FULL TRANSCRIPT: It was an unusual moment to commit to art, coming from an Indian immigrant family, where there was no precedent for such things in the community. And it was a lot, giving up a lot, giving up the road to medicine and things like that, at least in their perception. I think they were hoping I'd just grow out of it. That's what I think was the game plan. "Let him go for a year or two, and then he'll switch," kind of thing, "To something more reasonable." I've come into a habit of, when I'm writing and I'm just about to start writing the next movie, I have a notebook that's full of ideas for that particular movie, so by the time I get to start writing the movie, there's been a lot of, "Hey," in the back of my mind. "Ooh, that would be an interesting character. Ooh, that would be ..." And it keeps sticking to the same idea, so I get a notebook. If I get a notebook, that's a big step. That's a big step. Getting the notebook, picking the notebook, and going, "All right, I'm going to start to keep notes for this particular idea." That's already like I married the idea a little bit. Let's call that the engagement period. It's a pretty big commitment. I've never started a notebook and not made that movie. I don't even what to think about it that way, because the power of the notebook is, you don't have to. You haven't even started the movie, so there's no pressure. You're just grabbing notes, so, "Oh, I've met you, you. I love your accent." Or, "Man, that was funny, what she said," or, "Ooh, that was really confusing. What if a character does this?" And you just put a million ideas down. When I have enough ideas, there's no real moment where that happens, but it's a collective feeling. When I have enough, I go, "I should start outlining the movie now." And the bell rings at that moment. There's no turning back at that point, and that's just about to happen now. Next Monday, I'm going to sit down and start outlining the movie. And then from there until when you guys see it, that's it. I've committed and I'm going.
If you're lucky enough to get to be a professional artist, a lot of the things that helped you get there are out of your control, and just happen to be there. For example, the movies that came out when I was a kid significantly affected me, whether it was the original Star Wars or original Raiders of the Lost Ark. Lucas and Spielberg were making artistic movies that were both commercial, but aimed at me, so I could feel that fusion of artistry and the ride in a way that was very, very pleasing to me. Spike Lee emerging at that time when I was a kid in my teens was confusing, rewrote the book a little bit of like, "Huh, he's doing it from the East Coast, and he's not from Hollywood?" I thought Hollywood is where they make ... It started to make me ask questions in a practical way of, "Huh, what does that mean? Can you actually go and make a movie? Don't you need permission and somebody to approve this? Isn't it extremely expensive?" All of these things, and Spike made me think differently about that. Maybe because he was non-white, I don't know. There was a deep connection to what he was doing. He has a very different aesthetic than I did back then or even now, but I still, even when I say his name and I think about it, I feel very much like he was the one that said I could make movies. In India, they used to tell stories of ... the religious stories through comic books, and it's a big thing. This is a big thing. Most Indians my age would know exactly what I'm talking about. You'd keep these comics. When we'd go to India, I would collect them and I'd have them all. There was a series that you kept, and I think they're still at my parents' house somewhere. I hope they didn't throw them out or something. That being provoked by images to tell a larger story, and maybe even, now that I'm thinking about it, that there was an overt spirituality about those first comic books that I read when I was a kid, that maybe that's why I feel the need to have some kind of non-religious spirituality in the things that I'm telling stories about, and I find that appropriate. Maybe it came from being a kid and reading those stories. "Why do you storyboard? Why do you storyboard everything? Just go there and figure it out," which is what 99% of all filmmakers do. There's just something about me being with a piece of paper and sketching a frame. When you look at my storyboards, the sketching, it looks like someone in kindergarten drew them. They're just barely recognizable as human beings, but they tell everything that I need to know of the composition. And then I have a storyboard artist who comes in and draws it so other people will know what the hell I drew, but even that drawing, I make sure he does not make it too fleshed out, because the more you flesh it out, the less I'm going to see the details that were most important to me: The composition, where that is to the frame? Are we low angle, high angle? Where are you? Did you short side them? Did you put them center frame? Where is it? Do I not see the eye? Am I seeing only part of one eye, and in the background, I see the person entering the door? That will tell me what's important about the movement and things, and it's literally like a map for me. An emotional or cinematic map for me, and I feel great confidence when I go to the set. And the actors feel that off of me. Not only does that help me in terms of momentum, but we're all aiming our energy towards something really clear. Because for me, movie making is some hybrid between a play and painting, and you can choose the balance of those things, since filmmaking is all the art forms together. You can choose the balance of where you want to lean, and for me, a painting and a play are the things I lean towards when I make a film. In Glass, for example, the use of color was extremely regimented. We were very careful. You can't tell ... If there was an extra, the extra can't be wearing a particular color. Everything has to be curated. It was fun to think of it that way. You have a responsibility in filmmaking, because it is so many art forms, that each discipline has to be thought through really carefully.
