Original subtitles

Once my mother got in a car and had an argument, not a serious one with my

father, and she just drove away for three days. No one knew where she was.

it turned out all she'd done is checked into a motel and sat with the door

bolted, very frightened, on the bed.

Those were things I never forgot.

And most writers go wrong from the beginning because they haven't selected

things to themselves that they really care about.

You're an idiot.

I feel that there should be a buffer period where the actor and director work

any number of ways, so that they uncover some things before they've committed it

to film. In a sense, there should be a little growth period where the actor is

allowed to experiment and feel out what he's going to do before he commits to

it. Because once he commits to it on film, it's forever.

The most important thing about acting that I'm starting to learn is that...

problem you have with actors, probably 90 % of those problems, deal with the

fact that the actor feels very uncomfortable with the work he's doing

insecure about it. And you can solve more problems with actors by trying to

to the root of the insecurity and in some way doing something about it than

telling him off or any of the obvious panaceas to any of those problems.

I felt that if I'm taking this group of people across the country for four

months and they don't like making movies, they're going to be very

And if they're unhappy, it's no good for them and it's no good for me.

Francis talked to me about the project and everything.

I could not possibly foresee all the things that were going to happen.

Could we do a little, a little, is this so inappropriate that it would be really

cool? Could the next thing be the bride's mother dancing with the groom?

No. Could that happen? I know.

All right, action.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to have the bride and groom dance their

first dance as Mr. and Mrs.

Goodman.

But it looked pretty bad and a number of times in there right in the beginning

and I was acting very irresponsibly I mean I was committing all my personal

money such as it is Into the film with no guarantee that we were going to make

the film so I stood to lose everything It's not too much because you know I

figure if you're not willing to risk some money when you're young Then you're

certainly not going to ever risk anything in the years that follow

It's very often an actor and a director could argue about some little moment in

a scene when really what they're arguing about is more fundamental is that they

disagree on the scene itself or they disagree on some other bigger thing.

It blows it for you to disappear and then run around. There is no scene.

It is a naughty problem, but it's important only to you.

Well, that's like all those movies that are made in Hollywood, and everybody

says nobody will notice. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is there is

an objective to a scene, and if a purse is going to blow the objective of the

scene, then we shouldn't have a purse.

You're only going to stay in some place for a tentative amount of time. You're

always figuring on leaving shortly there, right? I think it's very small.

not the problem.

There's no problem to any scene.

There is no problem to any scene.

And in no circumstance is it not like those movies where that gets me mad.

It does, Shirley, because I sit on my ass for three days without shooting a

of film.

I ask, I give people a chance to rehearse and to talk about sequences,

back into Warner Brothers. We've got enough to film after two days. You know,

everything I've done is to make it not be like that.

No, it's not me. It's the whole thing. We're sitting out here just... Okay.

Let's just try this last one.

Right.

He doesn't like the secrets. He doesn't like, you know, when she's not... You

know, everything is wrong about it. You know, you couple that with this physical

location of being... You know, I just get brain -tied.

At least she gets something special, you know.

This film cannot be good unless she's good.

You know, on one hand, I don't want to indulge her because I think it's

destructive to her and her results. And on the other hand, I don't want to hurt

her when she has to, you know, what she's going to do. So it's an incredible

dilemma.

I guess I'm too much like her or something, you know, like I... I find it

difficult to just sort of stay there and be the anchor, you know, when I see my

world come to me.

But you get so impatient with the technicalities. I'm trying to simplify

technicalities. I've told you that in some of the sequences, I'm not even

the sheet coverage, but this is not... That place. This is a moment that I went

for. Maybe I shouldn't go for this kind of stuff, but that's the style of the

film. Sitting on a couple of ticklish things. I've got something over there

going. I've got something over here going. I don't know which... Now I'm

to start just becoming selfish and just make everyone please me. I'm trying to

please everyone.

There's nothing I want more than to please you.

Nothing I want more to make the people who are working on it feel like they're

working for me. But when do I start getting pleased?

