Empire UK

in a car scouting the fi lm with the productio
During the shoot I like when it’s late and nig
of the crew is asleep and you’re with just a c
and a tiny crew cooped up in a room somew
I love the entire editing process. I call the cu
“The Promised Land”.
Joe Wright: The moment of inspirationes
everyone you’re working with has the same i
same moment. It’s as close to the “loss of sel
a musician feels when they’re totally tuned i
Marshall: It sounds clichéd — but the magi
it all comes together. You know it the crew k
everyone knows it. Heaven.
Coppola: Being with your friends making s
together (after writing alone) and getting thi
how you want unlike life...
Edgar Wright: I think visual storytelling is
certainly one that studios don’t trust anymo
genius of cinema is being able to tell stories
words. If I could pick a scene to illustrate th
be the cemetery climax to The Good The Ba
The Ugly. Filmmaking at its purest!
Bier: Can’t pick between shooting and editi
They’re each exciting in their own way. Alth
I guess editing — real editing once you’ve
fi nished your assembly — comes with the
relief that you’ve fi nished shooting.
Cuarón: Except for the fi nance part and
promotion the whole process. And the bit
in-between the fi lms.
Soderbergh: Editing.
Nolan: It’s all good.
Whedon: All of it. Absolutely all of it.
Greengrass: All of it. It’s all a rapture.... Of u
Of infi nite possibility... Of becoming. I also h
too. Almost... But not quite equally.
Fincher: Oh man... I suppose when you can
a moment whilst watching the fi nal product
lose yourself (even for one-tenth of a second
you know is fake you scouted it you storybo
rehearsed it you saw every take and yet — f
— it feels like: it just happened.

WHAT’S THE MOST USEFU
ADVICE YOU RECEIVED FR
A FELLOW DIRECTOR?
Coppola: My dad told me “Your movie’snev
as the dailies and never as bad as the rough c
Joe Wright: “Take whatever experience you can doing
whatever you can so that when the big opportunity presents
itself to you you’re as prepared as you can be.” Sidney Lumet
said that but not to me I read it in his book. Directors don’t
often get to talk to other directors.
Lee: I dare not say in public.
Nolan: “Open the kimono” — Soderbergh telling me not
to hide my process from the studio.
Soderbergh: “Write everything down.”
Clooney: “Only shoot what you’ll need.”
Whedon: James Cameron told me “You can hire the 50 best
people in the business people you love and trust and respect.
You all look at the monitor — you’re gonna be the only one who
sees what’s wrong.”
Marshall: It was actually the opposite of what a director once
said to me. He said “Remember everyone is here to serve you.”
And as he walked away I thought to myself “It’s exactly the

‘I’m here to serve everyone.’”

: I’ve been blessed with a lot of advice from other

s. Among the many: “Manage your energy”; “Story

cation”; “Fail on your own terms”; “One for me

for myself ”; “Don’t eat the red ones.”

e best advice I ever got was a result of the worst

ever got. When I was at fi lm school one of my

suggested it was a good idea for us directors to

e ourselves into the crew by say rolling up the cables

ing lights etc. So I did — and was fi nally and politely

my crew to “do what you do best and we’ll do the

ch was pretty embarrassing. And pretty good advice.

s: Before I made my fi rst fi lm having previously

in documentaries I went to see Roger Michell

rsity friend and by then a hugely experienced and

eatre and fi lm director. He gave me a wonderful

advice. He said “Never touch an actor.” By which

nt — don’t guide an actor. Don’t corral an actor.

decide in advance where they should go. On the

rary always listen to them. Always let them lead

. Always try to clarify their instincts. Because your
ors will always be your best guide to the truth.
hell: “If you think you might need a close-up...
close-up.”
ght: John Sayles has this great quote: “Never
n two takes of someone getting out of a car.” But
piring one I received personally was from the
ned (name drop) Steven Spielberg who I emailed
last week of shooting The World’s End and he
this sentence: “Good luck on your last week.
g.” I went in the next day with a spring in my
at.
ays speak to the actors singly and in a whisper.”
orsese once told me “The things you do poorly are
art of your style as the things you do well...” Which
true and oddly reassuring.

DN’T YOU JUST BECOME

OUNTANT?

: I could never have been an accountant. I got

h.

I’m not good enough with “people” to do that kind

ht: If I could have done anything other than become

probably would have but I couldn’t see any other

as all I could do and all I ever wanted to do.

am a storyteller. That is the very essence of my

I can’t count.

Marshall: Hilarious! Not in my DNA.

Soderbergh: Terrible at math.

Greengrass: 2 + 2 = 5 right?

Bier: Because I’ve never looked at a tax return without

immediately losing consciousness.

Coppola: It was inevitable I guess growing up on sets.

Nothing looks as fun.

Michell: Is it too late?

Cuarón: The positions were all taken.

Lee: Directing a movie is a lot easier for me.

Clooney: Because I’m lousy at math.

Nolan: There’s enough number crunching in moviemaking to

satisfy my accounting ambitions.

Edgar Wright: I am not even in spitting distance of being the

greatest fi lm director in the world but I can say with the utmost

certainty that I would be the worst accountant of all time.

Payne: Piss off.