Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/957795
DGA QUARTERLY 71 DGA: How did your years of doing music videos and commercials help prepare you for directing large-scale features? LAWRENCE: It allowed me to build different worlds and experi- ment with various techniques. Music videos are like this labora- tory, from telling mini-stories to doing pieces that were completely visual, [from] things that were very real [to] things that were very stylized. I messed around with a lot of visual effects and shot all over the world, so by the time I did my first film, I was very experienced working with crews and scheduling and on-set problems and weath- er and budgets. All that [became] second nature to me. I could just focus on the storytelling, tone and pacing. WILLEMS: And we shot a lot of different styles—something super- glossy one day to something very gritty the next, so you learn how to quickly adapt. It's not like a painter who's got one style for 20 years. You're constantly trying different things. DGA: How do you typically prep a new project together? LAWRENCE: It varies. Conversations on music videos were pretty brief, and then they got more elaborate with the movies. Usually they start with images. I might show Jo some research and we'll start going into more detail, going over the script, talking with the production designer.