Well, you know what it amounts to. Had I known... this or had they told me,

because I called the guild right away about this problem, or he would have had

to say, look, if you're going to be working out of the East, get a man out

the East and then you'll be okay. But they didn't tell me that. So it's almost

as though they knew I'd have to have two men. And they knew that I was fighting

for... Well, I don't think they handled it right because basically I'm just a

nuisance. I mean, it's like a stupid little movie that doesn't amount to

And they're looking at me as someone who might break a couple of precedents. I'm

not even trying to. All I want to do is get the film going.

Well, you can imagine Warner Brothers financing a picture when they haven't

the script and they don't even know who the hell the people are in it on. They

think it's a ridiculous thing. They only let me do it because they like the

other picture.

Today, you just don't need as many guys.

And that's the whole point. I'm not ever saying to exploit people in terms...

Well, the thing is that these guys like Waldo and a lot of others, a lot of my

friends who are ready to make films, who are watching very carefully to see...

if their problems can be made within the establishment, because they'll just

make it without it. They'll just make it the way Warhol does. And there's no way

any yield or union can stop them. The point is that some of the most

guys working, the younger guys, don't even want to be a part of it. And I

that's a serious danger, because what do you do if suddenly 15 of the best

Americans don't want to be part of the BGA or the IRA?

There's no legal way that anyone can make them join.

I yell and rant a lot, but I'm not doing it personally.

I'm doing it at the ideas involved. I'm just trying to make the film.

No, I understand that from the point of view of your responsibilities to the

guild, that's one thing, but my responsibilities are equally to the

I feel like I'm on the verge of saying, fellas, all jump in the lake. I'm going

to make the movie now, unless you can get the police.

to come and stop me from shooting, because I don't need Warner Bros. I

Warner Bros. can waltz out on the deal, and I've got the money to make the film,

unless you can get the police, the state troopers to come and tell me to stop.

There's nothing you can do, because there's no law against making a movie,

don't need the unions, because I know the guys who can make the picture just

well, and in some instances better, than the craftsmen who are unionized. An

inequitable system falls by its own weight.

You look at history...

It's going to fall by its own weight.

It cannot fail to.

What happened is not only did the directors of Guild make me take one of

standard assistant directors, who I might add, nothing against him because

was a lovely guy. He didn't know what we were doing because he was trained in

another kind of filmmaking.

Bart was the kind of guy who knew how to do this.

Not only that, when I got to New York...

These son -of -a -guns told me that I had to take a backup assistant director

because we were out of that jurisdiction. I almost shot myself.

You know, there were so many problems in putting things together that when we

finally more or less had done it and were ready to make the film, I was

I wasn't ready to be creative or get any ideas.

Now, you set up, you know, on 40th Street or something like that, 10th

You just whipped into the tunnel, and by the time they nail you, you're at the

toll booth, and then the shot's over.

It really irritates me.

It seems that, you know, the more you give, the more they want out of you.

That's true.

It's the same of a crew.

I'm getting old.

Once we left New York City, everybody had to get a haircut and shave their

beards off, primarily because we had to get the cooperation of the various

cities and towns that we'd go through in order to be able to shoot.

When Francis shaved his beard off, it was unrecognizable.

Going across the country the way we were, it was vital that everybody stay

contact because nobody knew where we were going to end up at the end of the

So we had to have some kind of communication between cars, and it

created a lot more problems than it solved because everybody was constantly

getting lost and going out of range, and everybody talked all at once all the

time.

we would hit an area and then to learn as much as we could about the area in as

quick a period of time as I would charter a light plane.

And very often the fellow who flew this plane knew the area. We'd fly around and

say, well, that's the so -and -so such -and -such. And over there in 1927 was

the great granite rock riots. And we uncovered lots of interesting things by

using that technique.

Just at the point where I got there, when I was being offered literally

fortunes, is when I went off to make this film. So a lot of people thought I

really nuts.

They said to me, take the money while it's being offered to you, and then you

make your own personal movies.

