No matter what they achieve in their career, every director was once a runner, a film student or a production assistant\u2026 So they are often keen on giving advice to young filmmakers. Here are our top picks:<\/p>\n
Wes Anderson \u2013 Always start with your characters<\/strong> \u201cFor me a movie, the project usually begins almost always with a character or a group of characters. Usually there\u2019s a sort of world\u2026 that\u2019s tied in. But, for instance, the last film that I did,\u00a0The Grand Budapest Hotel, there was a person we were modelling this role, this character who Ralph Fiennes plays in the film. There\u2019s a real inspiration for him, and he was someone my co-writer Hugo Guinness [and I] were close to. In that case, if we put a style to it, it could be a literary style because of the way he talks. We wanted to write the way he talks to create a character in that way. But in that case it\u2019s really the character that comes first.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n David Fincher \u2013 Take responsibility<\/strong> \u201cThere\u2019s nothing worse than hearing somebody say, \u2018Oh, you made that movie? I thought that movie sucked,\u2019 and you have to agree with them. You are going to have to take all of the responsibility, because basically when it gets right down to it, you are going to get all of the blame, so you might as well have made all of the decisions that led to people either liking it or disliking it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Sofia Coppola \u2013 Understand your actors\u2019 vulnerability<\/strong> \u201cHaving been in front of a camera, knowing how vulnerable that can be, I am sensitive to that vulnerability in my actors. I feel like there has to be a connection, you have to find the same things funny. That way, you\u2019re on the same channel and you\u2019ll be able to communicate more effectively.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Christopher Nolan \u2013 Be prepared to do it yourself<\/strong> \u201cWhile it\u2019s wonderful to have a great community of filmmakers around you, you have to be prepared to do everything yourself. That\u2019s something that never goes away. You have to be prepared to carry the flag for the film because if you\u2019re not, nobody else is going to bother. The tricky thing is, it can seem like arrogance because it\u2019s the film you made, but there\u2019s no way around it. You just have to do it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Guillermo del Toro \u2013 Capitalize on strengths and weaknesses alike<\/strong> \u201cUse both your strengths and weaknesses to your advantage. It\u2019s important to know what you\u2019re good at\u2014and what you like doing. Almost no one is good at everything, but we are not just the good parts of what we do; we are also the bad parts. Your style emerges out of the things you don\u2019t do well\u2026 \u00a0[Kubrick\u2019s] first feature, \u2018Fear and Desire,\u2019 is incredibly stiff and creaky, but it is exactly his style. What later became parsimonious and controlled\u2014the essence of Kubrick\u2014started out as a defect.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n David Lynch \u2013 Forget the money, focus on the idea<\/strong> \u201cDon\u2019t think about the money or what\u2019s going to happen after the film is finished. The first thing you need is an idea, an idea that you fall in love with. The idea tells you the mood you choose for the characters, how the characters talk. It tells you the story, it shows you all the details, and so all you have to do is stay true to that idea as you shoot your film.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n “Even with a little amount of money it is possible to figure out a way to do things. So you stay true to the idea, and you don\u2019t let anyone interfere with it. And all rules include final cut and total creative freedom. If you don\u2019t have the final say or the creative freedom what\u2019s the point of doing anything?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No matter what they achieve in their career, every director was once a runner, a film student or a production assistant\u2026 So they are often keen on giving advice to young filmmakers. Here are our top picks: Wes Anderson \u2013 Always start with your characters During the 10th Rome Film Fest in 2015, the director […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[584,47,547],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tips-and-tricks","tag-directing","tag-director","tag-top-tips"],"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/www.productionbase.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/TOTI-Podcast-Artwork.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":[],"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/www.productionbase.co.uk\/blog\/feed\/podcast\/turn-on-tune-in-2","embedCode":"
\nDuring the 10th Rome Film Fest in 2015, the director from Houston, Texas, met the audience and, in a Q&A session, he shared several directorial tips like this one:<\/p>\n
\nMany different directors agree about this point, in the words of Fight Club director David Fincher:<\/p>\n
\nAcademy Award winner Sofia Coppola reminds us that one of the main tasks of the director is to create a bond between the actors and the script, to make them feel comfortable in it in order to deliver the best result:<\/p>\n
\nIt is essential to collaborate with the crew and your assistants, but the director must act as a leader and example, being the first person associated with the film. As Nolan said:<\/p>\n
\nWith 13 nominations at this year\u2019s Academy Awards for \u201cThe Shape of Water\u201d, the Mexican director seems to have made the most of his own advice:<\/p>\n
\nHaving started shooting films as kid with a camera, Lynch, who The Guardian once called \u201cthe most important director of this era\u201d, urged young filmmakers to focus on the idea behind their films, rather than budgets or returns on investment:<\/p>\n6 Pieces Of Advice From Award Winning Directors<\/a><\/blockquote>