Director Mark Romanek made his mark as a
music video director working with Lenny Kravitz, Nine Inch
Nails, Janet Jackson, Beck and Madonna, and he has an eye
for images. In his debut feature, One Hour Photo,
he's concerned with the surface of things. The film does for
photo processing guys what Alfred Hitchcock did for hotel
clerks in Psycho. Just how creepy and harmless is
Sy Parrish, the character at the center of the film? Is he
a villain or someone to pity? Romanek lets you make up your
own mind. Here, he discusses his debut film, putting the comedic
Williams in a deeply dramatic role, and his own obsessions.

I learned very, very early-I spotted it at the age of twenty-two-that writing and directing could become inextricably one creative process.

The characters in Mike Leigh's new picture,
All Or Nothing, are so fully realized, so three dimensional,
that at times you'll want to question whether you're watching
fiction film or documentary drama. For all its blunt realism,
All Or Nothing is ultimately a film about love, hope
and redemption. Starring Timothy Spall and Lesley Manville,
the picture features the sort of rich, honest performances
that fans have come to expect from a Mike Leigh project. On
a recent visit to LA, Mike Leigh told MM
about his unique approach to moviemaking and how it all came
together on All Or Nothing.

Not only do you have to eat, but you need to spend time with your subjects as fellow human beings and not just as filmmakers. There's no better time to do this than over a meal. Put your camera down occasionally and experience life with your subjects. How can you hope to understand your subject's life if you don't experience it a bit for yourself?

The Terry Gilliam School of Film may not be an education in conventional moviemaking, but it's certainly provided Louis Pepe and Keith Fulton with a world of experience.

Don't wait to start your documentary until "all the funding is in place."

Though Steve James' new documentary, Stevie, is being
touted as the "long awaited follow-up" to his 1994 film, Hoop
Dreams, the past nine years have not been idle ones. After
the triumphant success of Hoop Dreams, he went on to
direct three feature films—Passing Glory, Prefontaine
and Joe & Max. This spring he makes his return
to the documentary genre with the very personal Stevie,
which won the Best Documentary Cinematography award at
Sundance, and which will be released by Lions Gate on March
28th.

Films were marked by the personality of the filmmakers. Even when they were reinventing genres, the filmmakers didn't just churn out marketable product-the made great films which were also box office hits with the public. The movies were smart and the studios were making money.

Chat with any moviemaker long enough, and the subject of the
"New Hollywood" films of the 1970s is likely to
come up. It was this decade that helped forge the relationship
between moviemakers Richard LaGravenese and Ted Demme—and
was the impetus for their new collaboration, A Decade
Under the Influence.

Never be afraid of being fired. Stick to your guns if you know something is right. You'll usually be respected for it later.

After the screening of his new film last month, James Foley,
the director of such modern American classics as Glengarry
Glenn Ross and After Dark My Sweet talked about
his craft to a packed AFI audience.

One of the smartest things I did was I cold-called a bunch of young directors, and just said "you don't know me but I'm about to direct a movie.

Years before Jayson Blair led the axe to fall on the staff-and
reputation-of the New York Times, another young, hotshot
journalist was turning fiction into fact at the offices of
The New Republic. Billy
Ray's Shattered Glass examines the world of writer
Stephen Glass-and the precarious relationship between human
nature and an unbiased media.

If things go wrong, you have to believe in your film. When we came back to Los Angeles, after shooting in North Carolina, we still needed to raise lots more money to finish the film. What kept me going was the belief that the film was something that I had to finish.

For years, Eli Roth, the 31-year old writer-director of Cabin
Fever, wondered
if the horror genre had a place in the world of independent cinema-or any cinema,
for that matter. It took six years for Roth to raise the financing for Cabin
Fever, a film he shot in the grainy backwoods of North Carolina in 2001 for "way
less than a million dollars." Eventually it sold to Lions Gate for a staggering
$3.5 million-along with the promise of a wide theatrical release and an additional
$15 million in advertising and promotion.

I try to remember that even if finally a film is authored by one person--and I believe it is--the conundrum is that it's achieved by many, many hundreds of people. It's as if they're all holding onto your pen as you're writing. And if they don't hang on--if they don't support the pen--you can't make your piece of work. So I've never allowed myself the delusion that I was doing it by myself. I am extremely grateful to the crew, and I let them know I am.

Anthony Minghella is part of that rare breed of
auteur who favors quality over quantity, releasing very
few films--but gaining high critical praise for each
effort. Making his feature debut with Truly Madly
Deeply in 1991, Minghella's subsequent projects have
totaled only two: The English Patient in 1996,
for which he won an Oscar, and The Talented Mr. Ripley in
1999 (for which he was also nominated). This Oscar season
is sure to bring Minghella's name back to the minds of
voters, as the long-awaited big screen adaptation of
Charles Frazier's novel, Cold Mountain, is set
for theaters this December, and features an all-star
cast that includes Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Renée Zellweger,
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Donald Sutherland,
Giovanni Ribisi.