And there's a lot of sense to that, except the world is filled with guys who

said, well, I'm going to make the money and then make the personal films, and

somehow they never get around to doing it.

The casting philosophy was to use the people that were at hand. And while we

couldn't find a truck driver that was readily accessible, I was cast in the

part. So I ran down and I got a crew cut and I jumped into some old clothes.

And I had a tattoo painted on my arm. They learned how to drive a truck in a

very short time. And we went out and did the scene.

131, take five.

That's WCAW World Wide News from Charleston, West Virginia at 7 o 'clock.

Is he rolling?

Yeah, I'm rolling.

Is the camera rolling?

It's rolling. It's rolling.

It's rolling.

It's rolling.

It's rolling.

It's rolling.

It's rolling.

There was just no one to lay the garbage on, is what it amounted to. So the

garbage sort of fell on everybody a little bit all the time.

George, why don't you use an exposure meter?

One of the more difficult aspects that they don't teach you about in film

is that if you're making a film on location, you're usually away from

friends, and it helps if one could bring one's family.

Fortunately, Francis was able to bring his family along on the trip across the

country.

I think they enjoyed the adventure of the trip and everything that was going

What are you doing, Matilda?

I came to see you.

I wish you could stay out a minute.

Well, hi.

Oh, that's very kind of you.

Ellen. Ellen, they've come all the way from New York.

Well, this is a boy from school, Mom.

Killer? Hey. Bye.

Often, the cameraman and the director do not see eye to eye on how they want to

shoot something.

They ask you if the shot is good, and they give you two seconds. You have to

have an answer right now.

And if it's no good, you have to have a reason for why it's no good.

We're going to get out of here at 4 o 'clock. We're in a hurry, fellas.

Wild track, Chattanooga, parade, May 17th.

May 17th, the rain people.

We heard that they were going to have an Arms Sports Day parade in Chattanooga,

and we decided to rewrite the scene to kind of be able to take place there,

which was sort of in the spirit of the whole production.

I just had a terrible case of the flu and I was in bed and Ronnie Colby and

had to come in and drag me out of bed because I didn't want to shoot the

I'm glad we did because I think it integrates with the film in a very

interesting way.

But I ran to that Greyhound bus terminal about 40 times and didn't get into the

men's room. In fact, I was there so many times that I got the idea to end the

scene in the Greyhound bus terminal.

The coach was bound for St. Louis.

I didn't go. Greyhound 5 is not reporting.

in zone four.

Passengers on this coach walk right west.

Please reclaim your seats.

Coach not holding in zone four.

Are you publicizing me?

vehicles and we had very few vehicles so there really wasn't much room for

changing around from car to car and people sort of formed groups and always

drove in that group.

God knows what went on in the other cars.

Our car was in the asthma of psychotherapy.

Well, the incident at the ferry was, there was this cat running his ferry,

you know, I had to respect that. That was his thing, and he didn't want us on

his ferry.

And this guy had put me through the thing of going through the local

and then through the Coast Guard and then through, I guess, the Attorney

of the state, and finally I had to get the state police down there, and it was

whole thing of...

I suppose a fundamental lack of communication.

The biggest job that...

director of photography has is to make a total unit starting from the beginning

to the end of a picture and have the look on the screen from the beginning to

the end that he wants it's it's maybe not so difficult to get one sensational

shot look at that look at that where

are they

is i tried as honestly as i i could to deal with certain themes certain human

situations and i made a film out of it nobody would ever made that film when i

make a good film i mean a beautiful film i guess that's my ambition to make a

truly beautiful human film uh i'll know it and then i might be very pompous

about it i don't know but i haven't yet and i know that

This archaic means of swinging a single microphone around the set in this modern

electronic age still seems to be the best way of doing a sound job.

The kind of single viewpoint the camera lens gives you, this one microphone

being used correctly, duplicates that best.

The fox is working on the rabbit.

Really what I'm involved in when it comes right down to it, mostly is just

providing something for the camera to point at.

