Directors: The Men and Women who say "Action!" and "Cut!"

[VCRTracking]

Dejana posted this in the "The Business: News, Rumours, Analysis, and More" thread so I thought it was time to make a topic about directors. Sam Mendes interviews directors:

 

HAVE YOU EVER WALKED OFF A SET IN A TEMPER?    
 

Steven Spielberg: I’ve never walked off a set before and I can’t imagine why I would.

David Fincher: No, but I have cleared a set to speak with an actor, or actors.
Ang Lee: I only Hulked out once.


Edgar Wright: Almost. Once on Channel 4’s Spaced I was having a tricky time shooting 15 scenes from seven different episodes with a new-that-day crew. When lunch was called I went for a walk and kept on walking. Then I called my producer Nira (Park) from a phone box and said, “I can’t hack it anymore, you should get someone else for Monday.” She talked me down from the ledge and I came back to work. So, I have never really flipped out on set, but I can be an incredible sulk.
Alfonso Cuarón: Yes, only to come back feeling very stupid.


Joe Wright: I rarely lose my temper and try not to raise my voice, but I’ve left set in a sulk many times. I sulk or even cry rather than lose my temper.


Paul Greengrass: Once, when I couldn’t work out how to shoot an eight-handed dialogue scene in the desert
 in the middle of the night. After I’d banged my head against a Humvee for ten minutes trying to work it 
out, I was fine and carried on!


Joss Whedon: Nope. I’ve lost my temper, but not impressively. I’ve walked out of a VFX review in
 a quiet, blind rage, but only for a minute or so
 ’til I could see again.

Rob Marshall: It’s not even a possibility.


Christopher Nolan: I once tried, but nobody
 seemed to notice, so I came back.

Steven Soderbergh: No, but I did walk ON
 to a set with a temper once when an actor 
showed up late two days in a row.


Sofia Coppola: Ha, no.

Susanne Bier: No.


Alexander Payne: Fuck no.


George Clooney: No. The reason is because
 eventually you have to walk back on, and that
 would be too humiliating.


Roger Michell: Not yet.

 

 

    Keep in mind the question was "have you ever walked off the set" in a temper, not if they ever been in a bad temper, because I think it would be unrealistic if any of them said no.

 

WHAT’S THE MOST TAKES YOU’VE EVER DONE?

    

Spielberg: I did 50 takes on Robert Shaw assembling the Greener Gun on Jaws. The shark wasn’t working, so I just kept shooting to make the production report look like we were accomplishing something and to keep cast and crew from going crazy from boredom. It was a strategic indulgence.

Soderbergh: 48.

Fincher: 107.
Clooney: 18.

Nolan: I never pay attention to the number of takes.

Edgar Wright: I don’t think I have ever gone Kubrick crazy. So maybe 20 or so... But it’s usually six or seven takes.

Payne: Probably around 26. I’m normally a four-to-
seven kind of guy, but every so often, when the actors,
 the operator, the dolly grip and the assistant cameramen must all work in sync, it might take a while to get right.
 Marshall: I try not to do more than seven or eight. It can become counterproductive.

Cuarón: The long takes process doesn’t allow for that
 many takes. In the past I have shot over 50 takes of
 different shots. Sometimes you end up using take 64, sometimes take four.
Michell: Like current Australian batsmen... Very rarely double figures.

Lee: For acting, 13. For action, 36.

Bier: Twenty-five, I think. Which, if you’re trying to get the best performance, is way, way too much.

Joe Wright: Thirty-seven maybe, can’t really remember. I’m usually in the range of 12 to 16 unless it’s a very technically challenging shot.

Coppola: I can’t remember, nothing too crazy, because we never have that much time in the schedule.

 Whedon: On an elaborate shot, 30. On a bit of dialogue, I’ve seldom gone into double digits.

 Greengrass: I don’t count over ten.

 

Edited October 15, 2015 by VCRTracking

[King of Birds]

But please, read the entire piece, not just the blurbs here. Love that Mendes /Empire did this article.

 

WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST BECOME AN ACCOUNTANT?

Fincher: I’m not good enough with “people” to do that kind of work.

 

WHAT’S YOUR BEST-EVER DAY ON SET?

Coppola: When Bill Murray is there.

[AimingforYoko]

Of course Fincher won the most takes question, that's why he's known as an "actor's director". (Sarcasm) Heh, they know he's good, though, so most will work with him again.

[JBC344]

Lol, when I saw the "How many takes" question I was waiting for Fincher's answer.  "107", least he was honest. 

[VCRTracking]

I remember hearing about Fincher doing so many takes when Zodiac came out that he made the actors do so many takes which I thought was excessive. To be fair though I would never have known that watching his movies. The performances still seem fresh and doesn't seem mechanical. Jake Gyllenhaal from Zodiac felt like he didn't get it "right" for 50 times but other actors are okay with the method.

 

Rooney Mara on The Social Network:
 

"You know, the first day we did an 8-page scene, and it took about 6 minutes to do it all the way through. I think we did it about 99 times?"

Compared to a spartan director like Clint Eastwood (who rarely demands more than two takes from an actor), Fincher can sound punishing. Still, Mara says that his notes were always about dialogue and feeling, and that his method actually paid dividends for her and scene partner Jesse Eisenberg.

"It's interesting, because I was worried," she told us. "I was like, 'God, I'm gonna burn out, I'll get flat, it'll feel robotic,' but it never felt like that. Every single time, it really felt like a different scene and fresh. David knew exactly what he wanted and gave such specific notes, and because [screenwriter] Aaron Sorkin's dialogue is so fast and so specific, we had to stay on our toes the entire time. Me and Jesse really tried to stay fresh for each other, so it always felt very real and in the moment."

 

 

Neil Patrick Harris on Gone Girl:
 

"It weirdly didn't feel redundant because he sets up these shots to run for the whole scene, so you're not just doing 50 takes of one tiny little incremental part, you're simmering this pot, so the first few takes are to get going and by the time you're in the 10, 11, 12th takes, he's giving notes to everyone," Harris explains. "So it didn't really feel like it's your responsibility, like you keep f—ing it up, and if you were only doing it differently then you could move on. But you kind of get into this like flow of doing it start to finish, putting your jacket back on, putting your keys in your pocket, getting your wallet, out the door, couple notes, think about it ,and rolling, you're back in it, you're doing it again."

 

Edited October 16, 2015 by VCRTracking

[King of Birds]

I read Sidney Lumet's Making Movies years ago, and it gives great insight to "what it means to be a director" from what I recall. (It has been a while.)

 

Also, after thinking about it again, I'm glad Mendes included George Clooney, Roger Michell and Susanne Bier, people I don't recognize as "name directors."

[VCRTracking]

I read Sidney Lumet's Making Movies years ago, and it gives great insight to "what it means to be a director" from what I recall. (It has been a while.)

 

I read that book years ago too. I love his story of when he was making Murder on the Orient Express with that all-star cast and when they did the first table read, after a while he realized that all the stars from theater were intimidated by the movie stars, and that the movie stars were intimidated by the stars from stage! I also like learning when Lumet filmed the scenes of Poirot(Albert Finney) questioning each of the suspects, he did two versions. The first one was photographed normally and then again with a wide angle lens which subtly distorts the actors faces in close up. The ones shot wide-angle were usedlater when they flashback to them during Poirot's big summation at the end, making the same scene more sinister in retrospect.

 

Edited October 16, 2015 by VCRTracking

[raezen]

I was in another thread where someone stated that they thought Domhnall Gleeson benefitted from nepotism (don't really agree, but is it really 'Hollywood' nepotism when it's happening with Brits/Irish?