Sean Baker On Filmmaking &'The Florida Project' | IMDb EXCLUSIVE

hello my name is Shaun Baker and I'm the director of the Florida project and I'll be answering some of your questions okay I warned you one trip in you're out so my inspiration behind this film my co screenwriter Chris Prakash brought this world to my attention families with children living in budget motels right outside of the tourist capital of the world Orlando Florida and a place that we consider the happiest place on earth for children so when he when this first came to my attention I thought this was a topic that I think should have some light shed upon it and I was very interested in learning more about this world and eventually figuring out a fictionalized story that could take place in this world so that was the first part of it the second had to do with the fact that I've always been very inspired and influenced by the little rascals the our gang series of the 20s and 30s and if you think about what those were they were comic shorts set against the Great Depression most of the characters in The Little Rascals were actually living in poverty but the focus was the joy of childhood the humor that came from watching kids interact and hearing the the fun things that they say the funny things they say so Chris and I thought that this is this could be our opportunity to make a present-day little rascals and to add to this source of inspirations we also we went back we watched many films many of the classic films about children made by the Masters you know you have you know Kess by by Ken Loach 400 blows by Truffaut and then a bunch of the others that we just wanted to watch again to see exactly what what are what's considered just the the best of child performances throughout the the history of cinema so we looked at Pinet small change even a Christmas story just recently you know Bruno des monts petit can-can that had a very very much of an influence on this film so just going back over the you know the history of cinema and just looking at the best of when it came to child performances that was that really inspired us as well Willem Dafoe well when I heard that he might be actually interested in in taking the role of Bobby I was very honored that he was even considering the film I've been a fan of his forever and I you know I just knew that he was transformative and I look back to some to some of his earlier roles his his her lack of a word maybe gentler characters kinder gentler characters he's played from from platoon to light sleeper and I knew that he could get get he could play the straight man even though perhaps he hasn't played that sort of role in quite a while and when I met with him I sat down with him and we discussed the film we discussed the role I knew that he wanted to put in the work which is really what made me well I've already wanted Willem in the film but that was what really gave me I guess it really got me to a place where I knew I was working with somebody who wanted to be a team player he wanted to understand the world a little bit more he he was actually actually came to Orlando and Kissimmee about a week early before we needed him so he could absorb the environment he could meet managers that actually from some of the budget motels that were actually helped inspire the character of Bobby and he wanted to blend in that was like what he said first he knew I was surrounding him with a lot of first-timers and and and in his fear as well as mine with that he wouldn't blend in but but he wanted to you know make that effort which was which was wonderful and obviously he does he blends in wonderfully and also I just have to say working with him he's the kindest gentlest dude very patient I was surrounding him with six-year-olds I mean he had to be patient but he was also so nice in terms of giving words of encouragement to Bria and Mella and it was really just wonderful to work with the guy absolutely wonderful [Music] I went into this I would say I was a little naive about how to work with children I've never worked with kids of that age before I work with toddlers and I worked with like preteens but never kids between 6 & 8 years old and I needed an acting coach and so Samantha Quan came on board too to be there with the kids to really get them to a place where they understood character understood the scenes we really turned this summer into I would say a summer camp for these kids I mean essentially I was stealing their summer by making this film so I wanted them to look back at this time and and really feel that they got really just a really wonderful experience you know they we had workshops we allowed the kids to experiment and all and all for kids and I and I'm talking about Brooklyn Bowl area Christopher and Aiden they're all highly skilled and very very intelligent and there were little extroverts so it was never like we got we we tried to we had to pull anything out of them they they were already giving us everything now of course they had to learn their lines that was something that I thought they I was going in there saying maybe with kids trying to get really authentic child performances I only want them to learn the lines like halfway so that they were gonna they will put it into their own words but no I learned the hard way that's that you cannot do that with kids of that age they need a foundation and Samantha Kwan made sure that they learned all their lines they understood blocking and blocking is very different with children you just can't tell a child hey walk in the door walk across the room pivot deliver your line no no you got to actually go over there and handhold them through it you have to go across and say enter the door and then one two three four five pivot you actually have to like have the number of steps in there you give them everything and then when they get to you know they get on set and the cameras start rolling then I can ask them to loosen it up a bit but they're already they already understand what they have to do from beginning the end they understand they they are already in a place where they're confident and there's no they're not confused you know you