All language subtitles for MasterClass Ron Howard Teaches Directing - 107 - Collaboration Part 1

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directors are meant to to sort of

dream the you know the movie or the the

episode or the short film or whatever

whatever it is and you know visualize

it um hear

it and that's all valuable that's a

that's a that's a level of preparation

that's

important and that's also a great sort

of

foundation

but I have discovered that if you try to

enforce that too rigidly you're you're

you're

losing uh all the

spontaneity uh and and the sort of

organic creativity that the people

around you have to

offer coming to that understanding was

was the beginning of a rule that I just

simply call the six of one rule six of

one half a dozen of another and that is

I believe that when you're working with

whether it's a cinematographer an actor

a writer a composer production designer

you know any of the the key you know

creative collaborators on a project that

your job as the Storyteller as the

Director as the You're The Keeper of the

story right uh your taste is ultimately

what's going to guide the production the

editing and the

outcome but if someone comes up with a

suggestion some talented person that

you've come to you know respect you

respect enough to hire them and they

come to you with a suggestion that that

they understand on an intuitive level on

an organic level if that if that choice

still achieves the objective the super

objective of the scene or the moment in

the

story um then it's much better to let

that person use their

choice and it accomplishes two important

things and my work really improved when

I began to understand this first it

invests those talented people in the

project um in a in a very important way

um the the other thing is it it develops

a kind of a trust it's much easier to

edit people's ideas and say no and not

have them be frustrated angry and close

down on you but instead respect you know

your thinking because they know you're

more than willing to say yes when

talented people know that you're more

than willing to say yes to their

suggestions they are also more sanguin

about accepting uh a No in fact they

like it it's liberating because then

then they don't have to really edit

their ideas with a sort of a God forbid

he he uses it and it doesn't work that's

gone that's no longer in the mix instead

they're free to sort of have this

dialogue going with you um the director

and they're excited about the fact that

you can edit that you can you know

exercise that

responsibility um that you have to make

those to make those choices for them

well you know my my work U improved now

there are great directors that don't

operate that way um um you know Charlie

Chaplain didn't listen to anyone um

cubrick was not much of a listener uh

there are others you know who who who

really you know they they they they they

they have a vision and they follow it

that's completely valid it just doesn't

happen to be the way I work I Revel in

the excitement of the collaboration I I

think it provides all of us not just me

with a kind of um creative safety net

but more than that um you know it's just

it just it energizes um a set in in a

great way sometimes you know you it uh

you know it threatens your schedule if

you're not careful which is a reason to

be really prepared and be very efficient

so that you're always making room for

these moments where a good idea that is

a little bit of a game changer um is uh

is presented and you have the

opportunity to either try it as an

alternate or direct the scene in that

way in a new way um and um you know it's

very exciting for everybody and I've had

a lot of scenes um and uh entire movies

benefit from that those kinds of

adjustments one of the keys to

collaboration I discovered

is that early on in the process of

directing the movie or the television

show um you you have this

opportunity to engage with your heads of

Department um writers sure producers

absolutely um even uh studio and network

Executives but you you have you have you

have these these these um hours days

sometimes where you're you're you're

you're trying to start to deal with the

logistics of of the project you're going

on location Scouts you're looking at

storyboards you're analyzing production

schedules you'd think that's all kind of

uh hard work and and just kind of the

meat and potatoes of you know of

launching a project but it's a fantastic

opportunity to elevate it creatively

because you're trapped you're problem

solving and when you're problem solving

it always raises questions and sure some

of them are logistic are logistical in

nature but it always comes back to the

the creative because every decision

you're going to make

informs the the the the the story story

is is King and there's this sort of the

overarching understanding of the story

and then the details underneath it that

are are going to make it possible for

you to execute and maximize the

possibilities of that story well when

you begin talking about not just the

location but the themes what what the

location might mean to the characters

what does the location and the

characters say to the audience how does

that relate to the Thematic values of

the story where is the potential and

that helps you begin to Define your

choices and it also engages you in a

conversation with people like your

production designer um like your editor

like your cinematographer like your

composer that are going to have a huge

uh broad impact on the movie and they

begin to make suggestions what do you

guys think what would be best and that

conversation um Can often inspire you as

the filmmaker to make decisions which

are um maybe surprise you and and

continue this process of Discovery and

that's what fuels the inspiration and it

keeps the you know the project fresh

because the choices that you make on the

dubbing stage the very very end after

two years of working on a movie when you

might just be you ought to be exhausted

and entirely sick of the of the project

in fact can you know

re-energize um your sense of inspiration

and possibility uh for that for that

project because it says something about

the characters it communicates to the

audience in a way that

reinforces the themes that inspired you

at the very very beginning to even take

on the

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project the idea of working in threes is

