Bo Burnham, Writer & Director, Eighth Grade | DePaul VAS

[Music] all right um so I'd love to start with there was a couple of things that really struck me about this film one of which is your lead character played by Elsie Fisher I mean this is a movie where the main character had to carry the entire film which is hard I think for someone like Amy Adams or Mills to do let alone a young woman I also know from experience that having an actor carry a film requires a very special director actor relationship so can you talk about you know how did you find Elsie how did you work together how did you help her carry your film right yeah I mean it was it felt like a big ask in casting this because I wanted it to feel like a shy person pretending to be confident and not a confident person pretending to be shy which is what most of the young actors would feel like coming in to read for it it fell like the person that was dispositional II write to play Caleb wouldn't show up to an audition as I wouldn't show up for an audition at that age um or now really because it's it's terrifying and a lot of the kids I would meet I met like every 13 year old actor for the world you know and most of them would come in to be very very interesting when you talk to them a hundred things we're going on in their face and their voice and then you give them a scene and they instantly snap into you know happy it's like this and sad is like that and it's it's they sort of simplify their chaos really quickly into a performed version of what they think a kid should be like and Elsie was the only one that could really do it do do Kayla as a performance I see when I see it I don't see Elsie playing Kayla I see Kayla playing all the people she wants to be a moment-to-moment for whatever situation she's in so I tested her seven times but I never saw another kid more than once it was just it was a thorough process of testing her just because you know it's a movie where she it opens with a three-minute monologue and she doesn't speak for ten minutes after that so she has to sort of be able to be incredibly articulate or incredibly believably in articulately articulate and then to be sort of a silent actor so but the whole process was just a lot of rehearsal and thatís mostly for the script more than her when it when it sounded wrong I knew it was the scripts fault and not hers and I told her all the time this movie is coming to you not the other way around you know what it's like to be this I don't know one does you know my disconnect from her is twofold I was never a 13 year old girl and I was never a 13 year old right now you know in both of those things lend themselves to a specific experience and I didn't want to make a nostalgic film I didn't want to make a film that was about my experiences it's not about my younger sister or my younger self it's about in the way that it's personal is about me now and the way I struggle with my own anxiety so just empowering her path and with kids empowering them and giving them the permission to be themselves to be inarticulate you know the experience of being a kid for me is you just drank a glass of milk and you're like sounding like this would you like hit talk you know so it really was just making an environment on set where they can be comfortable and you know my favorite it's like I wanted to have the you know I saw I didn't see her as a kid I saw her as generales you know I mean or a Philip Seymour Hoffman you know like truly I did I'm just and my job on set and in rehearsal every day was just to be the biggest Elsie Fisher fan in the world which I was truly Wow could you that's 9 answers that's what we want um can you talk a little bit of were there any kinds of because you gave obviously it sounds like you gave her a deal of freedom so can you talk where they're surprising discoveries that were made yeah for sure I mean there was like like I'd written Facebook into the script and then all the kids told me no one uses Facebook anymore so like that line Kennedy has sang it to the mother it was actually the kids saying that to me so there was like obvious like decorative stuff that that wasn't formed by it like Gucci I don't I don't know what that means like that's that's uh that's hers she would say that on set every day okay I'll see how you doing and then I started doing it just to embarrass her because like older people doing things is embarrassing the young people and then it got like so banal that like gaffers were being like is this Gucci or not and then the videos were films the last few days and I wanted I knew she had to have a sign-off because all the kids that make videos have little sign-off so I was like how it should of course it should be Gucci so she literally has the last word of the film which is nice that's lovely good and you mentioned just a little bit ago that in part this movie is also about you dealing with your own anxiety and I will say that one of the things that I was really striking to me was two feelings loneliness and dread like even just the way I'll see or Kayla walked like I just think about that pool scene where she's walking and her bathing suit out to the pool and so though that both of those feelings like dread about like any kind of ordinary experience or moment and this like a profound disconnection despite yeah all of the ways to connect you speak about that yeah totally um yeah part of it was trying to you know a lot of movies aim and that this isn't really aimed at young people but a lot of movies you know that that portray young people that are great or stories even like Harry Potter or something yeah people think Harry Potter two kids is escapism and I don't I think its realism to them that that walking over and entering a social situation feels like walking