Moving Images, Understanding Media

Chapter 8 The Production Process 327

combination of these contributions that creates what it becomes.

Th ere’s a bunch of guys that I work with, and we all work on each

other’s fi lms in diff erent aspects. What’s great is you learn from each

other, and we have a good shorthand with each other that makes it easier.

Th ey have a good way of challenging you and asking why you want to

do something a certain way. It helps you to be the best that you can be

and next time you want to do something even better than that.

For fi lms I have made with my brother what will usually happen when

I read the script during the diff erent draft s is that I will be thinking

about it as a director. If I can see it when I’m reading it, then I know

how to make it. If I can’t see it, for a particular scene, then I fear there’s

something that’s not working for me in it so that’s how I talk about it

with the writers. I know it’s not right because I can’t visualize it. If I

can’t see it, there must be another way of doing it or it doesn’t need to

be there. I’d rather say it at that point than try to shoot it without any

idea on how to.

Q

What have been some of the greatest challenges you have faced?

A

Usually on any kind of shoot day you get challenges, where you’re trying

to get everything you need to shoot in that one day. Th e challenge all

the time is if you have a plan like “the way I want to cover this scene

is in fi ve shots,” you have to be ready for complications. Th ere was a

day we were shooting Th e Square in a small apartment, and we had

gotten really far behind. My plan was to get fi ve or six shots, and with

the amount of time I had left , I was forced to try and cover the scene

in one shot. I think sometimes the pressure can help, and because I

was forced to do it in a shorter space of time, I got something better

than anything I had come up with before.

Filmmaking is always ups and downs, but I fi nd that there’s always at

least one good thing that happens in a day, and it’s enough to keep you

going. Something good happened or something worked out how you

planned it. You try to savor that when other things don’t work out.

Visit the textbook website to read the entire interview with Nash

Edgerton.

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