Old Tropes

In January of 2010, I attended Werner Herzog’s first Rogue Film School. Nothing I can tell you in prose will make sense. I’ll just sound grandiose and a bit ridiculous. Prose is a secondary medium, lacking the primal impact of hearing Herzog’s voice and feeling the air move around his conviction. I even found it almost impossible to take notes. Not because the experience was rambling, but because I already knew many of the things he said and yet discovered them all over again.

So I’ll just leave you with select quotes and thoughts from each day. Reading this again, it all rings true all over again; not that I agree with everything, but that he’s a living example of conviction and the pursuit of truth in his art.

January 9, 2010

There is something I have to tell you, it’s utterly rogue, and it has to do with the heart of man.

Go out where real life is. Make a living at the bottom of where life is, not an office job. Get a job as a bouncer in a sex club.

Sense the moral borderline when making your film.

There is such a thing as a “natural right” as a filmmaker if you have a clear story. Destiny.

Ultimately, filmmaking is outside all religion because you are the creator.

Write a story with all urgency. Without it, the audience won't feel it.

Sundance is pretty vile and debased.

Filmmakers are not historians. We are storytellers. If something is not documented, invent it.

The real art is to be ruthless with your research.

There are more important things than movies.

Unless you're doing a film with digital effects, storyboards are a tool of cowards who are not comfortable on set.

Film from an Iranian filmmaker: Where is the house of my friend?

David R. Griffith: greatest American filmmaker.

Freaks by Todd Browning.

Gorgics, translated by Ferry.

There is a certain dialectic of defeat.

The chain of defeats originated into something because I had taken the initiative.

There is always a market that will reject you.

The nature of the market is that it doesn't want you.

It’s initiative and solitude. You have to have the nerve to be alone.

I do not allow the quest for aesthetics on my set.

Tarnation: made for $260.

January 10, 2010

If you lose your curiosity or searching from your life, you will become stale and will stop being a filmmaker.

Look beyond the facts. They do not constitute truth.

You have to absorb massive defeats and move on.

I never thought about motivation for a character or “building an antagonist”. I have a story and I tell it.

Final cut is a myth. The only real final cut is if you’re doing your own thing, dependent on no one else. Final cut belongs to the test audience.

Understand what kind of fears are behind contracts.

January 11, 2010

I articulate images within you. A ship over a mountain is ordinary because it resonates with many people. The ship is a metaphor, of what I do not know.

Letting video run is a childhood disease you need to leave behind. Be disciplined and be a director.

I never let anybody to be in the eyeline of the actors.

Do not replay a take on a video screen. It's a false security “does it look good.” Be confident and know when to move on.

The climate on the set always translates into the film.

Anyone who appears on the screen is not a star, but royalty. Even extras.

Follow your fascination and meet people and something will come of it.

Physical courage goes hand in hand with spiritual courage.

The Ascent, by Shipitko, Russian filmmaker.