Making It Real
I recently directed a series of trailers for the LA Film Festival in which I interviewed people about their love of film. First and foremost, the trailers had to capture the infectious passion people express when they talk about something they love. It was a unique challenge, since I had only 10 hours to interview 28 people, which averaged to about 10-15 minutes per person. Here are a few things that helped:
Pre-interviews: I had a great casting director, Alex Christopoulos, who wrangled the 300+ submissions that came from our call for real people. From that group, he gave me about 100 people, all of whom submitted their stories by e-mail. I called about 40 of those people and spoke to them on the phone for 15 minutes or so, to see how they were when a stranger started asking them about their life. You could tell within minutes if the person would feel comfortable on-camera. It also meant they got to know me a little and gave me the chance to take notes on the topics that lit them up. This was 15 minutes per person I didn’t need to burn on set.
Listening: This is a buzzword that’s thrown around a lot in acting, but the same goes for directing. From the moment someone stepped onto the set, I put my full attention on them. During the interview, I tried to make it as much like a casual conversation as possible, standing by the camera (not in video village), making eye contact, and responding spontaneously to what they were saying. Unlike other shoots, I didn’t worry if my voice overlapped their words, because I felt like me being present in the conversation was more important.
Body Language: If someone is withholding how they really feel, you can see it in their body. Often, people who would come in nervous had their hands in their pockets or their arms crossed. A great technique to invite people to open up is to give them a simple physical direction like, “Put your arms to your side”, or “Don’t be afraid to talk with your hands.” For example, one of the most gregarious interviewees (who spoke about “Leprechaun: Back To The Hood”) started with her arms crossed, giving one words answers. These simple directions helped her drop the self-consciousness and let it rip, giving me some of the most honest and hilarious bits of of the day.
Cutting for feeling: In the editing room, I had 6 hours of footage and only a week to deliver four trailers. I needed an approach that would lead me to the most honest and emotional bits of interviews quickly. I find I get obsessive with editing choices, so this time around I wanted to be freer, editing more from the gut. After doing my first round of selects (about 2 hours of footage) I turned the sound off and would watch the faces. It was a great way to forget about what people were saying and focus on what they were feeling. And if I ever felt indecisive about which of two similar clips I should include, I turned off the sound and chose by how the faces made me feel.