over to try to slay the basilisk you me these things are actually more true to them it's like my Fault in Our Stars it's like I'm dying of cancer it's good cuz like that's what love filled like feel love feel like yeah life feels like life and death so life and death are often introduced into young people's stories which is really beautiful and I just wanted to can you elevate the feeling of can you somehow articulate and convey the feeling of what she's feeling with the actual experience that she's going through which are pretty banal you know I mean my hope is that people leave that movie going man that was intense like know what happened I guess she just went to a pool party went to the mall yeah not much happening said he it was just if you can sink the audience's heart rate with hers it will be effective no matter what the situation is because they are that significant to her and yeah I mean that's how I feel in my life I mean I was having panic attacks backstage at the Vic theater instead of in a bathroom at a girl house before pool party but the feeling is the same you know really I do believe that I feel like the feelings and thoughts she has access to are as big of feelings and thoughts as you'll ever have access to and you know I'm really wandering my thoughts are totally wanders okay there's that there's a something it's sort of like pretty sexist thing and in a lot of narrative things are like Oh stories about the human condition or about a 60 year old male poet in the woods you mean no thank you and why can't I hope the story also serves her specific experience as a young female but also I see myself in her I hope a fifty year old man can see themselves in her I think she's as indicative of the current experience of being a person as anybody so that was my approach to it and then there's another thing that I totally forgot what was the last that dreaded and then dried and loneliness yeah I mean the other thing is just the things of the Internet you're hyper connected you're lonely you're overstimulated you're numb you know and to do a portrayal of the internet for me that was descriptive and not pedagogical there's a good college word for you not not instructive you know people that speak with authority on the Internet I find have no idea what the Internet actually is you know and I think there's a subtler conversation to have about the Internet then Russia you only mean like which is like that's how we're talking about the Internet and and I think there's a sort of personal Tummie sort of way that the internet plays out that I wanted to talk about which is just a more indescribable thing if I could describe it I would have written an essay great I will just say I'll know I'm it's appalled this is the most well-lit interview I've ever seen very impressive um can you talk you I mean yeah you okay so for this particular film you took on the role of writer and director which are two separate roles but you're occupying them is one person can you did you think about in the sort of did you think about how you would be directing in the writing process or did you separate those roles for yourself or how did you navigate that I definitely wrote it to directed I had written some other things and maybe tried to direct them and they had fallen apart and for good reason and this was like I want to write something that I can direct so I join it to what I perceived my strengths may be could be which is I thought scene work and acting I loved acting and I was sort of my passion I've and I felt like that's what I was most passionate about in film where my tastes really lied was the micro stuff of performances but when I was writing it I was picturing it way more like Verity docu style I thought it was like oh I'll just make like like the wrestler with a 13 year old girl or something truly and then I realized like in the course of conceiving it in pre-production realized that it did call for something more stylized that that to be true to her emotions called for something more stylized than just based naturalism because to just cold the observer actually didn't do her feelings justice because being a kid is so surreal and since sensor early overwhelming so I wanted that to be conveyed in the film but yeah I mean this is very new to me and I really despite everything I say I really can't speak with authority on any of this stuff and it was every favor so it was changing the entire time the vision of the film is changing completely but I also tried you know just I I love writing and really it's the thing that I get the most pure form of enjoyment out of so I just for this script I was in a place in my life where I just needed to do something that I enjoyed so I the writing I was just writing and not worrying about is this logistic right you know I'll probably never write it I'll never write a moving car scene again maybe like I like I like that stuff's no fun but yeah no I think I mean you can't if you if you're thinking too much about production in the writing process you'll stop yourself from doing a lot of things yeah exactly like probably don't have it snowing right yeah I would hold that so I didn't do that yeah and then did you have people on your team that helped to bring your vision to life I mean you talked about how you wanted this to be a very more surreal sort of sensory experience and I think that really came through both visually and with the sound design so can you talk about people that were on your team that I don't know that inspired you or got you excited or helped do something with you know your vision that you didn't even know as possible yeah everybody really I mean my cinematographer Andrew Wade went to DePaul yes miss Cooper here Cooper you hear his brothers his brother Barry so we've