With only 24 days to capture nearly 30 sketches, the average I Think You Should Leave bit is shot in roughly six to eight hours. That might be for the best. When you’re slopping up steaks or shooting body after body busting out of cheap wood and hitting pavement, probably wise not to linger at a location for too long. Cinematographer Markus Mentzer, who has been behind the camera for all three seasons of the Netflix show, breaks down the newest crop of sketches for Filmmaker. Filmmaker: Your first three camera department credits on IMDB are Out of Time, In […]
Chris Messina is that rare character actor leading man who is the go-to supporting actor in seemingly everything. From The Mindy Project and Newsroom, to She Dies Tomorrow and I Care A Lot, he handles ultra-serious roles (like in Blame, which I loved) or uproarious ones (such as in this year’s hit Air) with what seems like effortlessness, and now he’s starring in the new series Based on a True Story with Kaley Cuoco. In this hour, he generously takes us on an extended tour of his process. He talks about learning to “experience” rather than “act,” why the thought […]
Jody Lee Lipes likes to ask questions—so many, in fact, that the cinematographer says it can sometimes annoy directors. However, Lipes found a collaborator with an equally inexhaustible inquisitiveness in Savanah Leaf. “Savanah wanted to go through every scene together [during prep],” said Lipes. “I loved it because that’s my favorite thing to do. We would talk about a scene for like three hours. We went literally word by word through the script.” Lipes, whose credits include Manchester by the Sea, Martha Marcy May Marlene and I Know This Much Is True, first met Leaf on a commercial. They developed […]
Dave Burd, known by his stage name Lil Dicky, is a multi-platinum rapper, comedian and actor. For three seasons now, he has been the co-creator, executive producer, writer and star of the critically acclaimed comedy series, Dave. In this hour, he takes us from the beginning, being the laugh machine for his friends, through the discovery of his musical talent and the viral comedy video years, and finding his happy place in pitch meetings, convincing the money people that he could not just make a good TV show, that’s easy, but maybe one of the great shows of all time. He talks about […]
Few television show characters are more iconic than Mad Men’s Don Draper. Jon Hamm played him for 7 seasons and just might have changed television forever. Since then Hamm has ventured into film and exercised his funny muscles. Last year’s Confess, Fletch was a wonderful example of what Hamm can do with good material, and so is his latest, Maggie Moore(s), directed by his friend (and Mad Men co-star) John Slattery. In this episode, he talks about how Slattery worked with him to establish the very specific tone of that film, and what he needs from a director in general. He details how his previous television […]
Mark Duplass is the living patron saint of the indie filmmaker. Honest, simple, modest, positive, affirming about the work, Duplass, first with his brother Jay and now on his own, has become a household name in the film world for producing projects in a DIY style foregrounding authenticity, improvisational humor, and human connection. As an actor, both in his own productions and also series like The Morning Show, he finds a way to keep that homegrown genuineness alive in front of the camera. His latest film, Biosphere, which he co-wrote with director Mel Eslyn, is a true two-hander (with the wonderful Sterling […]
Each Friday I write an original Editors Letter as part of the free Filmmaker newsletter. Always original and not usually archived on the site, the letters consist of essays, thoughts, recommendations and sometimes even early versions of pieces that appear later here. This week I wrote about the Apple Vision Pro and am reposting that piece in updated form here. To subscribe for free to the Filmmaker newsletter, click here. If you watched any of Apple’s WWDC keynote on Monday, or saw any of its videos, and thought that its new AR headset, the Apple Vision Pro, looked like science […]
In the new Netflix series Beef, a struggling contractor (Steven Yeun) and an affluent entrepreneur (Ali Wong) become embroiled in an escalating feud following a road rage incident. The series fits snuggly into a very specific quadrant of cinematographer Larkin Seiple’s wheelhouse— hard-to-classify A24 projects. Though his filmography includes sports biopics (Bleed for This), thrillers (Cop Car) and prestige dramas (To Leslie and Emmy-nominated work on Gaslit), Seiple’s most distinct work has come in A24’s Swiss Army Man, Everything Everywhere All at Once and now the studio’s Beef. With the full series streaming on Netflix, Seiple spoke to Filmmaker about Incubus clinching […]
In recent movies like Air and Funny Pages, television series like Our Flag Means Death, and plays like Annie Baker’s The Flick, Matthew Maher has made a name for himself as someone who can bring an oddball or weirdo to full life with enough charm, charisma, and genuine gusto to make us love him unconditionally. On this episode, he talks about his acting foundations, the tools formative teachers have given him, and some theories he has developed as a teacher himself. He explains the allure of experimental theater in ’90s New York City, makes a case for embracing contradictions and obstructions in a character and […]
Cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes says that shooting an actor playing twins is like learning a new filmmaking language. By now, he’s fluent. Lipes lensed all six episodes of the 2020 HBO miniseries I Know This Much Is True, with Mark Ruffalo playing identical twins. As an added complication, the coverage of each brother was shot months apart as Ruffalo took a hiatus to gain 30 pounds to physically transform himself into the other sibling. On the new Amazon series Dead Ringers, it’s Rachel Weisz starring as twin New York City gynecologists who meet a tragic end. The show is a […]