I love the restrictions, so in terms of the dogma approach and all, love it, love it, love it. Say we can't leave the house, we can't use this type of camera, we can't use Steadicam or whatever it is, and why, and what's the rational behind that. In this world, we're trying to represent this and we're trying to achieve what all of us are trying to achieve, is evoking a feeling in the audience. A very specific feeling out of the audience, and that's now a part of their life experience when they leave the theater. The more generalized thing where you get, "Oh, okay. This isn't me or my life at all," and you can let go, that's great escapism, but I don't know if it really stays with you. I tack towards making characters really complicated or feel like me, what I would be if I was angry. If I'm the villain and I'm angry, but it's coming from a justified place, so let me explain to you why I think it's important. I've been hurt or whatever, so the hoarder, the beast. He's spinning. They're spinning their pain that they've been through and taking ownership of it, and then saying, "That's the best thing that ever happened to us," and moving it into power. I find that admirable, and so at the end of Glass, after you see these three characters, you should feel for all three of them, because I feel for all three of them. Which might be interesting and confusing to audience to not have necessarily your villains be somebody you hate, but that you understand they're doing something bad, but you understand where they're coming from. I really enjoy psychology, as you can probably tell by my tacks in the subjects, and to understand why we do something. I tend to think, whenever you hear something bad, in my mind, I go, "That's something we're all capable of if we were put in a certain circumstance." Could you kill somebody? Could you do something? Could you do something despicable? Could you do something incredibly beautiful and humanistic? We're all capable of all of these colors. Any time one of us seven billion does something, that's a color that we're capable of, so we're in this spectrum of possibilities. I try to take a more humanistic view about these things, and that's how I talk to the actors about where they're coming from. They have great defense of their characters, even if they're the dark ones. I think the thing that makes it the hardest to have my career has become a great asset now, which is I make original movies. That's the hardest thing, to go to an audience and say, "All right, we're going to start over now, and you're going to learn a new language and a new bunch of characters and new rules and everything. Are you ready?" They're exhausted when you do that, but in the end, that makes it so fresh and exciting for me. A lot of times, a group of people that I make the movie with changes, and that's fresh. For example, on The Visit, I just started almost entirely with new crew members, everything new, and new up-and-coming, young bucks, everybody who's just coming out that has one film. Split, I think the cinematographer had done one movie or two movies before Split, and the composer had done one movie before Split. The editor had done one movie, and on and on and on. A sense of new and fresh approaches, which creates danger, which makes you awake. Comfort's way overrated in art, way overrated. You don't want to feel comfortable at all. That's hard. You want to drive towards something new, but it's our need, and it's mine as well, to be accepted in the moment. Then you have to be okay with that nomenclature being maybe not met with immediate, "You're the man," or, "You did it." It's not, that's not been the history of art. It feels even better to put something down that feels distinct and new and evocative of your voice, and maybe it's something that nobody's ever done before, just slightly. That little bit that makes it different that's you is such a powerful feeling that all the acceptance and applause and money in the world can't get anywhere close to that feeling of that fresh idea that really represents you. One of the parts of the speech that I'm giving is about the gap, and the gap is a term that references the difference between our tastes and what we execute, that gap, and that's what we're all terrified of. For a lot of people, that stops you. "I don't even want to feel that. I know what I like." It's like when people watch a movie, they're like, "Well, that stinks, and that's great, and ..." And they have great taste about it, but if they tried to execute a movie, it would be so vast, the difference between their taste and what they executed, and so they're not filmmakers. That's what stops them in their mind, but really, you shouldn't be scared of that gap. That's our job is