Paul Feig: We knew pretty soon.
| | 08:21 | The process that we like to do for the
writing is to cast very early and then
| | 08:26 | get the script right so that the basic
bones of it work, and you write in the
| | 08:30 | archetypes of what the characters are.
| | 08:31 | But then when you cast, we do a lot of
improv in the casting session so that we
| | 08:36 | can start to feel the actor's
personality or the personality of the character
| | 08:40 | they have brought to us coming out.
| | 08:42 | So then we get them together and we
mix and match and do a lot of chemistry
| | 08:45 | reads, where we make sure--
kind of see who works together.
| | 08:48 | Once we get that group, then we bring
them in to do rehearsals very early, like
| | 08:52 | months before we go,
| | 08:53 | that then has them reading through the
script and then like, well, let's just improv
| | 08:57 | a version of that scene.
| | 08:58 | And they'll start playing around, and
we'll just kind of give them different
| | 09:01 | things, and they will start talking in
the voices of their character, and that's
| | 09:04 | where we start the second
part of the writing process.
| | 09:07 | And that was with us, with Melissa, in
the rehearsals, she just started just--
| | 09:13 | everything she was doing was so funny
that we started adjusting the script to
| | 09:16 | give her more to do.
| | 09:17 | Like the scene where she comes over to
Annie and beats her up on the couch to
| | 09:21 | get her to wake up, great scene, that
was originally supposed to be for some
| | 09:25 | call-center woman at a collection
agency in Mumbai who kept calling Annie
| | 09:29 | because she was behind on her payments
and then finally got her on the phone and
| | 09:32 | read her the riot act.
| | 09:33 | But very early on it was like, we have
this hilarious woman, why would we give
| | 09:37 | that to some third-party
character, and so rewrote it for her.
| | 09:40 | So you can't do anything without a
great cast, but you have to let that cast be
| | 09:46 | a part of the process so that
they start to bring it to life.
| | 09:48 | Peter Bart: So actors out there, bear in mind
the lesson, and that is, be great.
| | 09:54 | If you want to get bigger role,
be great in rehearsal, right?
| | 09:57 | Paul Feig: Yeah, exactly, that's right.
| | 09:58 | It falls apart there.
| | 09:59 | Peter Bart: Mr. George, sir.
| | 10:01 | Terry George: Yes. The whole thing is
just one long train of anxiety for me.
| | 10:12 | Because I write most of what I
do, it starts on a blank screen.
| | 10:19 | I will literally wallpaper the ceiling.
| | 10:22 | I will do anything.
| | 10:23 | I will dig the garden
three times, rather than write.
| | 10:26 | I hate it. It's the thing I am best at
and it's the thing I hate most.
| | 10:32 | So that starts the process off with anxiety.
| | 10:36 | Then the directing side of it is,
for me, is a mixture of joy and fear.
| | 10:43 | Fear because you don't--the only
other director I've really had an experience
| | 10:49 | of watching and working with and
interacting with is Jim Sheridan, and you might
| | 10:53 | as well be copying a madman,
because he's truly insane on set.
| | 10:57 | So I have no blueprint.
| | 11:00 | And I remember the first film I
directed Some Mother's Son, I get over there,
| | 11:04 | they're all waiting, they're looking at
me, and I go over to the monitor, and I
| | 11:07 | put my head on it, and I am like,
Jesus, God, please beam me out of here.
| | 11:09 | And that anxiety hasn't gone away.
| | 11:15 | I just directed an episode of Luck, and
I walk on the set and there is Dustin
| | 11:19 | Hoffman and Nick Nolte is over there,
and I am like, Jesus, God, get me out of here.
| | 11:25 | Because everyone is looking at you,
and okay, you've got your notes and your
| | 11:30 | storyboard and all that there, but you
know it's all going out the window, and
| | 11:36 | suddenly you're hoping that some
inspiration will come, and that there is a
| | 11:40 | good script there.
| | 11:41 | And I do agree with Paul. It's all
about the script at the end of the day.
| | 11:48 | Within that script, a good script,
it's the moments where you throw that out,
| | 11:52 | where something sparks within the
scene and you have the bravery and the
| | 12:00 | latitude to go with it and go off-page,
and then the whole crew goes into a
| | 12:06 | panic, because everything they've
planned for is out the window, and then
| | 12:11 | that's, "Oh, he has gone mad."
| | 12:12 | We don't know what we are shooting.
| | 12:17 | I only get to speak a third of the
time here, I am not sure, because I have a short film.
| | 12:30 | So anxiety, that's what drives me.
