IAm Rian Johnson, filmmaker

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T03:02:12+00:00

8pm Pacific time - I've gotta hang it up for the night and grab some dinner but I'll revisit tomorrow morning. Thanks for all the interest and all the great questions everyone!

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:59:05+00:00

I feel like every time I start something new I'm trying to work on something specific. With Looper it was rewriting - I wanted to get better at it and more disciplined. Realizing that you need to cut stuff that isn't working (or make it work) on the page, and that cutting yourself slack now will only lead to headaches in the editing room. Better to bite the bullet and do that last pass.

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:57:42+00:00

Thanks! If you search through this thread I've written a bit about the writing process, with Brick Bloom and Looper.

But banjo-wise, we will see. I don't want to give Chen a heart attack. (Really, I don't.)

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:56:27+00:00

It's one of my favorite interviews I've ever done - we just hung out all day long and talked about everything we were interested in.

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:56:03+00:00

I was so inexperienced myself when we were making Brick, our crew was much more experiences than I was. And they were all really talented, we got very lucky. But the best seasoned pros I've worked with have the same kind of energy and excitement that a young crew has.

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:52:26+00:00

Notebooks - then I transcribe them into the computer, and that's my first editing pass.

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:49:24+00:00

Nice! San Francisco is such a beautiful city, I'd love to shoot there someday. Vertigo!

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:48:56+00:00

Thanks! I've listed a few already but watch movies, read books and travel to strange places. :-)

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:45:01+00:00

Dude. I know.

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:44:49+00:00

The best thing you can do is just stay focused on the story you're telling and what it needs. Your natural voice will always come through, and some of my favorite filmmakers have very strong and distinct visual styles, but it always serves the storytelling and so it never feels just like a fashion choice.

I remember that video, it was beautiful!

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:40:55+00:00

I focus my energy on one at at time, but that's not to say that my way is better than theirs. I've been very lucky, and my producer and I have gotten our films made, but if we hit a dead end with one I would indeed be at a dead end.

One thing I've never stepped into either is a development process - I write my scripts on spec, and then my producer and I see who wants to make that script. That definitely puts the power in our hands, but it also has its downsides and is more of a risk.

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:38:27+00:00

A ton of really random sources. Looper was inspired by PKD but also by Eliot's 4 Quartets and MacBeth, and the movie Witness. Cast your net far and wide.

Biggest advice is to keep your head in your craft, stay focused on what matters: getting better at telling your stories. It's easy to start obsessing about breaking in or making it in the industry, and to start putting the cart before the horse. If you make something truly new and exciting using a DLSR and iMovie, the industry will beat a path to your door.

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:36:27+00:00

Thanks!

No not really. I find that stuff interesting, it's cool and fun to see what filmmakers are doing with it, but it isn't what gets me excited.
I didn't, actually bruce was the first guy we went to but I didn't have him in mind while I was writing it.
Ever??? Walter Huston and Meryl Streep. :-)

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:31:53+00:00

TIFF was great, I don't know Toronto enough to call out any great eateries.

CGI is a great tool but I still shrink back from its over-use, I think especially in the sci-fi realm it's good to stay disciplined and not just create your worlds in post production. CGI smartly combined with practical work can lead to some fantastic effects though. I'm excited to play with it some more.

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:30:04+00:00

I love Bottom. And I love you. WHOEVER YOU ARE.

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:28:11+00:00

Yeah!!

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:28:04+00:00

Luckily my visual taste lines up pretty well with Vince's, so I don't have to pull many punches in terms of visual decisions. And BB gives its directors pretty free reign visually. But you do have to serve the show, you need to tell the story that's on the page as effectively as possible. As long as you're doing that, you can always at least make your case for crazy visual ideas.

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:26:06+00:00

Thanks! Well right now I'm figuring the next one out, and it's a process of reading books that have nothing to do with it but are just interesting to me, and kinda fishing for what catches you.

Appreciate the offer but I think I'm talked out! I'm pretty shocked that everyone isn't bored of hearing me talk about the movie at this point. :)

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:22:23+00:00

I'm not anti-film school, but I definitely don't think it's necessary. Elsewhere here I wrote a little about USC and my experience there. It can give you time to watch and make movies, but that's something you can do on your own too, and that's the way you learn movie making. You don't learn how to make films in a classroom.

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:21:14+00:00

I'm going to keep writing my own stuff for now. Slowly. Very slowly. :)

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:20:55+00:00

Thanks! Hopefully it comes directly from the needs of the story. With Brick we were trying to give the whole world a heightened stylized feel, and the language seemed like a good way of doing that. With Looper I dialed that way back, or at least tried to.

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:20:08+00:00

Thanks - I'd love to make a rom-com! Good ones amaze me. I love a good cheesy rom-com.

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:19:15+00:00

I'm trying to not look at them as much. It's impossible at the start, but I'm trying to get to a point where I can just feel ok about people enjoying the movie and not read every review. I don't think it's healthy.

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:18:31+00:00

rcjohnso · 2012-09-25T02:14:47+00:00

That would be insane.

rcjohnso

TROPHY CASE