Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1097515
DGA QUARTERLY 79 were only getting their scenes. Q: In a sense, because of the fanbase's inter- est in these movies, and our media-engaged pop culture, part of your job as directors is knowing how to talk about what you've made. J: We have to be able to entice the audience to want to see the film without giving any- thing away. It becomes a delicate dance, one we've gotten better at with each movie, to the extent of even writing letters to the audience asking them not to spoil the film if posting on Twitter, which serves the dual purpose of "please don't spoil the movie" but also "There are things in this movie that can be spoiled, get excited." You are a promotional tool for your very big movie. A: A good crutch to lean on is that we work as a team. For 25 years now, we are constantly having to communicate with each other about what we're trying to do as filmmakers, constantly pitching one an- other ideas. The process of talking about what we're doing allowed us to be fluent and comfortable communicating, whether with collaborators or journalists. J: But once the movie is out, we're very happy to talk about what's underneath the hood. We grew up in an underdog city—the butt of sports jokes, jokes about what's the shittiest place in the country, New Jersey or Cleveland—so you subjugate your ego coming from a place like that. You subju- gate your ego in a family, and in a creative partnership. We're not reverential about the process in any way. We're actually very populist in respect to the process, and we want people to have access. We want some- one else to be inspired the way we were. Q: What's your favorite problem-solving moment from these movies? A: We shot Winter Soldier in Cleveland, and we know it very well. And there's this mas- sive freeway interchange, multilayered, with all these ramps. So we constructed an elaborately designed run-up to the big fight sequence for this location. Now, we're very tight with the film commissioner in Cleve- land. He's an amazing guy—he can move mountains. We're like, "We have to get that intersection." But it was probably the only thing he couldn't deliver. J: We needed two full weeks of shutdown, and it would have been an absolute disas- ter. A: But we were already being directed to another location by our whole produc- tion team. "Guys, you're never gonna get it, we're going over here." We were, "No! No! We're shooting here!" That's when you know you're working with the right team. They've got your back, they're listening to everything you want to achieve at the loca- tion you're never going to get, and think- ing, " What's the best location [that] can deliver that?" They did that, and it worked. But it goes back to that we grew up in a big Italian-American family. That's the energy we want on set. We want everybody there to be our collaborator. Q: As mega-villain Thanos, Josh Brolin is playing a CG-created, eight-foot-tall alien character. How did you approach shooting his interactions with your human-form cast? A: He'll wear a motion capture suit, a skin- tight suit with various markings, so the visual effects department can visually and electronically track his movements. He wears a head camera with two cameras pointing at his face capturing every move- ment of his eyes and facial expressions. We shot some of his stuff on a motion capture stage, and some on actual sets. J: If he's interacting with real actors, it's essential for us, for him, and for the actors to be present together, connecting. Now, because of his eyeline, an intricate sys- tem of decks was built, so wherever Josh moves, he's always standing at eight feet, so the other actors can have a direct eyeline to him. Q: Are you editing as you shoot? J: Typically, we're doing 10-hour days because you'll wear down the crew too quickly if you're shooting 12 hours. When we wrapped, we'd go to editorial for four to five hours, and we'd look at material we'd shot over the past week. If we felt we were missing a close-up or moment, or fumbled a performance, we'd go back and get it again. It allows us to refine the movie as we go, so there's been very little reshoots on the movies we've done with Marvel. There were two days on Winter Soldier, three or four on Civil War, five on Infinity War. We learned that directing is assessing. If you're about to rip a set down, why not look at the scene again and make sure you've gotten exactly what you wanted out of it? Q: How do you work with your editor? A: The editor more than anybody becomes the third Russo brother, because we spend so much time together. J: It's perhaps our most intimate, creative relationship. Having a shorthand with an editor, where you call and say, "Did we get that?" and they say, "No you didn't" is all we need to know that we have to re- work it. Or you wake up and go, "Dammit, we should have gotten a moment where X happened," and they understand what you're saying, can manipulate the material for an hour or two, and call you back and say, "No, we can make it work." Q: When dealing with so many name actors, is ego management part of your job? A: Look, the movies have been successful, so that's a positive draw, right? But when you get these large ensemble situations, even the big movie stars know they're only a piece of the puzzle. J: And they don't have the pressure of having to carry the film. A: It's the sheer number of them that's a logistical problem. J: I think it's the most complicated sched- ule in history. Maybe five or six actors are run of show, so you're really working in second position to a lot of the actors. A: So you have to be very smart about how you block it. Q: How does this creative ethos factor into what you're doing with AGBO? J: It's really a company run by creatives, and the mission is to support other cre- atives the way Steven Soderbergh support- ed my brother and I when we first got into the business. A: We're looking to become a space where people can chase weird ideas and find a community. J: We spent years working in television, supervising directors on shows that we were EP-ing, and we realized there was so much to glean from interacting with other directors. Nobody gives you a rule book on how to direct. You kind of make it up as you go along based on your intuition, perhaps some schooling, or your schooling is you made a couple of movies. But you create your own process. And once we started in- teracting with other people's processes, we felt like we became better directors. So we wanted to create a space where we could do that with other artists. If you're a director, and you want to develop a project, and if you want a sounding board, we're here. ®