00:00And I noticed that Hitchcock made a gesture with his hand and an assistant director came running
00:04over and Hitchcock went like this and whispered something to the AD and the AD turned and looked
00:10right at me. Oh my god. And walked right over and said uh you have to leave. Oh my god.
00:18And we were
00:18thrown off the set. Wow. So we are all about to bombard Mr. Steven Spielberg with a series of
00:31incredibly highbrow and lowbrow questions. Well if I was ever an authority figure that's over.
00:44When you're working with an actor like Josh and you're not getting a performance you like
00:54when you're working with an actor not Josh or Coleman or me and you're not getting a performance
01:00you like what's your tactic? I've learned a lot from my predecessors from all the movie giants
01:06director giants I've learned so much from and I know that Alfred Hitchcock and William Wyler had a
01:12technique and something I don't do as you know but that's 20, 30, 40, 50 takes. Not how you roll.
01:18I don't roll that way but but in but there are directors from the past like Wyler and Hitchcock
01:24that did that did dozens and dozens of takes because what they were doing is they were waiting
01:29for the actors to get so bored with the way they were doing it they would to relieve the monotony
01:35the actor would change up to try to please Hitch or to try to please Willie. For me it's really
01:42not about discussion because if you start you can't be a director therapist yeah that's not you know I
01:48don't do it that way but there is something about asking enough questions so the actor that isn't quite
01:56getting when I'm I'm trying to lead the witness you know and if the actor isn't quite getting it just
02:01by
02:01asking questions it's about to Josh Josh is going to have Josh will have the epiphany I'm only using you
02:13as an example because you're wearing one of my favorite science fiction movie shirts uh the day
02:18of the earth still that Josh is going to have his own private epiphany and say okay let me do
02:23it right
02:24now something actually I really noticed with you is that and it I in my limited experiences the best
02:30thing a director does is make you feel as though you have discovered something I know really Stephen
02:37discovered it months before and he's just gifting me that discovery but it's actually really important
02:42if you have that ownership over yeah discovery yeah you're more likely to commit to it yeah I think
02:48that's true well I'm gonna I'm gonna go off script great my question is is uh alien related if they
02:57have visited us which we all believe that they have many times why wouldn't we share that with the world
03:03why haven't we heard about this before yeah all I can tell you is that I think that there is
03:10a lot of
03:12profit in keeping this a secret because we don't know how any off-world civilization can get here
03:22because the universe is so vast you know there's a lot of reasons because there's such exotic technology
03:28we even have a piece of exotic technology in our movie called the device and because there has been
03:34reportedly so much exotic technology recovered the reverse engineering of that technology is going to be
03:41for profit and for power contract companies that can keep a secret more than that than elected
03:48officials can uh uh they're not really going to want a disclosure day to actually happen would there
03:54be a shared knowledge between let's just say like oh yeah our government knows something would
03:59it be shared between other governments around the world as well or do you think people just hold on
04:03to it well yeah because the superpowers are not going to share with the other no share where it's here
04:08yeah you know it's very very hard to see keep a secret yeah inside government but but tech industries
04:14you don't hear who knew that the iphone was being invented by steve jobs that never got out i mean
04:20there's all so many tech companies are completely airtight locked down
04:27if you could sit down for dinner with any filmmaker from the past who would it be oh that's a
04:32great
04:33question oh my god dead or alive let's say dead yeah yeah let's kill them there's more dead directors
04:40i'd like to sit down with yeah you also are friends with all the alive i'm friends with all the
04:46alive
04:46people and i respect all of them because they all do different things and often they all do different
04:51things that i cannot do but you are so celebratory of other fellow directors work i never hear you
04:58trashing no movies or someone's effort you know oh no no no it's too hard to make a movie exactly
05:04once you've been there you know how hard it is i have to say i think it would be alfred
05:07hitchcock
05:07really yeah i think it would be hitchcock i tried to meet hitchcock several times he wouldn't meet me
05:12and then after jaws came out i thought i had a little more chance to meet hitchcock because it became
05:16a big hit that summer and he was shooting i'm not sure what the movie was it might have been
05:20family
05:20plot but he was shooting a movie right around the time in 1975 when jaws came out
05:25and i had a reporter from washington post doing a profile on me and he was hanging out with me
05:29so i said let's go see if we can both meet alfred hitchcock and i walked on to the hitchcock
05:33stage
05:34and there was hitchcock with his back to me in a director's chair and the cameras were on both
05:39sides and one camera and all the lights and they were shooting something in this direction and there
05:43was no way for him to know i was there and i noticed that hitchcock made a gesture with his
05:48hand
05:48and an assistant director came running over and hitchcock went like this and whispered something to the ad
05:54and the ad turned and looked right at me oh my god and walked right over and said uh you
06:01have to
06:01leave oh whoa my god and whether hitchcock maybe there was a mirror in the set maybe he saw a
06:08reflection
06:09but we were thrown off the set what yeah so i never still want to have dinner with yes i
06:15know why no not
06:16about that he's a genius i want to ask him i had nothing but questions for him wow yeah i
06:21have a nerdy
06:22question did he inspire that iconic shot in jaws when brody's on the beach and the little boy is
06:29eaten in the yellow lilo like can you tell me about that shot where it goes like that i think
06:34about that
06:35i get so much credit for that shot it's called the zoom dolly yeah you have a very long focal
06:40length
06:40lens a zoom lens and then as you quickly dolly the camera in on dolly track you have to pull
06:47you have to
06:47zoom out as you're dollying it's called called the zoom dolly and that came directly from vertigo wow
06:55so don't give me credit for it it's alfred hitchcock did that this is why he needs to have dinner
06:59with
07:03what's a movie that you've seen that you're jealous you didn't make i wouldn't say jealous i've never used
