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00:00Making even the worst movie is nothing short of an absolute slug, because no matter how bad a good a
00:06script might be, the sheer feat of assembling a cast and crew to shoot a film is a tireless exercise
00:11in dogged perseverance.
00:13And due to the high-stress nature of filmmaking, it's not at all surprising that most successful directors have at
00:19least a couple of concrete rules for how their sets are operated.
00:22While these rules can be as simple and reasonable as the crew turning off their phones while shooting is taking
00:28place, sometimes directors insist upon slightly more peculiar, and yes, sometimes even weird, regulations.
00:35So with that in mind, I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com and these are 10 Bizarre Filmmaker Rules You Never Knew.
00:41Number 10, Steven Spielberg isn't present when the final scene is being shot.
00:45Though you'd certainly expect the director of Steven Spielberg's repute to be an entirely hands-on filmmaker, that's apparently not
00:52quite the case, albeit for an amusing reason.
00:55Now it's no secret that the shoot for his iconic blockbuster Jaws was a near disaster, filled with malfunctioning props,
01:02overlong shooting days, and an increasingly seasick and frustrated crew.
01:06Tensions were significant enough that Spielberg actually decided to not be present when the film's climactic scene, where the shark
01:13is finally blown up, was being shot.
01:16In fact, the director believed that the crew, who were bordering on mutinous by this point, were planning to throw
01:21him into the water when the scene was completed, and so he decided instead to take leave early.
01:27In the 45 years since, it's reportedly been a tradition for Spielberg to be absent when the final scene for
01:32any of his movies were being shot.
01:34Presumably being left instead in the capable hands of his first assistant director.
01:39Still, considering that Spielberg's reputation as a professional filmmaker quickly improved post-Jaws, he's probably safe from the wrath of
01:46his crew nowadays.
01:48Number 9, Martin Scorsese bans wristwatchers to heighten immersion.
01:52You don't get to be a director of Martin Scorsese's impeccable caliber without having a few hard and fast rules
01:58about how your set is run.
01:59Though by most accounts, Scorsese's sets are relatively harmonious places to be, he does nevertheless insist on one fascinating rule.
02:07Don't bring your wristwatch to set.
02:09Basically, Scorsese wants to cultivate his sets as a bubble of sorts, separated from the time and space of real
02:16life, whereby he can get the best out of his cast and crew.
02:19The idea is that people who aren't able to check their watches whenever they want are more likely to give
02:24themselves over to the vision Scorsese is trying to create.
02:28Still, you'll definitely want to wear a watch while sitting through The Irishman, wouldn't you?
02:32Number 8, Stanley Kubrick edited his movies with an army of cats.
02:36In addition to being one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick was also unquestionably one of the
02:42most eccentric.
02:43An infamous perfectionist, he'd routinely put actors through dozens of takes, and occasionally more than 100, to basically beat the
02:50artifice out of them.
02:52He also insisted on shooting all of his movies in England to be free from Hollywood meddling, and reportedly never
02:57even watched his own movies once they were completed.
03:00But perhaps the strangest of the director's professional rituals involved allowing his many cats into the editing room to lay
03:07around while he cut his movies.
03:09A noted feline lover, Kubrick at one point owned as many as 16 cats, and in order to compensate for
03:15the time spent away from them while shooting, he'd routinely let them into the editing room, allowing him to enjoy
03:21quality time with his pets while also getting work done.
03:24And you know what? This should be standard across the board. Everyone should be allowed to bring their cats into
03:30the workplace.
03:32Number 7, Alfred Hitchcock's cameos were superstition.
03:35Though it's no secret at all that Alfred Hitchcock made sneaky cameo appearances in most of his movies, it was
03:41ultimately far more than a playful directorial signature for attentive viewers to look out for.
03:47Hitchcock himself stated that his cameos were initially strictly utilitarian, in order to ensure the screen was filled up during
03:53a given scene.
03:54But after audiences began to catch on, it became something of a compulsive superstition for the director.
04:00He said in a period interview, quote,
04:02Later on, it became a superstition and eventually a gag.
04:05By now, it's a rather troublesome gag, and I'm very careful to show up in the first five minutes or
04:09so as to let the people look at the rest of the movie with no further distraction, end quote.
04:15While he never outright declared his cameos to be good luck charms, the fact that he included them in 40
04:20of his 52 produced movies, no matter how familiar audiences became with them, near enough confirms that he felt compelled
04:27to make a cameo, no matter what.
04:29Number 6, Quentin Tarantino insisted the cast say hello to editor Sally Menke at the end of takes.
04:36While you might get the impression that Quentin Tarantino's set must be a high-stress environment at the best of
04:40times, the filmmaker nevertheless devised a sweet yet peculiar ritual for all of his productions until the release of 2012's
04:48Django Unchained.