worked together for a while he's shot but I did stand-up for a long time and he shot to my last two specials and I've directed a few specials he shot those as well so we came as a little team and then he you know we did a lot of testing before the movie was he even greenlit of the screens because we wanted to shoot everything practical no screen replacement so everything stuff was a challenge but so we got on that pretty early Jennifer Lily the editor is you know just was the entire post-production process and I looked to her for so much of the film and a Meredith our our composer who's a very late addition into the film I wrote a lot of I wrote 10 music for the film and it was okay it held the film tonally but it wasn't great and stumble off her music and she just really is the true subconscious of the film and and she's she's a classical composer out of Scotland that that also does electronic music on the side I was really looking for electronic music that was warm and human has to be electronic cuz it's a digital story but a lot of electronic music is very cold and masculine and agro and she writes really expressive but also very theatrical music and I wanted to be foreground music you know music that made her experience large or not smaller so she was a big part of it sam lysenko our production designer didn't credible work and yeah everybody I mean like a small examples like Erica Severn who worked in the props department like the letter that Kayla gives to Kennedy after the pool party you know I just had a folded letter that was my idea and Erica comes up it's like I made the I used to make these in middle school that had the little football the world it's like oh that's such a that's so right and perfect and important and as an as as it is as an important part of the film as anything yeah so then that happened everywhere you know and and the door was wide open for those ideas all the time and and the kids I mean the kids were the true you know it was every day I would go up every Saturday and pre-production I would go up to the school and meet the extras just so I could have a conversation all the extra just a newbie by the time they got does that and I'd have you know meet them what's your name you have the special talents and I met this girl what's your name she said her name give me special talents I have eczema Oh like you're the best and kids become to be been like um I have to tell you something I've never been in a movie before and I'm like what are you oh man her gonna love it so the kids were just amazing and like they were the they're the voice of the film ya know I thought the way you privileged the kids was really fantastic in another detail like the folded note but the I have to say maybe this is silly but I was so surprised by the spongebob revealed that it was a hard drive I was like oh that's such a great little detail yeah yeah but it's almost yeah it's it's just as meaningful for me to have her staring at that thing but then it's all encapsulated and that's stupid I mean I love spongebob I'm saying spongebob is back to my childhood you know mean spongebob is like the true transgenerational bigger really really like spongebob is huge for me and it's just as big for kids now but that was important to I mean like to really put in specific cultural references that are better that scare people or make things dated yeah there's like a wonder it's reptiles yeah it's at halfway to Q&A with a drawing of a dragon as if that would be trouble anyway but to have these specific cultural touchstones you know there's a Wonder Woman poster in her room and that you know that came up the week we were filming there's an Abbey Road poster in her room which is like so beautiful to me because I'm like I know that Kayla never even listened to the album she's just a fan of the picture because she was singing it around you know there's there's just a sort of cultural backwash that's happening it's really interesting to me you know there's a kid in a Steph Curry Jersey that's the Hamilton pose where that kills me every every single thirteen-year-old that came in to audition I would have them listen to headphone music yeah you know whenever they were talking to the dad and I play the dad every single time I listen wherever you want you just hear like oh my god yeah so can you talk a little bit you've I mean I think a lot of people they know you from a lot of different realms on your to me you seem like you're a very fluid creator and so can you talk about the shift yeah yeah it shifts from like you do music you do comedy you do poetry now you're doing movies yeah yeah I don't know I mean like really like probably earlier in my career I was like wanting to be the man of many hats or whatever and that's like that gets old and like that that's actually like totally based in my own ego of wanting to be like I don't care about that like truly like a chef doesn't call himself like a slicer slash Dicer slash go for it you mean like I really feel like I'm I make you know I write things and make them and I was suited for this one maybe you know the you know I don't have a great answer to that because I I'm like not self-conscious about that but like I can picture that guy in my head it's like running around doing everything I'm like chill out I'm not trying to do that you know I'm just trying to follow my interest and I kind of got boxed into a very specific thing when I was 16 you know being a stand-up and I sort of was able to evolve it to a place where I actually enjoyed doing it and then I was like I think I did this and I want to kind of reach OU's my life again um and this is what I chose you know my first love was the theater staging things cutting the scenes working with actors and I kind of tried to shoot