Directors' Panel - Directors on DirectingIntroduction| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:29 | James Cameron: The point is make the
picture, cut it, put your name on it as director.
| | 00:32 | Now you're a director.
| | 00:34 | Everything after that you're
just negotiating your price.
| | 00:36 | (Laughter.)
| | 00:37 | Pete Docter: We are always trying to find
some connection to us as humans to express the
| | 00:41 | human condition and put that in
some way that you haven't seen.
| | 00:45 | Kathryn Bigelow: And it was both the
combination of triumph and futility and that was
| | 00:49 | sort of the kind of metronomic,
thematic, underlying thread of the piece.
| | 00:54 | Lee Daniels: In the movies that I have
produced or the movies I have directed, there's always
| | 00:57 | a question mark at the end, because that's life.
| | 01:00 | Todd Phillips: I feel like I make movies
about mayhem and to make a movie about mayhem,
| | 01:03 | you have to kind of have that feeling on
the set. So I definitely let them loose.
| | 01:09 | Quentin Tarantino: There is always Scorsese!
| | 01:12 | No matter how good you think
you are, there's always Scorsese.
| | 01:18 | (Laughter.)
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Changing the game| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:07 | Roger Durling: This is actually the
Super Bowl of film festival panels.
| | 00:17 | The biggest names in directing are
going to be in this room in a few seconds.
| | 00:23 | Please welcome Quentin
Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds.
| | 00:28 | (Cheering and applause.)
| | 00:34 | Todd Phillips, The Hangover.
| | 00:41 | Pete Docter, Up.
| | 00:47 | Lee Daniels, Precious.
| | 00:53 | James Cameron, Avatar.
| | 01:00 | Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker.
| | 01:09 | And please welcome an old friend of the
festival. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Variety.
| | 01:14 | He's hosted, moderated this
panel for many, many years and he also has
| | 01:19 | a show on NBC called Showtime.
| | 01:22 | Please welcome Peter Bart.
| | 01:32 | Peter Bart: We are out of control already here.
| | 01:33 | (Laughter.)
| | 01:35 | So it's always fun to be here and this
particular panel is a vivid reminder that
| | 01:41 | that old cliche is true.
| | 01:43 | There is no best picture this year.
There are these remarkable cinematic statements
| | 01:49 | that each of these filmmakers has
created that are so diverse and exciting
| | 01:53 | that they are the best.
| | 01:55 | (Cheering and applause.)
| | 02:00 | Quentin Tarantino: Here, here!
| | 02:02 | Now, if I may say briefly, anybody
who thinks that they can preside over a
| | 02:07 | panel of six filmmakers, each of whom
has final cut, anyone who thinks they can
| | 02:14 | do that is an idiot.
| | 02:16 | So what I am going to do is simply
toss an initial question or two at each
| | 02:22 | member of the panel and then run.
| | 02:26 | (Laughter.)
| | 02:28 | When my mealy-mouthed iterations are
through, I would invite some of you in the
| | 02:35 | audience if you have some questions to
ask, please do so. With one admonition.
| | 02:40 | My good friend, Kathryn Bigelow, is a
little annoyed and sensitive at this stage
| | 02:46 | of all this at answering questions
about why she as a woman director doesn't
| | 02:52 | make warm and fuzzy relationship pictures.
| | 02:55 | So I would really be
grateful if none of you ask that.
| | 02:59 | Indeed to get all the sexist garbage
out of the way, I am going to present her
| | 03:07 | with this crown as king and queen of the world.
| | 03:10 | (Laughter and applause.)
| | 03:22 | So Todd Phillips, if I can pick on
you first, you made a picture that you knew,
| | 03:27 | you know going in under no
circumstances would win an Oscar nomination,
| | 03:32 | because it's funny.
| | 03:34 | Now knowing that it's funny, however,
studios as well as Oscar voters are
| | 03:41 | weird about comedy.
| | 03:42 | Now when you're ready to shoot this,
Warners wouldn't come up with your budget.
| | 03:47 | So they effectively gave you
a check for 40 million dollars.
| | 03:51 | Now, next time you go to Warners with a
comedy proposal, do you think they will
| | 03:56 | be a little more generous?
| | 03:57 | Todd Phillips: I am not sure. You
mean for the budget, you are saying --?
| | 04:01 | Peter Bart: I am saying your end, your backend.
| | 04:03 | Todd Phillips: Oh, I see.
| | 04:04 | Well, first of all, your
first point, you were wrong.
| | 04:07 | We made The Handover for the award seasons.
| | 04:11 | We really thought it was going to
be a horse race with The Hurt Locker.
| | 04:14 | (Laughter.)
| | 04:16 | We were surprised, it's okay.
| | 04:18 | But really when you make comedies,
it's obviously something you ever think of.
| | 04:24 | It's not the reason that I got into
filmmaking, as probably nobody up here.
| | 04:28 | Really, it's never a reason a
director I think gets into filmmaking.
| | 04:32 | But we've had a really good run on
this movie and we did win a Golden Globe,
| | 04:36 | which was sort of shocking for all of us.
| | 04:38 | But we really just do it to make
people laugh and that's the goal.
| | 04:42 | The 40 million thing, I am not sure.
| | 04:44 | I don't know what you are talking about.
| | 04:46 | Peter Bart: It's just Vanity Fair claims
| | 04:49 | that's what they made, but I am not going to--.
| | 04:50 | Todd Phillips: All right, I am not
going to go there, after I go there.
| | 04:56 | Peter Bart: Pete Docter, I have seen you accept
awards and everybody at Pixar seems so damn nice.
| | 05:07 | (Laughter.)
| | 05:10 | What happens when there
are arguments about the picture?
| | 05:13 | How do you resolve creative differences
when you are making a picture at Pixar?
| | 05:18 | Pete Docter: Well, there
definitely are arguments.
| | 05:20 | I mean we get into red faced yelling
and whatnot, but usually the test is just
| | 05:26 | try it and the audience
will tell you who is right.
| | 05:32 | Peter Bart: They did.
| | 05:33 | Pete Docter: Well, thanks.
| | 05:35 | Peter Bart: Mr. Cameron, sir.
| | 05:38 | There was a story in today's paper and
your picture is in the paper every day.
| | 05:42 | It's remarkable.
| | 05:43 | JP Morgan is raising 700 million
dollars for 3D theaters because, thanks to you,
| | 05:49 | there's an extraordinary
shortage, everyone has decided, of 3D.
| | 05:53 | Do you feel that 3D is really
going to command that big an audience?
| | 05:57 | James Cameron: Well, I think
a lot depends on filmmakers.
| | 06:01 | Right now what you're seeing is in
the immediate aftermath of Avatar,
| | 06:05 | studios are jumping on the
bandwagon, but it's a top down process.
| | 06:10 | Studio heads wake up and
say, "where is our 3D movie?"
| | 06:13 | "Well, let's take a movie we are
making anyway and turn it into 3D."
| | 06:15 | Like you can kind of just wave the
magic wand and that's not how it works.
| | 06:20 | You have to intend to author a movie in 3D.
| | 06:23 | So I believe that starts with
filmmakers and if Avatar has done anything in
| | 06:28 | that regard, hopefully it has opened
a door to filmmakers working in
| | 06:34 | live-action as opposed to in animation,
because you guys have already embraced 3D
| | 06:38 | to one extent or another and I am
guessing it's probably filmmaker driven.
| | 06:42 | Like if you want to do one in 3D, you will and
if one of your other directors doesn't, they won't, right?
| | 06:47 | So I mean I think that's the way it should be.
| | 06:49 | I think it should come from the
filmmaker, people that want to embrace that
| | 06:53 | as part of their palette, part of their
paint set and if they don't, they shouldn't.
| | 06:58 | And the studio shouldn't just start
rubberstamping 3D on scripts, which
| | 07:03 | of course they will and it's like one
more thing for us to worry about now.
| | 07:07 | Peter Bart: That's right.
| | 07:09 | Pete Docter: And to a degree,
the subject matter is important there too.
| | 07:12 | You want to make sure you are
using it for the right story.
| | 07:15 | James Cameron: Yeah, I think so,
although I would submit that --
| | 07:17 | Lee Daniels: I mean, I don't
think Precious would look right in 3D.
| | 07:19 | James Cameron: It would look great in 3D.
| | 07:20 | (Laughter.)
