Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker

There are two types of films.

There are films that are made as pieces of expression-films
that are made because people need to tell certain stories and need
to get things out of them. Then there are films that are made because
a group of executives around a conference table decide that they
need to slot in Movie X during Release Pattern Y to fulfill Demographic
Z.

You can live for a long time on sensation.

What makes me sort of sad is that the studios and
advertisers know very well how to appeal to people and, sadly, I
think our culture likes sensation. We substitute sensation for true
feeling, just like we substitute pleasure for true joy. And you
can live for a long time on sensation.

Subverting genres.

The way to subvert a genre is not to condescend to
the genre, it’s to embrace it and work within it.

The future looks bright.

The good news to me is that people are ravenous for
films that are unusual and interesting.

The politics of screen credits.

There are many credits of mine that I didn’t really
have anything to do with, like Charlie’s Angels. I have a
credit on that. I wrote a draft with my friend Ryan Rowe that I
loved, but they didn’t use anything except the opening scene. There
were 18 other writers or something like that, so I’m credited but
it’s not me. It’s silly.

The politics of directing.

The editor of Levity, Pietro Scalia, said to
me “It’s not over ’til it’s over and then it’s over.” [A film] just
keeps telling you what it is; it keeps evolving. And if you keep
listening to it, I think you’ll ultimately end up finishing-usually
because they take it away from you!