07:09the word jealous i would i would basically say that i were i regret i didn't have the opportunity
07:15to make in my time and i did have the opportunity to make it i wasn't less than jealous of
07:21it at all
07:21i thought it was a great film but i developed it as the director and i had to step off
07:26to do a favor
07:27for a friend it was a movie called rain man wow that i was in pre-production on with tom
07:33cruise
07:33and with dustin hoffman and i had worked on the script and i worked on it while i was making
07:39empire of the sun in spain and in china and i came back and then something in my personal life
07:44happened
07:45and i couldn't make it and i had to walk away which broke my heart oh man and of course
07:49it came out
07:50was a big hit and won all the oscars yeah i have oh i i don't have a question but
07:57i have a prop okay it's
07:59not a problem it's something that raul and i found in joshua tree and we wanted to gift you
08:03this to start a press tour oh my god beautiful come on in vivo it's in vivo isn't it in
08:10vivo i
08:11really thought that's in vivo 17. we literally were just wandering around joshua tree stumbled into
08:17this place and pioneer town you found this in joshua tree yeah exactly how did it get from area 51
08:23to
08:23how did this teleport and if you push the eyes you transport to another right don't touch the
08:30yeah then here's my question my follow-up what do you think is the most overlooked but important
08:35role on a film set i basically think the most overlooked role on a film set is the camera
08:41operator i was just oh wow yeah yeah why is that because in the old days before there was video
08:47assist or we had video village and everybody could walk under a into a tent and watch all the cameras
08:54on
08:54all the monitors before all of that the the most important person on every movie set from the time
08:59movies started getting made was the camera operator the camera operator had the final say about whether
09:06the director who's happy with the performances can say print let's move on or has to do it again
09:12everybody turned to the operator every eye turned to the camera to know we've got it yeah it's a little
09:17less that way now because we all can look at the monitors and i can see directly whether i want
09:22to make a
09:23change or not by watching the monitor but it still is an essentially important job especially
09:27if you're working with a steadicam operator or if you're working with a handheld operator it needs
09:32to be celebrated by the industry even more than it than it has been absolutely and they realize what
09:39you've been fever dreaming about these shots that you dream up and that's right what you want to
09:44convey emotionally with the camera is so essential and i think when you have an operator who is just
09:49at one with you yes and how you see it it's just extraordinary and then you never got a chance
09:55to
09:55meet him because he didn't do disclosure day but mitch dubin had done 16 of my movies in a row
10:00mitch camera operator and he's brilliant and mitch did all the handheld camera work on saving private
10:06oh my god and that in itself confirms the importance of a camera operator
10:14they're all smiling look at these cam operators
10:19for someone who's just getting into cinema what steven spielberg movie would you recommend that
10:24they watch now when you say getting into cinema do we mean into the profession or into into directing
10:30directing oh yeah i i would actually uh look at my television shows yeah yeah because i was just
10:37learning and i make it i made a lot of mistakes and there's some really pockets of really good stuff
10:42and there's a lot of junk all around it and i think it's important that people know my movies they
10:47go back and they watch some of the early you know episodic shows i made just to see the learning
10:53curve
10:53just to see how you stumble you fall you get up you do something that that people like and then
10:59you start stumbling and falling again yeah i think you're first breaking into the business you need to
11:04know that failing is the only way you learn yeah it's the only way you really are able to uh
11:09advance
11:10your knowledge about about how to make a movie you've been making movies through decades of technological
11:17advancement in the craft what new tools have most impressed you and what old techniques are still
11:23crucial i think that in terms of new techniques i think i'm really really impressed with
11:31the drone camera replacing the crane the drone not being used as a drone not being used to impress
11:40the audience but if you fold it into the shot so you you're not trying to impress anybody you're
11:48trying to tell the story and get the camera in places that before that technology was available
11:54you could never get the camera that that interests me and the old technique that never gets old
12:01and you all love this is the power of the close-up yeah and there's nothing more powerful than that
12:08yeah that's been around since the very first movie it was ever made
12:14yeah are you all happy with disclosure day yes that's an easy one yes elated sky high happy yeah
12:22what's something you felt unique about working with this cast well the unique okay
12:30as a director i also get to be a fan in a sense
12:34i cast this movie because i'm also fans of the people i cast in my movie but by the way
12:38if you watch this entire interview whatever you use of it you will see what was unique about working
12:43with this and you will see how even in some of our more serious moments a lot of serious drama
12:48and
12:49disclosure day you will see how behind the scenes we got along so famously and how much we adored
12:55each other just basically cutting the rug yeah i think there's a lot of cutting up of the rug on
13:02this
13:02it feels rare on a film that has a lot of comedy in disclosure day not we call comedy but
13:07just
13:07life humor real real when you're when you're scared and and and there's crisis and this crisis
13:12happens and and you're not reaching for the joke but things happen to just happen to be funny when
13:17josh lost it emily would lose it and then when you would lose it it's got to be levity you
13:24know and i
13:24had to wonder sometimes when i see a great movie like silence of the lambs wondering were there a lot
13:31of
13:31laughs behind the scenes uh with tony hopkins i mean i wonder if the first time
13:37he went she laughed well he did that to me oh was it chilling no i i sent him a
13:43script called
13:44amistad i wanted him to play the former president john quincy adams he was shooting a movie in mexico
13:49so i could only reach him by phone and he had read the script and had committed on the phone
13:55to play
13:55the part and just before we hung up i had the chutzpah to say can you do a little bit
14:00of hannibal
14:00lecture for me and he did the entire fava bean speech for me on the telephone from mexico that's a
14:09life
14:09moment
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