| | 12:33 | I am looking for a different job now, fishing.
| | 12:36 | Peter Bart: Well, directing Dustin Hoffman is
instantly anxiety producing, because
| | 12:41 | usually at the end of a take he will say,
I can do it better, and then he will
| | 12:46 | look at you and say, and you can do better.
| | 12:48 | Terry George: And then he will crack a joke.
| | 12:51 | You just have to multiply the time
and the day, because he is fantastic.
| | 12:56 | He will do it better and keep going and
he is so funny on set, and the poor ADs
| | 13:02 | are looking at their
watches like, shut this guy up.
| | 13:08 | Peter Bart: Jennifer, I wanted to get
back to you, in terms of angst.
| | 13:12 | Jennifer Yuh Nelson: Angst is a--
| | 13:14 | Peter Bart: I should say Jennifer has
directed--there is no movie in history
| | 13:18 | that's ever done more box office and
directed by a woman than Jennifer's
| | 13:22 | movie, and that's--
(applause)
| | 13:31 | Jennifer Yuh Nelson: It's a peculiar statistic actually.
| | 13:33 | I am kind of shocked
about like, really, seriously?
| | 13:38 | Terry George: You should phone your accountant.
Jennifer Yuh Nelson: I need a raise, now.
| | 13:45 | As far as anxiety, I mean, it
is the middle of the process.
| | 13:49 | These movies take, I mean, as you guys
know, animation can take three or four
| | 13:52 | years, and halfway through you have
nothing to show for it except you word.
| | 13:58 | You have to just promise people, it
will be good. I promise it will be good.
| | 14:02 | You just have to trust me.
| | 14:03 | There is nothing to look at.
| | 14:04 | All the footage we have sucks,
and it will be good, I promise you.
| | 14:09 | And that's when everybody jumps
in to help, in a very well-meaning way.
| | 14:13 | And you just have to have everybody
trust you and look them square in the face
| | 14:18 | and tell them everything will be fine.
| | 14:20 | Chris Miller: I swear I am not lying.
Jennifer Yuh Nelson: Huh?
| | 14:23 | Chris Miller: I swear I am not lying.
Jennifer Yuh Nelson: Yeah, I swear I am not lying.
| | 14:26 | I am not pulling something over on you.
| | 14:30 | You have 300 people staring at you. You
have great actors, really, really great
| | 14:35 | actors, Dustin Hoffman, everybody
staring at you, and you want to reassure them
| | 14:40 | that everything will be fine, and
you have nothing to show for it.
| | 14:44 | Peter Bart: Wow!
Jennifer Yuh Nelson: That is anxiety producing.
| | 14:46 | But it's kind of funny, because even
the guy cleaning the kitchen will tell you
| | 14:55 | something along the way. By the way,
you could fix that story point by doing
| | 14:58 | this, you know that you're kind of
in that miserable middle of the movie.
| | 15:03 | What was really cool on our miserable
middle was Guillermo del Toro came in and
| | 15:09 | he looked at our footage and
said, you have a great movie.
| | 15:12 | He gave me the man's speech.
| | 15:14 | That's funny, because I'm the chick here.
| | 15:17 | But he gave me the man's speech where
basically he said, "Being a director is a
| | 15:21 | horrible, miserable experience, that
it's a terribly lonely job, because you're
| | 15:26 | blamed for everything bad and
everything, good someone else will take the
| | 15:31 | credit ultimately."
| | 15:33 | But the reason why you do it is because
somewhere at the end of this process you
| | 15:38 | will see something beautiful that came
straight out of here and will end up on
| | 15:42 | the screen. That's why you do it.
| | 15:44 | So he basically said, "Man up,
take the pain, and do it." I said, "Okay!"
| | 15:53 | I am not an angry person, but basically
at that point I had to throw a chair and
| | 16:02 | just tell everyone it will
be fine and just be quiet.
| | 16:08 | And we made it to the end of the
movie that way, and it was good.
| | 16:12 | (applause)
| | 16:18 | Peter Bart: Chris, I would love you to answer,
but I would love to have both of you--
| | 16:21 | the whole issue about Tintin and what
is it. I'd love to have your thoughts
| | 16:26 | on that as well.
| | 16:27 | Chris Miller: Right. I really like Tintin.
| | 16:32 | I think I watched that movie, and in
terms of process, you mean? Just in terms
| | 16:38 | of the mocap process, it seemed
utterly appropriate for that movie, and
| | 16:43 | therefore it's legitimate.