King of the Ants, the latest cringefest from director
Stuart Gordon, who gave us the classic Re-Animator
(1985), is another gruesome foray into the dark side of human
nature. His coupling of a brutal revenge story (by acclaimed
British author Charlie Higson) with a minimal budget (Gordon's
wife provided catering for cast and crew) has resulted in
a streamlined, neo-noir thriller with macabre overtones. This
movie is sure to be a Halloween night favorite. In this interview,
the influential talent recaps his horror career, from pre-Re-Animator
days staging David Mamet plays with Chicago's Organic Theatre
to his present success.

When you do a movie for a studio, it's gonna be somewhat homogenized. But a smaller movie like the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre just came out of nowhere and horrified everybody. The fact that it was shot in 16 millimeter made it seem even more real. I would put Audition and 28 Days Later in the same category-they're not studio films. The small movies, where the director is capable of anything and not held back by studio pressures, are the most frightening.

I storyboard extensively; it helps me to learn my film. Sometimes the boards don't work on the set and that's fine, but it's something to start with-a blueprint that can be deviated from, if necessary.

There's no underestimating the power of the detail of real locations, whether you build it or go there. The amount of subtle information that people can absorb, from anything from the quality of light to the detail in the background, has an incredibly powerful impact on performance and on the audience.

Writer-director Patty Jenkins has hit the ground running with her first feature, the widely acclaimed, Monster, a riveting and dark love story detailing serial killer Aileen Wuornos' tragic descent into obsession and murder. Jenkins, who initially studied painting at the Cooper Union in New York City, fell in love with movies while attending an experimental film course between painting classes. After graduation, she went to Los Angeles and soon earned a union card as a first assistant camera operator.

If you want something fast, ask for it on an apple box. You can get an apple box faster than anything else on a set, maybe faster than anything anywhere in the world.

We first noticed David Duchovny's sardonic tone, quick wit and immense talent back in 1993 with a then little-known sci-fi show called The X Files. Now, Duchovny puts his extensive resume to work with House of D, his debut film as a writer-director.

When you're doing something for the first time, go in with a real concrete plan and take the time before you jump in there and start filming to map out what it is you want to do and why. So that whenever anyone asks you-whether it's an actor or a producer or a cameraman-'why are we putting the camera here' or something else, you always have an answer.

Finding success as a first-time writer-director is hard—unless you have Kevin Spacey in your camp. With only two indie features under his belt (and both of them incomplete), writer-director Matthew Ryan Hoge was able to persuade Spacey and his Trigger Street production company of his talent and desire to step behind the camera on the very personal The United States of Leland.

Nothing matters but the characters and the acting. As a production designer, I would put so much effort into making the set perfect and then I would watch some movies I had done and realize none of it mattered. There are a lot of films with great sets, but we don't care to watch them if the story and the characters aren't compelling.

You're told in film school that in order to direct an actor properly, more important than directing is the ability to write a scene in which the actor will feel comfortable, with dialogue which makes sense. Then put this actor in the right set, with the right clothes, with the right partner--and pick the right actors. (laughs) If all those elements have been carefully prepared, you have nothing to do but enjoy.

After a three-year absence, French moviemaker Jean-Jacques Annaud is back--returning to theaters this summer with Two Brothers, a sort of spiritual companion to his acclaimed international hit, The Bear. Always ready to go where no moviemaker has gone before, Annaud speaks with us about his latest project, the HD technology and why he finds beauty in the most unlikely places.

Catherine Hardwicke’s first film, Thirteen, won her the 2003 directing award at Sundance. But her “overnight success” was actually 15 years in the making. Now she’s back with the Lords of Dogtown, another film about troubled teens set in and around Venice, California with a bigger budget to handle—and a reputation to live up to.

Don't let anyone else steer the direction of your film, your vision and your creativity. Let your own voice do the talking.

McDonald’s is by now surely tired of hearing the name Morgan Spurlock. But moviegoers everywhere are eating up his new documentary, Super Size Me, in which Spurlock commits to a diet of three square Mickey D meals a day—for 30 days. Here, Spurlock offers up his dieting tips and talks about how one person can make a difference.

Break down the ego and create from truth. You need to tear yourself down and create from a clean place where nothing is certain and vision can grow. When you let your ego interfere your only hindering your art and limiting yourself in your abilities.

Five years ago, a little film called Monster’s Ball snuck into theaters and changed the landscape of contemporary independent film, propelling its director, Marc Forster, straight onto the Hollywood A-List. As he prepares for Stranger than Fiction and The Kite Runner and the DVD release of his latest film, Stay, Forster speaks with MM about his indie breakthrough.

If you've got good, unique stories to tell, and you stick to your guns and keep telling them with whatever resources you've got and just don't go away, eventually people will start listening.