Latest / Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast / BPS 347: Oscars®, Zombies, James Bond And Tom Hanks With Marc Forster

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BPS 347: Oscars®, Zombies, James Bond And Tom Hanks With Marc Forster · Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast

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  You are listening to the IFH podcast Network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting
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  podcasts, just go to ifahpodcastnetwork dot com. Welcome to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast,
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  Episode number three forty seven. It is a miracle every time you make
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  a movie, and a bigger miracle if it turns out well. Mark Forrester
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  broadcasting from a dark, windowless room in Hollywood when we really should be working
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  on that next draft. It's the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you the craft
• 0:33
  and business of screenwriting while teaching you how to make your screenplay bulletproof. And
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  here's your host, Alex Ferrari. Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the
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  Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast. I am your humble host, Alex Ferrari. Now,
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  today's show is sponsored by Bulletproof script Coverage. Now. Unlike other script coverage
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  services, Bulletproof Script Coverage actually focuses on the kind of project you are in
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  the goals of the prout project you are, so we actually break it down
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  by three categories, micro budget, indie film, market and studio film.
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  There's no reason to get coverage from a reader that's used to reading tempole movies
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  when your movie is going to be done for one hundred thousand dollars and we
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  over to covermiscreenplay dot Com. Today on the show Guys, we have Golden
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  Globe winner for Best Director Mark Forrester, whose films like Monsters Ball, Stranger
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  than Fiction, Finding Neverland, The Kite Runner, and a couple of blockbusters
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  you might have heard of, Quantum of Solid, James Bond and World war
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  Z. Mark is a fascinating filmmaker because it really brings deep characters and story
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  structure to whatever film he is doing, whether it's something like Monster's Ball or
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  something as complex as World War Z. And in his new film A Man
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  Called Auto starring Tom Hanks, he brings that in more Now, there are
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  no killer zombies in this one, and there's no spies, but it is
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  a heartfelt story that I absolutely fell in love with, and Tom Hanks is
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  remarkable in it, and it really will kind of shake you when you watch
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  it. But Mark and I had a great conversation about his career and his
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  new film as well. So without any further ado, please enjoy my conversation
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  with Mark Forrester. I like to welcome to the show, Mark Foster.
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  Hey you do, Mark, I'm good, Thank you, Alex. I'm
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  very good by friend. So my first question we're going to jump right into
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  it, is how did you get started in the business. You know,
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  I grew up in Switzerland and the mountains and Davos and you know, surrounded
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  by just the nature and not much My parents and had a TV, and
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  I always had to play outside to entertain myself versus being entertained, and that's
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  sort of inspired me to become a storyteller. And the first time I saw
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  a movie in the theater, I said, that's what I want to do.
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  Now. How did you get involved with Monster's Ball because that was such
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  an impactful and crazy movie. You know. I made a movie called Everything
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  Put Together and the premiere at Sundance and the writers saw that movie, and
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  at the time producers saw they all saw it and they said I would be
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  right for it. And they were trying to get the movie made for like
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  eight years, and they birth first I couldn't get it made and it was,
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  you know, originally Sean Penn directing with Robert de Niro, Sean Penn
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  and Marlon Brando, and it was too expensive. When they first thing,
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  they asked me, look, we've been waiting to get this finance for all
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  this time. We would make the movie with you, but can I make
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  it for three million dollars? And I made the Sundance movie for fifty thousand.
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  I said, three million dollars, that's I can do that. So
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  that's how it started. So when you're when you were directing Hallie and Billy
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  Bob in that film, uh, like, didd you see what was going
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  on with Haley's performance at that point, like because she was amazing. You
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  know, I didn't predict that she would win an Oscar at the time of
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  shooting, but I definitely saw when I saw performances she was extremely powerful,
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  extremely raw and vulnerable and and that's what we discussed and that we wanted to
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  go for and that it felt real. And you know, because Hallie,
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  you know, it's such a you know, glamorous and beautiful human to really
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  make it believable in the part I felt she worked extra hard on it.
