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in the last maybe decade six seven 8

years I've begun a process of uh

collecting not just a style book but

also a research

reel I'll I'll find everything around a

subject that I possibly can or I'll send

a researcher out to do the same thing

and we build a reel they could be scenes

from movies they could be documentaries

they could be TV interviews they could

they could be still photographs um I'll

ask the various department heads

wardrobe production design props to take

their best research photos and put them

on the walls very often I put them on

the walls near where the kitchen is in

the the production office um and because

you know or the bathroom or both so that

nobody can walk to the kitchen or the

bathroom without kind of um immersing

themselves in the possibilities for this

story it's a discussion point and very

often the production designer will be

walking down the hall I'll crisscross

with him or her and we'll stop and say

oh look at this and it's a it's a scene

that somehow might answer a question as

to how we might approach a particular

scene and then very o very often the

next question is I wonder how they did

that or I wonder how we could do that

and that starts another level of

research if we don't you know

automatically know through our own

experience of what kind of set we would

need to build what kind of environment

we might need what sort of uh camera

work was going on there was it uh you

know what was the camera speed what was

the stock that was being used if it was

film um what was done in the DI if it

was digital um you know how much of that

is computer generated uh or real in

camera effects how could we do it how

can we relate that to the problems that

we want to solve creatively and a lot of

great conversations come out of it and

it gets back to that idea of everyone

slowly but

surely pulling in the same direction and

as that happens during

pre-production as you have this

conversation about the script about the

locations about the casting about what

they might look like about the schedule

all of

it provides the director an opportunity

to say

yes that works for our

story or maybe be convinced by somebody

that there's another way of looking at a

scene that the director hadn't thought

of and everybody agrees suddenly now

everybody's pulling in the same

direction what happens then

is the the the quality of the questions

and suggestions that come a director's

way just it you know exponentially

improves because there's a

cohesiveness about it there's a shared

point of view there's a there's a

there's a sort of a group intellect at

work um and um it doesn't supersede the

director's Vision it only reinforces it

um and broadens it and uh it's very

exciting but a lot of it comes back to

problemsolving research which feels kind

of mechanical and ultimately

stimulates a creative

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conversation when I

directed Robert dairo in Backdraft which

was fiction but I wanted the the

environment to be as realistic and

authentic as it could be I'd never

really been exposed to thorough

arduous uh

research just hadn't hadn't grown up

with it and

Robert dairo came in playing a fire

investigator it was only a four-week

role for him it was it was almost a

cameo um' been very well paid we were

delighted thrilled to have Robert dairo

in our movie I was working hard on that

screenplay the logistics were

challenging and even dangerous you know

the the the the fire was a huge threat

in fact uh to all of us and Robert dairo

was very unusual in my mind in terms of

the way he approached his role and um it

took place in Chicago he's a New Yorker

he wanted to meet some fire

investigators

he he met three meanwhile we were riding

around on fire trucks and kind of

getting a general sense of it he was

drilling down and he he had he had one

fire investigator read all the lines and

and also analyze whether they were

authentic or not and there were some

some areas where we' made some mistakes

and we we fixed those

another one had a cocky attitude and

kind of a sense of humor another one had

a very particular sound uh kind of an

accent and a way of

standing and I couldn't quite follow

what Robert Dair was doing but I trusted

it and on day one when we were shooting

I realized that he wasn't just creating

he wasn't just counting on himself as

some sort of you know um

conjurer he was basically a mirror and

he had used this this research even in

this supporting role to give the

audience um sense of the truth as he

chose to interpret it he was more

interpreter than he was conjurer or

Creator but he took the posture and the

sound from one guy the attitude of

another the meticulous nature of the

third fire investigator and you know and

sort of ran it through the Robert dairo

filter

and it you know and it rang true for him

and worked very well for the the movie

and was very very detailed and specific

and at that point in my career I I was

afraid of doing a story based on real

events but a few years later when I was

doing Apollo 13 I really thought a lot

about Robert dairo and how much

creativity was generated out of that

research that the creativity was his

interpretation and and I thought that

could be applied to directing any story

fact or fiction but certainly one based

on real events and I threw myself into

that kind of meticulous research I

encouraged the actors to on Apollo 13 it

changed the script it changed the way I

shot scenes it changed the dialogue and

it and I think it it it made it a movie

that really resonates with audiences and

I began to understand how on

a on a on a subtle

level that that kind of attention to

detail really really matters to to movie

goers and um and perhaps that's not

something that I've learned back in

Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show you

know uh that's that may be you know

that's that's a a much more

sophisticated and thorough way of

looking at tell telling the story it

again it doesn't supersede inspiration

excitement emotion you know it's very

emotional medium but it reinforces all

that if it's done and done well so I've

come to really appreciate the value of

uh of of deep

research research offers so many

suggestions um uh you know you learn a

lot about the characters so you have a

lot to offer actors um you uh details

that you know that become very very

specific they also suggest ways of

shooting scenes you know like um the

idea of maybe um using details let's say

you're doing a period piece and um you

you do a little bit of research and you

begin to understand the way phones

worked in say 1905 it's quite different

um and suddenly that's a possibility for

audiences in in in 2017 to find

something amusing well that that could

that could skew a scene if you decide to

begin say on an insert of a phone and

the way they have to answer it and it's

a party line or something like that

launches a scene in a way that's very

unexpected and let's say there's

eventually supposed to be a dramatic

turn in that scene well if you can begin

it with a little bit of of organic humor

and then suddenly you know shift into a

dramatic moment well you've you've

changed the Dynamics of that scene and

it's a little more surprising and

therefore a little more engrossing and

where did that come from it came out of

research and fascination with something

like a telephone and that is endless

that's what preparation is all about

preparation is about broadening your

understanding of the

things the factors that can influence

the story and broaden the possibilities

of that story