04:49Tarantino would encourage his cast to say hello to his longtime editor Sally Menke at the end of a take,
04:54ensuring that some cute surprises were waiting for her when she was later shaping the movie in the editing suite.
05:00Sadly, this all came to the end with Menke's untimely passing in 2010, yet while cutting Django Unchained with his
05:06new editing collaborator Fred Raskin, Tarantino reportedly put up a sign reading WWSD or What Would Sally Do?
05:14Number 5, Charlie Chaplin always had a violin on set.
05:17It's noted that Charlie Chaplin played a bunch of instruments, but he loved the violin in particular, even featuring himself
05:24playing it in several of his films such as 1916's The Vagabond and 1952's Limelight, while also keeping one on
05:32set to establish the mood before shooting.
05:35Chaplin also famously played the violin for young Jackie Coogan on the set of his 1921 directorial debut The Kid,
05:42and apparently that wasn't a one-off.
05:44In the decades before film sets had massive stereo speaker systems which could pump sound throughout a set to get
05:50the cast in the zone, this was seen as a more personal touch.
05:54Number 4, Terrence Malick has a contractual stipulation that he can't be photographed.
05:59Terrence Malick is one of the most enigmatic filmmakers in the history of Hollywood.
06:03A famously reclusive director who not only avoids press interviews and awards shows, but spent an entire 20 years away
06:11from the industry between 1978's Days of Heaven and 1998's The Thin Red Line.
06:16There are also curiously few images of Malick available online, a result of him literally having it written into his
06:23directing contracts that on-set photos of him cannot be published anywhere.
06:27Only in recent years with the advent of smartphones have set spies managed to snap pictures of Malick at work,
06:33and it wasn't until 2017 that a recording of the director's voice even made its way online.
06:38Save for a quick vocal cameo he made in his directorial debut, Badlands.
06:43It's this fiercely protective approach to his own privacy which has helped Malick cultivate such a fascinating aura of mystery
06:49over the last five decades.
06:51Number 3, Christopher Nolan bans phones, water bottles and smoking.
06:55Quite the stink has been made about Christopher Nolan's on-set rules in recent times, after Anne Hathaway claimed that
07:01he didn't allow chairs on his sets, the reasoning being, quote,
07:05If you have chairs, people will sit, and if they're sitting, they're not working, end quote.
07:10This understandably caused quite the storm online before one of Nolan's spokespersons confirmed that his sets did indeed have chairs
07:17for the cast and crew, but that Nolan himself opted not to use one.
07:21The PR statement did, however, confirm two more things which are indeed banned from his sets, quote,
07:27For the record, the only things banned from Nolan's sets are cell phones, not always successfully, and smoking, very successfully,
07:34end quote.
07:35According to his Dunkirk stars Mark Rylance and Barry Keoghan as well, Nolan also bans the use of water bottles.
07:41Keoghan said, quote,
07:47Number 2, Sergio Leone had the musical score recorded before shooting.
07:52One of the greatest filmmaker-composer relationships in history is unquestionably that of Sergio Leone and his recently departed collaborator,
08:00Ennio Morricone.
08:01The two paired together for all of the director's movies from a fistful of dollars onward and developed a unique
08:06working relationship which operated entirely counter to the way most movies are shot and scored.
08:12See, typically film scores are created only after shooting has been completed, when the composer can see a rough cut
08:17of the film and tailor their music to the images that they're seeing.
08:21But this pair did things quite differently, with the director typically having Morricone complete the score before he'd even shot
08:28a foot of film and sometimes even before he'd actually written the script.
08:31This allowed the filmmaker to play Morricone's score during shooting and set an appropriate mood for the cast.
08:37And this certainly paid off dividends on the good, the bad and the ugly in particular, with the film's iconic
08:42Mexican standoff being perfectly timed and edited to the existing musical piece, The Trio.
08:47Number one, Steven Soderbergh doesn't allow open-toured shoes on set.
08:52Several years ago now, some of the world's most acclaimed A-list filmmakers answered an Empire Magazine survey about their
08:59directorial habits.
09:00And upon being asked about their specific on-set rules, Steven Soderbergh piped up with a surprising, if-curt answer.
09:08Without elaborating, he simply quipped,
09:10No open-toured shoes.
09:12While it's easy enough to appreciate the health and safety aspect of not allowing crew members handling heavy equipment to
09:17wear open-toured shoes,
09:19the bluntness of his answer suggests his order extends to every single person on set from catering through to the
09:26cast themselves.
09:27Again, though, he provided no further explanation beyond that, so who knows what he really meant, or why.
09:33So, that's our list. I want to know what you guys think down in the comments below.
09:35Do you know of any other strange filmmaker rules that they employ on set?
09:40And did you know any of these?
09:41Let me know, and while you're down there, if you could, please give us a like, share, subscribe,
09:45and head over to whatculture.com for more lists and news like this every single day.
09:49Even if you don't, though, I've been Josh.
09:50Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you soon.
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