SBIFF 2011 Director’ Panel

Reviewed by Larry Gleeson. Conducted at the Lobero Theater on Saturday February 5 at 11:00 A.M .

Peter Bart moderated and the panel featured Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), Charlie Ferguson (Inside Job), Debra Granick (Winter’s Bone) Tom Hooper ( The King’s Speech), David C. Russel (The Fighter),  and Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3).

Mr. Bart opened the panel proclaiming he would throw out questions to the entire panel. The first question Bart fired at the panel member was a hypothetical curve ball. “Since most of you made films on lean budgets do you feel that if you had more of a budget and more time to make your film would it be better?”

Aronofsky was the first to react. He saw his budget and time frame as the boundary – thirteen million dollars and thirty days.

Not to be low-balled or outdone Debra Granick pounced into the discussion, “With slightly less than two million dollars and in twenty-four and a half days our film resembled an agile, mobile adroit, low impact almost documentary style film. Anything else would have inhibited us to the locals and would have made us seem egregious… We needed to be very quiet where we filmed.. Our (director and producer) compensation is coming down the line,” and then chided. “We could have used 2.2 million.”

Hooper popped up that his budget came to fourteen million dollars and that it can get quite tiring repeatedly asking if someone is willing to work for less money to stay within budget. “But the scrutiny is less. And the most valuable thing you have is freedom. I would always make that trade-off.

Russell stepped up and ripped into his film’s budgetary paring. “Originally Paramount had the picture slated with a 60-7- million dollar budget. Then relativity took it over with an eleven million dollar budget. It was very tight…I liked the level of focus and a no nonsense approach the leanness provided. From a creative point of view it was an asset. We ended up with thirty-eight days left to shoot 111 pages.”

Unkrich seemed to  unabashedly whiff on this one. “Well, we worked on this project for over four years with a very large crew and a very large budget. We were really shielded. This allowed us to focus on creativity. Any limitations we encountered forced the focus.”

Ferguson chose to sidestep the question with a little political commentary, finally stating, “I guess you could say we had a casting problem.”

Each panel member cleanly fielded the issues in dealing with a looming Oscar. I found it quite refreshing to witness directorial greatness with an added humility in each heartfelt, passionate response.

Bart chose to poke the panel with a little chagrin, “How do you handle adulation? And what would you say if you had to be totally candid when giving an acceptance speech for the Oscar. All unanimously passed home on this question responding with the often heard reply, “It’s really a collaborative effort.”

Winding down the discussion, Bart inquisitively greased the panel with a slider. “What was the first screening like?” Raw emotion followed with a splattering of humor.

Following his pattern from the first question, Aronofsky belted out, “It was very difficult but it turned out OK,” as he relived the first screening jitters at the Venice (Italy) Film Festival.

Ferguson too was nervous at the Cannes Film Festival. “It worked out. People liked it.”

Granich struck out saying, “It was not a positive experience psychologically. If it were more of a positive experience more would be willing to take the journey.” Granich was terrified the work would not hold together at Sundance.

Hooper was relieved as his filmed sc0red 93% out of a possible one hundred in New York. Nevertheless, he asked the film be scored again but in Kansas City. Again the score was a high 93%. Hooper added on a sidebar that Laura Linney escorted him down the mountain after viewing the film at Tulleride, sat him down and informed him what was going to happen (Oscar).

Russel blasted he and his family watched the film in Woodland Hills at a private home screening and propagated that despite his film scoring a 96% with females and a 90% with males that a male centered marketing campaign ensued.

Unkrich wound up and delivered stating that at Pixar they watched the film over and over making changes from screening to screening. Nevertheless, when the big game at Show West in Las Vegas commenced she improvised using her bare hands as blinders to manage the excruciating feelings of nervousness.

The director’s panel was highly entertaining, very informative and very down to earth. Highly recommended panel.