Stephen Mick
Totally Usable
Welcome to the first in a series of online Q&As we like to call "UserTalks." Each month (or so) we'll offer up a new interview with someone from the indie filmmaking universe. This time around, we're talking with Jay Duplass, who along with his brother Mark have created some of film's most interesting characters in the last decade. Enjoy!
Bio
Jay Duplass, along with his brother Mark, first made a name for himself writing and directing several award-winning short films. His first feature film was the Sundance 2005 breakout hit "The Puffy Chair," which went on to win the Audience Award at SXSW and receive two Independent Spirit Award nominations. The film was released theatrically by Roadside Attractions and Netflix in 2006. "Baghead," the brothers' second feature film, was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics at Sundance 2008 for theatrical and DVD release. In 2010, Fox Searchlight released the Duplass Brothers' first studio feature, "Cyrus," starring John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill and Marisa Tomei, which has garnered rave reviews. Their film "Jeff, Who Lives at Home," with Jason Segal, Ed Helms, and Susan Sarandon, was released in 2011. The Duplass Brothers' latest project, "Togetherness," is a series currently in production for HBO. Jay is also a father, husband, runner and documentarian.
Links
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0243231/
Q&A
1. How does your creative process work? Where do you get started, and how do you and Mark work together in the initial concept and script-writing stages? Mark's and my process really begins with us being brothers and spending time together and talking about life and the things that are happening to us and our friends. We tell each other stories constantly, which eventually evolves into movie scripts.
2. You guys have a unique storytelling style and point of view. How did you find your aesthetic, and how do you feel its evolved over the years? This sounds pretentious, but the aesthetic really finds you. I think if you set out to find or create an aesthetic, you're just going to copy someone else's (even if just subconsciously). It was luck that I started filming Mark documentary-style doing embarrassing things that were drawn from our own lives, and that Sundance started playing those films, and that people loved them. That first film was made for $3 in our dumpy austin apartment in 2002, but it defined what is now considered our "aesthetic."
3. How do you manage to stay true to your creative aesthetic, even as you take on bigger and bigger projects? You are constantly asked to shift your aesthetic or your truth, so staying true is just a compass that you always have in your hand. It's the only way to navigate because the night is always cloudy and you can hardly ever see the horizon. So you just stay true to yourself, and that sort of makes everything easier.
4. You guys have talked before about using multiple cameras on-set. Why is that an important tool for your work, and does it complicate your jobs as directors, or make things easier? Shooting multiple cameras makes lighting harder, but it makes story and acting better from our perspective, because we are interested in real moments between people that truly only happen once. In other aesthetics, that level of truth isn't necessary. But for us, we believe the truth of the moment is the best thing we have to offer. So if it happens once, and then you have to turn the lighting around and re-start that moment hours later, it never feels as true for us a second time.
5. What has been the biggest adjustment (both positive and negative) in moving from bootstrapped indie productions into large studio productions? Honestly there are more bootstraps and pitfalls in studio filmmaking, especially for the intimate and fairly small-scoped films we make. But the biggest adjustment is simply that you no longer get to hand make your movie. You have to articulate your desires to other people who hand make your movie. Most indie directors think they want that, but to me, talking and repeating the same things over and over again is way less fun than making something with your hands.
6. How have forums and sites like DVXUser helped you guys over the years, and what are the most important things young filmmakers today can learn from them? We've used DVXUser countless times mostly for technical help. But community is what filmmaking is all about, and these forums help us all do what we want to do better by providing context and support.
Bio
Jay Duplass, along with his brother Mark, first made a name for himself writing and directing several award-winning short films. His first feature film was the Sundance 2005 breakout hit "The Puffy Chair," which went on to win the Audience Award at SXSW and receive two Independent Spirit Award nominations. The film was released theatrically by Roadside Attractions and Netflix in 2006. "Baghead," the brothers' second feature film, was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics at Sundance 2008 for theatrical and DVD release. In 2010, Fox Searchlight released the Duplass Brothers' first studio feature, "Cyrus," starring John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill and Marisa Tomei, which has garnered rave reviews. Their film "Jeff, Who Lives at Home," with Jason Segal, Ed Helms, and Susan Sarandon, was released in 2011. The Duplass Brothers' latest project, "Togetherness," is a series currently in production for HBO. Jay is also a father, husband, runner and documentarian.
Links
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0243231/
Q&A
1. How does your creative process work? Where do you get started, and how do you and Mark work together in the initial concept and script-writing stages? Mark's and my process really begins with us being brothers and spending time together and talking about life and the things that are happening to us and our friends. We tell each other stories constantly, which eventually evolves into movie scripts.
2. You guys have a unique storytelling style and point of view. How did you find your aesthetic, and how do you feel its evolved over the years? This sounds pretentious, but the aesthetic really finds you. I think if you set out to find or create an aesthetic, you're just going to copy someone else's (even if just subconsciously). It was luck that I started filming Mark documentary-style doing embarrassing things that were drawn from our own lives, and that Sundance started playing those films, and that people loved them. That first film was made for $3 in our dumpy austin apartment in 2002, but it defined what is now considered our "aesthetic."
3. How do you manage to stay true to your creative aesthetic, even as you take on bigger and bigger projects? You are constantly asked to shift your aesthetic or your truth, so staying true is just a compass that you always have in your hand. It's the only way to navigate because the night is always cloudy and you can hardly ever see the horizon. So you just stay true to yourself, and that sort of makes everything easier.
4. You guys have talked before about using multiple cameras on-set. Why is that an important tool for your work, and does it complicate your jobs as directors, or make things easier? Shooting multiple cameras makes lighting harder, but it makes story and acting better from our perspective, because we are interested in real moments between people that truly only happen once. In other aesthetics, that level of truth isn't necessary. But for us, we believe the truth of the moment is the best thing we have to offer. So if it happens once, and then you have to turn the lighting around and re-start that moment hours later, it never feels as true for us a second time.
5. What has been the biggest adjustment (both positive and negative) in moving from bootstrapped indie productions into large studio productions? Honestly there are more bootstraps and pitfalls in studio filmmaking, especially for the intimate and fairly small-scoped films we make. But the biggest adjustment is simply that you no longer get to hand make your movie. You have to articulate your desires to other people who hand make your movie. Most indie directors think they want that, but to me, talking and repeating the same things over and over again is way less fun than making something with your hands.
6. How have forums and sites like DVXUser helped you guys over the years, and what are the most important things young filmmakers today can learn from them? We've used DVXUser countless times mostly for technical help. But community is what filmmaking is all about, and these forums help us all do what we want to do better by providing context and support.
