Written Interview: Destin Daniel Cretton (“Short Term 12”)

Good /film interview by Germain Lussier with Short Term 12 writer-direct Destin Daniel Cretton:

One of the things I loved about the movie is the way that you can effortlessly go between tones. Like you said “laughing one minute, silent the next, crying the next. Scared.” How do you work with that?

I think a lot of my process is pretty mathematical. That part of it is not mathematical to me. I think it’s naturally the way that my personality and my family’s personality… like when things start to get a bit dramatic somebody will probably crack a joke. We are also not afraid to talk about very serious things, but it’s usually not done as serious. I think it’s a natural progression from that. Also a huge part of the tone is emulating the stories in a way that… interviews I had with people who worked at places like this the way that they tell these stories. In one sitting I was on the floor laughing and then crying and then devastated and filled with hope. It all felt great together, it all felt cohesive.

You said most of your filmmaking is mathematical. Can you expand upon that a little bit?

I piece things together somewhat mathematically. I try to be as loose as I can, because I am naturally very meticulous and mathematical in the way I structure things. I have set-ups and pay-offs and when we shoot I have to have everything storyboarded before we start shooting. But then we purposefully shoot handheld so that it loosens it up a bit and we can respond to things. Then you know, once we get in the editing room it becomes very mathematical towards the end. By the end we are really trying to think of it like a giant emotional math equation and how we want the ride to go. It feels like math.

For the rest of the interview, go here.

Here are some clips from the movie:

Declare Your Independents. Go see Short Term 12 which opens in theaters this weekend.