00:00 (screaming)
00:02 (dramatic music)
00:05 ♪ Dreamer, dreamer, dreamer ♪
00:14 (dramatic music)
00:17 ♪ Dreamer, dreamer, dreamer ♪
00:24 (dramatic music)
00:27 (dramatic music)
00:30 - Hey, Garrett.
00:41 We've talked many times before.
00:42 Thank you very much.
00:43 I mean, you know, all the way back from "Monsters."
00:45 I think it's "South By."
00:47 - Oh, wow. - If I remember correctly.
00:48 So, but see, you've always been key
00:51 at like making sure your stories
00:53 have the progression they need, you know?
00:56 And especially with the creator.
00:58 I mean, you've always said you're a fan of film endings,
01:00 you know, and having those things mean something.
01:03 Can you talk about the importance of that
01:05 in sort of the path of making something like the creator?
01:08 Is it about getting to that moment
01:11 or is it about finding the moments in between
01:13 as you're shooting?
01:14 - Yeah, it's a really difficult task, I think,
01:18 trying to figure out a story.
01:20 And I have lots of bad analogies,
01:25 but one of them is like
01:26 when they built the Channel Tunnel in the UK,
01:30 they had a choice.
01:31 They were like, you can either go from England
01:34 and build a tunnel and then go all the way to France,
01:37 or you can build it from France
01:38 and go all the way to England.
01:40 And obviously like, you know,
01:42 England wanted to win the contract and do it,
01:44 and France wanted to win the contract and do it.
01:46 So there was a bit of a disagreement
01:47 about how they were gonna build it.
01:48 And I feel it's like the same problem a filmmaker has,
01:50 which is, do I start from the beginning
01:53 and like make all these cool choices,
01:56 but it might randomly lead me to an ending
01:58 that has no point to it or doesn't quite work or something?
02:02 Or do I start and figure out what my ending is
02:05 and work backwards,
02:07 but then I might end up with a beginning
02:10 that isn't very gripping or like, you know,
02:12 you're off to the races in an exciting way.
02:15 And what they did on the Channel Tunnel
02:16 is they dug in both directions.
02:19 So, you know, England went, you know,
02:21 into the tunnel in their direction and France theirs,
02:23 and then they met in the middle.
02:25 And so I always sort of do that.
02:27 I have a beginning and I start from the beginning
02:29 and go forwards and I have an ending and I work backwards.
02:33 And the bit, you know,
02:36 the bit I struggle with in a movie
02:37 is how those, do those two connect in the middle, you know?
02:41 Like you can set some emotion where you go,
02:43 this is kind of working and it launches in a nice way.
02:46 And the end is kind of working.
02:48 And the sleight of hand is how do you deal
02:51 with that middle bit in a way that doesn't feel
02:54 like it's transitioning from a interesting setup
02:57 to a cool ending?
02:59 Like can those connect?
03:00 Can you make that work?
03:01 And that's what I struggle with.
03:03 That's what I spend the majority of writing time
03:07 or thought process on is that middle bit, you know.
03:10 - When the war started,
03:13 they protected me.
03:18 They took better care of me than humans would have.
03:20 - They're not people, Maya.
03:23 It's just programming.
03:26 - 10 years ago today,
03:30 the artificial intelligence created to protect us
03:33 detonated a nuclear warhead in Los Angeles.
03:36 This is a fight for our very existence.
03:41 - Sergeant Taylor, we are this close to winning the war.
03:47 - But the AI are developing a super weapon.
03:49 Retrieve it.
03:52 Or they win.
03:55 - Did you locate the weapon?
04:08 - Yeah, it's just a kid.
04:09 - Are you going to heaven?
04:12 - No.
04:13 You gotta be a good person.
04:15 - I'm not a good person to go to heaven.
04:18 - So we're the same.
04:20 We can't go to heaven 'cause you're not good.
04:23 And I'm not a person.
04:25 - Do you have any idea what the thing is?
04:29 - She looks like a little girl now, but she's growing.
04:33 Whoever has that kid wins the war.
04:35 - For me, it's all, yeah.
04:37 I've seen it.
04:38 There's always an empathy point
04:39 that really sort of has a trajectory.
04:42 In "Rogue One," it's when the girl's screaming in Jedha.
04:46 That really doesn't here.
04:47 It's when Alpha looks towards him
04:49 after the guy dies in the backseat.
04:51 It's sort of like, it clicks, like, okay, you're locked in.
04:54 Is that an edit thing?
04:55 Or is that a sort of, is that something else that happens
05:00 in terms of knowing when the audience might connect?
05:03 Or do you even think of that?
05:05 - I think you're trying to put connection moments,
05:08 like opportunities to connect as often as possible
05:11 throughout the whole movie.
05:13 And some work stronger than others.