| | 07:22 | Pete Docter: It might be good.
| | 07:23 | James Cameron: I disagree
with that. No, seriously.
| | 07:28 | Lee Daniels: You think?
| | 07:29 | James Cameron: Well, look, I have done dramatic
scenes, I have done very small intimate scenes
| | 07:34 | with very little in the way of expense and
production value and they play better in 3D.
| | 07:38 | I think it's like saying, there are
certain scripts that should be in color and
| | 07:42 | certain scripts that should be in
black and white and we don't think that way
| | 07:45 | anymore but we did for a long time.
| | 07:47 | And I think we are going to evolve
beyond that, maybe not in the next couple of years,
| | 07:51 | but we will eventually because
people don't read a script and go,
| | 07:54 | "man, this would be great in color."
| | 07:55 | They don't think that way.
| | 07:57 | And by the way, Precious is in color.
| | 07:58 | There was a time when Precious
would have been in black and white.
| | 08:02 | You got to admit. There was a time when that
would have been de rigueur to make that movie
| | 08:05 | in black and white.
| | 08:06 | Peter Bart: Now this is the longest that
any panel I know has existed without Quentin
| | 08:11 | Tarantino saying something.
| | 08:13 | (Laughter.)
| | 08:18 | So one thing I love about
Quentin is he is the antithesis
| | 08:22 | of a techy director.
| | 08:23 | I mean he even writes his
first drafts in longhand.
| | 08:29 | Avatar is indeed a game changer.
| | 08:31 | Do you think that you will leave your
genre-oriented directing and try a movie
| | 08:36 | that is technologically more arresting?
| | 08:40 | Quentin Tarantino: What,
just because he did it in 3D?
| | 08:42 | (Laughter.)
| | 08:50 | Andre de Toth did that too.
| | 08:57 | Here is actually what I will--
Let me address that specifically because,
| | 09:02 | I'll tell you what would've been a
game-changer as far as I was concerned.
| | 09:08 | If I had seen Avatar before I'd done Kill Bill.
| | 09:12 | I mean not that I would want to do it
on bluescreens or anything like that.
| | 09:15 | I would have done it the way I wanted to do it.
| | 09:17 | But one of the things I was thinking
when I was watching Avatar was when I did
| | 09:21 | Kill Bill, I had these grandiose
visions in my head of the experience of
| | 09:27 | watching the movie, and I actually
wanted it to be more like a ride than just a
| | 09:34 | normal watching a movie at a Cineplex
and then you go home and you have pie.
| | 09:37 | And I just had this, you would be
in this world and it would be a ride.
| | 09:43 | I don't think I did that.
| | 09:46 | I think the closest maybe The House of
Blue Leaves sequence, or maybe The
| | 09:50 | Coffin sequence, but I didn't do it
exactly in my most grandiose visions of
| | 09:56 | what could I have done.
| | 09:57 | I don't think it was the ride.
| | 09:59 | It was good and probably the thing I
have done that I'm the most proudest of.
| | 10:03 | But it wasn't quite the ride in my
most vision and when I saw Avatar, I go,
| | 10:11 | that's the ride!
| | 10:12 | That's the ride I was trying to do.
| | 10:14 | That was the ride in my head when I was
spending a year-and-a-half writing the script.
| | 10:18 | Peter Bart: Amen! Now, Kathryn, your turn.
| | 10:23 | You and I did a TV show together and did a
thing at the very beginning of the process,
| | 10:30 | this incredible award
process that goes on and on.
| | 10:34 | And at that time we were joking
about the fact that your next picture is
| | 10:39 | a relatively modestly budgeted picture
in South America and Central America.
| | 10:45 | After all that has happened, tell me
that you're asking for at least three times
| | 10:49 | the budget of that picture.
| | 10:53 | Kathryn Bigelow: Well, actually on the contrary,
and that project is still in process, but I think to
| | 11:01 | retain control, you need to keep the
budgets as-- or at least certainly my
| | 11:07 | experience is the more modest you can
keep the budget, the more control, more
| | 11:10 | creative control you have.
| | 11:11 | So I think the game is really about
creative control and on the other hand,
| | 11:19 | yet if the ideas are so challenging
and so extraordinary as Avatar,
| | 11:27 | that's modest for those ideas.
| | 11:29 | You know? I am not just saying --
| | 11:30 | James Cameron: We could have used
a lot more money to make that movie.
| | 11:32 | (Laughter.)
| | 11:37 | Peter Bart: Now, in the New York Times again
today, there was a piece discussing the fact
| | 11:42 | that during this process, the last seven months,
you've deliberately not taken a position on the war,
| | 11:49 | on the war in Iraq or
the war in Afghanistan.
| | 11:51 | And they put it, "in the end the gap
between beliefs about war and the reality is
| | 11:58 | too wide for any movie to capture."
| | 12:01 | Does that express in a way why
you did not take a point of view?
| | 12:04 | Kathryn Bigelow: Well, I think, I mean I
personally have a very strong point of view.
| | 12:08 | I think war is hell but
I think it was very important,
| | 12:11 | this is an ongoing conflict.
| | 12:12 | This is not-- it's not like I am
making the movie ten years after the conflict
| | 12:17 | had a closure and I thought it was
very important as a filmmaker to take an
| | 12:21 | even-handed position in showing the
horrors that these men experience and that
| | 12:26 | was I think what was the overriding prerogative.
| | 12:33 | Peter Bart: Jim, one of the biggest fights
I've ever had was with Francis Coppola over
| | 12:36 | Godfather II because he said,
"I don't believe in sequels."
| | 12:40 | "I've done the original story. I can't top it."
| | 12:42 | Now, Rupert Murdoch glibly announced
that he has already anointed a sequel.
| | 12:48 | How do you feel about sequels?
| | 12:49 | James Cameron: Well, there are still some
deals to be made, which will be easier now that
| | 12:54 | Rupert's announced it.
| | 12:55 | (Laughter.)
| | 13:01 | Well, look, I've had good luck with sequels.
| | 13:05 | I think Terminator 2 in a lot of ways
is a better film than the first one, if
| | 13:09 | for no other reason, thanks, than we had
more resources and I actually got to make the
| | 13:17 | movie that I want to make completely.
| | 13:19 | But, I mean I think there's an art to
sequels, which is that you have to be at
| | 13:26 | the same time make the audience
comfortable in familiar territory and yet play
| | 13:32 | against it with constant surprises and
yet those surprises have to be not so off
| | 13:38 | the reservation conceptually that they
are now not enjoying the experience they
| | 13:43 | thought they signed up for.
| | 13:46 | And that's a trick. I mean I did it
with Aliens and I did it with Terminator 2.
| | 13:48 | So I feel, and plus I have a story arc
for Avatar already mapped up and that
| | 13:52 | was part of the pitch.
| | 13:53 | Part of the pitch for the studio was
we are going to spend a gazumpteen million
| | 13:58 | dollars making this world.
| | 14:00 | It will then reside on a hard drive
and we can resurrect the characters,
| | 14:03 | the creatures, the trees, the mountains
and everything, kind of with a switch.
| | 14:08 | It's not quite that simple, of course,
but it sounded good in the pitch.
| | 14:12 | (Laughter.)
| | 14:17 | Peter Bart: So Lee, I have got to ask you,
and on the subject of creative freedom which
| | 14:20 | Kathryn rightly raised.
| | 14:21 | You had this amazing experience, the
dream of every filmmaker that you went
| | 14:25 | to an investor, or an investor came to
you and said, "I will pay all the bills
| | 14:29 | of your picture."
| | 14:30 | Was there artistic interference in any point?
| | 14:33 | Lee Daniels: No, never.
| | 14:36 | I just come with my guns.
| | 14:37 | (Laughter.)
| | 14:41 | I am not laughing.
| | 14:42 | (Laughter.)
| | 14:46 | I am laughing. Haha.
| | 14:47 | (Laughter.)
| | 14:50 | Peter Bart: You know? Lee?
| | 14:51 | (Laughter.)
| | 14:55 | I must say in the awards past,
you have given the most eloquent and original
| | 15:01 | acceptance speeches and I was
going to give you an award for the best
| | 15:04 | acceptance speech.
| | 15:05 | Did you prepare that, did you think
about it or this just comes from the heart?
| | 15:10 | Lee Daniels: It comes from the heart.
