How did you choose where to film?I drove until a road looked like the script.
How did you find the people who appear in the film?A notice in the bakery window.
How do you watch other people's films now?I count the cuts. I cannot stop.
How many days did you shoot, and which one do you still think about?Nineteen. The one when it snowed in May.
How many years of your life are in this film?Three, and two of them were editing.
What changed most between the script and the finished film?The ending moved to the middle.
What did the weather do to your plans?It rained all week, so the picnic became a kitchen scene.
What did you learn to do for this film that you could not do before?Drive a tractor. Badly.
What do you say just before the camera rolls?Quiet, please. Then I hold my breath.
What does a director actually do on a shooting day?Answer two hundred questions and watch one small screen.
What happened in front of the camera that nobody planned and you kept?A dog walked into the shot and sat down. It stays.
What is on screen for two seconds that took you two days?A letter being written. We filmed the hand eleven times.
What question about the film do you wish someone would ask tonight?Why the dog has no name. There is a reason.
What was the first picture in your head, before there was a story?A kid on a bike at night, under one streetlamp.
What was the first thing you ever filmed?My brother jumping off a wall, eleven times.
What would you do with one more day of shooting?Go back for the fog.
Where does an audience react differently from what you expected?They laugh at the funeral scene. Every time.
Which film made you want to make films, and how old were you?One I saw at nine, in a tent, on a bedsheet.
Which part of the film is closest to your own life?The kitchen. That is my grandmother's table.
Which scene looks easy on screen and was not?Two people walking. We never found a quiet street.
Which shot are you proudest of, and what did it take to get?The ferry at dawn. Four cold mornings.
Who on the crew does a job the audience never thinks about?The person who holds the microphone on a pole all day.
Who was the first person outside the crew to see the film?My neighbor. She fell asleep, and she was right.
Whose idea made the film better that was not yours?The sound recordist said to try the scene with no music.
The idea and the script 11
Do you draw the shots before you film them?Stick figures in boxes. Only I can read them.
How do you decide whose eyes the audience sees the story through?I ask who in the room has the most to lose.
How do you describe a film to someone before a single frame exists?In one sentence, then I show them three photos.
How long did you carry the idea before you wrote anything down?Six years, on the back of a bus ticket.
How much does a script tell the crew, and how much does it leave out?Where, who and what they say. Not how it looks.
How much of what people say on screen was written down beforehand?About half. The best line came from the baker.
What did you research that never appears on screen?How to mend a bicycle chain. I can do it now.
What did you write that turned out to be impossible to film?A scene with forty geese. Geese do not take direction.
Which draft of the script was the worst, and what was wrong with it?Draft nine. I had explained everything.
Which scene did you write first?The last one. I needed to know where I was going.
Who reads your script first, and what do you ask them?My sister. I ask where she got bored.
The shoot 13
How do you film in a place where ordinary life is still going on?Small camera, early morning, and we thank everyone twice.
How do you keep a set quiet?I whisper. People copy the volume of the director.
How do you light a room so it looks as if nobody lit it?One lamp outside the window and a white bedsheet.
How do you talk to an actor between takes?Quietly, one thing at a time, away from everyone.
How many takes did the hardest moment need?Twenty-three. We used the second.
What do you do when the light is going and the scene is not finished?Cut two lines and move the camera closer.
What do you look at during a take: the people or the monitor?The monitor. I wish it were the people.
What does the crew eat, and who decides?Soup from one big pot. A fed crew is a kind crew.
What happens in the last hour of the last day?One more shot nobody needs, then a photo of the whole crew.
What is the clapperboard for?It names the scene and the take, and the clap lines up picture and sound.
What time does a shooting day start, and what happens first?Six. Coffee, then we walk the first shot with no camera.
Which piece of equipment failed at the worst moment?The only battery, on the only sunny day.
Which scene did you film first, and where does it sit in the story?The ending. We filmed by place, so it came on day two.
Editing and sound 12
Do you edit yourself, or sit beside an editor?Beside one. She is braver with my footage than I am.
How do you decide where a cut goes?Just before I get comfortable.
How many hours of footage did you have, and how long is the film?Sixty hours, for eighty minutes.
How many versions of the ending did you try?Five. The audience sees number two.
What did the rough cut look like?Too long, no music, and the sound jumped. But it was a film.
What does a scene gain when you take the words out?You start watching the hands.
What is in the film only because of the edit?A cut from the kettle to the train. Same whistle.
What was the very last change you made?Two frames off the final shot.
When did the music come in: before the edit, during it or after?After. We cut to silence first.
Which scene did you love and cut anyway?The lake. Beautiful, and the story stopped for it.
Which sound in the film was made later, in a room?The footsteps on gravel. That is me, in a tray of stones.
Who watches an early cut for you, and what do you ask afterward?Six friends. I ask when they wanted to leave.
For a documentary filmmaker 15
Are you in your own documentary, and how did you decide?Only my voice, once. It felt honest to admit I was there.
How did the story change from the one you set out to tell?I went for the factory and stayed for the night watchman.
How did you find the people in your documentary, and why did they say yes?Through a choir. They said yes after a year of tea.
How do you ask a question so the answer is more than yes or no?I say, tell me about that morning. Then I wait.
How do you check that what you show is true?Two sources for every date, and I ask the people in it.