| | 16:45 | In terms of the nominees, and Gore is
one of them, and Jennifer, and myself as
| | 16:55 | well, and I look at the list of
nominees and I can't argue against the list of
| | 17:02 | that collection of films. They are all
completely deserving, and actually it's
| | 17:07 | a pretty great group to be a part of.
| | 17:10 | It's so diverse, and I find that
really exciting about animation in
| | 17:15 | particular, that you've got an
international, you've got a film from Spain
| | 17:20 | and France, and we've got two CG 3D
films, another CG 2D film by choice, and
| | 17:28 | a really good one.
| | 17:30 | I think it just speaks to the places
animation can go, and it's just, you're
| | 17:35 | only limited by your
imagination with the form and the format.
| | 17:39 | So did I just completely sidestep that question?
| | 17:43 | I mean, Gore can pick up on it.
| | 17:46 | Can I move on to anxiety?
(anxiety)
| | 17:50 | I love it. I live for it.
Actually, I do.
| | 17:53 | I actually--I always found when
going to that horribly dark place, and you
| | 17:59 | know it's coming, you just don't know
when, it's actually a good sign, that
| | 18:03 | something will inevitably--well, not
necessarily a good thing will come out of
| | 18:06 | it, but something is going to change.
| | 18:09 | You knuckle down, you have the faith
that, okay, we're in the dark place.
| | 18:13 | It can create some extraordinary
events, and usually, creatively, for the better.
| | 18:20 | It's so interesting listening to you,
Paul, like describe your process, and
| | 18:24 | it's actually not that different from
my experience, in terms of, we weren't
| | 18:29 | recording people in twenty days, and
taking it on a different way that you did. We
| | 18:33 | do it over the course of two and a half
years, and the animation process is one
| | 18:38 | long writing process.
| | 18:40 | With Puss in Boots, six weeks before
the film came out we were still changing
| | 18:45 | dialogue and tweaking it and
looking for, frankly, the way to improv an
| | 18:49 | animation, you're constantly
trying to come up with something fresh.
| | 18:53 | It's the most contrived form you can
imagine, because you don't go outside. You
| | 18:59 | don't get the trees for free when you shoot.
| | 19:01 | You have to design every leaf, so it's all planned.
| | 19:04 | Anytime you can find a way to
keep it fresh, extemporaneous,
| | 19:10 | stumble upon a happy accent
that you can then animate,
| | 19:14 | it really makes a huge difference.
| | 19:16 | So I don't know. I think I am done talking now.
| | 19:20 | I don't even know what I
am talking about anymore. I love it!
| | 19:23 | Peter Bart: You're expressing anxiety.
| | 19:26 | Chris Miller: Oh! I have a horrible anxiety, horrible.
| | 19:30 | Peter Bart: So Chris, if you want to visit a dark
place, try doing what I did, and that's
| | 19:33 | become a studio executive; that's a dark place.
| | 19:37 | Chris Miller: Oh my God!
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Silent filmmaking| 00:00 | Peter Bart: So on the subject of just courage,
once again, Michel, I--when you--I've
| | 00:07 | been with different guild groups, just
when you are about to make an appearance,
| | 00:12 | and it is as though Orson
Welles was going to appear.
| | 00:15 | I mean, people in Hollywood are so
astonished that you did what you did, that I
| | 00:22 | find people really would say to me,
do you know Michel Hazanavicius? And I'd say, yeah, I do.
| | 00:28 | Now, once you get past explaining how
you raised the money, which is all anyone
| | 00:33 | wants to talk about in Hollywood, what
do you find are the most common questions
| | 00:38 | asked you when you go to the
Writers Guild, the Directors Guild, the
| | 00:41 | cinematographers? What do they ask you?
| | 00:46 | Michel Hazanavicius: You want to know the question
that I don't want to answer anymore.
| | 00:50 | Peter Bart: Exactly, yes.
| | 00:56 | So you will answer, you will make the answer?
| | 00:59 | Where does that AG come from in the
age of 3D and CGI in the 20th century?
| | 01:10 | Peter Bart: In what?
Michel Hazanavicius: In the 21st Century. That's the--
| | 01:13 | Peter Bart: Yeah. Well, the dumbest question I ever asked
Michel, that we got into an argument and
| | 01:18 | I said, "Tell me you didn't use
one dog; you must have had twenty dogs?
| | 01:22 | He said, "I had one (bleep) dog."
(laughter)
| | 01:30 | We got over that tension.
(laughter)
| | 01:34 | But do you sense though that you did
have sort of a pop-culture impact on Hollywood?
| | 01:41 | I mean, people really are
shocked by what you did. Tres bien!
| | 01:48 | Michel Hazanavicius: Thank you!
| | 01:49 | Peter Bart: Would you ever do it again?