shoehorn that and to stand up and then eventually I was like I think this would be the most and this was absolutely most enjoyable thing I've done good for sure good no I think it's important to be able to make those transitions I think a lot of people get stuck in certain categories yeah yeah just just try to enjoy it or the good thing about the creative process I think I mean again I have something that's gotten incredibly lucky so giving like advice about career stuff is just don't listen to me because I've just I've gotten to a little too lucky for it but the good thing about the creative process that I do absolutely no no deeply there's something I tell myself all the time is that the the the the best thing about the creative process is available to everyone right away that's actually the right part is that like the actual deeply meaningful fulfilling thing is the thing you can all do right now which is just this work of making things and starting and having a vision of something and making it and seeing it fall short and measuring the distance and doing it again and seeing that change that just sort of like artistic actualization or whatever it is can start right away and then I'm not saying you should care about getting successful making a living for sure but that should be a just a small amount of the chips and like you're actually you should be grounded in enjoying it and if you don't enjoy doing it get out get out truly because that's the only thing you'll ever really have control over I mean I could fail tomorrow and you know some ostracizing backlash or something and I'm gone I will still be able to continue the work I've done for myself not saying I'll be happy or it's a very easy to sit on this stage having a film just screen and say all these things but yeah that's what I tell myself oh my god I mean I what did you even ask about that I got there whatever breakfast what did you have for breakfast I had like a bow an egg and sausage bow-wow bow-wow yeah pretty good let's go back uh I'm kind of jumping all over you let's go back let's go away from you go back I'm sausage egg bass so can you talk a little I mean I don't know if you do you think of yourself as someone who grew up on the internet because like I certainly did not I'm probably about 20 years older than you so can you talk about like your experiences growing up on the internet and what kinds of things you were really like that was most important to translate into this film I thought I grew up with on the Internet until I met these kids then I think I realize I probably grew up with the Internet I think you grew up on the Internet way more than I did and that like stupid conversation that idiots having them all about the generation gap shrinking is something I do believe you're all what 1920 ish you are closer to her than me you know really you are closer to being 13 than you are to being 27 for you what is that distinction it's it's about so it's it's really a social I what arrived was social medias gonna I am gonna really try to keep my thoughts coherent because I could literally talk for way too long and not make any sense what I think showed up with social media more than the Internet I mean the internet really just oh and this is gonna be something I don't wanna do some stupid TED talk the Internet no but truly but the Internet the promise this conversation there's no place to have these conversations yeah well they can't be head because often because the Internet once you are literate in it it takes away your ability to articulate something long-form so the it wasn't the internet showing up cuz the internet was just like the information superhighway and who gives a [ __ ] it was really social media I do think which was some form of and I didn't have this the internet when it was me was like oh YouTube post something you do there as opposed to what the internet is now and YouTube and all these things live there be there Facebook MySpace but I had create a little website your interests your your your profile picture that's very ornamental or something what the Internet what the internet is now for kids Twitter and Instagram what do you think what do you look like what do you think what do you look like those are base weird deep questions that are being asked of kids and the thing that's happening and these decisions that are being made by a bunch of men in Silicon Valley that have absolutely no on average social skills are making this really are making decisions about entire generations neural chemistry by updating an app and raising their hand in a room and there's a sort of like [ __ ] whatever cap like yeah this is hard to explain like you know you take a horse and buggy to work it takes an hour you then you invent a car and you get to work in 30 minutes great you've actualized that you've made it you've streamlined it there's no proof that you should do that with your social life and your emotions you should streamline your emotions you can talk to five people and now you can talk to 5,000 you can you you were connected with twelve people are connected with everybody there's no our social apps did not need to be actualized they did not need to be made more efficient and we're applying like capitalist logic to our relationships with each other with ourselves it's being insane it really really is and it's gonna completely unchecked and the decisions are being made by people who have no idea what the actual repercussions of it are even the participants are doing you make snapchat as a service where a photo can disappear for 24 hours what do you think kids are using that for what do you think 12 years using for them you're creating a place to host child pornography basically yeah it's it's you BIC it's everywhere and it's it's something