to figure out our craft and the parameters that are given to us in the form that we're choosing, whether it's painting or whatever it is, and to find a way to close that, to close it until they're identical. Until what you executed and your tastes are one and the same. That, for me, is the thing that we don't talk enough about, is our fear of that gap, and how it freezes us or makes us give up or makes us generalize. Because, "Wow, I wanted to do it this way, and wow, when I executed the first draft of ..." whatever, the painting, of the script, the thing, whatever it is, is so vastly off and you feel like, "It's no way I can close it." And yet, you can close it. You can't think of how to do it all in one thing. What would be something that could close it? "Wow, yeah. If I could somehow learn to make the dialogue sound more rich, or this or that, or accurate," then you write, write, write and you have one line sounds right to you, and you're like, "Hmm, what is it about that?" And boom, you closed it. You closed it like that. I believe, if you find your voice, you will close that gap. I was talking with a filmmaker actually. For now, we'll just say wouldn't say which, because it's probably better I don't, for a second. And he had just directed a movie that was fantastic. He had made a bunch of movies right before it that weren't quite connecting, and then he did another movie after that, and it really connected as well. I was talking to him, I said, "Wow, you seem really inspired right now." And he said, "Yeah, I'm really going for the jugular every single time, and it feels really great to go for the jugular." Even though that's a cliché, "Going for the jugular," for whatever reason, the way he said it, how he said it, it really stuck me. For me, I interpreted it as being the most provocative and the most interesting version of yourself, and being dangerous, and never being comfortable again. When I'm pushing the actor or pushing myself, and now to be uncomfortable and to have sharp edges and to not be scared about it. Don't round off your edges. That's how I interpreted that advice.
Glass is a masterpiece.
m night Shyamalan 👍👍👍👍
Agreed!
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
It was an unusual moment to commit to art, coming from an Indian immigrant family, where there was no precedent for such things in the community. And it was a lot, giving up a lot, giving up the road to medicine and things like that, at least in their perception. I think they were hoping I'd just grow out of it. That's what I think was the game plan. "Let him go for a year or two, and then he'll switch," kind of thing, "To something more reasonable."
I've come into a habit of, when I'm writing and I'm just about to start writing the next movie, I have a notebook that's full of ideas for that particular movie, so by the time I get to start writing the movie, there's been a lot of, "Hey," in the back of my mind. "Ooh, that would be an interesting character. Ooh, that would be ..." And it keeps sticking to the same idea, so I get a notebook.
If I get a notebook, that's a big step. That's a big step. Getting the notebook, picking the notebook, and going, "All right, I'm going to start to keep notes for this particular idea." That's already like I married the idea a little bit. Let's call that the engagement period. It's a pretty big commitment. I've never started a notebook and not made that movie.
I don't even what to think about it that way, because the power of the notebook is, you don't have to. You haven't even started the movie, so there's no pressure. You're just grabbing notes, so, "Oh, I've met you, you. I love your accent." Or, "Man, that was funny, what she said," or, "Ooh, that was really confusing. What if a character does this?"
And you just put a million ideas down. When I have enough ideas, there's no real moment where that happens, but it's a collective feeling. When I have enough, I go, "I should start outlining the movie now." And the bell rings at that moment. There's no turning back at that point, and that's just about to happen now. Next Monday, I'm going to sit down and start outlining the movie. And then from there until when you guys see it, that's it. I've committed and I'm going.
If you're lucky enough to get to be a professional artist, a lot of the things that helped you get there are out of your control, and just happen to be there. For example, the movies that came out when I was a kid significantly affected me, whether it was the original Star Wars or original Raiders of the Lost Ark. Lucas and Spielberg were making artistic movies that were both commercial, but aimed at me, so I could feel that fusion of artistry and the ride in a way that was very, very pleasing to me.