Would you ever make another picture that had
| | 01:53 | the same conceit?
| | 01:54 | Michel Hazanavicius: I don't think so.
| | 01:57 | I would love to, but I think it's--I
don't know, it's a very special movie.
| | 02:02 | It's a unique movie, and I won't
even try to redo the same kind of movie.
| | 02:12 | I mean, you can surprise
like this twice I guess.
| | 02:15 | I am going to try to make something
very--I am going to make something
| | 02:20 | very, very different.
| | 02:21 | I don't want to make a movie
that could be compared to this one.
| | 02:25 | Peter Bart: You made sort of
tongue-in-cheek thriller in the past.
| | 02:32 | Is that a genre that you would like
to revisit, a tongue-in-cheek thriller?
| | 02:38 | Michel Hazanavicius: I don't know what it is,
but I made that. Did I make that?
| | 02:41 | Peter Bart: Well, it doesn't translate.
(laughter)
| | 02:49 | Michel Hazanavicius: It's going to be hard to
run through that question. But if I made it--
| | 02:55 | You mean comedies?
| | 02:56 | Peter Bart: Your previous picture was sort
of a rather comedic thriller and a
| | 03:02 | charming picture.
| | 03:03 | Michel Hazanavicius: Yeah, like spoof spy movies, comedies, with Jean.
| | 03:09 | And then actually there is something
in common with The Artist. They were
| | 03:16 | period movies, and I did the same
thing in The Artist that I did in the previous one.
| | 03:24 | For a period movie usually you
recreate what you're shooting;
| | 03:31 | the costume, the haircuts, the location,
and everything, but what I did is I
| | 03:34 | recreate the shooting process, the way
to cover, to kind of frame the light,
| | 03:44 | and then I tried to respect
the grammar of the period.
| | 03:49 | So that makes something special,
and that's what I did for The Artist.
| | 03:54 | And that something, it looks like it's
an old movie, but actually I made it this
| | 04:00 | year, so it's not an old movie, it's a
modern movie, except that it's used--
| | 04:06 | it's a period movie, and I respect
the shooting device of the period.
| | 04:11 | Gore Verbinski: That's like the hardest thing to do,
what he did in that movie. I don't think a
| | 04:16 | lot of people don't take it--they
take it for granted because they feel like,
| | 04:21 | oh, they sort of go--I think when--
as a director when I look at Michel's
| | 04:24 | movie, I'm amazed at how exacting that
part of the filmmaking is, and I don't think
| | 04:29 | Gore Verbinski: people realize how difficult it is. Beautiful!
Michel Hazanavicius: Thank you!
| | 04:40 | Peter Bart: Pirates is a magic act too, trust me.
| | 04:42 | There's no way I think that that
billions of dollars could have emanated from
| | 04:50 | Johnny skulking about as charmingly as he did.
| | 04:54 | But Paul, people think of Hollywood as
being sort of a group of people working
| | 04:59 | individually on their projects, but
it seems to me there is a fraternity of
| | 05:04 | people in comedy, and that
everyone really helps and competes.
| | 05:09 | Peter Bart: Is this a correct illusion?
Paul Feig: Yeah, it is.
| | 05:12 | I mean, there is--the industry just
tends to kind of float certain funny
| | 05:19 | people up to a certain level.
| | 05:21 | It's very odd, but we just kind of mix
and match, like we will always do a table
| | 05:26 | read early on and invite kind of all
the other people in comedy that we know,
| | 05:30 | and it is this group.
| | 05:32 | Because we all love comedy, and we all
want to do good comedies, and there is not
| | 05:37 | a ton of competition.
| | 05:38 | I mean, I know it always bubbles
under the surface, hope someone's movie is
| | 05:42 | going to bomb or something, which is terrible.
| | 05:46 | But you really--I don't know, I think
we just kind of--we love fine-tuning
| | 05:52 | and we get very excited about comedy.
And we kind of like -- when you see
| | 05:55 | somebody doing something
that's new and different--
| | 05:58 | it was so exciting to see Michel's
movie because you are like, wow!
| | 06:00 | I remember in film school going, I wish
I could make a silent movie, because we
| | 06:05 | love them, but to have the nerve
to do it and to figure it out so well,
| | 06:08 | that gets us very excited in the group.
| | 06:12 | And it's fun to help kind of help each
other out, because also we know we are
| | 06:16 | going to be calling on each other for
help when the other project comes up.
| | 06:19 | So it's really--it's just a way to
kind of, hopefully, ensure the better
| | 06:23 | stuff gets done.
| | 06:24 | But yeah, we just have fun.