we don't talk about it in part I think because it moves so fast and and you're right like we have know the people who have control of it even if they do whether they do or don't know what's happening they act like they don't know what's happening at least when they get called out at home they don't Zuckerberg versus the Senators you kidding smoking you know in 50 years ago what do we do to these kids I mean yeah the piece if you want to get the word excuse me if you want to get the word [ __ ] on television you have to go in front of the Senate the safeguards to the Internet are are you 18 and you click yes right you know it's very upsetting for sure and I thought the way you though the scenes in the film where she's just in a room alone and she has her laptop on in her phone on and just she's and just like watching the scroll happen and what to me was was particularly striking because it's not I do i I dabble in social media but like it was so striking that it was all other children hmm well you know what what's scary is that it's not it's also Hailee Steinfeld that they're making him look like a 13 who I'm saying too much it's not all children it's Demi Lovato you know I'm sure she's 26 in there I love Demi lavato truly truly loved Hayley - I do not blame any of the people caught in this dog culture I'm sorry that this is becoming so rude it's also Jimmy Fallon drinking green stuff which no one will ever know the meaning of that to me personally but yes yes it is children but it's also the image of the Instagram feed the Twitter feed what's so surreal about it is scroll through it and you will see in no particular order your mother your friend your president your dentist Old Spice you know I mean and these are all and and no wonder the conversations that culturally and nationally now feel like they're the same thing we're having one conversation this is the problem with democracy there's the problem with a free internet I'm sorry it shouldn't be this free I think there should be regulation I don't think you should be able to be on the internet freely until you're 18 and that's like I guess I'm a Quaker I don't care I go it's like not okay it really isn't she shouldn't be able to Google how to give a [ __ ] you mean it's funny but it's not our it's not all right so but again the Internet I mean that movies not trying to portray that judgment right what what is happening you know and it's in what's happening is is not like selfie images like how the generation is described like self-involved when it's like self-involvement it's bad you know we're self-involved people in solitary confinement like that's that self-consciousness I'd love to think about something else I'd love to be tilling a field [Laughter] [Music] okay very blindsided sorry my ears are hot [Laughter] will do one last question before we move to questions from the audience right um can you talk about anything some things you have coming up so we can sort of know what your I know you have a project that I believe Amy your Reuben is going to little [ __ ] yes incredible right teach that in my real and credible of her yes so I wrote a script a while ago we're changing the title so probe we don't even say the title but it was it was a specific sort of it was written by 21 year old in 2011 with very good intentions but needs some updating to June 2018 and I sort of realized after the fact that I mean as after this movie was made and then that was being reexamine to be made I sort of eyes this is not my story to tell what I didn't want someone else to tell it yeah and she's incredible so I'm very very excited by that that's so awesome and she's someone who's incredible with performance that little horrible deformity so but yeah I mean I don't know man I'm just gonna like bang my head against the wall and see what you know I kind of have to just I'm just reading and then watching movies and try and try to shell out yeah do you have any movies that are I don't know filmmakers who are inspirational to you yeah I mean I'm like a loser like yeah I'll say the current ones you only mean like Julia Decor knows rob was like huge for me and that came out a year and a half ago like I'll be the you know I'm probably a bunch of losers here but like it's it's not cool to say PTA I love PTA I mean like it's like everyone's pretend like they're not influenced by was like of course you are yeah I mean Andrew Arnold Krisha triad virtualsystem oh he was huge for me in this you know Cassavetes and that stuff and you know a woman of the influence but like now I mean Steve McQueen is right my favorite okay I sort of worship Him Greta you know Barry I mean the safdie's my girlfriend's a director oh I won't say her name to keep it public private but yeah oh great a lot of people I'm like super you know I mean I'm not I'm not going like John Ford I wish I'm like kind of self-conscious of my lack of knowledge of film history should be but like I feel like we're in a really incredible incredible time for moviemaking and I think it is more I think the experience of being in a theatre is really relevant and it's not going away just because how desperate we are for an hour to have we don't have to look at our phones it's so simple but like and like it means something different when she's on this big screen it means emotionally something different to subjugate yourself before no no like [ __ ] you thank you sorry screw you man like she shouldn't she doesn't she deserves to be up here has anybody she deserves to be big and you know you should sit in front of her yes yeah exactly that's the power of it you know and that's that is what I take away from the film I mean that is what I'm happy about like I got to be part of a movie that Elsie Fisher is the star of like like I don't