Interview: Destin Daniel Cretton (2010 Nicholl Winner)

This week, we are reading and analyzing the script Short Term 12, so I thought it would be a good idea to reprise my October 2013 interview writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton.

Here are links to the six installments of the entire interview:

Part 1: “The first time I caught the bug was when my grandma loaned us her VHS camcorder when I was about ten. That was when we first started, my family and I, my brothers and sisters, we got addicted just making silly movies as kids and things when we were young.”

Part 2: “Some of these emotional connections just naturally came out further on as the characters had developed and as that relationship between the two of them developed in the writing process.”

Part 3: “Exposition is always something that I’m terrified at, terrified about, because I typically spot it very easily when I watch movies, and it usually pulls me out.”

Part 4: “There’s always a point in the writing process where, to me, it feels very mathematical or it feels very like I’m creating a grid of emotional cues.”

Part 5: “When I watch the film it just brings back so many memories of all the people that worked on it. I see the costumes that my sister worked on, I see the music that my friend Paul worked on, every camera move is Brett’s instinct. It’s almost like looking through a photo album for me.”

Part 6: “I spend a lot of time in my head before I sit down to write. I like to have a good idea of the structure of the story before I put fingers to the keys and see what else spills out. If I start writing too early, I find it hard to stay focused and can venture off on tangents.”

Destin is repped by WME.

The official movie site for Short Term 12 is here.

Go here to rent or buy Short Term 12.

Go here to purchase I Am Not A Hipster.

You can follows Destin on Twitter: @destindaniel.