We love to laugh together.
| | 06:27 | Peter Bart: But you are different, it seems to
me, from most people at comedy, because
| | 06:30 | Peter Bart: people in comedy tend to be very downbeat dour people.
Paul Feig: I can be.
| | 06:34 | Peter Bart: You'll look at Judd Apatow and he'll
look at you and he won't say hello. He will
| | 06:38 | say, "I know, my movie is too (bleep) long."
| | 06:41 | Everybody is carrying this burden.
| | 06:44 | So how do you get away with being chiff?
| | 06:46 | Paul Feig: Well, I was a standup comedian for
years, and you talk about the most dour
| | 06:51 | people in the world, like standup
comedians offstage generally tend to be like,
| | 06:55 | you'd would--everybody thinks it's
going to be really fun to be in a room with
| | 06:58 | comedians, and then it's like the
most bitter room you've ever been in your
| | 07:01 | life, which is why I got out of standup
though, because I actually--I do have
| | 07:05 | kind of a positive outlook on the world.
| | 07:07 | You get ground down, but most of my
comedy tends to come from--I like the
| | 07:12 | cringy comedy, because, for me, it's
always been about--I've always expected
| | 07:17 | everything is going to be great, so
there's nowhere to go but down every single time.
| | 07:21 | But that's funny because I think we
all, most of us, tend to face the world
| | 07:25 | kind of optimistically, and so that's
why I enjoy the comedy of like somebody
| | 07:29 | just falling apart, of things going
poorly. And that's why--I am jumping all
| | 07:34 | over the place, I am sorry, but like in
Bridesmaids, as much as people remember
| | 07:38 | the famous bathroom scenes and all that,
the only reason that movie works is
| | 07:43 | because it's a pretty serious story at
its core about this woman just really on
| | 07:47 | a downward spiral and almost going
through a nervous breakdown, and that's
| | 07:50 | what you latch onto.
| | 07:51 | And I always feel bad that as funny as
Melissa is--and nobody is funnier than
| | 07:55 | Melissa--that Kristen isn't getting
her due for what she did in that film,
| | 07:58 | because that is one of the hardest
roles to pull off, to be that funny, but to
| | 08:03 | be that engaging and serious and to
not put off an audience with all the
| | 08:07 | terrible things she does.
| | 08:09 | But part of the math for us is a
character has to be redeemable.
| | 08:14 | If her character, we came into that
movie and she was just a loser her
| | 08:16 | whole life, I don't think we would
have put up with her busting up her friend's shower.
| | 08:21 | But the two most important scenes in
that film are is seeing her make that cupcake
| | 08:26 | and also seeing her, that picture of her
in front of her business before it went
| | 08:30 | out of business, she
looks strong and proud.
| | 08:33 | Because you go like, oh, she was
together, and so then you're going to go
| | 08:36 | through the fire going like, oh, I
want her to be who she was before.
| | 08:39 | So you just need that redeemability.
| | 08:41 | Say, like a lot of times when I am
pitching a new project people go, it
| | 08:44 | doesn't sound very funny.
| | 08:45 | And it's like, don't worry about the
funny. We're going to get funny people
| | 08:48 | and we're going to get a funny cast,
It will be funny, but it has to be,
| | 08:52 | again, the emotion.
| | 08:53 | Peter Bart: But the biggest moment of truth
in a movie, at some point, when a
| | 08:56 | picture is finished, at some
mysterious point you realize, oh (bleep) this is going
| | 09:00 | to be a hit.
| | 09:01 | Roughly, when did that occur with you,
at the first screening or a premiere or when?
| | 09:09 | Paul Feig: Well, I mean, we had no idea it was
going to be a hit. We knew it was going
| | 09:12 | to work, because after the very first
test screening--at the very first test
| | 09:16 | screening, it really went well, so
there was no like, usually you end one of those going, oh
| | 09:19 | crap, we've got to figure out a new
ending or we've got this and that, so that
| | 09:23 | was kind of good.
| | 09:24 | But then, you never know, because
literally the--it's all that tracking, all
| | 09:28 | the stuff that the studios make you crazy with.
| | 09:30 | You go, yea, we made a good movie, and
then it's like, oh, you're not tracking
| | 09:33 | well, and this, and awareness is down.