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  How what advice do you have for directors who want to pull those kind of
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  raw and you know, to you those kind of emotions out of an actor,
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  What did you do to make her feel comfortable enough to be that vulnerable
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  on screen? You know, ultimately you you you know, you discussed part
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  in depths in your vision in depth, and you communicate your vision and I
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  feel once you connect with an actor to make them feel comfortable and understand the
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  visions you have, that's the key thing. I mean for the most vulnerable
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  scene between the intimate scene between Billy Bob and her, you know, there
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  was a close set of course and and closed everything that they felt totally protected
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  and safe. Now you you made the jump from Indie to slightly larger budgets,
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  just slightly from Monsters Ball to the James Bond. How did you handle
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  psychologically the jump from fifty three million to a couple hundred million. I mean
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  there were a couple of movies between, true, yes, there was so
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  so you know, I had, like I think financed like four four or
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  five movies in between. So did the budget increasing? They went bigger,
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  and you know the one the Kiturner was the one month before the Bomb movie,
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  but still it was only like the twenty five million dollar range. And
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  it's it's like the same saying if you have like a you know, your
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  small sort of boutique shop or boutique you know, custom made shoe shoe store,
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  and then suddenly you become CEO of Macy's or something, and and it's
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  a different saying. You suddenly have so many more people, so many more
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  questions. You're shoot in seven seven seven countries all over the world. You
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  know, there's two one million dollar budget and and history of a franchise that's
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  one of the most or the most successful franchise in history. And you suddenly
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  it's suddenly when you start reflecting all this, thinking, I hope I'm not
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  gonna you know, this is not not going to go that that ship is
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  not going to sink, because otherwise my career is over all, right exactly,
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  So what does that feel like being on the set for the first day
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  of shooting Quantum of Solace and you just sitting there like, okay, there's
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  a million people running around trying to get this and going how did that feel
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  being on the set on a Bond film. It's such a legendary franchise,
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  you know. To begin with, we started on purpose. The movie very
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  intimate, was not some of the big, big action sequence and big sets,
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  so that it felt very familiar to me. I knew the territory,
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  I knew how to how to do those those scenes, and from that we
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  started growing. But you know what feels like before you're always under the radar,
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  nobody really cares. And then suddenly Bomb moved me, and suddenly you
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  have the world press attention on you, and that that is actually the biggest
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  pressure, and that I didn't you know, so you don't, you don't,
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  you don't think about that that suddenly everyone and everyone will right about you,
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  and before that nobody really cared. How did you deal with that psychologically?
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  And how did that affect if it affected at all your creativity or your
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  process? I mean, the process of the movie was a tricky one because
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  there was a writer strike going on at that time in two thousand and eight,
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  so we had a sort of unfinished screen and then the strike was from
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  October to February, so it was very tricky. It was often just standing
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  Craig and me in the trailer trying to figure out what you're going to do
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  next. So that was the even more pressure. I think if we would
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  have a completed script that everybody said, this is fantastic, that's just going
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  to shoot it, it definitely deflates some of the pressure. But if you
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  have something that's not completed and you are suddenly stuck in that position and you
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  have a release date in place, only five weeks to cut the movie,
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  it's it's kind of intense now. I mean, obviously you also worked on
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  World War Z, which is another small independent budget. How did you deal
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  with the stress of heading up such big productions? I mean, as a
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  director, it's just so many people in so many departments, and you're still
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  trying to be creative and still be intimate with your actors. How do you
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  handle that stress? You know, I'm like, it's interesting. I had
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  like the World was Z. It's for the Israel sequence when the zombies time
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  over the wall, and remember that sequence. So when I drove in the
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  morning, I had a driver drive me to set in Malta. We shot
