Twitter Rant: Eric Heisserer on How to Treat a Film Crew
Tweetstorm: Eric Heisserer on How to Treat a Film Crew
If you are an aspiring screenwriter, Twitter is an amazing resource. Eric Heisserer (Arrival, Lights Out, Hours, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Final Destination 5, The Thing) is probably the Hollywood screenwriter most willing to go online and provide a tweetstorm on a specific subject related to the craft.
Yesterday Eric went on a ‘rant’ about the experience of crew members during a movie’s production. Reprinted by permission.
1/ Been seeing a lot of buzz on my corner of the social media block, about tortuous productions. And I have opinions! Based on experiences.
2/ Some are crying foul at set experiences being called “a living hell.” Some see any movie as a golden opportunity for crew.
3/ That is a bit off, in my worldview. Crews aren’t excited about working for a terrible person or brutal perfectionist.
4/ We creatives tend to assume anyone working with people we admire would see it the same way. But they don’t. And with good reason.
7/ The call ended with, “If you go over 15 hours in a day we’re pulling the plug.” Director returned to set, invigorated. Producers ask why.
8/ Director smiled, “The studio authorized me for 15-hour days!” And every single one after that was 15 hours.
9/ That movie wound up being a middling hit, no real critical acclaim, a lot of fun at times. But was it worth destroying that crew?
10/ That’s the way some people work. It’s how they go through the process. I’ve seen Academy-winning films made from 10-hour days. Smooth.
11/ There are ways (more than one) to work in this business that doesn’t require brutalizing the people who work for you.
12/ Does it make the movie better? Sometimes. Once in a while. But more than anything it shines a light on a personal flaw.
13/ Maybe the horrendous hours are due to a tiny budget and too few shooting days for the material. Or maybe it’s an indecisive director.
I really really don’t like how some use the idea of pursuing art as an excuse to be sociopaths to everyone else.
If you know you’re in for a really long day because it takes that to get to a shot/performance, be transparent about it.
If you think Eric is commenting solely from the perspective of a screenwriter-stuck-in-his-little-room-writing-all-day-with-no-experience-of-a-movie-set, you’d be wrong. Eric has actually written and directed a movie — Hours (2013). Plus he was just on the set for a stretch for the upcoming movie Story of Your Life which Eric adapted from a Ted Chiang short story, the movie starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker, and directed by Prisoners director Denis Villeneuve. So he knows his way around a movie set.
Here’s the thing: You have to have a certain amount of ego to be a director. We are talking about having a creative vision, the inner fortitude to strive for that vision, and the self-confidence to marshal a crew of dozens and dozens of people on a daily basis over 10, 12, 14 weeks or more.
But that doesn’t mean you have a God-given right to be an asshole.
Moreover if you think the only way to achieve your creative vision, answer this: How is it that countless great directors have been and are able to accomplish that while taking a humanistic approach toward their crews?
You may follow Eric on Twitter: @HIGHzurrer.
You may read my April 2013 interview with Eric here.