A German film distributor called Störkanal will soon release a special edition German DVD of WEAPONS. I have been sent a list questions to answer for the booklet. Instead of posting all the answers here at once I will answer a single one each day.

Question #8

Your movie is characterized by long shots, because you don’t work with the typical MTV-Generation jump cuts style. How comes that you prefer this kind of long shots and from your own experience as director, is it for an actor not in someway more difficult to act in this kind of long shots?

I think it’s more difficult for actors to work in extreme long-take setups but ultimately more rewarding. They can’t rely on the old tricks. Like some actors will save everything for the close-up shot and doze their way through the wide shots. Some actors will ‘play’ to the camera knowing exactly where it is. When you don’t know where it’s going to be you have to rely more on your instincts. We shot every scene like a ‘master’ shot, for these reasons. I wouldn’t say I prefer this style, more to the point it was right for this specific movie. I like to choose a style for each film rather than doing every film in one style. For me that’s more fun. Maybe I’ll fail at some things because of it. Maybe certain experiments wont prove successful. But what is undeniable is the learning that comes along with experimenting and failing. The day I’m not allowed to fail is the day I stop making movies. This caused some issues on set. The people who financed the film were not happy that we were shooting in these super long takes and not punching in for close-ups. They worried about how we’d edit the film. Their worries were totally understandable. My answer was ‘if the take doesn’t work we jump-cut it with another take.’ In retrospect, that’s an insane thing to tell a financier. But that’s the feel I wanted for WEAPONS. I wanted it to feel rough and unpolished. I wanted to push those actors to their extreme. And I’m thankful to the financiers for trusting me.

A lot of my style comes from collaboration and building off prior experience. For example I told my cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro that what I didn’t like so much about BOMB THE SYSTEM was that often I felt like we over-lit that film. There were so many lights and so many layers it began feel overwhelming AND slowed down the production. So Manuel and I made a pact to not use ANY film-lights at all. Everything was lit with practicals – desk lamps, floor lamps, florescent garage bulbs, etc. I also told Manuel what bugged me about the staging of actors in my first film was that in many setups the lighting was so tightly mapped out that the actors couldn’t move when I called action. If they moved their faces a mere inch we’d have to cut because they’d be out of the angle of light. For WEAPONS I wanted the actors to be able move around with complete freedom. I wanted Paul Dano as Chris to be able get up, walk into another room and come back and sit down all in one take. And so it was.