It comes from my experience with my fellow panelists
| | 15:15 | and that is the inspiration.
| | 15:16 | I am very, very honored to be
up here with these geniuses.
| | 15:20 | So when I-- and that's not a
joke, that's from the heart.
| | 15:23 | So when you are really nervous, because
you're looking at someone who has done
| | 15:28 | the likes of Terminator, he spews it off,
oh yeah, and Aliens 2, you know.
| | 15:35 | But in Terminator 1, I ah-- but Titanic...
| | 15:40 | (Laughter.)
| | 15:49 | Okay, here we come with Precious.
| | 15:51 | (Laughter.)
| | 15:54 | You really, or the
likes of, you just can't..
| | 15:58 | So you just speak from your heart.
| | 16:02 | (Applause.)
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating an impact| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:07 | Peter Bart: This is to Docter. So when I saw
the first three, four, five minutes of "Up,"
| | 00:12 | I thought that was such a perfect,
perfect picture that I would have been tempted
| | 00:17 | to say, stop there, you
have captured an amazing...
| | 00:21 | (Applause.)
| | 00:26 | Was these actually a discussion of
releasing that separately at any point?
| | 00:32 | Pete Docter: No, there wasn't.
| | 00:33 | I mean this was a tricky film to get
going, because it was such an unusual idea,
| | 00:39 | this idea of an old man flying
his house was. We pictured ourselves in
| | 00:43 | L.A. trying to pitch that at studios
and I can't imagine what that would be like,
| | 00:47 | but that's where I am lucky
where I get Pixar, and it was really that
| | 00:51 | sequence that kind of landed it. When
we were able to pitch that and get our
| | 00:56 | bosses, John Lasseter, to cry, then we
knew we had something, and you know that's
| | 01:01 | always the heart of everything
we do, even they might be about
| | 01:04 | bugs or cars or monsters or whatever,
we are always trying to find some
| | 01:08 | connection to us as humans, to express
the human condition, and put that in some
| | 01:13 | way that you haven't seen.
| | 01:16 | Peter Bart: And picking the voices, did you
change the characters at any point after the
| | 01:20 | actors were chosen for the voices?
| | 01:24 | Pete Docter: Yes, and no.
| | 01:25 | I mean, what usually happens-- This
has been the case on every film from Toy Story on,
| | 01:29 | is that we'll design the
characters first, and then we grab little
| | 01:32 | snippets of dialog, just the audio
from other pictures that these guys have
| | 01:36 | been in, and we play them and we look
at the pictures, and we go, yeah,
| | 01:40 | that sounds like the right guy.
| | 01:41 | So that's of course Ed Asner, it was perfect.
| | 01:45 | And with other folks, Christopher Plummer,
once we cast him, the character did change.
| | 01:51 | We always try to write to the
strengths of the actor, so Plummer brought this
| | 01:55 | sort of rich, educated kind of angle
that we weren't necessarily originally
| | 02:03 | intending for that part, but yes, they
definitely change the way the characters come off.
| | 02:09 | Peter Bart: Todd, there have been so many
legends in the Hollywood about a director who
| | 02:15 | makes a picture that's confoundingly
bigger and more successful than you imagine,
| | 02:20 | and freezes. Do you --
| | 02:23 | (Laughter.)
| | 02:24 | Todd Phillips: What?
Pete Docter: Freezes.
| | 02:26 | Peter Bart: Do you have your next project all
planned out, and do you feel any inhibitions
| | 02:31 | about the fact that there is no way of
topping a billion-and-a-half dollars or
| | 02:34 | whatever "The Hangover" made?
| | 02:35 | Todd Phillips: No, I mean I do think that
| | 02:38 | for me, I've already shot the
next film. We just finished about a
| | 02:42 | month ago with Robert Downey and
Zach Galifianakis who are in-- I mean,
| | 02:45 | Zach's in "The Hangover," and for me it
was actually the opposite. It was like,
| | 02:49 | let me just go back at it, because
I didn't want to-- and I have friends who are
| | 02:54 | directors who some who have had huge
successes and they said, just don't let
| | 02:58 | it get you gun shy. Because again,
for those of us up here, we make movies
| | 03:04 | because we love making movies.
| | 03:05 | The money, whether it makes some.
I've had ones that don't make money, I have
| | 03:09 | had some that do make money. That's
never the reason so we don't want that to let
| | 03:12 | it affect your decision process.
| | 03:14 | For me, I am constantly surprised that
I am able to get paid to be a director.
| | 03:20 | So I feel like, I just keep going,
I love making movies, so I got right by--
| | 03:24 | I mean we were prepping, this movie
is called "Due Date", we were prepping
| | 03:27 | "Due Date" while "The Hangover" was
first coming out in theaters, so we just
| | 03:31 | went right into it. So yeah.
| | 03:36 | Peter Bart: Quentin, we return to you.
Your pictures are genre directed and you've
| | 03:41 | done basically your turn on gangster films,
on martial arts film, to a degree on westerns.
| | 03:48 | Now you're a big romantic. Are
you going to do a love story next?
| | 03:53 | Quentin Tarantino: Well, the thing is, I have
done love stories. They've just been inside of
| | 03:59 | my other movies.
| | 04:00 | I mean the first script I ever wrote
and it was pretty much made except for the
| | 04:03 | very, very end, exactly the way I wrote
it, was "True Romance," and that was a--
| | 04:08 | (Applause.)
| | 04:10 | That title is not ironic.
| | 04:12 | It was a complete romantic movie.
| | 04:15 | Now it has all kinds of, well, at one point
James Gandolfini almost beats Patricia
| | 04:21 | Arquette to death, and then she has to
blow him away with a shotgun and rip him apart,
| | 04:25 | but that doesn't mean it's not romantic.
| | 04:28 | (Laughter.)
| | 04:37 | And to me, the "Kill Bill"
movies are tragically romantic.
| | 04:40 | I mean I think you could look at "Kill
Bill" as a metaphor for the dissolving of
| | 04:45 | a marriage very, very easily.
| | 04:47 | It's all right there.
| | 04:48 | But it's going to be done my way, and
I think everyone wants me to do it my way.
| | 04:55 | (Applause.)
| | 04:59 | Peter Bart: Kathryn, I observed the
rhythms of film making are crazy making in a way.
| | 05:03 | I mean, in Toronto when your picture
was first shown a year-and-a-half ago,
| | 05:08 | candidly, it didn't create that huge
amount of excitement, and then it was purchased,
| | 05:13 | and then not released for a while.
Was there any point early on that
| | 05:17 | you though yourself well, this
picture is sort of going to get lost?
| | 05:23 | Kathryn Bigelow: I think you-- It's certainly
occurred to me, but it just kept kind of gathering
| | 05:32 | a certain type of momentum, and I think
there's so much-- or maybe I am projecting
| | 05:39 | my own curiosity on to a conflict that's
so abstract and so under-reported,
| | 05:45 | and it's sort of an attempt to
unpack it a bit. And so I think that as
| | 05:53 | the conflict became more and more timely,
and you know sadly, it continues to be
| | 05:57 | more and more timely, that I think that
curiosity and the momentum of the film
| | 06:02 | seemed to be kind of commiserate.
| | 06:05 | How come you don't ask me about a love story?
| | 06:07 | (Laughter.)
| | 06:09 | Peter Bart: No way.
| | 06:10 | Kathryn Bigelow: "Near Dark" is a love story I think?
| | 06:13 | Peter Bart: Yeah? Okay, I'll accept that.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Casting the right roles| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:07 | Peter Bart: Gentleman, Sigourney Weaver
said to me that she was so awaiting nervously
| | 00:15 | to see Avatar and finally she is
invited into a screening room and there is the
| | 00:17 | Governor and Steven Spielberg and she
saw this picture and she said, "I was just astonished,
| | 00:24 | that I thought to myself,
James nailed it. It's amazing."
| | 00:29 | When that kind of screening occurs the
first time, were you apprehensive nervous?
| | 00:34 | James Cameron: I don't know
about that kind of screening.
| | 00:37 | It was kind of a unique moment in my life.
| | 00:39 | I happened to be good friends with
Arnold and I've got even closer with Steven as
| | 00:43 | a result of him being very curious
about the performance capture methods and
| | 00:47 | using them on his Tintin film and he
had already shot Tintin at that point.