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  it in Malta and we came to set and we pulled up and he looked
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  at two thousand extras and helicopters in the air and buses and every hand's going
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  on. And I Friday, a driver literally had an anxiety attack just looking
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  at it and then not helpful now, and I was like, oh,
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  whoa, what are you doing today? And so you just go out and
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  you just have to focus and you can't. You have to blend out all
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  the chatter. And I think that's one of the key things for the director
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  in general. You you know, you have so many voices always in general,
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  from the financial studio, actors, producers, whatever, that you really
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  stick to your vision. You when you hear the chatter, you take some
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  stuff you like, but ultimately you have to stick to your vision. And
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  I think it's part of your art in that to be able to stay calm
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  and blend it out. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
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  and now back to the show now. As directors, you know,
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  there's always that day that you feel like the entire world's coming crashing down around
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  you. I'm assuming you have that every day, but there's more than there's
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  that one day on any production that you don't know how you're going to get
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  through it. So what was that day on any of your productions and how
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  did you overcome it? I think you know, I would say when we
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  were shooting Western China, the chitro our line producer forgot too. It was
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  before digital. It was still stoodent a film and our line producers forgot to
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  order film, so so we only have short ends left, you know,
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  short ends. So basically where we're shooting these scenes, and there was a
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  six minute dialogue scene and they only have like two minutes of film, so
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  I couldn't tell the actor, you can only we're going to peace mail this,
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  and she's doing it in pieces. So the actor is like the actors
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  that playing six minutes of roles and actually the how are on it, but
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  there only two minutes of film in it. So at the end I knew
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  there was no film in it, and then I pick basically next time,
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  I just shoot the middle and then the end. But sometimes the actors didn't
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  understand why do you do so many takes and this? If I we got
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  it, then it was so great, and but they were away and that
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  was super stressful. Is thinking you have these great performances, but you don't
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  have to own film and just telling them, oh, you know, we
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  don't have any film in the camera right now, which is like out wasn't
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  wasn't the right thing to do now on your new film A Man called Auto,
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  which, by the way, I saw and I absolutely loved. There's
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  such a beautiful film, and Tom Hanks is this newcomer. Tom Hanks is
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  fantastic, by the way, discovery a real discovery, without question. How
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  did you get involved with this project? And also like it seems like you're
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  going back to your roots a little bit. It's a very intimate film,
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  very small in scope comparatively to the other big things you've done over of your
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  career. Yeah, you know, I I read the book and I was
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  so touched and moved and I loved and I cried. And then I saw
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  there was a Swedish version of the film, which I saw was good to
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  and and I thought, this movie, we have to make an American version
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  out of this because it's so you know, it's so funny, but it's
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  also so touching and dark, and it's like both but ultimately it's a life
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  affirming film. And what I loved about it it brings a neighborhood back together.
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  And I think we also divided these days, and I think that's still
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  at the end. This is you know this, I always feel like it's
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  one country. We all need to work together, and even though we have
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  different point of views, and there's so many different characters on that street,
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  which is so Sweden. I like the new neighbor, the Mexican family that
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  moves in across the street, who she comes over and tries to do some
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  much food and I think food is one of those great things that we can
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  literally all share, which which definitely someone's heart. But she's so persistent,
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  that neighbor that her name is Marianna Travino marriage she plays Marisome. That Otto's
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  character Tom, who Tom Hanks plays just that ultimately, like he just opens
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  up. He can't he can't take it anymore. Do you do you still
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  get nervous when you're directing people like Tom Hanks, Like when on that first
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  day on set, you're like Tom Hanks is here. I mean the key
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  is I love that and I think he's one of the greatest stars ever.
