A $40,000 feature, which was rejected from Sundance, launched David Gordon Green‘s career. Green wrote and directed his first picture, George Washington, at the age of 24, and since then, he’s made a total of 11 films. That doesn’t include the commercials or TV episodes he’s worked on, though. This is the guy who directed the Super Bowl Chrysler commercial starring Clint Eastwood and Your Highness. He’s carved out a diverse, singular career for himself.
Themes and ideas tie his body of work together. Even his comedies, like Pineapple Express and Eastbound and Down, share similarities with All the Real Girls and Prince Avalanche. They’re all about characters wanting more in life. As for Green, based on interviews, he appears quite content with his life and career.
The director’s latest, Our Brand Is Crisis, is a political satire starring Sandra Bullock, Billy Bob Thornton, and Anthony Mackie. Green took a break from making overtly commercial movies after The Sitter, but his newest film is aimed at a wider audience. Once again, though, he’s pushing himself and making a different kind of movie.
There’s not many directors like David Gordon Green working today, which is probably why any aspiring storyteller should take his advice.
Don’t Wait for Grandma to Die
“The smartest thing was putting my own money down. I worked really hard and had a lot of jobs and then spent it all on my first movie. For me, that’s the thing. There are a lot of people who are just waiting for grandma to die to give them an inheritance, or for some rich friend to give them money to bankroll their first film. But for me the big risk that I first took was that I worked for like a year and a half to make as much money as possible then I’m going to spend it all to make a movie. So I wasn’t asking anybody for anything. I could just be in charge of every dime and be real smart about where I’m spending money, and very aware of it, so that’s something that I’ve always recommended to people whenever they ask, ‘How do you find money to make a movie?’ I say you go and you get a job and you make a movie.”
A lot of directors advise against this. It’s a risky proposition, but filmmaking is a business for risk takers. If no one else is going to give you the money to make your movie, then make it yourself. Plus, things are a little different now than when Green started out. George Washington cost $40,000, but you can now make micro-budget movies for less than a quarter of that.
Bring Sunblock, Because You’re Going to Go Through Hell
“I really just like to torture actors. It’s more of a masochistic…you know, I like them to get crazy on me. I like the challenges of working with performers and coming up with new and inventive ways that we can spar. The idea of directing movie is great, and seeing big movies on the screen, that’s great, but I really love the production process of turning on cameras with a group of actors that you’ve assembled and challenging each other. It comes across as characters going through hell, but that’s literally because I’m putting them through hell, and I’m going through hell, and we’re on this hellishly fun roller coast.”
On Eastbound and Down, Green told an actor to hit Danny McBride during a scene, without warning or notice. The lesson here: find collaborators that will let you abuse them. Robert De Niro once said he doesn’t need a director to act like a prick to help him play a prick, but sometimes turning up the heat on your actors or throwing a curveball at them will lead to something unexpected.
Try New “Shit”
“I’m not a guy who does a lot of coverage and makes them do the scene over and over from 12 different angles. I just don’t like doing the same shit a lot of the time. I have a short attention span, so I get bored. I like to come up with a way that efficiently covers a scene and is open to improvisation. I want to have an exit strategy if we need to edit our way out of a scene, but other than that, I don’t get a lot of gravy shots. I think there’s a momentum and freshness they respond to. I’m never looking for the cool shot, but the great performance. I prioritize it like that, maybe even to my downfall. I don’t feel like I’ve made too many casting errors in my life, whether it’s non-actors or working with someone like Sam Rockwell.”
Obviously on indies the clock is ticking, but if you have time to spare, why not use it discover something not on the page?
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