| | 00:51 | And he sort of wanted to-- he asked me
when I finally screen the completed film,
| | 00:56 | could he be there?
| | 00:58 | And I hadn't seen the film from end to end.
| | 01:01 | That was actually the first time I
saw it in 3D from start to finish.
| | 01:05 | So, in a way I was
trepidatious going into that screening.
| | 01:09 | But I also had promised both of
them that they would be there.
| | 01:12 | So it was a unique screening
and I was there with my cast.
| | 01:15 | And within the first two
minutes, the cast started to react.
| | 01:19 | Sam especially, who is a huge movie fan.
| | 01:22 | He wants to be an actor or he is an
actor because he loves movies, he is a fan
| | 01:27 | of movies, which is why he doesn't mind
making action movies and he doesn't sort
| | 01:31 | of create that two tiered thing that actors do.
| | 01:34 | Well I'll do this one for the art
and I'll do this one for the money.
| | 01:37 | He does it all for the art and for the money.
| | 01:39 | I don't think he cares much about the money.
| | 01:42 | But anyway, he is chortling away and
cackling away through the whole movie and
| | 01:45 | Sigourney is leaning
forward like this the whole time.
| | 01:48 | And I was going more off the energy of
the house so to speak, and I actually
| | 01:53 | really enjoyed the film.
| | 01:54 | And I know that sounds strange.
| | 01:55 | But making the movie was with so, so many
tiny finite processes, it was like doing
| | 02:00 | a pointillist painting and then stepping
back and seeing that it in fact was a painting.
| | 02:05 | So that was a unique screening in
my life because it was the first time I
| | 02:09 | actually sort of watched the film.
| | 02:11 | Peter Bart: Well, I find actors as a group and
alone are sort of both thrilled and disturbed by it,
| | 02:19 | because they don't quite seem
to know, this is evidenced by its
| | 02:22 | conversation at the SAG or what,
they didn't quite know how to judge the
| | 02:26 | performance of actors in
the context of your show.
| | 02:29 | James Cameron: Well, there's this sort of
conceit that photography is pure and performance
| | 02:32 | capture os an adulterated form of acting.
| | 02:35 | When in fact, I would submit
that photography is subject to the
| | 02:39 | administrations of the DP, makeup,
hair, wardrobe, editing and all of those
| | 02:43 | things that make it an art-form.
| | 02:46 | And that there is in fact a purity to
the performance capture because you can't
| | 02:52 | lie in performance capture.
| | 02:53 | I actually discovered that my stuntman,
my stunt coordinator had a leg injury
| | 02:58 | from watching his motion. I said,
what's wrong and why are you limping?
| | 03:02 | It wasn't apparent visually, but it
was apparent when you watched the motion.
| | 03:06 | And you can't hide from a
close-up that's 100% of the time.
| | 03:11 | So the actors have to
bring their A game every time.
| | 03:13 | Every time they're up to bat in a scene.
| | 03:15 | And the focus of the day is 100% performance.
| | 03:19 | So, if you think about the way that
in a live action shoot, the director's
| | 03:23 | time and energy is compromised by
setting up dolly track, worrying about where
| | 03:27 | the sun is, worrying about what the
background characters are doing and all those things.
| | 03:31 | And maybe only 50%, charitably, of your
time can actually be directed at 100%,
| | 03:37 | I mean, directed to performance.
| | 03:39 | On a performance capture day, your
time is 100% about performance and the
| | 03:42 | actor's time is a 100% about performance.
| | 03:44 | So, there are things that make
it a very pure form of acting.
| | 03:48 | But the community doesn't understand that yet.
| | 03:50 | There's a learning curve.
| | 03:52 | Peter Bart: Well, it seems to me the
opposite end of the spectrum from the way your
| | 03:56 | director, your actors interact
with the camera, is Todd Phillips,
| | 04:01 | where I get a feeling that you put these
goofy guys in a room and just say "lose it!"
| | 04:06 | (Laughter.)
| | 04:10 | Todd Phillips: I think people think that a
lot and to some extent we do. You let people--
| | 04:17 | I often say I feel like I make movies
about mayhem and to make a movie about
| | 04:21 | mayhem, you have to kind of
have that feeling on the set.
| | 04:24 | So, I definitely let them loose and
you would be I think a poor comedy
| | 04:30 | director if you're hire Zach or Will
Farrell or Vince Vaughn, all these guys
| | 04:34 | I have worked with over the years and said
"no, no just read it and do it just like that."
| | 04:37 | We always say, comedy, it's not math,
it's jazz and it's something that's kind
| | 04:42 | of a little more free form.
| | 04:44 | Peter Bart: In casting "The
Hangover," you did deliberately--
| | 04:46 | You go with an interesting bunch of
guys who aren't big stars and you sort
| | 04:51 | of made them stars.
| | 04:52 | Now did you deliberately steer away
from choosing stars for that picture?
| | 04:56 | Todd Phillips: I honestly I did.
| | 04:57 | I felt like a lot of the comedies that
we've been seeing in the last three or
| | 05:00 | four years had a lot of the same kind
of 8 faces switched up and put together
| | 05:04 | in different formulas.
| | 05:08 | But I thought there was something about--
Actors I think bring baggage with them
| | 05:15 | of other movies and other performances.
| | 05:17 | And I think oftentimes when an
audience comes in and they see Ben Stiller,
| | 05:22 | they almost have their arms crossed
and they go all right, Ben, show me what
| | 05:24 | you can do this time.
| | 05:26 | And it almost takes, he has to work harder.
| | 05:27 | It almost takes him the first 8 or 10
minutes of the movie to win them over.
| | 05:30 | And then they're like
okay, I'm on for this ride.
| | 05:33 | And with new guys, I always felt like
when we did these screenings they kind of
| | 05:36 | come in with open arms and it's just
sort of the right vibe it feels for the
| | 05:41 | comedies that I like and that I was doing.
| | 05:44 | And these guys, Zach is somebody I have
known for 10 years and I just wanted to
| | 05:47 | find the right project for him.
| | 05:50 | Peter Bart: But again Kathryn,
in choosing you didn't go with stars.
| | 05:53 | You could afford them, but you didn't go.
| | 05:54 | But your casting is amazing.
| | 05:57 | You're just right on the nose every time.
| | 05:59 | Did you go through a long
process of auditions and discussions?
| | 06:03 | Kathryn Bigelow: Well, that was kind of the
intention going in, which is not to cast known actors.
| | 06:12 | For very much the same reason, that
kind of baggage. In other words you're
| | 06:15 | looking at in this case of drama, a
war film, and you don't want to have any
| | 06:20 | preconceptions about who's going
to live and who's going to die,
| | 06:23 | who's vulnerable, whose invulnerable, where
you can have that even unconsciously with
| | 06:27 | an actor you are very familiar with.
| | 06:29 | It's like, oh, he can't die till the last
act, or a noble, heroic death if he does.
| | 06:33 | So that was the intention going in,
that they have that unfamiliarity, which
| | 06:37 | I think underscored tension and
suspense and then it's a matter of finding
| | 06:43 | the extraordinary breakout talent,
which I think we were lucky to do in
| | 06:46 | Jeremy, Anthony and Brian.
| | 06:49 | Peter Bart: You have made a few careers.
| | 06:51 | James Cameron: But you did something
interesting, which is that you also played against our
| | 06:54 | expectations like casting
Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes.
| | 06:57 | Those guys aren't going to die.
| | 06:58 | They're the movie stars and boom, you
blow up Guy Pearce in the first 45 seconds.
| | 07:05 | So, it's like all bets are off after that.
| | 07:07 | Kathryn Bigelow: That was the intention.
| | 07:08 | James Cameron: Yes, exactly. I know.
| | 07:09 | (Laughter.)
| | 07:12 | Peter Bart: Lee, there was a brief moment--
| | 07:14 | You're such a good-
natured and good spirited guy.
| | 07:16 | But there was a brief moment after
your picture was released when some here
| | 07:21 | and there African-American
intellectuals decided that your picture depicted
| | 07:26 | blacks in a negative way.
| | 07:27 | Lee Daniels: Why do you want to start this?
| | 07:28 | (Laughter.)
| | 07:30 | I'm having a good day.
| | 07:31 | (Laughter.)
| | 07:33 | I am with all these pretty white people.
| | 07:35 | (Laughter.)
| | 07:39 | James Cameron: There you go!