How do you stay fair to someone you disagree with?I let them finish the sentence, in the film too.
How long did you spend with them before you turned the camera on?Four months, just visiting.
How much did you shoot for each minute we see?About an hour for every minute.
Was there a moment you chose not to film?Yes. Some afternoons belong to the family.
What did the people in the film say when they saw it?She laughed and said her kitchen looked smaller.
What did you promise the people you filmed?That they would see it before anyone else did.
What do you do while someone is thinking and the room is silent?Nothing. I count to ten in my head.
What extra pictures did you film to lay over the interviews?Hands, doorways, the bus route. Hours of it.
What happened after the camera left?The choir still meets. I still go on Thursdays.
Where did the old photographs and film clips come from?A shoebox, and the basement of a town library.
Independent and experimental films 14
How do people get to see a film with no big company behind it?Small festivals, a library tour and one very long email list.
How small was your crew, and who did two jobs?Five. The driver was also the cook and one of the actors.
How would you like people to watch it: once, on a loop, or walking past?Twice. The first time just to get used to it.
If your film has no story, what holds it together?A color. Everything in it is some kind of yellow.
What could you do on this film that a big production would never allow?Wait three weeks for one tree to turn red.
What did a small budget force you to invent?We had no rain machine, so we waited for rain.
What did you borrow to get the film made?A van, a cafe for two nights and my uncle's coat.
What did you do to the picture itself: scratch it, slow it, layer it?I filmed through a jam jar of water.
What do you hope someone feels when there is nothing to follow?The way you feel looking out of a train window.
Where does a film like yours get shown?A gallery wall, a barn, once the side of a van.
Which habit of ordinary filmmaking did you leave out on purpose?Faces. You only ever see hands.
Which job on the film did you have to learn from scratch?Sound. I held the pole wrong for a week.
Which other art is your film closest to: painting, music, dance or a poem?Music. It has a chorus that keeps coming back.
Who said yes first, and what did that yes make possible?A cinema owner lent us his screen on Mondays.
For a student filmmaker 12
How did you fit filming around your other classes?Weekends, and one very early Tuesday.
How did you get permission to film where you filmed?I asked the janitor, then the principal, in that order.
What did a teacher or classmate say that changed the film?Start later. I cut the first two minutes.
What did you film with, and what did you wish you had?A school camera. I wished for a second battery.
What did you learn on this film that no lesson covered?Feed people and they come back tomorrow.
What did your first day with a camera and a crew teach you?Press record. We missed the best take.
What was the assignment, and how far did you wander from it?Three minutes about home. Mine is nine and set on a bus.
What will you try on your next film that scared you on this one?Someone talking straight to the camera.
What would you tell a student starting the same course next year?Make the short one first. Finish it.
Which mistake are you glad you made on a small film?No backup. I lost a day of footage once, and only once.
Which part did you redo after you saw it on a big screen?The sound. You could hear a fridge in every scene.
Who in your class did which job?I directed, my roommate recorded sound, her cousin acted.
For a class visit 13
Can we be in your next movie?If your teacher says yes, you can be the crowd.
Do you get to say "action," and what does everyone do then?Yes. Everyone goes quiet and one person starts walking.
How can we make a movie with just a phone?Hold it sideways, keep it still and get close to the voices.
How do you make fake rain?A garden hose, held up high and pointed at the sky.
How do you make something small look huge on screen?Put the camera on the floor and look up.
How long does it take to make one minute of a movie?For me, a day of filming and a week of editing.
How many people does it take to make a movie?I have made one with three and one with sixty.
What do you do when someone laughs in the middle of a scene?Laugh too, then do it again.
What job could a kid do on a film set?Hold the clapperboard. It is the best job.
What should our first movie be about?Something that happens on your own street.
Which is the hardest to film: animals, babies or weather?Weather. Animals and babies at least get tired.
Who makes the noises we hear in a movie?A person in a room with shoes, doors and a box of gravel.
Why do movies need so many tries to get one part right?A plane flies over, a hat falls off, someone sneezes.
How it works
These questions to ask a filmmaker open with twenty-four for any screening: the first picture in the director's head, the proudest shot, the scene that looks easy. Seven more groups run from the script to a class visit.
Read the full guide
Questions to ask a documentary filmmaker
For a documentary filmmaker holds fifteen to ask a filmmaker about their documentary: how the people in it were found, what they were promised, what was left unfilmed, how each fact was checked. A documentary is nonfiction, so the set asks about trust more than about takes.
Questions to ask independent filmmakers and student film makers
An independent film is made outside the big studios, usually on far less money, so Independent and experimental films asks what was borrowed and what had to be invented. For a student filmmaker asks about the assignment, the classmates who crewed and the first showing on a big screen.
Questions and answers
What are good questions to ask filmmakers?
The best are ones only this film can answer: what happened in front of the camera that nobody planned, what changed most between the script and the finished film, whose idea made the film better. Good ones to start with holds twenty-four.
What questions to ask a filmmaker on a school visit?
Ones a class can try that afternoon: how to make a movie with just a phone, how to make fake rain, what job a kid could do on a film set. For a class visit holds thirteen.
What are good questions to ask experimental filmmakers?
An experimental film sets aside the usual conventions and often tells no story in the ordinary way. Ask what holds it together, which filmmaking habit was left out on purpose, which other art it is closest to. Independent and experimental films ends with seven.