{"id":726,"date":"2019-02-28T16:42:32","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T23:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/?p=726"},"modified":"2019-03-04T15:18:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T22:18:00","slug":"directors-close-up-a-directors-roundtable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/2019\/directors-close-up-a-directors-roundtable\/","title":{"rendered":"Director’s Close Up: Independent Spirit: A Director’s Roundtable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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At this year\u2019s perennial favorite, 2019 Spirit Award-nominated<\/strong> directors\ndiscuss their craft, their journeys as artists and the ways in which they have\nbeen able to balance their artistic integrity while making movies that resonate\nwith audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director’s Close Up Independent Spirit: A Director’s Roundtable 
By Gerry O., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, Age 16<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grand gem of Film Independent\u2019s Annual Director\u2019s Close\nUp event is \u201cThe Independent Spirit: A Director\u2019s Roundtable.<\/em>\u201d Hosted by\nFilm Independent President John Welsh, this year the panel featured premiere\ndirectors from the industry including Bo Burnham, Debra Granik, Barry Jenkins,\nTamara Jenkins, Boots Riley and Paul Schrader. The six highlight the modern\nworld of moviemaking and how it is transforming for the next generation of\ndirectors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The panel began by discussing the image and color of the\nfilm. All six directors mastered color and style in their films  into something unique for each of them. Paul Schrader\ndiscussed how technology has improved so much to allow for a colorful, crisp,\nmodern look of cinema with tablets and apps allowing cinematographers more\nopportunities in the light set up than ever before. Barry Jenkins shared just\nhow many options filmmakers have now with modern cameras. He discussed how in Moonlight\n<\/em>they reprogrammed the way the cameras processed color, in order to better\nreflect darker skin. Debra Granik discussed how modern cameras’ ability to read\ngreen color better allowed her to capture the forest beautifully in her film,\nLeave No Trace<\/em>. Schrader also shared a story from the making of Star War:s\nEpisode 1, <\/em>where Liam Neeson and George Lucas disagreed on how a role\nshould be played. When Neeson refused to do what Lucas wanted, Lucas simply\nchanged Neeson\u2019s face in post!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boots Riley and Paul Schrader both discussed their\nexperiences in taking inspiration from other films, with one example of Riley using\ninspiration from one of Shrader\u2019s films. This fact demonstrates an important\nkey aspect in cinema. It is collaborative, not competitive. Filmmakers can take\nfrom each other\u2019s ideas and build their own unique strategies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The panel also debated heavily on the concept of rehearsals before filming. Paul Schrader was adamant about the cruciality of rehearsals stating, \u201cIt is for the director, not the actor.\u201d Schrader discussed how it allows for the story to be rewritten, dialogue tested, interactions perfected and more. He believes that a director should not test things or figure things out on the day of shooting. Burnham disagreed. In his directorial debut, 8th Grade<\/em>, he only rehearsed the daughter and father and left the rest to be done fully and openly. This strategy, coined the \u201cBo Burnham approach,\u201d was supported by Barry Jenkins as well. While Jenkins did table reads that led to changes in the script, he, like Burnham, likes letting the actors explore the role in front of the camera. Tamara Jenkins had a different take on rehearsals. In her film Private Life<\/em>, Tamara\u2019s story revolves around a couple and, in order to get the actors to get along as a couple might, she simply made them do chores that a married couple would typically do, in order to get them to bond. In 8th Grade<\/em>, Burnham had the challenge of portraying kids realistically and he discussed how it often isn’t the child actor’s fault for an unrealistic representation, but simply poorly written dialogue. All panelists agreed that each actor has requirements and strategies unique to themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the most interesting parts of this panel was when\neach member delved into the philosophical side of their films and filmmaking as\na whole. Barry Jenkins described how literature and film differ. Literature\nforces the brain to imagine all the senses, while film only connects to the\nvisual and auditory. So, when trying to make powerful emotional scenes, Jenkins\nhad to carefully structure the elements of his scenes to evoke emotions. Burnham\ndiscussed the connection we have to the Internet and how it is developing as\nyears go by. He shared how he wished to capture our relationship we share with\nthe Internet behemoth in his film, 8th Grade,<\/em> as Bo felt that no film\nhad truly captured the Internet and how we interact with it. One of the most\npowerful things he discussed was the times we use the Internet in the late\nevening before going to sleep. We always have a choice. We can close our\neyelids, or we can open up our phone to the totality of human knowledge. \u201cIt is\ninfinity or oblivion,\u201d he explained. Panels like these show just how filmmaking\nhas changed and adapted to new technology and artistic styles. Film, like all\nother arts, goes through a constant transformation and these six panelists are\nonly one of the thousands of filmmakers all around the world finding new and\ninnovative ways to express themselves and tell stories. Paul Schrader said it\nbest, \u201ca script is not literature \u2013 it is an oral tradition.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At this year\u2019s perennial favorite, 2019 Spirit Award-nominated directors discuss their craft, their journeys as artists and the ways in which they have been able to balance their artistic integrity while making movies that resonate with audiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[28,26,30,27,25,31,29],"class_list":["post-726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jury-updates","tag-barry-jenkins","tag-bo-burnham","tag-boots-riley","tag-debra-granik","tag-john-welsch","tag-paul-schrader","tag-tamara-jenkins"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":732,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726\/revisions\/732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}