something that I learned through a very

good friend of mine George Lucas who had

a mentor of his own Aira kurasawa and I

I was in Japan publicizing Willow a

movie that I directed for for George

Lucas um and was invited to this this

dinner with the great Aira kurasawa and

one of the things that he began talking

about was working in teams of three and

he believed in the power of that

triangle um for a very simple practical

reason was that ideas could quickly be

voted in or out odd numbers work could

be three could be five seven probably

gets a little unwieldy but I have found

over the years that uh three passionate

focused people uh trying to address a

problem often come up with you know a

wider array of options faster the movie

Parenthood uh was a great example of

that that was my original idea again

Brian graser as producer myself

directing the writers were L Gans and

babalo Mandel now that you'd think

that's um you know sort of uh uh um

undercuts the idea of the tripod

triangle

but they're they're very unified in

their thinking so I think we can count

them as one voice they're the writer we

were all

contributing um experiences of raising

kids and of being kids and evaluating

what was funny and that was one of the

most challenging screenplays ever to

solve because it seems very very simple

on the surface but in fact it's kind of

a matrix of four uh different stories

and Ensemble um tonally it shifts from

being very serious to very funny um and

um and it tries to in a comprehensive

way sort of explore the whole um process

of being a parent it it uh we we failed

with

drafts uh many times until we finally

clicked with you know the script that

was undeniable and a lot of that came

out of just hours and hours and hours of

kicking around ideas and discussing the

the um you know the the strengths and

weaknesses of the of the idea and the

new

possibilities and I I just think that

that kind

of um creative problem solving really

sustains the that sense of inspiration

because director's job is to maximize

the the potential of a story to fulfill

the possibilities that a story offers

and you know it it it it it

really really get serious during that

screenplay process and and especially

the rewrites uh of that screenplay and

when

collaborators begin contributing in that

way it's it's incredibly

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exciting A Beautiful Mind

was such an inspired ingenious way to

look at the tragedy of of mental illness

and um and and the

Triumph of the the possibility that

mental illness could be

overcome but as I went into it I really

thought of it you know more as an

examination of the

disease and AA goldsman the

screenwriter presented the

characters um the imaginary characters

as real I thought that was very

interesting but I didn't understand a

way to

suggest to the audience that we didn't

fully understand John Nash played by

Russell

Crow and AKA who not only had this

ingenious notion of these characters

that were more or less like ghosts his

his hallucinations we were meant to

believe in and then have the rug pulled

out from under us uh as as we

you know kind of understand that our own

reality can't be trusted just as John

Nash can't trust his reality we did

something

else something called affa in that

schizophrenics um um have to have to

cope with and um uh Kea goldsman both

parents uh

psychiatrists uh of course well informed

on the subject suggested that I look at

some documentary footage and I began to

study some of the behaviors of um people

um you know dealing with schizophrenia

uh and other mental um

disorders and I I sat down with

AKA Russell

Crow uh and it was myself so there's a

triangle and we were just looking at

these at the screen out of that

conversation came the possibility that

we could play very fair with the

audience if we would choose some of

those AFF effects and minimize them in

the first act so that we just think that

he's a lovable quirky

guy um but Russell got very excited

about what he could do with him is he

would he would identify a few that he

was comfortable with that he knew he

could work with and then gradually

exaggerate them and then by the time we

know that that um his illness is

full-blown and we're all aware of it

it's the same affect only now they're

beginning to look the way you know it

was looking in that documentary to me I

had one where he would he would sort of

like rub his eye and in the beginning he

just did it kind of cute and later it

was almost like he was hurting himself

and that was an idea that was born

completely out of you know a triangular

creative conversation that was really

just what do a effects look like and it

developed into this this um you know

foundational idea that I could work with

as a director and Russell Crow could

build upon as an actor