Spike Lee emerging at that time when I was a kid in my teens was confusing, rewrote the book a little bit of like, "Huh, he's doing it from the East Coast, and he's not from Hollywood?" I thought Hollywood is where they make ... It started to make me ask questions in a practical way of, "Huh, what does that mean? Can you actually go and make a movie? Don't you need permission and somebody to approve this? Isn't it extremely expensive?" All of these things, and Spike made me think differently about that.
Maybe because he was non-white, I don't know. There was a deep connection to what he was doing. He has a very different aesthetic than I did back then or even now, but I still, even when I say his name and I think about it, I feel very much like he was the one that said I could make movies.
In India, they used to tell stories of ... the religious stories through comic books, and it's a big thing. This is a big thing. Most Indians my age would know exactly what I'm talking about. You'd keep these comics. When we'd go to India, I would collect them and I'd have them all. There was a series that you kept, and I think they're still at my parents' house somewhere. I hope they didn't throw them out or something.
That being provoked by images to tell a larger story, and maybe even, now that I'm thinking about it, that there was an overt spirituality about those first comic books that I read when I was a kid, that maybe that's why I feel the need to have some kind of non-religious spirituality in the things that I'm telling stories about, and I find that appropriate. Maybe it came from being a kid and reading those stories.
"Why do you storyboard? Why do you storyboard everything? Just go there and figure it out," which is what 99% of all filmmakers do. There's just something about me being with a piece of paper and sketching a frame. When you look at my storyboards, the sketching, it looks like someone in kindergarten drew them. They're just barely recognizable as human beings, but they tell everything that I need to know of the composition.
And then I have a storyboard artist who comes in and draws it so other people will know what the hell I drew, but even that drawing, I make sure he does not make it too fleshed out, because the more you flesh it out, the less I'm going to see the details that were most important to me: The composition, where that is to the frame? Are we low angle, high angle? Where are you? Did you short side them? Did you put them center frame? Where is it? Do I not see the eye? Am I seeing only part of one eye, and in the background, I see the person entering the door?
That will tell me what's important about the movement and things, and it's literally like a map for me. An emotional or cinematic map for me, and I feel great confidence when I go to the set. And the actors feel that off of me. Not only does that help me in terms of momentum, but we're all aiming our energy towards something really clear. Because for me, movie making is some hybrid between a play and painting, and you can choose the balance of those things, since filmmaking is all the art forms together. You can choose the balance of where you want to lean, and for me, a painting and a play are the things I lean towards when I make a film.
In Glass, for example, the use of color was extremely regimented. We were very careful. You can't tell ... If there was an extra, the extra can't be wearing a particular color. Everything has to be curated. It was fun to think of it that way. You have a responsibility in filmmaking, because it is so many art forms, that each discipline has to be thought through really carefully.
I love the restrictions, so in terms of the dogma approach and all, love it, love it, love it. Say we can't leave the house, we can't use this type of camera, we can't use Steadicam or whatever it is, and why, and what's the rational behind that. In this world, we're trying to represent this and we're trying to achieve what all of us are trying to achieve, is evoking a feeling in the audience. A very specific feeling out of the audience, and that's now a part of their life experience when they leave the theater. The more generalized thing where you get, "Oh, okay. This isn't me or my life at all," and you can let go, that's great escapism, but I don't know if it really stays with you.
I tack towards making characters really complicated or feel like me, what I would be if I was angry. If I'm the villain and I'm angry, but it's coming from a justified place, so let me explain to you why I think it's important. I've been hurt or whatever, so the hoarder, the beast. He's spinning. They're spinning their pain that they've been through and taking ownership of it, and then saying, "That's the best thing that ever happened to us," and moving it into power.
I find that admirable, and so at the end of Glass, after you see these three characters, you should feel for all three of them, because I feel for all three of them. Which might be interesting and confusing to audience to not have necessarily your villains be somebody you hate, but that you understand they're doing something bad, but you understand where they're coming from.
I really enjoy psychology, as you can probably tell by my tacks in the subjects, and to understand why we do something. I tend to think, whenever you hear something bad, in my mind, I go, "That's something we're all capable of if we were put in a certain circumstance." Could you kill somebody? Could you do something? Could you do something despicable? Could you do something incredibly beautiful and humanistic?
