Filmmaking tips from a legend - Interview with Francis Ford Coppola

[Andrew Reid]

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[img]http://www.eoshd.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Coppola-Godfather-BTS.jpg[/img]

THREE RULES

1) Write and direct original screenplays

2) Make them with the most modern technology available

3) Self-finance them

EOSHD takes a look at Francis Ford Coppola’s approach to filmmaking with the help of [url="http://the99percent.com/articles/6973/Francis-Ford-Coppola-On-Risk-Money-Craft-Collaboration"]the 99%[/url]

[url="http://www.eoshd.com/content/8093/filmmaking-tips-from-a-legend-interview-with-francis-ford-coppola/"]Read full article[/url]

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[FilmMan]

Agree with the article.  My thoughts on the same level.

[Andrew Reid]

That an artist of his ability can emphasise with an aspiring filmmaker, after nearly 50 years in the business, is great. The mark of a true artist is his ability to connect with an audience and he does so, his films do so... Well his earlier ones anyway. I think Sofia has been producing the better stuff for the last 10 years. What was the theme of The Godfather again? Ah... Succession.

[moebius22]

[quote]At the end of your career is it best to have a load of zeros on the end of your bank balance or to have lived and to have made great films?[/quote]

Joseph Kahn said this at my college when he was talking about his film [i]Detention[/i].

[HurtinMinorKey]

Great article!

[Tim McC]

Excellent article!  Your commentary is as insightful and useful as Coppola's, maybe even more so...

BTW, that's Gordon Willis, the cinematographer of the Godfather films, pointing something out to Mr. Coppola in the first pic, to anyone who didn't know.  Coppola really is listening to and learning from his cinematographer!  That indeed is collaboration of the most fruitful kind.

[Andrew Reid]

[quote author=fugue_state1 link=topic=728.msg5381#msg5381 date=1337108689]
Excellent article!  Your commentary is as insightful and useful as Coppola's, maybe even more so...

BTW, that's Gordon Willis, the cinematographer of the Godfather films, pointing something out to Mr. Coppola in the first pic, to anyone who didn't know.  Coppola really is listening to and learning from his cinematographer!  That indeed is collaboration of the most fruitful kind.
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Thanks for pointing that out. I am sure Gordon came up with some good ideas, and others that were not as good as the way Coppola wanted it - so an acute filter and taste is necessary and he certainly has that! Kubrick famously said that he didn't always know what he wanted, but he ALWAYS knew when he saw it.

[Tim McC]

[quote author=Andrew Reid link=topic=728.msg5406#msg5406 date=1337176168]
...an acute filter and taste is necessary and he certainly has that! Kubrick famously said that he didn't always know what he wanted, but he ALWAYS knew when he saw it.
[/quote]

Very True!  Walter Murch (sound designer on the Godfather films) said in his book "The Conversations" that the director is more than anything the immune system of the project, strengthening the elements that should be there, and eliminating those that should not be there, regardless of their individual qualities.  And like the body's immune system, the director's sense of what belongs doesn't necessarily operate on a conscious level...  Without this healthy immune system, a work lacks bodily integrity, such as when you get a movie that seems to be cobbled together from parts of other successful movies, or from data gleaned from focus groups.  It seems like it should work on paper, but the finished product is a pitiful behemoth that can barely stand on its own legs...

[Leang]

[quote author=fugue_state1 link=topic=728.msg5381#msg5381 date=1337108689]
Coppola really is listening to and learning from his cinematographer!  That indeed is collaboration of the most fruitful kind.
[/quote]

generally & ideally that's how DP's and Director's work on set...

[Andrew Reid]

[quote author=fugue_state1 link=topic=728.msg5413#msg5413 date=1337193145]
[quote author=Andrew Reid link=topic=728.msg5406#msg5406 date=1337176168]
...an acute filter and taste is necessary and he certainly has that! Kubrick famously said that he didn't always know what he wanted, but he ALWAYS knew when he saw it.
[/quote]

Very True!  Walter Murch (sound designer on the Godfather films) said in his book "The Conversations" that the director is more than anything the immune system of the project, strengthening the elements that should be there, and eliminating those that should not be there, regardless of their individual qualities.  And like the body's immune system, the director's sense of what belongs doesn't necessarily operate on a conscious level...  Without this healthy immune system, a work lacks bodily integrity, such as when you get a movie that seems to be cobbled together from parts of other successful movies, or from data gleaned from focus groups.  It seems like it should work on paper, but the finished product is a pitiful behemoth that can barely stand on its own legs...
[/quote]

The immune system analogy is superb.