| | 09:35 | So like the week we opened, we went
from the beginning of the week, like things
| | 09:38 | are looking really good, to two days
before, tracking is going down, tracking is
| | 09:42 | going down, to, they made a decision, it
was kind of weird to do, like midnight
| | 09:46 | screenings on Thursday night, which we
are not Star Wars. You're not going to
| | 09:50 | rush out of your house to see women
(bleep) in a sink at midnight.
| | 09:53 | (laughter)
Terry George: I don't know, I might.
| | 09:56 | Paul Feig: I know, some people do, actually.
| | 10:03 | So that didn't do well.
| | 10:05 | I mean, we didn't get good numbers,
so then it was all just gloom and doom
| | 10:08 | the Friday we opened.
| | 10:09 | And literally my agents and the studio
and everybody calling up and saying, like
| | 10:11 | get ready, it's not going to do well.
| | 10:13 | And so it was slow throughout the
day of like, it's doing better, it's doing better.
| | 10:17 | It wasn't until Melissa and her
husband Ben, who plays the air marshal, came
| | 10:22 | over to our house, because they live
in the neighborhood and we were having
| | 10:23 | dinner, when the calls started
coming in of like, it's doing well, it's doing well.
| | 10:26 | And we're all half drunk, except for
one designated driver of course, jumped in
| | 10:33 | the car and drove off to the ArcLight,
to stand in the back of the theater to
| | 10:36 | see that it was full and hear people
laughing. And that was the moment we go
| | 10:38 | like, okay, I think we're going to be okay.
It was nice!
| | 10:42 | Thank you!
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The artistry of animation| 00:01 | Peter Bart: So Chris and Jennifer,
you guys down there, hi!
| | 00:04 | Chris Miller: Hello!
Jennifer Yuh Nelson: Hello!
| | 00:07 | Peter Bart: At what point did you say to
yourself, Brad (bleep) Bird! Thank you.
| | 00:13 | Look what he did.
| | 00:14 | He went from animation to
the hottest movie of the year.
| | 00:19 | Do either of you guys want to make
that move and do a Brad Bird with
| | 00:24 | Mission Impossible?
| | 00:25 | Jennifer Yuh Nelson: Well, I never rule anything out, but
I personally love animation as a genre.
| | 00:30 | I just love the technique of it.
| | 00:31 | Peter Bart: Say it one more time.
| | 00:32 | Jennifer Yuh Nelson: I don't rule it out, but I
personally love animation as a genre.
| | 00:37 | I just love the technique of animation
and just the artistry that goes into it.
| | 00:42 | I think it is different.
| | 00:44 | It is a technique that requires a
certain approach, and I just really,
| | 00:49 | really enjoy it. So someday, maybe.
| | 00:52 | The movies that play in my head are
always in live action. I have to distill it
| | 00:56 | down into animation for myself.
| | 00:59 | So someday maybe I will just forget
about distilling it and just try going
| | 01:02 | straight, but I don't plan.
| | 01:07 | Chris Miller: Yeah.
I mean, I would be open to anything.
| | 01:11 | It just depends on the project.
| | 01:13 | I mean, to me, it's all filmmaking.
| | 01:16 | It's all whether the process is
animation or live action, or more and more
| | 01:21 | it seems like the lines are pretty
gray now as the two ends are sort of
| | 01:25 | seeping into one another.
| | 01:28 | But it's all filmmaking, it's all
storytelling, it's all character development,
| | 01:33 | and I have to just really agree with Paul.
| | 01:36 | It's like, that, we are working on
comedies, but at the end of the day, it's
| | 01:41 | finding a story that you
can emotionally attach to.
| | 01:46 | In the case of Puss in Boots, I'd say,
yeah, it's two cats and a talking egg,
| | 01:52 | and that's what you're really stressing
out about. Like how are these enchanted
| | 01:56 | creatures going to connect and relate
to an audience? Because the funny is not
| | 02:03 | necessarily the hardest part, but it's
just making something that's going to
| | 02:07 | connect and feel like it's special.
| | 02:10 | It's what's going to make it live on,
and if that's in animation, which I love--
| | 02:14 | I love the art form, because there is
just no limit to your imagination--or if
| | 02:21 | it's live action, I would be game.
| | 02:22 | Peter Bart: Gore, if I may pick on you again,
when you started, Rango covers so many
| | 02:29 | topics, and there are so many levels of satire.
| | 02:33 | What was in your head when, I guess,
you started with a twelve-page outline, is that right?
| | 02:38 | Gore Verbinski: Yeah.
Peter Bart: What was basically in your head
| | 02:43 | Peter Bart: when you started that outline? What did you
| | 02:46 | want to accomplish in terms of ideas?
| | 02:48 | Gore Verbinski: It really evolved. I mean, it
evolved from a very primitive discussion
| | 02:59 | about trying to do a Western with
creatures of the desert and then that led
| | 03:04 | into there should be a man with no name.