05:16 For instance, that scene you just referenced,
05:20 that had a lot more dialogue in it.
05:24 Like, that was a much more conversational scene.
05:27 And I remember seeing,
05:29 actually, it was a day that John David came to visit us
05:32 at Fox where we were editing,
05:34 and I hadn't seen him since the shoot.
05:36 And before he arrived, we were playing with that scene,
05:40 and it just felt too much talking
05:43 for what is a potentially profound little moment
05:47 where she's witnessing someone die.
05:50 So we just did an experiment of like,
05:51 take all that, let's just take all the dialogue out,
05:53 and let's just keep it quiet.
05:55 And so we invented some silence,
05:57 and she just goes, and really,
06:00 the first thing she says really is off.
06:02 And it made it so strong.
06:06 There was like, why did we ever write the other stuff?
06:09 And so, and I remember meeting John David for lunch,
06:13 and he's saying, how's it going?
06:15 And I was like, well, you know, it's going well.
06:17 You just discover things,
06:19 and I told him about that scene,
06:20 and he just pulled everything out,
06:21 and she just says, off, and it's way better.
06:24 And then you've got a moment, you know what I mean?
06:28 And you're trying your damnedest as the filmmaker,
06:30 and I can never fully achieve this ever,
06:32 but you want every scene to have something like that.
06:35 You know, you want every scene to have like,
06:38 a bit where you lean in, or it,
06:39 I feel like what's happening in a movie is,
06:44 if you imagine in the cinema, it wasn't a seat,
06:47 it was a wheelchair.
06:49 And every time something happens,
06:51 you can just push your chair a little closer,
06:52 like, oh, hang on, what's this?
06:54 Like, you want to pull people all the way to the screen.
06:57 Like, you know, you have to do it one little notch
06:59 at a time in each moment.
07:01 So you're just trying your damnedest
07:02 to just throw dozens of those things in,
07:05 and you're lucky if you get a handful,
07:07 but it's, yeah, I'm thinking of all the ones I didn't get,
07:12 you know what I mean, when I see a film.
07:14 (speaking in foreign language)
07:20 - She can stop it?
07:24 - She's not ready yet.
07:26 The range of her powers are still growing,
07:28 but if we can get her up there, maybe she can destroy it.
07:36 - How could anyone survive that?
07:38 - She won't, but it will turn the tide of the war.
07:43 - Does she even know what she's been created for?
07:48 (speaking in foreign language)
07:53 - But the one thing that you did, which I heard you did,
07:56 you did on "Monster," as you said,
07:58 but you were operating a lot of the time on this,
08:01 especially in those locations.
08:03 How does that change the energy
08:05 when you know something's working,
08:07 when everything's moving around you?
08:08 Could you talk about that,
08:09 or were there certain ones that you were like
08:12 looking through the view,
08:14 and you were like, "Damn, this is good."
08:16 - There's times, yeah, there's times when you're operating
08:22 in a film, and you don't know what's gonna get used
08:27 in the final movie.
08:28 You're sort of going, "This,"
08:30 and there are definitely times where you're filming,
08:31 going, "I know this, I'm not gonna use this."
08:33 You know what I mean?
08:34 Like, it's just not working, but let's just keep,
08:36 can't say that out loud right now.
08:37 And then there are times where it's gold,
08:42 and you're going, "Don't fucking move."
08:46 Like, just don't, this is, like,
08:48 you're never gonna get this again.
08:50 This is perfect.
08:51 Like, what they're doing is amazing,
08:52 and just don't screw it up.
08:54 And what's really weird and interesting
08:59 about those moments is the camera's really heavy.
09:03 Like, the camera's like holding,
09:05 it's like getting a rucksack
09:06 and just filling it full of bricks,
09:08 and then holding it in front,
09:09 holding your arms out straight,
09:10 and trying to hold that for hours.
09:12 You know what I mean?
09:13 It kills you.
09:15 But the second something magical happens,
09:18 it becomes zero gravity, like lightweight, you know?
09:23 And you don't feel a thing,
09:25 and all you're thinking about is how amazing it is
09:28 that this is gonna be in a cinema one day.
09:30 And there's a very strange thing
09:31 where you're looking through this little viewfinder,
09:34 and I sometimes in my mind picture little heads
09:37 in front of the monitor,
09:39 and I picture I'm in the cinema a year and a half from now.
09:44 And I'm basically like an audience member
09:48 criticizing the movie or wanting things.
09:51 And my next decision, like where you move the camera,
09:54 what you might say to someone, if at all,
09:56 is based on sitting in the audience,
09:59 and you're trying to like,
10:01 it's like you've got a little time machine connection
10:03 to the guy who shot the movie.
10:05 And so I feel personally like operating
10:08 is a really important part for me of my filmmaking.
10:13 But at some point, it's a young man's game.
10:15 Like my back's not gonna allow for it.