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  He's definitely, you know, greatest talent that we worked with. I mean
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  it's so extraordinary. You know, after forty years, he still loves what
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  he did does and is a big movie star. And he comes in the
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  morning and he sits on set and he never leaves. He's like in like
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  a meditation. And you know, usually stars of that caliber you take to
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  take there out to the trailer. He never really stays there all day long
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  as a crew. He just sits there the crew and then you realize change
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  lives. He doesn't leave, and it's just this concentration and this sort of
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  just being there. It's pretty pretty special. How do you approach the different
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  how do you approach different acting styles and you're directing, because you know Tom
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  Hanks is probably different than a halle Berry is different than a Brad Pitt,
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  Like, how do you adjust multiple characters in the same scene. Yeah,
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  it's it's basically you you have to like find a way to get to connect
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  and see what what the actor needs or not and how open they are and
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  how willing you know, so you know, how how doing there to collaborate.
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  And I was pretty lucky starout my career that I always worked with the
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  actors who were very open and we had I never had like, you know,
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  the sort of the nightmare situation, and that they were very focused and
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  prepared and and on time. So I never dealt with with with the with
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  the divas of the show business, which I'm I'm very very blessed. But
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  but at the same time, you just see what they need and really try
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  to feel them out, because sometimes it's better to say nothing than too much
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  that because sometimes the actor needs their space and they find it. You as
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  a director maybe just have to say, maybe we can just try a different
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  prop you know, try this or that. It's less than giving them a
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  direction, it's less trying something a different direction. So that's you know,
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  how how it really from person to person it differs. And how did you
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  balance the darkness of this story with the humor because you did it so masterfully,
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  because you i mean, you definitely touch upon very very dark themes in
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  this in this movie, but yet you're laughing and crying and dealing with those
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  things. It's a very fine balancing act you did. Yeah, it's it's
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  a lot of it is in editing because you know, we obviously shot a
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  little bit more here and there, but it's just final this balance also between
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  the flashbacks and present day that you go, you don't stay too much in
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  their flashbacks to come back that the emotional still could stay connected with Tom and
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  in the present day and also in the in the flashbacks. Ultimately, it's
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  just give enough information that creates sort of a mystery and enough for you to
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  wanting to keep watching. And it's truxtaposing sometimes the dark with the with the
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  humor straightly direct you know when this is the hinge breaks and he's on the
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  floor and he lands right next to the paper with the with the you know,
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  yes two for eight dollars, and then he says that, I mean
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  that that takes you right back into the humor. Right, it's just so
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  fun, like like what is like he's just did that and he's like,
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  nope, it look so good deal. I gotta keep this so beautiful.
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  Uh Now, I'm gonna ask a few questions ask all my guests, Mark,
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  what advice would you give a filmmaker trying to break into the business today.
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  I mean, ultimately, I think that you know today, you know
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  you can make your film on your phone. Basically what really comes down so
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  is a great story. And I think also when you find your story,
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  the more a personal connection you have with that, the better. It's either
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  you know, if you don't have the funds. I would ever to do
• 17:02
  a short and then have the feature script ready. So you shoot the short
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  and then say, look, this is my short and this is what the
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  feature is going to be. And that's you know how to raise money and
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  figure it out and get actors and people that we love the short, let's
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  take our bet on this guy, or to make a feature for if you
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  can raise the money. But no matter what, it all comes down to
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  the script, that the script is really strong and be free. I think
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  it's important to give it to other people to read the script, to have
• 17:30
  them have a look, get feedback, and just keep working on that.
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  But I think the stronger the script is better. And then the other thing
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  is once you make a movie and you have a movie that works, let's
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  say it's Sunlands or any of the festivals and summer buys it, that you
• 17:45
  have a second script ready because you don't want to too much time say oh,
• 17:48
  I have nothing now I have to write another script or find something for
• 17:51
  the next year or two to get that going. But at that time we
• 17:55
  leave it in such a fast society that that might have been too late.
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  So I see, to have a second project ready is important. As well.
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  Now, what is the lesson that took you the longest to learn,
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  whether in the film industry or in life. I think, you know,
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  patience and stuff to make some things. Uh, you know you always have
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  to learn like even sitting in traffic and stay calm. You know, it's
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  like in patients with his people, was you know, with your kids,
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  with everything, it's like just to be patient. I think it's just really
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  it's a hard one. What did you learn from one of your greatest failures?
