Batman goes Nutzoid!

Does it really matter if a director is a nice guy or not?

James Cameron = great director.

But, then again, so were Michael Curtiz & John Ford...neither of which would have won Miss Congeniality.

poo poo, Hitchcock said actors should be treated like cattle.

Yet each of the above made some of the best films ever made (yes, including Cameron).

But most importantly, all of these directors had the helm of their respective ships at all times (unlike Mcpoo pooingG).

"...Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long Holly."
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I saw a newsreport on CNN and they played the techno song that was posted here which I thought was so cool.


Nektonic said:
Thing is that with something like Batutta's friend hearing Cameron say what he said is on quite a different level than what Bale did. Bale went on for way too long and was really belittling to the DP. I would probably be pissed too if the DP was futzing with the lights during the take, which does beg the question of who does this? I don't understand the concept of tweaking the lights in the middle of a take unless it is for a special lighting effect. The bottom line is that a 3.5 minute tirade is just not appropriate. You don't swat a fly with a rocket launcher. It's a waste of ammo.

Personally though, I still want to see both Terminator Salvation and Avatar, regardless of Christian Bale's or James Cameron's antics on set. The sad thing is that the media will try to use this to pull Christian Bale down, and possibly stall his career a bit. Same thing that happened with Tom Cruise's couch jumping on Oprah. I think it sucks that our current society seems to think it is okay to judge someone and jeopardize an entire career on one silly incident that in the long run doesn't really matter all that much. Because let's face it, everyone has had a tantrum and gotten worked up over something and blown it out of proportion.

Of course Bale should've been smarter about this too. I mean for goodness sakes he's on a movie set, not in the kitchen of a restaurant or some other everyday work environment. With the mics, cameras, behind-the-scenes video people, and all the other on-set witnesses, he is just asking for trouble by throwing a tantrum.
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Imagine Bale jumping on Ophras couch and telling her:
Im gonna trash your lights ,are you a professional for Fak sake ?:)

The more I think of it the more I agree with what Bale did
Yesterday ofcourse I did not.
Somebody had to set the DP straight, who as a professional does this, doesn't it cost money to shoot on film you can't afford to make silly mistakes.
Or be the cause of them.
 
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I will allow that a carefully timed and executed screaming flipout can be a useful way to get and hold the attention of difficult people, and hammer a memory into their heads that will positively affect their future behavior.
 
"Kinski, compared with his previous outbreaks seemed rather mild"

nice.

I don't remember this clip in Burden of Dreams :grin:
 
I just saw the trailer for T4 or 5 and he was yelling the whole time in it. Maybe he was just "still in character".
 
Everts said:
Imagine Bale jumping on Ophras couch and telling her:
Im gonna trash your lights ,are you a professional for Fak sake ?:)
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Or how about Bale jumping on Oprah's couch, decked out in full John Conner costume complete with assault rifle, and yelling the Danny Cannon Judge Dredd quote mentioned earlier:

"FEAR ME! FEAR ME! EVERYONE HERE SHOULD FEAR ME!!!!"

Oh, and in the ridiculously deep Batman voice.

Everts said:
The more I think of it the more I agree with what Bale did
Yesterday ofcourse I did not.
Somebody had to set the DP straight, who as a professional does this, doesn't it cost money to shoot on film you can afford to make silly mistakes.
Or be the cause of them.
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I agree that he had good cause to stop the crazy light tweakin' DP, but what I disagree with is the long and belittling tirade. No matter how stupid a mistake someone makes, unless it is something that endangers another, it is crossing the line to go that overboard.

Man, if I ever become a DP and get to work on big budget features, I will never entertain the thought of being a "middle-of-the-take light tweakin' freak".
 
Everts said:
The more I think of it the more I agree with what Bale did
Yesterday ofcourse I did not.
Somebody had to set the DP straight, who as a professional does this, doesn't it cost money to shoot on film you can afford to make silly mistakes.
Or be the cause of them.
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First of all, I don't think it is the actors job to yell at the DP or crew members, NOR to set them straight. If anything he says something while being calm, or talks to the director/AD. Second of all, no one should be yelled at like that unless they really screw up.... aka burning down a set (House of Wax) or loose entire rolls of shot film.

It does cost money to shoot film, but in this case that is not a factor of being upset. T4 has enough film stock to shoot the moon and then some. Plus Bale's salary is probably 10x or more, the cost to buy and process the film stock.

DP deserve to be told to stop futzing with the lights? Probably. Did it have to be from an asshole actor, for three minutes, infront of the entire crew? Probably not.
 
Ryan Patrick O'Hara said:
DP deserve to be told to stop futzing with the lights? Probably. Did it have to be from an asshole actor, for three minutes, infront of the entire crew? Probably not.
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This in a nutshell is what the whole fiasco really comes down to.

Now, can we get onto a new angle on this whole thing, namely why the hell is the DP tweakin' the lights in the middle of the take, unless it is for a specific lighting effect?
 
Although he is known as a light tweaker, I think the problem was that he was simply walking around the actors eye line looking at the lights. I don't think he was touching them. Plus DP's don't really touch the lighting that often. He was probably walking around looking at them and taking spot readings.

mY GUESS.
 
You ever see the clip of that Mexican guy and the Director of WAITING going at it on the set. That dude is a HUGE prick!

He's insistant on shooting the scene HIS way, and when the director says something he's like, "Who the f*** are you? Do you have any idea who I've worked with?"

You can youtube it.
 
Jim Brennan said:
"Kinski, compared with his previous outbreaks seemed rather mild"

nice.

I don't remember this clip in Burden of Dreams :grin:
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Check out Herzog's "My Best Fiend", Herzog's ode to Kinski. Kinski may have been crazy, but he was crazy GREAT as an actor. He turns in some of the best performances in film history while working with Herzog. Creating art is not for the faint hearted.

When I read a lot of the responses here I can't help but think about Freud's theory that what people can't stand in others is what they can't stand about themselves.
 
Ryan Patrick O'Hara said:
DP deserve to be told to stop futzing with the lights? Probably. Did it have to be from an asshole actor, for three minutes, infront of the entire crew? Probably not.
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But the director obviously wasn't dealing with the problem. At one point, Bale says "McG...you have anything to say to this prick?" He's calling out the director here and telling him it's his job to deal with stuff like this. I kind of find it hilarious that even on set, he's referred to as McG. I don't think I could call him that with a straight face.
 
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