Beginnings by Michael Arndt

Michael Arndt of Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3 and Rise of Skywalker talks about setting up your narrative - a follow up video essay to his brilliant Endings one (see below…)

Prano Bailey-Bond on Blue Velvet

“It’s a strange world, isn’t it?” This week Mike Muncer is joined on the Evolution of Horror podcast by horror filmmaker Prano Bailey-Bond to discuss her favourite film of all time, David Lynch’s suburban nightmare, Blue Velvet. Mike Muncer is a film journalist , producer and presenter @TheMovieMike

The Evolution of Horror is a weekly podcast in which Mike, the host, explores the history of the horror genre by delving into particular sub-genres across several weeks. each episode mike is joined by a different guest: a critic, filmmaker or expert, to discuss a particular film in depth, to look at it’s place within a sub-genre and it’s impact and legacy on cinema history. www.evolutionofhorror.com

Abel Ferara: Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker

The work of Abel Ferrara has always mixed arthouse and grit, and his two 2020 films continue that tradition. The Bronx-born director of King of New York and Bad Lieutenant lives in Rome now, and he’s seven years sober. He’s still as passionate as ever, but four decades of moviemaking wisdom now infuse the punkish sensibility behind such films as 1979’s Driller Killer.

1. You gotta shoot. You gotta get your game together, and you gotta get confidence in your own game. And the only way to learn how to make a film is to make them.

2. There’s no rulebook, there’s no guidebook. Pasolini is a genius, and he said it takes 45 minutes to learn everything you need to learn to direct. Maybe that’s true, maybe it’s not, but you understand the point he’s making.

3. By the time you pick up a camera, you’ve already committed to it — you’re already saying, “I need to express myself,” one way or another. Some people are in the audience and other people are the artists. And once you declare yourself in that position as an artist, you just have to work through it and do it.

4. Who knows what influences you? You could walk down the street and think you’re being influenced by something right in front of you, and you write it down or you photograph it — you shoot it on your phone. Meanwhile, maybe something in your peripheral vision across the street that you’re barely hearing is working on your subconscious. Keep yourself open to it.

5. Every moment is an improvisation, whether you have lines or not. If it helps you and the actor to have lines — maybe there are things you want to hear said or you want to do — put it in the script then. But you might want to approach a scene from another way from what you had planned. Just keep it open, so long as you got everybody around you and everybody’s positive. When you’re shooting, you’re on sacred ground, man. That’s when it’s beautiful. When a moment comes, and the camera’s on, once the actors are all there… fuck, you have to find the joy in it. There’s nothing you could do wrong. I mean, try it all. Try it improv. Try it a different way if you got time. Go for it.

6. There’s no right way to do it. There’s no game plan… I mean, have a game plan if you’re the kind of person that needs to know certain situations. Sometimes, I go in and need to be really buttoned-down with everything, because I don’t want to forget this or that. But other times you have to go in on instincts.

7. Raising money, that’s a bitch. Ask everybody you know that has money or you think has money, and leave no one out. Go to the ends of the earth. Don’t be afraid. Pitch your ideas. Send your script. Talk to everybody. Don’t be afraid to say, “I’m making a movie, and I need money.”

8. When I told my mother I’m going into the film business, she said to me, “There’s a broken heart for every light on Broadway.” And Broadway goes from 233rd Street to the end of the island. So there are a lot of fucking lights and broken hearts.

9. It’s a beautiful part of the process, when you get going and you’re writing and when you’re tired of writing, you start prepping it, and that’s cool. And then when you’re sick of that, you start shooting. Obviously the shooting is the moment of truth. That’s always the shortest and most intense part, but still, everybody’s happy when it’s a wrap. No matter how much you love movies and making them, the happiest days on a film are the first day and the last day. And everybody’s ecstatic, and then you’re done. And you start editing, and when you get sick of editing, like where I’m at now, I want to shoot — I want to get back to it.

10. The editor’s voice is powerful — you need it right from the get-go. My editor is there from the writing through all of it — he is cutting while we’re shooting, because I want to know if we’re going off the rails. I need to hear his voice from the very beginning, and if we have time during the shoot, we see stuff together. And then we’ll finish shooting, chill out, and look at what he put together, and then we go back and start from frame one.

11. The director’s job is to control the flow of the energy — that’s basically what the director does. The director’s gig is to protect the integrity of the piece, and to protect against outside elements that are gonna hurt it.