There should be an outsider. Maybe he is aquatic.
| | 03:09 | If he is aquatic, he should be a chameleon.
| | 03:10 | If he is a chameleon, he should be an actor.
| | 03:12 | If he is an actor, he should have issues.
And then that whole kind of identity
| | 03:17 | quests came in. Then you sort of--
he wants to be a hero. He is looking
| | 03:22 | for an audience.
| | 03:23 | And then we said, okay, rather than
being shy with references, because it's
| | 03:28 | very hard to make a Western and not
have the shot over the gun, with the guy
| | 03:31 | down the street.
| | 03:32 | I mean, you are dealing with a language
that is really well established in terms
| | 03:37 | of construction of shots.
| | 03:40 | So instead of sort of running away
from that, once we knew this guy is aware,
| | 03:45 | the protagonist is aware he is entering
a genre, and we have this mariachi sort
| | 03:49 | of breaking the fourth wall and
talking about the hero's demise, it sort of
| | 03:53 | became obvious that we
could actually celebrate movies.
| | 03:58 | Celebrate, very much like Michel did,
celebrate all of these Westerns that we
| | 04:04 | love, because I think in that case, the
protagonist is pretending. I mean, he
| | 04:11 | wants to blend in, he wants to belong.
| | 04:12 | So it just evolved.
| | 04:16 | The only thing that's different in my
process than maybe Paul's process is I
| | 04:21 | have a kind of abject fear of
homogenization from the process of gathering data.
| | 04:29 | So at some point, I really like films
that are flawed, that feel like they might
| | 04:37 | go off the tracks a little bit,
that maybe have second-act issues.
| | 04:41 | There is a kind of perfection that
can be achieved in animation by virtue
| | 04:46 | of constantly writing.
| | 04:49 | So we had a slightly different process.
| | 04:52 | We went to ILM and we couldn't change anything.
| | 04:56 | It was a visual effects model--once we--
so we had eighteen months, very loose on the
| | 05:01 | story, we were doing drawings,
getting a microphone, having a Macintosh
| | 05:04 | computer, working out of
our houses, incredibly low-fi.
| | 05:07 | And then twenty days with the actors, re-
cut, and then really hi-fi at ILM, where
| | 05:13 | you've got a drawing and you're saying,
this is twenty-eight frames, and we need exactly
| | 05:18 | twenty-eight frames, and there was no
deviation at all; we couldn't afford to.
| | 05:23 | Peter Bart: And they don't have experience in animation.
| | 05:25 | Gore Verbinski: You can't change--I mean, it
would be incredibly cost-prohibitive to go
| | 05:31 | there and to expect to say, "You know
what? We changed our minds. The second act is
| | 05:35 | now going to be, he has a relationship
with a goat" or something. We can't do
| | 05:40 | that because it's funny.
| | 05:41 | So we really--but I do think there
is a language of shot construction which
| | 05:47 | you also get humor from, and I
think that in many ways you can design--the
| | 05:52 | camera can be part of the humor, if
you're willing to sort of plan that out.
| | 05:58 | Peter Bart: But mindful that you like to be,
acts of temerity, do you find going from a
| | 06:08 | movie that is a send-up of Westerns
to now in one month starting to shoot a
| | 06:13 | Western, doesn't that give
you a little bit of a cringe?
| | 06:17 | Gore Verbinski: Yes.
Peter Bart: Then I am glad I asked. Yeah
| | 06:24 | Gore Verbinski: But this Western has gravity and weather
and all sorts of other issues that we didn't have, but
| | 06:29 | it also has gifts, very much
like Chris was talking about.
| | 06:34 | Everything is frontal lobe in animation.
| | 06:36 | You're trying to fabricate anomaly,
you're trying to make it feel like if you
| | 06:40 | are a tortoise and I am a lizard, we're
here talking and Michel's got a camera
| | 06:43 | on his shoulder, and it's
happening, it's occurring.
| | 06:46 | But nothing is occurring in animation.
| | 06:48 | So it's going to be nice to get back
to, once we kind of capture that moment
| | 06:55 | with Annette, it's done.