never want them confused and and then in the moment if they're so inclined they can loosen it up and and and I was lucky enough to have all four children with that little they they have that gift of improv they have that gift of even comedic in witches which is a genius that you're born with oh there's one more thing they usually lose their focus or energy by around the third take so you have to get you have to make sure you're ready for the first and second take by the third they're off in another direction now that might be okay sometimes you know it might give you alternate takes and stuff like that but you always have to make sure that the crew and everything is ready to go on that first and second take they're not there they're no warmup takes so that's really about it and again working with Brooklyn is just I have to say Brooklyn is on a whole other level and I just have to keep I you know keep emphasizing the fact that she is she's on the level of Jodie Foster Mickey Rooney in which she was she seems like she was born to do this she loves to do this and I look forward to seeing her very bright future ahead of her [Music] okay yes regarding the dialogue so I always encourage improvisation on set no matter who I'm talking to whether it's a seasoned actor or a first-timer or even a non-professional that we pull off the street however with the children they had to come learning they had to know their lines they had to memorize their lines and then in the moment we could ask them to to free it up a bit so some of the scenes and the takes that we ended up using in the film are sort of hybrids in a way and I'll give an example there's a scene that's actually in the trailer where there's a back-and-forth between little Mooney and scooty and and and Bobby the character of Bobby played by Willem Dafoe and they're they're taunting him as they're licking their their ice cream cone and he's watching them for you know Rich's ready for that drip to hit the ground and then so he can kick them out of the the front lobby and we pretty much shot that exactly how we had scripted it word-for-word but then but while we were shooting it I said to Brooklyn I said if you're ever if you ever feel like you want to add something put something into your own words or add in a joke feel free so what happened was that we basically ran the scene the way we had scripted it and at the end Willem was the one who threw in his own line of improv he said thank you very much and that prompted Brooklyn to say you're not welcome and it was like a wonderful moment of improv that actually made it into the trailer and it just shows that like you know giving giving somebody like Brooklyn Brooklyn understood you know when to give and when not to and and it just shows how advanced she is in terms of understanding you know when improv works and when it doesn't it's pretty incredible if you've seen the film mother and daughter have to go out and sell perfume outside of a outside of a higher-end hotel they're selling perfume to tourists in order to make up make their nightly rate at the Magic Castle in which they're staying and if you read our script that's one part that we're basically flat-out even in our script which stating that this is going to be a moment of improv so we say our actresses will interact with pedestrians and try to sell them perfume and we will shoot this in a candid camera type style and that's exactly what we did I gave them a few sample lines but for the most part Bria and Brooklyn had to go and approach real pedestrians and try to sell perfume and it really comes down to you know they have to be in the moment and they have to be there dialogue has to come from their interaction with these strangers so they had a lot of improv to do in that moment and in those scenes and and I think they did a wonderful job [Music] vice for aspiring filmmakers well we're living in a time where you don't have to wait and that's my advice don't wait you know the the studios aren't going to come and dump a million dollars on your lap it's just simply not going to happen you have to prove to the industry that you're worthy and now the tools are out there for you to make a film you can make a film on your phone you know I shot tangerine on an iPhone and it went to Sundance and and but but it really stems even further back I actually made a film co-directed a film called take out and that was shot on mini DB standard-definition mini DV and at that time Dogma 95 the dogma 95 movement had become had kicked in and you know the dogma 95 movement is a Danish film movement created by lars von trier and Thomas Vincent Bourg and those films really inspired me they told me that look you can you can pick up your mini DV camera and and you can make a feature and put it out there and film goers and critics will take it seriously you know and that's exactly what we did and take out is a film that I co-direct it was teaching so and it started to do the festival circuit it got nominated for a Spirit Award it helped me move my career along until the point where I got to you know to starlet and and finally I had finance years I didn't have to spend my own money on my films anymore I had other people spending their money on my films and that's where you want to get to but the only way to get to that place is to go out and prove yourself and the tools are there the platforms are there you can put your stuff up on Vimeo you can put your stuff up on YouTube you can get it out there and and and that's what I suggest you do right away [Music] you

Channel: IMDb

Views: 25,290

Keywords: IMDb, Sean Baker, Director, Director Sean Baker, The Florida Project, Florida Project, IMDb Interview, Director of Florida Project, Tangerine, Tangerine Director, Cell Phone Movie, iPhone movie, Bobby, Moonee, Moonie, Jancey, Halley, Scooty, Brooklynn Prince, Valeria Cotto, Bria Vinaite, Willem Dafoe, sean baker interview, willam dafoe, florida project review, florida project scene, florida project ending, the florida project interview, florida project interview

Id: eX8RbSHN9hY

Length: 13min 31sec (811 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 01 2017