really give a [ __ ] what happens after truly truly that's beautiful all right thank you we're gonna shift to audience questions and you need to be really obedient and line up and there's gonna be a mic and I believe is that way cool setup isn't it nice it's nice so how do you teach from there well yeah like I want this this all is gone right of course and then I just like wander around outside holding 175 - I feel like it's like maybe closer like 150 this is all like fully done for sound and stuff visiting artist program is really incredible like yeah yeah it's a it's a nice setup all this like this room I mean it's been here for at least eight years yeah alright are we ready oh my god you're all lit up I'm so sorry oh hey look at the t-shirt Rick and Morty I know yeah I wanted to say I'm a big fan of your work but also I absolutely love LC because I love that I saw an eighth grader like someone in school in a movie who reminded me of what I looked like at that time yeah well my question was I love her so much how much how much like guidance did you give her for the YouTube videos like how much did she improvise her like did she come up with their own concepts for those - no I mean to her credit it's way more written than it appears I mean it was written like and part of the writing process was just watching these videos and trying to transcribe them on that could I capture the way this like staccato way they spoke on stage which is so um yeah it's the thing about being yourself is yeah well sorry I'm reading this off a piece of paper it was written like that yeah I'm sort of say was improved it would not be giving her credit it is a technical performance I wasn't making like homeward bound or babe like I just be you and I'll figure out what the movie is like of course there was leniency within the words and the text too you know if you stumble if you forget it if you forget it great I only had to read the script once and then we just give her the pages on the day just you know just it was fresh mm-hmm but yeah it was again it's not to say like I'm not trying to be crazy authorial about it it's to say like her performance is I think because she's young people can just think oh that's just her vibing out and then you captured it like no she is really snapping into that giving a technical performance and then yeah awesome thank you appreciate it thanks for coming right um I was struck by your discussion of like capitalism the people in Silicon Valley who benefit from reinforcing harmful social media and all of our children everything you're clearly somebody who's thought about this a lot my question is how do you suppose we make this better or like how do we not make our kids lives hell anymore I don't know I mean you guys know like it's it will be I think eventually it will work out I don't know if it will truly I don't I defer to you guys more I mean what I'm like I defer to you know it better than I do you're within it so I don't I don't know we get power and and speak it in the room or or I don't have the solution if I had the solution I would have solved it or tried to I'm saying I'm just trying I'm only trying to be like a diagnostic not the word that means solving a disease you only mean like yeah I I don't know I I just feel like this is the conversation these are the questions that I haven't heard people say and I can't solve it monologuing you know it just hopefully a conversation so what do you think really oh god I don't know it's the whole gag of it is that neoliberal capitalism has made us into a culture that like you are in college I love it I love it I love it all right culture is predicated on like work and this notion of like linear time and you know then we can rock on rock on I'm telling you rock on trust me do not and do not let me save you for pushing your thoughts out please uplifted great you know I only feel like the world will beat you down and then you'll not want to think freely anymore and it benefits people at the top for us to not talk about this exactly yeah well and specifically it is what's impossible to they own the mode of communication how do you criticize the internet on the internet even that that mean it's impossible and also what is called for on the Internet is subtler longer form conversations I mean there's great stuff about the internet I mean the Internet can really give visibility to people that don't have it can cause really great social movements we're not gonna out tweet Trump he is Twitter he is the medium we're not gonna solve a national conversation by passing fortune cookies to each other you mean so I don't know you know they have a vested interest in not obviously interrogating the medium itself it's really hard when the thing we're talking about is the medium by which we can execute me to give each other so oh like let's start some drum circles appreciate your question thank you hi um well first I'm still in ninth grade and I want to say that that movies very accurate oh and like I felt the anxiety and like I personally struggled with anxiety like seeing someone else that I look up to like struggle with anxiety can make me feel less alone oh that's also and I was wondering as a filmmaker myself do you prefer writing or directing do you write as well oh yeah yeah that's awesome what do you do do you like short films I'm sure that's awesome that's so cool what do you like to do what do you shoot on it my mom's a professor at DePaul so sometimes we can have like past students help us with so LLC the actors is in ninth right now so she's you you were in a we're kind of making it about your eighth grade kind of because we shot it on the summer last year I don't they're enjoyed in different ways do you like writing do you I love writing yeah I think it's