| | 07:40 | (Laughter.)
| | 07:46 | Peter Bart: I thought it's the
right moment to turn him loose.
| | 07:52 | As I say, a good-natured person, were you
in any way disturbed by that initial buzz?
| | 08:00 | Lee Daniels: I was, I was because
I think that he missed the point.
| | 08:09 | There's no way for us to grow as black
people if we don't address problems that
| | 08:16 | are at home and I think that
Precious's story is not a black story.
| | 08:22 | It's a universal story.
| | 08:23 | It's a story that Jewish people,
that Chinese people, that white people.
| | 08:30 | This is a, it's a bigger-- he missed it.
| | 08:36 | But I ain't going to
miss him when I see him.
| | 08:37 | (Laughter.)
| | 08:41 | James Cameron: Take it personally. Hell yeah.
| | 08:42 | (Laughter.)
| | 08:45 | Peter Bart: Well you too, of course,
have an amazing cast of characters.
| | 08:50 | I've heard you tell about
how you managed to select them.
| | 08:54 | But that is you've made some stars too, man.
| | 08:59 | I'm sure there's a sense of togetherness
that your picture has that no other film does.
| | 09:05 | Lee Daniels: Thank you!
| | 09:07 | I'm really proud of Mariah.
| | 09:09 | I'm very proud of her work in it.
| | 09:12 | I'm very proud of Mo'Nique's work in it. Thank you.
| | 09:15 | (Applause.)
| | 09:20 | I think that she, these actors don't,
most actors don't get a chance now.
| | 09:26 | I'm meeting with movie stars now
that are unemployed sometimes and it's a
| | 09:30 | bizarre sort of the place to be in.
And especially the likes Mo'Nique, who pretty
| | 09:39 | much didn't have a job
as an actor prior to Precious.
| | 09:44 | They give their souls because
this is like a one-shot opportunity for
| | 09:50 | African-Americans to work.
| | 09:52 | Paula Patton.
| | 09:54 | We don't have jobs.
| | 09:56 | So, this was a time for
everybody to showoff and they did.
| | 10:02 | Peter Bart: Pete, you have a right to
look smug because you could be the best--
| | 10:07 | (Laughter.)
| | 10:09 | You could be the Best
Animated Picture, the Best Picture picture.
| | 10:12 | I mean you can't lose this year.
| | 10:15 | Do you really care which of those
categories you win, since obviously you win,
| | 10:20 | maybe win both?
| | 10:21 | Pete Docter: Well, I mean,
I'm just happy to be here.
| | 10:25 | (Laughter.)
| | 10:28 | We always look at our films
as not in any special category.
| | 10:32 | A lot of people say, oh, my kids
love your movies or whatever.
| | 10:35 | I mean, that's great!
| | 10:36 | We certainly try to make it work for
kids as well, but we always think of them
| | 10:40 | first and foremost just as films.
| | 10:42 | They have the same responsibility as
any other film and that is to reach
| | 10:46 | people and talk to people.
| | 10:47 | So, that nomination was
particularly meaningful to us.
| | 10:52 | That and the writing as well,
because our films, this one took five years
| | 10:57 | and three of those is focused just on the
story, just working and reworking the story.
| | 11:03 | We do a lot of story reels, which is
like a comic book version of the film
| | 11:07 | with temporary music and dialogue and
sound effects, and that's an extension of
| | 11:11 | the script process for us.
| | 11:13 | So, it takes a lot of work, a lot of
effort and that was very meaningful.
| | 11:17 | Peter Bart: But since you're not working on a
limited budget, say like Kathryn, and you can
| | 11:22 | stop anytime and try to make it better.
| | 11:24 | I should think that would be a
temptation just to keep dicking around with
| | 11:27 | the picture for years.
| | 11:30 | Pete Docter: Well, actually
we're working on a limited budget.
| | 11:32 | Surprising to people, but we have
the same constraints as anybody else.
| | 11:37 | Now, having said that, we can go back
to people and say we need a little more
| | 11:40 | time here or whatever.
| | 11:42 | But, yes.
| | 11:43 | I mean there are certain parts of the
film that just crystallize right away.
| | 11:47 | We found this sequence that was
the first one we storyboarded.
| | 11:51 | It was as Carl goes up, where the
nurses knock on the door and he ends up
| | 11:54 | ripping the house and
floating through the city.
| | 11:57 | And that seemed to just crystallize what
I was after for the feeling of the film
| | 12:03 | and that came out very quickly.
| | 12:04 | Other parts, it took 50 times at least
of rewriting for the scene where they
| | 12:10 | meet the Christopher Plummer character.
| | 12:12 | So you just never know and the part I
guess when you know you're done is when
| | 12:17 | it works, when it hits you and the
other directors-- That's the other aspect of
| | 12:22 | working at Pixar that's really great
is I get to show stuff to Brad Bird and
| | 12:26 | Andrew Stanton and all these
are the guys who are on staff.
| | 12:29 | And they are the people I get
notes from instead of executives.
| | 12:33 | Lee Daniels: Nice.
| | 12:34 | Pete Docter: Don't hate me.
| | 12:36 | (Laughter.)
| | 12:39 | Peter Bart: Now Todd, I know you're
a funny guy who makes funny movies.
| | 12:44 | Why are comedians and funny guys
by and large, manic-depressives?
| | 12:51 | (Laughter.)
| | 12:58 | Todd Phillips: Wait, wait I forgot that.
| | 13:02 | What? No, I don't know that.
| | 13:05 | I think that they get a bad wrap.
| | 13:09 | I know a lot of guys in comedy
obviously and I don't think that they're
| | 13:14 | all manic-depressives.
| | 13:15 | But I do think people always look to
them to cheer them up and so when they're
| | 13:19 | on their regular setting and they
don't want unnecessarily be the clowns.
| | 13:25 | Maybe that's something that,
maybe that speaks to it a little bit.
| | 13:28 | But I don't find them, all of
them, as tortured individuals.
| | 13:34 | But it is a rough business,
| | 13:35 | I think comedy and a lot of the guys
that I've worked with came up through
| | 13:38 | standup and I know that breeds
a whole different kind of comic, and
| | 13:43 | I'm trying. I'm just thinking of
the guys and I mean, none of them really
| | 13:47 | feels like manic-depressives to me.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Embracing the limelight| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:07 | Peter Bart: Quentin, I always
think of you when I'm with you.
| | 00:10 | You have such an amazing body of
knowledge and information about film.
| | 00:15 | Did you ever think that at some point in
your life you're going to sit back, and
| | 00:18 | you're going to teach filmmakers, and
just enjoy yourself, be a guru at large?
| | 00:23 | Quentin Tarantino: Yeah,
I wouldn't teach filmmaking.
| | 00:26 | I would teach film appreciation.
| | 00:28 | I would teach the history of film,
and show movies and follow other
| | 00:34 | director's work through cinema, and
I look forward to the time when I
| | 00:41 | retire from directing.
| | 00:42 | Where I can like, I say just write
monographs and books on other director's
| | 00:48 | careers, or genres or whatever
strikes my fancy at that moment.
| | 00:52 | And then maybe you know, own a little
theater and I can afford to keep it open.
| | 00:58 | Nobody ever shows up but that's okay.
| | 00:59 | I'll be the cool old guy in the town
that shows the movies and introduces each
| | 01:05 | and every one of them, and that sounds like
a pretty good pastorial life at the end.
| | 01:13 | Peter Bart: But you once told me that once
you're past 60, you don't want to direct a film.
| | 01:19 | What was your reasoning?
| | 01:20 | Quentin Tarantino: Well,
where I'm coming from like who knows,
| | 01:21 | all right, you know what's going to happen.
| | 01:23 | If I like if want to do a
movie at 62, and I can, I will.
| | 01:26 | I'm not going to say, well, I was
on that panel. I did tell Peter Bart.
| | 01:29 | (Laughter.)
| | 01:36 | But I think that's a really
good time to get out of the game.
| | 01:41 | All right, and become a man of letters.
| | 01:45 | That's my time to write novels and
film literature, basically because to me,
| | 01:51 | what I'm looking for, what I'm going for in
particularly, is I'm going for the filmography.