When I do sets, I'm really doing the same thing that I used to do in my

backyard, build little towns and model airplanes.

You know, I'm doing the same thing that I used to get spanked for staying out

late doing.

A good dolly track is nothing more than laying a good floor.

When a camera is panning, that has to be level in all directions so that his

camera doesn't choke during the pan shot.

I would compare it more or less to dancing.

It's very well to give your actors marks and make marks for your dollies, but if

your actor misses his mark, you've got to miss proportionately to keep the

in focus.

And then there was this thing of a patch. Well, we put on a patch, which

official state trooper patch of Nebraska.

And one day we were requesting police assistance so that we wouldn't tie up

traffic or have any accidents on the highways.

And down came this police captain.

And he objected to our use of this patch.

It's a big thing of identity, and I feel that if a patch, of course, you know,

takes over such strong symbolism, you know, there's a little bit of trouble

there sometimes.

I hate night shooting. No one ever sleeps in the day, and you just stay up

night, and you're tired, and you feel weak, and you don't know what you're

doing, you don't know what you're saying, and yet it looks real, and so I

want to fake it. I just may not write any more nights in the night.

and just had gotten hysterical. No one knew what they were doing, and it was

late, and no one had slept during the day, and it was near the end of the

picture, and everyone wanted to get out of Ogallala, and it was just sort of on

the verge of insanity.

You really know how to make pictures after you've been through a few of these

little films.

You can work 20 years on the thing.

$10 million pictures, but on a small film, there's no expert to learn from,

it's trial and error, but I believe in the long run, if you're going to learn

motion pictures, that's the only way you're going to learn it.

There's more nourishment in a good film than in a box of Wheaties.

Obviously, the concept of filmmaker, of a man who's vitally interested in every

phase of filmmaking, is as interested in photography as he is in music and

editing. And although he may not do all of these things himself, he works very

closely with the people who do, and he is capable of doing much of this work.

On any given moment of film, there are certain truths in that film that are

impregnated in it, and that's a fact.

And it doesn't matter what you thought you wrote, and it doesn't matter what

thought you planned, all you got is what really you got.

So it's all really one thing. It's not writing, directing, and editing. It's

really three phases of filmmaking.

And the writing, to me, and the editorial are the most pleasant, because

it's just you and the material, so to speak, and the other thing is you're

constantly the target.

of being shot at i didn't used to think that because i used to think oh how

wonderful being the big cheese on a film and doing everything and being the boss

and that's that i i never enjoy making the film i never have and uh that sort

disillusioned me like i'd be a lot of fun but i now really enjoy writing a lot

and and now i'm just on the verge of starting to write another original

screenplay i really i feel good about that i feel like i'm really looking

forward to it

Did we just get away with this?

You know, we can bring him in.

Bring him in early.

We could.

Did you make the changes?

Yeah, that worked good.

I went back to the zoom in on the note from the car.

That's what... Yeah,

I'm perfectly willing to...

totally throw out the structure that was in the script. I wanted to get a little

closer to working like it would have worked. And we made any number of

mean, the possibilities are infinite.

I saw four great openings, you know, kind of thing.

A whole beginning section before all of the stuff.

No, the beginning section is still as screwed up and amorphous as it was. But

personally this time saw it,

you know.

50 times too long, but I mean, it's very simple. There's some beautiful moments.

The film, it intrigues me. I thought I was going to really be depressed and

unhappy about it.

You know, like I was when I saw Big Boy.

I'm less depressed than I was when I saw Big Boy, but the same thing I feel.

When I saw Big Boy, I felt, well, it doesn't have any rhythm. It doesn't

it doesn't, there's a lot of scenes, a lot of things. It doesn't have a thing.

This intrigued me more.

It has some awful stuff in it. I mean, there's some really awful scenes.

What do you mean, awful?

Just bad stuff.

Bad? Yeah, but there's some terrific stuff in it. You know, it's going to be

long time until we get this thing done, as I see it.

But there's really some interesting things.

Oh, look, it's something I don't know where it came from.