a nice little dynamic to to maintain I think an ability to work with other people and enjoy being around other people and enjoying being with yourself I mean whatever job you're doing whatever you're it's good to maintain a sense of yourself and yet also a sense of other people and to be able to be happy and both because life's gonna be full of both of being alone and being around other people being alone when you don't want to be and being around other people when you don't want to be but yeah I mean just keep doing it's awesome today Manhattan Manhattan going to meet you good luck with everything hi um okay so the season that really likes to me and meant the most to me in cause like the biggest reaction from the audience was the one where they're in the car alone with the boy and I found that I'm just really glad that you put that in there because it does start at such an early age of like that situation and so I was wondering what the personal connection to that type of narrative is to you and why it became a scene in this film in particular yeah I'm so being with someone in a position of power being taking advantage of he's not foreign to me also what it's not foreign to me if I'm being very honest to myself which I think men need to do now is not the specific situation but the sort of toxic young male behavior that that prioritizes your own needs over communicating or even the existence or Humanity of the person across from you what was important was to me in the film a few things one you know a lot of the teams before them are very intense and felt but we can kind of pull ourselves away from and go yeah it's a pool party it's gonna be fine but to show that they are actually she is actually coming into contact with real high-stakes adult situations and you know even though the boy masturbating in class is funny it's actually not funny you know like this stuff sex comedies are sex teen comedy is a oxymoron you know truly sex teen comedy is a very male term what do you think about it only boys could probably find teen sex only funny but also to portray us type of situation that on paper may not seem like a big deal what he went to the backseat and ask you a few questions and touched her arm you said no when he left and nothing wrong happened but when you follow it in real time and feel it with her you feel how violating an emotionally violent it is and that is the truth the the felt lives subjective truth of what's happening and what I hope in talking to these kids you know in a realization I had in just examining my past life and looking at kids is um you know this national conversation is happening around these issues is very good I hope it can ground itself in education because you know we teach kids how to put a condom on we don't teach them how to be in a relationship how to be a boyfriend how to be a girlfriend have actually been some of each other and it's like that's really ridiculous you know like there's a lot of Anatomy classes and kids can get to a situation knowing how to use a contraceptive and not knowing anything about what needs to be articulated what what the stakes are the value of this the power that's happening the power each of you have in that situation and it's terrifying me what's so terrifying to me about that scene is that she's one after another just encountering the first thing it's just first time after first time and she isn't able to even get her bearings and he's not even a lit he's not even allowing consent to be an issue because it's not a big deal but he can I'm just joking around stop taking this so seriously so that was the hope - yeah just just it happens we try to approach it honestly I was very communicative with LC and her father who were there and just everything and LC is also a very strong person that know like she know she's a strong actor that knew the intent of the scene knew the purpose of the scene knew what being a part of it would mean to someone watching it not just the girls watching it but hopefully the boys I hope 1617 year old boys any boy can see that and re-examine their behavior a little bit but yeah so that's that's sort of that but appreciate the question thank you thank you how about hey so I want to ask so probably echoed through audience I'm a big fan of your comedy work and what animate addendum make happy you almost went off to creating of experimental performance arts and I want to ask going into the creative process of eighth grade and having this could you mention at music box yesterday they are strict was way less improvised and it seemed so I want acts like it by the end of the energy you had at make happy that unique control how do you control how we're able to carry some of that onto the process of eighth grade or were some limitations you found yourself with here's great question yeah like if I understand it correctly like I do have very particular control you know I'm very particular about the thing is very micromanage II but of course the world of a film is very free and and the the managing that I was doing that I wanted to what was so desperate to let go of was the satirical ironic cynical managing of things where I'm gonna take the culture and I'm I'm gonna deconstruct it and I'm gonna tell you what's [ __ ] and I just don't think that has any teeth now I mean it hasn't had teeth for a while but especially now satirize the internet just get try like what are you doing I mean it's literally like the Showtime like there's like a show and whatever there's a there's like a cartoon show about Trump it's like a cartoon of Trump what the [ __ ] is what could that possibly be internet and the culture feels self satirizing feel self ironic the most ironic thing you'll find is a an Old Spice commercial is being like gin gin I'm saying