| | 01:57 | I'm going that everyone is a banger, and
if some kid 30 years from now, he's not
| | 02:05 | born yet, some girl, some boy is
watching whatever they're watching at that time period,
| | 02:12 | TV or whatever, and just like
the way I discovered Howard Hawks,
| | 02:18 | they watch, they do not know who the hell
I am, they'll watch some of them and then go,
| | 02:21 | "wow, that was something."
| | 02:23 | "What else did that guy do?"
| | 02:25 | Now they don't know the filmography.
| | 02:26 | They don't know which one came first,
which one came later, at what point in
| | 02:29 | the career it was.
| | 02:30 | They just want to see something else by
me to see if they get that same taste,
| | 02:33 | to see if I'm, you know,
that they'll still like it.
| | 02:37 | And I want them to be able to literally
close their eyes and just grab in that
| | 02:42 | filmography, and they're
going to get the same thing.
| | 02:46 | I want every one of my movies to have
some sort of a connection to "Reservoir Dogs."
| | 02:50 | The day that that-- well I'll
never let that day happen, but if it's
| | 02:54 | going to happen, it's going to
happen in your 60s, in your 70s.
| | 03:00 | I don't want to make Billy
Wilder's Buddy Buddy, at all.
| | 03:05 | I don't want to make Cheyenne Autumn.
| | 03:08 | I don't want to make Rio Lobo.
| | 03:12 | (Laughter.)
| | 03:15 | Peter Bart: See he is the only person
I know who annotates every sentence.
| | 03:18 | He's just amazing for us.
| | 03:19 | So Kathryn, I am going to be kicked
around if I don't ask you this question.
| | 03:24 | My wife and I are very fond of you.
| | 03:26 | We do notice that you don't
particularly like being the center of attention at
| | 03:31 | every moment, and this is really what
your life has become. You are the
| | 03:36 | person of the week, the man of the year,
the whatever. How has this experience,
| | 03:42 | this unique experience
affected if at all you personally?
| | 03:47 | Kathryn Bigelow: Well no,
I'm not, it's sort of a...
| | 03:52 | I suppose it makes me somewhat
uncomfortable, but you know, I'm kind of enjoying it,
| | 03:57 | surprisingly enough to myself.
| | 04:00 | You know, I thought I would just like
run in horror, but I'm kind of enjoying it.
| | 04:06 | I don't know, maybe that's not a
good thing to admit necessarily, but --
| | 04:09 | Peter Bart: Well, when you are on the set as the
director, the focus is on you. You call the shots, right?
| | 04:15 | Kathryn Bigelow: No, you're invisible.
| | 04:16 | You're completely invisible.
| | 04:17 | I'm the person in the back in the corner
who can kind of be the architect of everything.
| | 04:24 | So it's the antithesis of this,
there is no light on you.
| | 04:27 | Peter Bart: Got it. And Jim?
| | 04:32 | Kathryn Bigelow: I need shadows, exactly. What?
| | 04:33 | Peter Bart: But similar to that, at one
moment when Avatar opened, you had been in a more
| | 04:39 | quiet state for a few years, and
suddenly the world's stoplight is on you.
| | 04:44 | I mean you kicked ass. Everybody
was saying, God! Cameron did it again.
| | 04:49 | Was there a moment where you just
felt, boy, this is overwhelming?
| | 04:53 | Or did you just say cool?
| | 04:55 | James Cameron: I think both.
| | 04:57 | You know, I mean it's obviously cool.
| | 04:58 | I mean, you make film to communicate,
and when a film is financially successful,
| | 05:05 | that is a metric that says you sold X
number of tickets, those are all people
| | 05:09 | that you communicated with, and
because we know a lot of the film's
| | 05:14 | business is predicated on repeat viewing,
| | 05:16 | those repeat views are all
good reviews, every one of them.
| | 05:21 | So you know your film is working, and you
know that all the effort that we went through--
| | 05:26 | And I say "we" very advisedly,
because it's such a team process.
| | 05:31 | All movies are a team process, but
probably Avatar was closer almost to what
| | 05:37 | you do than to what Lee did in the terms of a
team working from long period of time on movie.
| | 05:44 | And I'm so proud of them in a way
that these accolades and this success in
| | 05:50 | communication is an
acknowledgment of what they manage to do.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Questions and answers| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:14 | Quentin Tarantino: That was the
first thing I wrote on the film.
| | 00:18 | I started writing this about in 1998,
is when I first started coming--
| | 00:24 | when I came up with the idea for the
script, and that was like the first idea
| | 00:29 | for this scene, and literally the way I
write those kind of big dialogue scenes
| | 00:35 | is I just get the characters
talking, get them talking to each other.
| | 00:39 | And then at a certain point,
I check out. It is them talking to
| | 00:43 | each other. They are doing it.
| | 00:45 | I can't describe it anymore than that,
because that is the process and I don't
| | 00:49 | want to know anymore than that.
| | 00:51 | But if it works, when it actually works,
it's more like you are a court reporter,
| | 00:56 | just jotting it down
as they talk to each other.
| | 00:59 | I had no idea they were going to
talk that long and I had no idea exactly
| | 01:02 | where it was going to go except I did
kind of have an end. I knew the family
| | 01:05 | will get murdered at the end of it.
| | 01:06 | But then I don't always know, all right,
that's what I think is going to happen,
| | 01:12 | but the characters will keep me honest.
But one of the things-- there was like
| | 01:17 | two things that I had in my mind.
| | 01:19 | One is, when it comes to like, if you
think about-- and I kind of think about
| | 01:23 | my career a little bit, at least as far
as my filmography, like sometimes as if
| | 01:28 | they were albums and then you have
your greatest hits inside of the albums.
| | 01:33 | That is one of the things when people say
they liked my movie, I often times, oh!
| | 01:35 | What was your favorite scene?
| | 01:36 | I am always curious about that.
| | 01:38 | And up until Inglourious
Basterds if I had a greatest hit, if I had a
| | 01:44 | thing that I had never topped,
it would be the Sicilian scene in True Romance,
| | 01:49 | between Dennis Hopper and
Christopher Walken and that was the first
| | 01:53 | script that I ever wrote.
| | 01:54 | (Applause.)
| | 01:57 | And I had come close to it, but I had
never topped it and I knew I had never
| | 02:03 | topped it, but that was my greatest hit.
| | 02:05 | And when I wrote that scene,
I go "I finally topped it."
| | 02:09 | (Laughter.)
| | 02:12 | It took me 25 years, but I finally topped it.
| | 02:25 | Quentin Tarantino: Thankfully,
our trajectory is every other year, all right.
| | 02:29 | We've never had a movie come out, well
except for 1997. He came out with Boogie Nights
| | 02:34 | and I came out with Jackie Brown,
but luckily it is a situation where,
| | 02:39 | as I am getting ready to write the
next thing is when his new thing comes out
| | 02:44 | and versa-vice. He is writing this thing
and then Inglourious Basterds came out.
| | 02:49 | But it's kind of our position to just
keep raising the bar, on each other.
| | 02:55 | I remember I met Brian De Palma early
in my career. It was a dream meeting
| | 03:01 | because he was always my
favorite of the movie brats.
| | 03:03 | He was a real, true, true hero.
| | 03:06 | And I remember talking to him in his
office and he said, he goes, yeah,
| | 03:14 | he remembers he was making Scarface
and he was feeling really good about it.
| | 03:21 | He was feeling really,
really good about Scarface.
| | 03:23 | No, it's Blow Out, sorry, it's Blow Out.
| | 03:26 | Okay, he was doing Blow Out and he was feeling
really great about. "I think this is my best work."
| | 03:32 | "This is the one."
| | 03:33 | And I actually agree. That is his best work.
| | 03:35 | Alright. But he was like, "this is the one,
this is the one," and then he goes to the
| | 03:38 | theater to see Raging Bull and he
was sitting there in the theater and
| | 03:43 | that opening credit shot with the
classical music and then just De Niro,
| | 03:48 | just bouncing on the left side of the frame
and he was like "there is always Scorsese."
| | 03:58 | "No matter how good you think
you are, there is always Scorsese."
| | 04:04 | (Laughter and applause.)
| | 04:15 | Pete Docter: It's tricky. I mean in our case,
we record the voices before we do any of the
| | 04:19 | animation, and so the actors are
standing in a room, a gray room was nothing but
| | 04:24 | the microphone, the script and me.
| | 04:26 | And so my job primarily is to explain
to them, okay here, you're yelling across
| | 04:30 | a massive auditorium, or whatever the
scene is, and then we work line-by-line.
| | 04:37 | Most of the time it's seven or eight
takes, sometimes 30, whatever it takes to
| | 04:42 | get exactly what it is that I am after.
| | 04:44 | The other thing that's really odd,
just given our process, is that very, very
| | 04:50 | seldomly are there more
than one actor in the room.
| | 04:54 | So, all the discussions, their dialogue
or arguments between say Woody and Buzz
| | 04:59 | or in our case, Carl Fredricksen and
the kid, those were recorded on separate
| | 05:04 | days in separate cities and it's all artificial.
| | 05:07 | So I just have to have in my head, okay,
I know what take I am using from Asner,
| | 05:11 | and this is what I am after with Jordon,
the kid, and I think it will work and
| | 05:16 | of course we rely on the editors a lot.
| | 05:19 | But it's very probably--
| | 05:21 | I have never directed a live action film,
so, I imagine that it's fairly similar
| | 05:25 | but maybe more kind of anal-
retentive or something, I don't know.
| | 05:27 | (Laughter.)
| | 05:37 | Pete Docter: I guess I am thinking visually.
| | 05:39 | What am I going to get on the screen,
how do I communicate it, and if I can do it
| | 05:42 | without a line of dialogue
then I will get rid of the dialogue.
| | 05:46 | It's all about the imagery and the
action, and that's what's interesting.
| | 05:52 | And you are right, there are some
things that probably if you tried to make "Up"
| | 05:58 | in live action I think you would have a
difficult time getting the audience to
| | 06:02 | believe that a house could
actually lift off with the balloons.
| | 06:04 | And we have sort of some leeway
because of the design, because of the world
| | 06:07 | that we are creating.
| | 06:09 | But that in itself can be a challenge
too, because it doesn't exist out there
| | 06:14 | in the real world.
| | 06:15 | So you have to kind of adjust your brain
a little to fit where the idea is going.
| | 06:21 | But it's mainly a visual thing.
| | 06:23 | Quentin Tarantino: There is something that I was
thinking about a lot when I saw "Up," about being
| | 06:32 | a writer and coming up with stuff that
on one hand, I was like, well, maybe,
| | 06:37 | I'd like to do one animated film for
this simple fact of just being able to
| | 06:40 | let my imagination go and write
whatever I came up with and not having to
| | 06:44 | qualify it in any kind of way.
| | 06:46 | But then the minute I said that, I was
also like damn it, it's also seemed
| | 06:54 | stymying too. I got the idea, well, if you
can do anything, what the hell do you do?
| | 07:01 | It actually made me realize, not
that I couldn't do it, but what it made
| | 07:05 | me realize is, oh!
| | 07:07 | I've actually been comfortable with my
limitations. The idea to throw them all away,
| | 07:11 | actually like oh,
well now -- what's worth that?
| | 07:16 | If you can do anything, what do you do?
| | 07:19 | James Cameron: But you know-- oh, sorry.
| | 07:20 | Pete Docter: But you end up creating these
kind of parameters for yourself and I think the
| | 07:23 | audience needs that too. If you do
anything while guns ablazing, then there
| | 07:29 | are no real rules and there is no
consistency for people to believe at least
| | 07:33 | what we're after. It's this
sense of investment and belief in these
| | 07:38 | characters that they are real.
| | 07:39 | So, like on "Up," when we had the
floating house, we realized we needed to set
| | 07:44 | that up in very subtle way so that,
okay, people, this is a world, see he is
| | 07:47 | leaning on his balloon cart, and
the balloon cart starts going up,
| | 07:50 | which is preposterous in itself.
| | 07:52 | But this is kind of a little
subtle tickle for the house.
| | 07:55 | You know what I mean?
| | 07:56 | You have to kind of create this consistency.
| | 07:59 | James Cameron: I think it's a really
interesting area, because on Avatar for the first time
| | 08:06 | I was doing a lot of animation, and
I'd done live action before that.
| | 08:11 | And what you find is that - you
know that Devo song, where they say,
| | 08:15 | "Freedom of choice is what you've got,
and freedom from choice is what you want?"
| | 08:19 | Pete Docter: Yeah.
| | 08:19 | James Cameron: You want freedom from choice,
because as a director you pick a location and then
| | 08:24 | that location defines
where you can put the camera.
| | 08:27 | You have to have something to hang
your hat on in the real world, and in the
| | 08:30 | animation world, in the
virtual world, you have nothing.
| | 08:33 | You have an infinity of choices, and you
have to start making choices right from
| | 08:39 | day one, or you'll be trapped by an
infinity of possibility at every turn.
| | 08:43 | It's not a luxury like people imagine it to be.
| | 08:46 | It's actually quite-- I won't say
paralyzing but it becomes burdensome.
| | 08:50 | So you have to make these
choices as early and often as possible.
| | 08:56 | And that was the big shocking discovery
for me about working in that virtual world.
| | 09:01 | Kathryn Bigelow: And Quentin, Andre Gide said --
| | 09:03 | James Cameron: She is
quoting Gide, I quote Devo.
| | 09:06 | (Laughter.)
| | 09:07 | Kathryn Bigelow: Art is born of
restraint and dies of freedom.
| | 09:11 | I often hang on to those words when I
am looking at a really huge movie, I think
| | 09:15 | really modest budget. It's like I've got
a lot of restraint here. This is great.
| | 09:28 | James Cameron: Probably the biggest task
of the director is leadership of a group.
| | 09:33 | And that group will consist of artists.
| | 09:35 | And so it's letting those artists have
a voice and feel empowered within the
| | 09:41 | process and not dominated by--
In my case, I've got a lot of ideas,
| | 09:48 | I can draw, I can paint.
| | 09:50 | I've got a lot -- but I want
to challenge these guys to step up and
| | 09:54 | have us be all one team.
| | 09:57 | And I think every director up here is
up here because of the artists on their
| | 10:02 | team that contributed, whether it's the
acting artists, whether it's the visual
| | 10:06 | artists, the DP or whatever.
| | 10:08 | So there is this aspect of having to
kind of herd cats, because people will go
| | 10:12 | off in different directions.
| | 10:14 | And keep them kind of on message or
all telling the same story and doing that
| | 10:20 | diplomatically when possible, or
sometimes by challenge. You challenge people
| | 10:26 | and I know that you've talked
about challenging your actors.
| | 10:28 | And I think one does challenge actors,
you create a safe place for them, and
| | 10:33 | challenge them at the same time.
| | 10:35 | And I think that's the best combination
where they feel safe to do anything to
| | 10:41 | try stuff, even if it's stupid.
| | 10:45 | Because sometimes those things that
they think are stupid are the moments that
| | 10:48 | you pray for, moments of
discovery that you pray for.
[00:10:51.33. I can prattle on but I
mean I think that's the essence of it.
| | 10:56 | Lee Daniels: For me, it's life continuing on.
| | 11:03 | In the movies that I've produced or the
movies I have directed, there is always
| | 11:07 | a question mark at the end, because that's life.
| | 11:10 | The end of the film should
represent life, that there is no answer.
| | 11:18 | Kathryn Bigelow: Oh well, specifically in Hurt
Locker and this was I found beautifully crafted
| | 11:24 | in the screenplay that it was both the
combination of triumph and futility, and
| | 11:29 | that was sort of the kind of metronomic,
thematic, underlying threat of the piece
| | 11:34 | and the conflict and then trying to
trying to distill that to a single shot,
| | 11:39 | a single image, single
moment and so that was the challenge.
| | 11:45 | James Cameron: I think a happy ending
is the culmination of character's journey.
| | 11:50 | Whatever that means, if the character
dies, they die, if they live, they live.
| | 11:54 | But it's -- you've set out certain
ground rules for understanding the story
| | 11:58 | what the character's goals are, or maybe
their goals become defined during the film.
| | 12:04 | And at the end that needs to be
resolved for the audience in some satisfying way.
| | 12:10 | And it doesn't necessarily have
to be in that everybody, that there is a
| | 12:14 | big kiss and a wedding or whatever it is.
| | 12:23 | James Cameron: I think this is the mistake
that's been made in the past is trying to impose
| | 12:27 | a kind of one-size-fits-all solution.
| | 12:30 | In the coarse body motion that their
marker based system captures so beautifully
| | 12:34 | doesn't work at all if you try to
glue 200 markers on the person's face.
