Things I’ve Learned As A Moviemaker

by Renny Harlin | Published February 3, 2007

What I have learned from my filmmaking experience is to trust my instincts. This dates back to when I went to film school in Finland in the late 1970s. I made a little student film-just a couple of minutes long. There was a scene where someone was getting something from the refrigerator. It was a very simple thing-he opens the door and gets a bottle of milk from the refrigerator. I thought, "wouldn't it be interesting if I broke this refrigerator apart and took the back of it out, put the camera inside of the refrigerator, and when the door opens, you see the face of the person, and he reaches in towards the camera and grabs the bottle and closes the refrigerator?" Obviously, today, it doesn't seem like much, but in those days, for a film student, it seemed like a revolutionary idea. And I did it and thought that it would give the audience a different perspective. When the film was shown to the other students and the teachers, I was absolutely destroyed and harshly criticized by the teacher, saying, "don't you understand that the camera can only be where the human eye can be naturally?" and "what are you suggesting, that this is the butter's point of view?" I was completely humiliated by that and I quit film school after that. Now, my goal is always to offer the audience a different point of view. I guess I really have to thank my film school for that.

Filmography as Director

Houstaanotto (1980)
Born American (1986)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
Prison (1988)
Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990)
The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990)
Cliffhanger (1993)
Cutthroat Island (1995)
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
Driven (2001)

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