We're all capable of all of these colors. Any time one of us seven billion does something, that's a color that we're capable of, so we're in this spectrum of possibilities. I try to take a more humanistic view about these things, and that's how I talk to the actors about where they're coming from. They have great defense of their characters, even if they're the dark ones.
I think the thing that makes it the hardest to have my career has become a great asset now, which is I make original movies. That's the hardest thing, to go to an audience and say, "All right, we're going to start over now, and you're going to learn a new language and a new bunch of characters and new rules and everything. Are you ready?"
They're exhausted when you do that, but in the end, that makes it so fresh and exciting for me. A lot of times, a group of people that I make the movie with changes, and that's fresh. For example, on The Visit, I just started almost entirely with new crew members, everything new, and new up-and-coming, young bucks, everybody who's just coming out that has one film.
Split, I think the cinematographer had done one movie or two movies before Split, and the composer had done one movie before Split. The editor had done one movie, and on and on and on. A sense of new and fresh approaches, which creates danger, which makes you awake. Comfort's way overrated in art, way overrated. You don't want to feel comfortable at all.
That's hard. You want to drive towards something new, but it's our need, and it's mine as well, to be accepted in the moment. Then you have to be okay with that nomenclature being maybe not met with immediate, "You're the man," or, "You did it." It's not, that's not been the history of art.
It feels even better to put something down that feels distinct and new and evocative of your voice, and maybe it's something that nobody's ever done before, just slightly. That little bit that makes it different that's you is such a powerful feeling that all the acceptance and applause and money in the world can't get anywhere close to that feeling of that fresh idea that really represents you.
One of the parts of the speech that I'm giving is about the gap, and the gap is a term that references the difference between our tastes and what we execute, that gap, and that's what we're all terrified of. For a lot of people, that stops you. "I don't even want to feel that. I know what I like." It's like when people watch a movie, they're like, "Well, that stinks, and that's great, and ..."
And they have great taste about it, but if they tried to execute a movie, it would be so vast, the difference between their taste and what they executed, and so they're not filmmakers. That's what stops them in their mind, but really, you shouldn't be scared of that gap. That's our job is to figure out our craft and the parameters that are given to us in the form that we're choosing, whether it's painting or whatever it is, and to find a way to close that, to close it until they're identical. Until what you executed and your tastes are one and the same.
That, for me, is the thing that we don't talk enough about, is our fear of that gap, and how it freezes us or makes us give up or makes us generalize. Because, "Wow, I wanted to do it this way, and wow, when I executed the first draft of ..." whatever, the painting, of the script, the thing, whatever it is, is so vastly off and you feel like, "It's no way I can close it." And yet, you can close it.
You can't think of how to do it all in one thing. What would be something that could close it? "Wow, yeah. If I could somehow learn to make the dialogue sound more rich, or this or that, or accurate," then you write, write, write and you have one line sounds right to you, and you're like, "Hmm, what is it about that?" And boom, you closed it. You closed it like that. I believe, if you find your voice, you will close that gap.
I was talking with a filmmaker actually. For now, we'll just say wouldn't say which, because it's probably better I don't, for a second. And he had just directed a movie that was fantastic. He had made a bunch of movies right before it that weren't quite connecting, and then he did another movie after that, and it really connected as well. I was talking to him, I said, "Wow, you seem really inspired right now." And he said, "Yeah, I'm really going for the jugular every single time, and it feels really great to go for the jugular."
Even though that's a cliché, "Going for the jugular," for whatever reason, the way he said it, how he said it, it really stuck me. For me, I interpreted it as being the most provocative and the most interesting version of yourself, and being dangerous, and never being comfortable again. When I'm pushing the actor or pushing myself, and now to be uncomfortable and to have sharp edges and to not be scared about it. Don't round off your edges. That's how I interpreted that advice.
Can you fix this bug with login to with app
4:22
Can you fix this bug when you can't log in to app, pls fix this
Hey there, Karolek! You'll want to reach out to the Help Desk: contact.deviantartsupport.com
Lol m night Shyamalan the last person I would think be affiliated with DeviantArt