it's like guys okay like Geico commercials sound like the Simpsons so that's dead to me so I just wanted to be gentle and and honest and vulnerable and if I'm being truly honest about my feelings with the Internet it wasn't angry didactic yeah this sucks this sucks it was like I feel nervous I feel confused I feel like her so thank you that's a version of a thank you yeah thank you hi um so within the movie in the beginning LC seemed like there was no outlet she could really hang her hat on I think she turned to YouTube with her Gucci videos and it feels like there was really no sense of self-love until that conversation with her father like near the fire where they like embraced and it was so beautiful should there be some message like taken from this or potentially could be that like you don't need any numerical number of likes number of views the only person who can validate you easier your father lovely conversation is the point of it yeah I mean yeah well there's definitely a message on tiny give or if I am I'm not gonna say it but I think there's self-love in those videos you know I mean before then I think there's a lot of self-love in that and I mean her saying I'm gonna pretend to be confident and doing that karaoke video I mean that that means the most to me out of everything in the movie but yeah self-love there's a good question self-love and that is she giving it to her there was no message and the father's the father's really truly just dusting her off and being like you got this like I really was very careful to that to not be like it's not dad goes like no like I'm the weak one here I was the one that was left with you when you were a kid I had no idea what to do and I thought we were screwed and you just like were you incredibly so like don't you have this but yeah self-love and I II think I'll get likes you can go get views I mean I wouldn't be here without that you know be very silly for me to say that you can't pursue that but yeah whatever message you get man that's a great that's a great interpretation what you said I don't want to resolve that that's the beautiful thing about this stuff is that like now it's the now it gets to now the the meaning of it gets to be made and crafted by the people to watch it so Fisher where do you think all right thank you so much hi so you've already said it but what made you a sis why team an decide to make a film about a sis white girl and what made you choose a white girl over any other minority or putting her in a whitewashed school or putting her without as many minorities in the other movie no not choosing to put her in a whitewashed school but just saying I'd like what maybe you choose this character over a different character without getting into like Netflix is original on my block or other things like that the Netflix original on my block not like like that but like just what made you choose this character and what Michi was it from a girl's perspective right I mean there was only so many disconnects from me personally that I felt before I felt like I had no business telling that story I'm saying the choice of it to be a girl wasn't fully conscious in the way I started doing it truly it just felt right I was very aware of my position as a man telling a woman's story and I subject myself to the truth of what she was going through the entire time deferred to her deferred to the women around me my girlfriend of six years is a writer director that is the only person that is the eyes on my stuff as it's being written so I trusted her to call [ __ ] on me when it wasn't going right and part of it if I can look back and say why did it end up being a girl I didn't want to make a story that was nostalgic I didn't want to make a story that was my own experience and it being a girl sort of prevented it from being a projection of myself and I don't know I I tend to personally connect with art and film that I do not demographically necessarily align with the lead characters and I think that is the beautiful thing about art that you can see yourself in other people and know that there are common experiences and emotions and feelings between people as far as like the racial makeup of the school in the area we went to that school and took kids from that school and that and that area and that's what story was and that was the reality of that area I it can't service everything I would I wish it could it could service this experience of this girl that there can sometimes be a pressure for everything to service and I wish it could but I do think arts function hopefully is as an ecosystem of and and the ecosystem I hope is fully representational rather than each thing needing to be perfectly representation some can be but that wasn't possible logistically with what we were doing and I didn't honestly from where I came from I didn't feel comfortable at all speaking to a person of colors experience so that's the answer all right thank you all right that was the last question right and thank you all for coming today and if you would please do you want to say something no thank you thank you for coming [Applause] you

Channel: DePaul Visiting Artists Series

Views: 66,643

Keywords: DePaul University, DePaul VAS, DePaul, Visiting Artist Series, VAS, Bo Burnham, DePaul Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade, Elsie Fisher, Film Director Interview, A Convo with Bo Burnham, Summer 2018, DePaul Guests, DePaul CDM, DePaul Film, DePaul Film School, DePaul Computing and Digital Media, DePaul Media, DePaul Visiting Artist Series, Bo Burnham Interview, Bo Burnham vines, Bo burnham What, Eighth Grade review, Eighth Grade interview, School of Cinematic Arts

Id: Ama-c6Nleoc

Length: 48min 37sec (2917 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 28 2018