We don't have to fabricate it.
| | 06:59 | Peter Bart: But the other element of
flexibility that's opened up today that, more than
| | 07:06 | ever, I think, in the past, is the
ability to move not only from animation to
| | 07:10 | live action, but also from film to TV.
| | 07:14 | I mean, it is, as you were saying,
Terry, there is so much more exciting work
| | 07:18 | arguably being done in television,
in cable particular, than there is in
| | 07:23 | features, and there is more openness to finance.
| | 07:27 | I just wondered whether or not, I think
most of the people here on this panel,
| | 07:31 | certainly you two, leap
back and forth in television.
| | 07:35 | Terry George: I think for me, with TV, first
of all, I don't have the attention span
| | 07:42 | or the patience to do it. Like three years, my god!
| | 07:49 | And with television, the process
from beginning to end is much quicker,
| | 07:54 | especially if you are doing--I did a
network TV show, The District, and once
| | 07:58 | you get on that conveyor belt of the
five shows going through, you're literally
| | 08:04 | writing, prepping, shooting,
post-production, putting it out there, and that
| | 08:08 | goes through.
| | 08:09 | So you can get great ideas up on
screen pretty quickly. And the live action
| | 08:15 | film, the feature-film business, you
are committing the two years of your life,
| | 08:21 | or three, and so you better not
mess up. Those two years are gone.
| | 08:28 | It's actually why I went off and did The
Shore, because I'd spent almost five years
| | 08:33 | trying to get a film made about UN
diplomat called Sergio Vieira de Mello, who
| | 08:37 | was killed in Iraq, fantastic character.
| | 08:40 | But particularly after Green Zone and a
year of serious drama that went down the
| | 08:46 | toilet, I knew there was basically no
chance of getting that made, and I went
| | 08:52 | through a process with Spike Lee on
Inside Man 2, where we wrote god knows how
| | 08:57 | many drafts, and that went down the toilet.
| | 08:59 | I did a pilot for NBC that should
have went down the toilet, and very quickly did.
| | 09:05 | By the end of that, I am like,
I've got to do something.
| | 09:09 | And I had a short story, a true event
that happened to an uncle of mine that he
| | 09:14 | told to me and Daniel Day-Lewis twelve
years before, and it got stuck in my head.
| | 09:18 | And I am like, okay, that's it, and I
sat down in like three days and wrote the
| | 09:23 | script of The Shore.
| | 09:25 | My daughter, who is a producer,
went out and got the money.
| | 09:28 | We went to my house in Ireland.
We shot it outside the front door.
| | 09:32 | My son was the AD.
| | 09:33 | My sister was the costume designer,
though she is actually a very good costume designer.
| | 09:38 | And within six days, we had this
little movie that encompassed, for me, and
| | 09:44 | for all of us--Ciaran Hinds, a great
actor, came over and did it.
| | 09:48 | And it involves the tide
coming in and the tide going out.
| | 09:52 | So we basically had four hours a day to
shoot that, so we'd wait for the tide, and thank god it didn't rain.
| | 09:59 | And at the end of it, and now, here
we are, the George family is going to
| | 10:04 | the Oscars with it.
(applause)
| | 10:12 | But it's that thing of, if you get the
story right, it can expand to whatever
| | 10:17 | size you want. And it's just for me, I
need to push the process through fast.
| | 10:25 | Hotel Rwanda was 40 days. That's the
longest shoot I've ever had, because it's
| | 10:30 | like, let's get this done.
| | 10:32 | Terry George: And that's why--maybe I should go into animation.
Chris Miller: I know. I think you might--
| | 10:37 | Terry George: The Zen experience.
Jennifer Yuh Nelson: It's not Zen; it's fear all the time.
| | 10:42 | Terry George: See, I'll work on fear.
| | 10:45 | Chris Miller: That's not true.
We don't show up till around noon.
| | 10:49 | Chris Miller: and we are gone by 1:30.
Jennifer Yuh Nelson: Maybe your job.
| | 10:52 | Chris Miller: Sweatpants. It's beautiful!
Terry George: But yeah, TV is great.
| | 10:57 | And now with the Internet, the
possibilities and Netflix and all those, this
| | 11:04 | chicken can be skinned a lot of ways.
| | 11:07 | Paul Feig: Well, that is the one thing, I mean,
for anybody who wants to be a filmmaker
| | 11:10 | these days, it's like, now I just say
you have absolutely no excuse why you're
| | 11:14 | not doing stuff, because literally,
the computer you bought has a nonlinear
| | 11:17 | editing system in it.
| | 11:18 | You can shoot it on your iPhone and
you can distribute it on the Internet.
| | 11:22 | I mean if we would have had this, all
of us, I think, up here, when we are
| | 11:25 | starting out, all the terrible films
I would have put out to the world twenty
| | 11:29 | years ago, you are welcome, America!
(laughter)
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