I pulled Hiro, our DP, aside and suggested we go into commando mode and steal everything -- shoot it without people knowing. I gave general direction to the actors, then watched as the “party scene” turned into a real party. It felt like we were making a documentary, grabbing shots as they unfolded naturally.
Tomorrow I'll wake up early for Shorts Program II with a pair of films that have caught my interest in 2nd place Cannes Best short in Mark Albiston & Louis Sutherland's The Six Dollar Fifty Man and Sean Durkin's Mary Last Seen - which comes from the same team that gave us Afterschool and which will give us Two Gates of Sleep (featured in my top 100 most anticipated films for 2010 list).
Ruffalo's film school consists of working under Michael Mann, Spike Jonze, Martin Scorsese, David Fincher and Ang Lee, so when a passion project between him and good friend Thornton finally comes to fruition, one has to wonder whether the prior work can help mold the actor as a helmer. The project certainly doesn't feel cookie-cutter, so could this be a feel good film in spandex, metalhead clothing?
One look at the filmmaker names below, and it appears as if the Sundance alumni have come out in droves. We find a known variety of filmmakers such as Spike Jonze (Being John Malcovich), Ira Sachs (Married Life), Nicholas Jasenovec (Paper Hearts), James Franco and the Zellner bros. who have dabbled this year in the short form while working in between their feature film projects.
When you take this idea based on a dream and then work for three years of your life on a film and strive to do something that is original or different it may be based on the problem that, with some people, it is their culture that is restrained and if you do something surreal - you draw comparisons with Charlie Kaufman.