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  Yeah, you know there always a silicon valley is built on failures.
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  You Seeing failures are truly key for an artist or anyone because you learn from
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  them. For instance, after finding everyone, I made a film called Stay
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  that wasn't Ryan Ryan Gosling, only Watts, great cost great, You and
• 18:56
  McGregor are great cost to act. And the critics didn't love it, the
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  artists don't love it. It has found a little bit of following throughout the
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  years. But when ultimately, when I made that movie, I think,
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  why does this? Didn't that movie work? And then I and out of
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  that movie came strange her fiction, which also is sort of absurd and comedic.
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  But that movie worked, and I was able to make that sort of
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  absurdness in that movie emotional, and it wasn't able to do that in Stay,
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  even though visually it's cool and compelling, but it ultimately it didn't connect
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  with people emotionally and strange fiction bit so, then in the hardest question of
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  all three of your favorite films of all time three of my favorite films,
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  Well, I mean it's it's a tricky one. You know, I love
• 19:49
  a lot of the dead directors. We'll be right back after a word from
• 19:55
  our sponsor, and now back to the show. You know I love in
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  Imar Bergmann, Swedish director. I would say, like wild strawberries of his
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  I really really enjoy I you know, I mean there's three. That's a
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  tough one. Three today. I know it changes tomorrow, so it will
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  be on your tubes. Don'tn't worry that that, you know, I like,
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  you know, I always love the Marx Brothers dock super so good.
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  It still holds, It still holds today. Yes, And I see Howard
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  Harks bringing up baby, it's one of my favorites. Two because I just
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  love how fast that dialogue goes and how she performs it. And that's also
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  one of my favorite films, and where can people watch A Man called Auto?
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  Hopefully they all will watch it in the theaters because it's a movie that
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  really you should experience in the theater, and it's one of those movies you
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  know, people seem to come out for it, and it's something you want
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  to experience together. You laugh and you cry, and you don't want that
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  alone alone at home for of TV. So right now, it's still in
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  the theaters for the next couple of weeks, so please go and support it.
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  And the very last question, I'd love to hear your opinion on this
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  as a filmmaker. We grew up as filmmakers. We grew up loving movies
• 21:21
  at the theater, but that seems to be becoming more and more of an
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  endangered species unless there's certain kind of films. What do you what are your
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  hopes for the future, my friend, Because it's tougher and tougher to get
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  people at the theater nowadays. You know, a man hook Auto was a
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  kind of movie Hollywood used to make. Yeah, and they don't make them
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  very much anymore. And I'm run into a few people now and said,
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  really, they said, we have hope again because the manhood Auto. Seems
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  like people came out to see it, and we didn't think those kind of
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  movies would still play in the theater. And I'm so glad they came and
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  supported the movie. And I hope you know that people will keep coming out
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  for movies like that, because that will keep those movies alive, because the
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  financiers, obviously in the studios, will not pay for a movie when no
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  one shows up, and they very quickly have their algorithms. You know,
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  so many people don't. The decisions today are not being made anymore by the
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  gut by like the ould studio heads or people. It's more only made by
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  algorithms and marketing. So can I market that movie? What's the algorithm it?
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  Can we sell it? And they run these numbers and that's that's how
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  it gets done. Mostly, Mark, it's a pleasure talking to you,
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  my friend. Please keep up the fight, the good fight, my friend,
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  and keep making the films you're making. I really appreciate it. Thank
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  you so much. As every good day, take care. I want to
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  thank Mark so much for coming on the show and sharing his knowledge bombs with
• 22:44
  all of us. Thank you so much. Mark. If you want to
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  get links to anything we spoke about in this episode, head over to the
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  show notes at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv. Forward slash three forty seven. Thank
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  you so much for listening. Guys, As always, keep on writing no
• 22:56
  matter what. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof
• 23:00
  Screenwriting podcast at bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv.