J.J. Abrams: On Filmmaking

you [Music] I so don't consider what I do is work from the outside in and I don't really ever feel like I can identify a style I mean there are things I guess I do the obvious sort of joke is that I overuse lens flares and that's sort of what I'm known for but I would say that in my approach the thing that is most important to me is that I love larger than life kind of spectacle moments but that what's important to me is that the characters are at the center that emotionally you know where you are and and you're tracking characters that that are taking you through those spectacular moments and that to me is the most important thing that that balance of the intimacy with the spectacle and the sort of hyper reality it's a weird thing I mean the jobs are all very different directing is my favorite because it means that the writing's done for the most part and that the producer has done whatever needs to get done to actually get to the place where you're filming something but they're all critically important roles as a writer myself working on Star Trek was a wonderful thing because though I wasn't technically a writer on those films I got to collaborate with people who had wonderful great big ideas but also get to on the fly in you know everyday adjust scenes and and make changes that felt right the actors were often offering moments that were really funny or discovering things that weren't obvious in the scene is written that were great opportunities for continuing to track a character on super 8 which frankly I feel like I never quite figured out the script as much as I wish I had the experience of doing that movie was so intimate mostly because we were away for quite a bit of it on location in West Virginia there were these kids most of them who had never acted before in a movie I was doing it with Larry Fogg who's director of photography who I'd grown up with so it was a very kind of you know homespun intimate experience and that was wonderful but I also knew as I was directing we were going to go over-budget and we had to do everything we could be responsible so part of me wanted to keep shooting these scenes and part of me was like must leave location so we can be responsible and it really is just a balance of you know every day no matter where I am as a director I always feel like it's my money being spent on that set I don't think like well screw it well I want to be responsible I don't want the studio to get a report and wonder what the hell happened and so I really do being responsible on movies something's always been very important to me so even when I'm you know when I'm directing something and I know that we might have to go over a little bit and for the scene to work I'm always thinking well what can we do later to make up for that and it's a constant puzzle the great thing about television is it it it's all about open endedness it's all about the evolution of a story and and especially on a pilot the beauty is it's all about promise so the end of the pilot the greatest ends of pilots for me are endings that that promise so much more to come and that's a kind of wonderful thing now the downside is it's this crazy leap of faith and you might say I think I know where this is going to go but especially in US television when it's it's 100 plus episodes there's no one I don't care what they say there is no one who knows exactly how the end of a series is going to play who when they write in the pilot you could have the best idea at the time but if you're actually making a show you're going to suddenly cast someone who's absolutely wrong in something and the thing that you think is going to play out a certain way won't it just won't or you cast someone who you think is a good one episode thing and they're a genius and you're like huge character for the rest the show you know Michael Emerson I'm lost Ben Linus he was never going to be a character that Damon and I didn't come up with him but Damon and Carlton Cuse did they put him in an episode for one episode and we're like holy Khmer zhing and he was one of the critical characters for the rest of the series so I think the television allows for a more kind of free-flowing creativity whereas films by their nature require a more kind of disciplined storytelling where there's there's less opportunity for smaller sort of nuanced scenes that that might not be serving the main story in the main plot and so for that reason I think TV is you know in many cases kind of a more freeing form but as someone who grew up desperately loving movies it's it's that to me is the it's always been my favorite format I think one of the best piece of advice was for my dad who when I was thinking about going to film school said it's it's more important that you go off and learn what to make movies about than how to make movies and so I ended up going to you know leaving my home state and going to a different college and it really did inform my certainly my storytelling my awareness of you know different sort of social circles and things I never would have experienced at I stayed in in Los Angeles and then other advice that I sort of gotten along the way you know the thing that I think is it was it's not as much advice that I was given per se but what I kind of learned early on is that that your voice is as important as anyone elses now you may not always be right and you shouldn't be cocky about it but that there's a kind of I felt like I needed to learn that the ideas that I had were as good as anyone elses ideas you know certainly not not better and I loved the collaboration so it wasn't like I felt like it was a battle but it was it's one of those things I think that that it's good to be reminded or if you don't know it all be told that that thing that you feel if you really feel it other people do too and and that's something that is to be you know mind and to be to be celebrated it's funny if you look at kids now making movies as I did with super 8 film they've got cameras and access to cameras that are often film resolution professional film resolution editing equipment that is on par in many ways with what is used professionally visual effects color correction software that allows for much of you know what is being done professionally so everything's accelerated and resources have sort of become democratized to a point where everyone has access more or less to the tools to make movies so people say to me well what what do you what advice do you give what do you think I should do if I want to make movies and the amazing answer that was certainly not available to me when I was a kid is make your movie you can actually make your movie you know you can find a friend who's got a Canon 5d Mark - you look around you can find people to use as actors and you know you just can make your film and it's people are doing that and that's the most amazing thing because the resources had been so limited for so long there were a lot of people who would say God if I only had access to a camera I would make a movie there's a lot of talk about I remember when I was in college I spend most of my time in my room writing screenplays really bad screenplays but I was in my room doing that when I prize should have been studying or something there are a lot of people I remember at parties who would talk about writing and that they wanted to be writer but I would always notice they were out every time I would happen to go out they would always be out and they I just know that that their people talked about what they would do if but they're not actually doing the thing and so it's a lot easier to actually write a screenplay than you think it is might not be good but most people talk about writing screenplays but don't actually write them the people who write them you're already like in you know the top 10% cuz you actually have written it [Music]

Channel: BAFTA Guru

Views: 263,474

Rating: 4.8537774 out of 5

Keywords: Star Wars (Film Series), New Star Wars, Star Wars Trailer, JJ Abrams Interview, J.J. Abrams (Film Director), BAFTA, BAFTA Guru, Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Trek, Benedict Cumberbatch, trekkie, Chris Pine, Simon Pegg, screenwriting, screenwriter, directing, director, producing, producer, movies, film, hollywood, studio, industry, lost, Cumberpatch

Id: bN-On2CusDM

Length: 9min 56sec (596 seconds)

Published: Wed May 08 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/incocknedo]

Here's my thoughts on this

If you're not going to film school be ready to fuck up a lot. I've worked on tons of projects where people skipped film school because they assumed their passion and story was enough and they tank their own project through lack of expriance and knowledge.

I would say its a a very very small number who have the natural talent and eye to crawl up the film ranks without some kind of training

[u/[deleted]]

I wasted $32,000 on film school, and it's the first thought I have when I wake up in the morning, besides "fuck, my back hurts."

[u/donaldkaufman]

Never noticed before that JJ's nose has a butt.

[u/tt64]

"Just make sure the main character has issues with their father and see if you can't fit a mysterious creature in there too." -JJ Abrams on filmmaking

[u/urbanplowboy]

I've gone through film school and here's my opinion of it: only go to film school if you have an actual film in mind to make (and by that I mean a real, tangible script, not just an idea), and even then only go to film school if that's the only way you'll get to make that film.

If you do go to film school, use the experience to acquire resources and contacts that will help you get a real film made by the time you graduate.

[u/[deleted]]

i'm glad i went to film school because it made learn how NOT to make movies, because all you have to do is go and see what everyone else is interested in and doing, and then do the opposite of what they are doing.

[u/cp5184]

What were star trek and star trek into darkness about?

[u/kentathon]

Also, have close friends in Hollywood so that a career in film making is actually viable for you.

[u/Kytescall]

Odd thing for him to say, since he's definitely a style over substance director.