10:17 I just hope they make lightweight cameras quick.
10:20 It's exhausting, especially like in 40 degree heat
10:25 in Thailand, you know, it was a lot.
10:28 - They've come for me.
10:32 Have to help.
10:33 - There's nothing we can do.
10:35 - Have to help.
10:36 - Alfie, we gotta go.
10:36 Alfie!
10:45 Alfie!
10:45 (indistinct shouting)
10:53 (indistinct shouting)
10:56 (indistinct shouting)
11:01 (indistinct shouting)
11:04 (indistinct shouting)
11:07 (guns firing)
11:17 - Help!
11:18 (indistinct shouting)
11:22 (guns firing)
11:30 (indistinct shouting)
11:33 - And my last question, thank you, Gareth,
11:45 is that, I mean, I didn't get to say,
11:47 we were talking technical,
11:48 but doing something as far as this kind of story
11:50 and doing an original story is awesome.
11:53 I mean, look, keep doing that no matter what.
11:56 It just means so much to so many people,
11:59 but it's also about you got the performances.
12:01 The performance you got out of Madeline, unbelievable.
12:04 I mean, unbelievable.
12:05 Can you talk about that?
12:06 'Cause directing kids is hard,
12:08 but directing kids in this kind of structure
12:10 is even harder.
12:11 Can you talk about the balance of that
12:13 and finding sort of, 'cause she has to work as the heart.
12:18 And then the soul comes in from John David, of course.
12:22 - Yeah.
12:23 Yeah, I felt like we did a whole bunch of auditions
12:28 and it was the scary thing,
12:30 'cause if you don't find the right kid,
12:31 I don't like films with little kids in them.
12:34 There's a handful of great ones that work brilliantly
12:37 and we all know them.
12:39 And there's a lot of annoying films
12:42 where the child actor, no fault of their own,
12:45 'cause it's, you know, they're young.
12:47 - What's the best one?
12:47 Is it "Elliot" from E.T.?
12:48 I get the feeling that might be one.
12:51 - It's totally up there, yeah.
12:52 It's right on top.
12:54 Yeah.
12:55 Let's go with that then.
12:57 - I'm so sorry, you go.
12:58 - That was a high bar.
12:59 No, but what, I tell you what's a really high bar
13:01 about that is if you look on YouTube is the audition
13:05 and you can see it online,
13:07 you can see Henry Thomas's audition
13:12 and it's phenomenal.
13:15 It's as good as if, you know,
13:16 it's maybe even stronger than some of the scenes
13:19 in the movie, you know, as phenomenal as they all are.
13:22 And it felt like, oh shit, that's what we've got to do.
13:26 We've got to find a kid who can do that.
13:28 And so I did all these auditions and just so happened,
13:33 the first one I did was here in LA.
13:36 We went to Universal Studios and we did it with the idea
13:40 that we would go around the theme park afterwards
13:42 with the family to check that everything was okay
13:45 and that it was a functional family
13:48 because we were going to spend six months together
13:50 at the other side of the world.
13:51 And so the first person who came in was Madeline
13:55 and gave her this quite emotional scene
13:57 that she had kind of, you know, been given the day before.
14:01 And it was heartbreaking what she did.
14:02 Like she got us all really emotional
14:05 and it was like, oh my God, this is great.
14:08 And then I thought, oh, I wonder,
14:09 I was paranoid that the mom had done some horse whispering
14:12 to her before she came in and got her upset.
14:16 And so I got her happy again and normal.
14:18 And then I was like, oh, do you mind
14:20 if we just try one more thing?
14:22 And we played around and I tried to make her upset again
14:24 to see if she could do it and she did it even better.
14:27 And I felt like this is what you wanted,
14:30 or if this is what you were looking for,
14:31 this kid's able to just magically turn this stuff on and off.
14:36 And I can't take credit for it.
14:40 Like I didn't have to trick her.
14:44 I didn't have to say really clever things to her.
14:47 I mean, you could basically talk about how Alfie was feeling
14:52 and you could be very literal about it
14:54 in a way that you can't with other actors.
14:56 You could just literally tell her how she's feeling
15:01 and then she would just feel it.
15:03 It was very surreal and exciting.
15:08 And I would jokingly at the end of a scene
15:11 where she'd do this amazing performance,
15:12 she'd jokingly turn around to the rest of the cast
15:14 and be like, why can't you all be like that?
15:16 (upbeat music)
15:20 ♪ I'm coming to you ♪
15:23 - What do you want, sweetie?
15:26 - For robots to be free.
15:28 ♪ Even though we can't do ♪
15:32 - Oh, we don't have that in the fridge.
15:36 How about ice cream?
15:37 (upbeat music)
15:40 (upbeat music)
15:44 (upbeat music)
15:46 (upbeat music)
15:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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