| | 12:39 | You're still not getting the eyes,
you're not getting the tongue,
| | 12:42 | the interaction of the tongue and the
teeth and the lips that form phonemes and
| | 12:45 | speech and so on.
| | 12:46 | There is so much of it that
that process simply can't get.
| | 12:50 | So we came up with a completely
different approach, which is image based.
| | 12:54 | Literally mounting a camera on a
little boom, that looks like a mike boom in
| | 12:57 | front of the face, and shooting a
close-up of the actor 100% of the time,
| | 13:02 | while they are working.
| | 13:03 | And creating essentially a separate
channel or a separate stream of data for the
| | 13:07 | face from the body, and then all that
goes to create the finished CG character,
| | 13:14 | through a process that involves the
world's best animators, but is not truly
| | 13:18 | animation in the sense that
it's an actor-driven process.
| | 13:21 | That's trying to sum it up in a
nutshell. It's very hard to describe what
| | 13:26 | we're doing, but if you saw an image
of it side-by-side between let's say
| | 13:29 | what Zoe or Sam was doing and what
their finished character was doing,
| | 13:33 | you'd get it instantly.
| | 13:42 | Todd Phillips: I actually say I think
that your best way in is through writing.
| | 13:45 | Quite honestly. I think no one is
going to unnecessarily hire an aspiring
| | 13:49 | director to direct something. I think
when you control a piece of material or
| | 13:54 | write something that comes from you
and it's unique in its own way. I always
| | 13:58 | feel like, because I get asked that a
lot as I am sure everyone here does,
| | 14:02 | it seems to me like the writing is
where you can really set yourself apart
| | 14:07 | and the idea.
| | 14:08 | So once you have that idea. It's just
too hard I think to say, I am a director,
| | 14:13 | let me direct something.
That's my answer that I give.
| | 14:19 | Lee Daniels: Yeah, well,
I'm border-lining on the illiterate.
| | 14:22 | So I am not that-- I don't
know how to write that well.
| | 14:25 | I take other people's work
and I blow my breath into it.
| | 14:30 | Todd Phillips: Right. But how -- he is asking
so in the beginning, how do you do that?
| | 14:34 | How did you start?
| | 14:35 | Who gave you the opportunity to direct first?
| | 14:37 | Lee Daniels: Well, because I
started with the actors in theater.
| | 14:39 | Todd Phillips: Okay.
Lee Daniels: Theater, that's for me.
| | 14:41 | Quentin Tarantino: That would
be the answer to that, yeah.
| | 14:44 | Yeah, I mean the thing about it was..
I never expected anybody to give me a job.
| | 14:53 | I don't know if I'd give me a job, all right!
| | 14:59 | When I was finally allowed to direct
Reservoir Dogs, I did it for like $1.3 million.
| | 15:04 | I only made $10,000 a year.
| | 15:07 | It's a pretty much like my 20's.
So the only thing that would have let anyone
| | 15:12 | think that maybe this kid can be
responsible enough to do this is because I had
| | 15:18 | written the script and
it was just a calculated risk.
| | 15:21 | Well, if he is aware enough to write
this piece of material he may be aware
| | 15:26 | enough to pull this off.
| | 15:28 | However, I could have-
this is like Kathryn's situation.
| | 15:30 | They could have taken me
off after the first week.
| | 15:34 | I had a situation where I had to prove
myself in the first week, or else I could
| | 15:42 | have been replaced, or at least replaced
by a second unit director or something,
| | 15:46 | which I have never used a second unit director.
| | 15:50 | Anything not shot by me is
unsatisfactory by its very definition.
| | 15:53 | (Laughter.)
| | 16:06 | James Cameron: Oh man, they call me an egotist.
| | 16:08 | (Laughter.)
| | 16:10 | Quentin Tarantino: So the thing was, I
kind of-- Kathryn played it straight up.
| | 16:15 | I kind of, me and my partner Lawrence,
we rigged the deck a little bit and so
| | 16:19 | we did all this. Because I was back
then, I was really into Goddard, so I wanted
| | 16:25 | to do weird long takes from the
wrong angle and the back of somebody's head,
| | 16:29 | that go on an unblinking ten minutes.
| | 16:31 | All right, and I know that would get my a**
tossed out tout suite, so we did all the
| | 16:39 | coverage oriented stuff.
| | 16:41 | And I don't normally shoot coverage,
but when I do stuff, I don't ever do
| | 16:45 | pickups with actors.
| | 16:46 | I always-- no matter what-- I just
feel like I am betraying them if I ask them
| | 16:50 | to pick up the scene from here or
pick it from there, even if it just takes
| | 16:53 | forever, I always start that my big-a**
long scenes always from the beginning.
| | 16:58 | So the thing about it is, at a
certain point we had so much footage.
| | 17:03 | At the end of that first week, they go,
"I guess he knows what he is doing,
| | 17:06 | we've got a ton of footage."
| | 17:08 | (Laughter.)
| | 17:15 | James Cameron: I don't know.
| | 17:16 | I know how you got started.
| | 17:18 | I know how I got started.
| | 17:19 | I've heard a lot of Lee's story in the last
few weeks as we've been on these things
| | 17:22 | together, and Quentin. I think every
single person here would answer that
| | 17:29 | question somewhat differently
in terms of how they got started.
| | 17:32 | I think what your take-away is, don't
waste a lot of time studying the problem by
| | 17:36 | looking at how other directors did it.
| | 17:39 | You've got to get out there and get busy.
| | 17:40 | It's that simple.
| | 17:41 | This is not theory, it's not abstract, it's
not film class, you're not writing a paper here.
| | 17:45 | You're trying to inject yourself into a
process that's ongoing, with or without you.
| | 17:50 | So grab a camera.
| | 17:52 | If you don't write, get one of
your friends to write something.
| | 17:56 | If you don't act yourself, get some
actor friends to teach you what acting is about,
| | 18:01 | get involved in theater,
make some stuff, make a film.
| | 18:05 | Make a film, cut it together, the tools
are readily available now, much more so
| | 18:09 | than they were when we started out.
| | 18:11 | I mean if you knew somebody
with a wind up Bolex, you were hot.
| | 18:16 | Now anybody can get an HD prosumer
camcorder and they can get some kind of
| | 18:21 | editing program on their laptop.
| | 18:23 | Quentin Tarantino: I would have made my first
movie at 23 if they had this technology that
| | 18:26 | they have, 22, 21.
| | 18:27 | James Cameron: Yeah.
| | 18:27 | Quentin Tarantino: It might not have
been any good, but I would have done it.
| | 18:30 | James Cameron: But that's not the point.
| | 18:32 | The point is, make the picture, cut
it, put your name on it as director.
| | 18:35 | Now you are a director.
| | 18:36 | Everything after that you're
just negotiating your price.
| | 18:39 | (Laughter.)
| | 18:53 | James Cameron: Yeah, vicarious experience.
| | 18:54 | Actually, I think we did.
| | 18:56 | You shot that in the summer of 94 as I recall.
| | 18:58 | Kathryn Bigelow: Yeah, but
you had the treatment years --
| | 19:01 | James Cameron: But we worked like a
couple of years earlier than that, yeah.
| | 19:02 | No, look I mean I think there is
thematic consistency and the stuff that all of
| | 19:07 | us are going to do in the
ideas that appeal to us.
| | 19:11 | And there was something very interesting
about this idea of vicarious experience
| | 19:14 | that I think appealed to
both of us about that story.
| | 19:19 | Avatar in my mind was actually kind of
the opposite of that in the sense that
| | 19:24 | here was a guy who was putting himself
into a biological body, and he was--
| | 19:29 | Well, actually, it's very similar in
the sense that Lenny is being torn
| | 19:32 | down by the process of too much squid,
too much playback, and Jake is actually
| | 19:38 | getting trash by that.
| | 19:39 | Yeah, so maybe I was reacting to the
zeitgeist nod everybody getting more into video games
| | 19:43 | and more online and all that
stuff, that's kind of what we were both
| | 19:46 | reacting to, with Strange Days.
| | 19:49 | Peter Bart: Folks, I think we have all
learned today that the filmmakers are as expressive
| | 19:54 | and idiosyncratic as their work.
| | 19:57 | You've been a wonderful audience.
| | 19:59 | Thank you all and thank you guys.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
