Moviemaker – Winter 2019

MOVIEMAKER.COM WINTER 2019 33

HOW THEY DID IT

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OCTOBER 24-28, 2019 • WASHINGTON, DC

PHOTOGRAPH BY TERESA ISASI / COURTESY OF FOCUS FEATURES

by using those small sources to

accent some important details,

cutting through rainy weather and

almost total darkness.

In other scenes, José lit

Everybody Knows to convey an

atmosphere that’s almost Christ-

like, to signify characters’ arc of

redemption. At the end of the

film, as Laura’s former lover Paco

(Javier Bardem) lays on a bed after

selling off his lands to raise Irene’s

ransom, he’s cast in bright lighting

that suggests he, and the village in

which he lives, is now at peace.

MINIMAL TAKES = MAXIMUM

EFFECT

Actors tend to give what you

need after just a few takes. We

didn’t shoot many takes for any

scene in Everybody Knows, except

if there was an accident on set,

or when we were working with

children. When our lead actors

had to perform scenes that were

emotionally charged, I would limit

them to two takes, with three or

four being the usual maximum,

and never exceed seven.

As a director, your criteria

for knowing when you have the

right take should be whether

you’re touched by your actors’

expressions, and their sensitivity

to the moment. Having your

actors endlessly repeat the scene

may help them reach some of the

DP’s technical requirements, but

it could also make them lose the

feeling of the scene.

Multiple scenes in

Everybody Knows involve

several characters interacting at

once. Keeping these moments

organic required that we work

from a precise and comprehensive

script, in which every beat was

choreographed for the actors.

That didn’t mean, however, that

the actors were constrained or

without creative freedom. Before

we rolled camera, I encouraged

them to offer comments on the

material, so we could reach an

understanding in advance. Your

job when working with actors is to

move in the same direction as they

do leading up to each take.

WATCHING YOUR LANGUAGE

To direct actors who don’t

share your native language, you

have to rely on the mutual trust

you build with your translation

team. Sometimes, when you

attempt to speak another person’s

language, you may spend too

much time introducing an idea,

which can be misleading for

an actor who’s waiting to take

direction. So, instead, whenever

I wanted to convey an idea to a

Spanish-speaking actor, I would

do so through gestures and body

language. Eventually, the language

barrier became not so much an

obstacle as a positive challenge—

an asset that pushed me to

find new ways to coax strong

performances from my cast.

WORDS TO LIVE BY

The trust between my team and

me isn’t just about translating:

I also go to live in the country

where I’ll be telling my story, so

that when my translator does the

adaptation, she’s in tune with my

sensibility, and knows what my

expectations for the script will

be. That’s what allows us to reach

a version that is ready to give to

the actors. Sometimes, when our

actors changed words in their

lines, I would immediately catch

it, and they were surprised... they

thought maybe I had hidden from

them that I spoke Spanish! But

really, the year I had spent living

in Spain was all I needed to stay

on top of those problems.

If you’re an outsider working in

a new country, your task is to tap

into subject matter that’s both

emotionally and culturally close

to your background and resonant

with the audiences native to that

country. Go out and live in the

world you wish to depict. Capture

the specificity, music, and tone

of its language. Only then can

you write and direct a story that

transcends borders. MM

Everybody Knows opens in

theaters February 8, 2019,

courtesy of Focus Features.