12. A director takes the Hippocratic oath. Like the doctor who won’t let anything or anybody hurt that patient, as a director you can’t allow anything that’s going to hurt your film. You could bribe me; you could put matchsticks under my fingernails; you could put a gun to my head; you can threaten me with jail, and that’s happened to me — nothing is going to hurt that child while it’s learning to walk. There’s no compromise on that: It’s zero.

13. Pick the people that care. Right off the bat you can tell the people that don’t care, and just kiss their ass goodbye, bro. You can’t have any negativity. It’s too powerful. It’s too important. The actor’s there, and he’s acting, but he’s reflecting the energy of the group. It’s all in his eyes, actually. Everyone around them has to be on and in. We all have our separate jobs: The actor has his gig, and I got my gig. I’m not teaching him how to act. But on top of every specific thing I’m doing, I make sure the fucking car stays on the road.

14. You see a film, you walk away with the knowledge of the people that made it and who they really are. That’s all you’re really walking away with, because you can’t lie with that camera. The process doesn’t allow for the lie. At the end of the day, every film you see, you can’t manipulate that. You can’t manipulate it in the editing room, and you can’t manipulate it on the set. You can’t CGI your way out of it. What you have is a reflection of the people that made that movie. And it’s not one person. It’s a group. It’s always a group.

15. Just shoot, man. In this day and age, you’ve got your phone — that’s a beautiful sync camera. You can even cut on your phone. You got the computers that edit. You got internet that can connect you and your movie to the whole world. Just go for it. Follow your heart.

16. Get yourself a good group of friends that believe in you, and that’s all I can say.

—As told to Caleb Hammond, Moviemaker Magazone

'Endings - The Good, The Bad and the Insanely Great'

Great video essay analysis by Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3, Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker) about the stakes of your character - internal, external, philosophical.

Céline Sciamma on Letting Desires Dictate Writing

Céline Sciamma at Bafta discusses her writing process and the importance of giving agency back to her female characters.

Robert Eggers on Writing The Lighthouse

Robert Eggers talks about writing and directing The Lighthouse and where his inspiration initially comes from at Bafta Guru Lecture 2020. Lots of research, some great insights here.

What We Can Learn From Korean Horror

Screened presents a broad look at four movies, two from the early 2000's ( A Tale of Two Sisters and The Host) and two recently released movies (The Wailing, Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum) to see what we can learn from them to make better horror movies.

Passengers, Rearranged

interesting video essay on restructuring the sci-fi clunker in a much more interesting configuration (by Nerdwriter on YouTube.)

Making The Endless

Seen The Endless? Go behind the scenes in Making The Endless and discover the ins and outs of this very interesting low budget indie film from Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Resolution, Spring).

The Ranting Of An Independent Filmmaker

A montage of interviews from over the years with director John Cassavetes illustrating his philosophy about art, film, and working in Hollywood. This is good stuff.

Darren Aronofsky's 10 Commandments of Indie Film

From SXSW 20-18 - 12 mins in…

1. Tell a story only you can tell.

2. Persistence is 9/10 of the game.

3. Work with family.

4. Do your homework.

5. Adapt to reality by turning your limitations into advantages.

6. Don’t be afraid of your actors.

7. Where is my audience?

8. Commit to the vision

9. Let your child go

10. Give a shit.

Creativity that satisfies and reaffirms your world view is entertainment.
Creativity that challenges and disrupts your world view is art.
Go be artists.

Kurt Vonnegut - The Shape of Stories

17 minutes of pure genius from the man. With jokes. Funny ones.

The Tommy Westphall Universe Hypothesis

Almost 400 US TV shows were/are linked as part of the ending of St Elsewhere and it’s various cross-over characters, all through the mind of one Tommy Westphall. Nerd out!

How Every Coen Brothers Movie is Connected...

Interesting video essay revealing the themes that are shared by all the Coen brothers movies, written and edited Brad Hanford from Screencrush http://screencrush.com/

Average & Expert – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

A comparison between the filmmaking techniques used in the Swedish and American versions of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Scenecraft.

The 'refusal of the call' in James Cameron's Aliens

After The Events in “Alien”, James Cameron Made It Clear That Ellen Ripley Refused to Be Part of Another Mission

Great article reposted from Medium.com, looking Into Why It Is So Important For The Story of “Aliens” That Ripley Refuses To Go On Another Adventure To Hunt For Aliens.

Click the pic: or here: ARTICLE LINK