Writer/Director Gareth Edwards talks to The Inside Reel about structural story approach, camera operating on location while directing and directing and casting an embodiment of AI in regards to the home release of his original sci-fi epic: “The Creator” from 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 (screaming)
00:02 (dramatic music)
00:05 ♪ Dreamer, dreamer, dreamer ♪
00:14 (dramatic music)
00:17 ♪ Dreamer, dreamer, dreamer ♪
00:24 (dramatic music)
00:27 (dramatic music)
00:30 - Hey, Garrett.
00:41 We've talked many times before.
00:42 Thank you very much.
00:43 I mean, you know, all the way back from "Monsters."
00:45 I think it's "South By."
00:47 - Oh, wow. - If I remember correctly.
00:48 So, but see, you've always been key
00:51 at like making sure your stories
00:53 have the progression they need, you know?
00:56 And especially with the creator.
00:58 I mean, you've always said you're a fan of film endings,
01:00 you know, and having those things mean something.
01:03 Can you talk about the importance of that
01:05 in sort of the path of making something like the creator?
01:08 Is it about getting to that moment
01:11 or is it about finding the moments in between
01:13 as you're shooting?
01:14 - Yeah, it's a really difficult task, I think,
01:18 trying to figure out a story.
01:20 And I have lots of bad analogies,
01:25 but one of them is like
01:26 when they built the Channel Tunnel in the UK,
01:30 they had a choice.
01:31 They were like, you can either go from England
01:34 and build a tunnel and then go all the way to France,
01:37 or you can build it from France
01:38 and go all the way to England.
01:40 And obviously like, you know,
01:42 England wanted to win the contract and do it,
01:44 and France wanted to win the contract and do it.
01:46 So there was a bit of a disagreement
01:47 about how they were gonna build it.
01:48 And I feel it's like the same problem a filmmaker has,
01:50 which is, do I start from the beginning
01:53 and like make all these cool choices,
01:56 but it might randomly lead me to an ending
01:58 that has no point to it or doesn't quite work or something?
02:02 Or do I start and figure out what my ending is
02:05 and work backwards,
02:07 but then I might end up with a beginning
02:10 that isn't very gripping or like, you know,
02:12 you're off to the races in an exciting way.
02:15 And what they did on the Channel Tunnel
02:16 is they dug in both directions.
02:19 So, you know, England went, you know,
02:21 into the tunnel in their direction and France theirs,
02:23 and then they met in the middle.
02:25 And so I always sort of do that.
02:27 I have a beginning and I start from the beginning
02:29 and go forwards and I have an ending and I work backwards.
02:33 And the bit, you know,
02:36 the bit I struggle with in a movie
02:37 is how those, do those two connect in the middle, you know?
02:41 Like you can set some emotion where you go,
02:43 this is kind of working and it launches in a nice way.
02:46 And the end is kind of working.
02:48 And the sleight of hand is how do you deal
02:51 with that middle bit in a way that doesn't feel
02:54 like it's transitioning from a interesting setup
02:57 to a cool ending?
02:59 Like can those connect?
03:00 Can you make that work?
03:01 And that's what I struggle with.
03:03 That's what I spend the majority of writing time
03:07 or thought process on is that middle bit, you know.
03:10 - When the war started,
03:13 they protected me.
03:18 They took better care of me than humans would have.
03:20 - They're not people, Maya.
03:23 It's just programming.
03:26 - 10 years ago today,
03:30 the artificial intelligence created to protect us
03:33 detonated a nuclear warhead in Los Angeles.
03:36 This is a fight for our very existence.
03:41 - Sergeant Taylor, we are this close to winning the war.
03:47 - But the AI are developing a super weapon.
03:49 Retrieve it.
03:52 Or they win.
03:55 - Did you locate the weapon?
04:08 - Yeah, it's just a kid.
04:09 - Are you going to heaven?
04:12 - No.
04:13 You gotta be a good person.
04:15 - I'm not a good person to go to heaven.
04:18 - So we're the same.
04:20 We can't go to heaven 'cause you're not good.
04:23 And I'm not a person.
04:25 - Do you have any idea what the thing is?
04:29 - She looks like a little girl now, but she's growing.
04:33 Whoever has that kid wins the war.
04:35 - For me, it's all, yeah.
04:37 I've seen it.
04:38 There's always an empathy point
04:39 that really sort of has a trajectory.
04:42 In "Rogue One," it's when the girl's screaming in Jedha.
04:46 That really doesn't here.
04:47 It's when Alpha looks towards him
04:49 after the guy dies in the backseat.
04:51 It's sort of like, it clicks, like, okay, you're locked in.
04:54 Is that an edit thing?
04:55 Or is that a sort of, is that something else that happens
05:00 in terms of knowing when the audience might connect?
05:03 Or do you even think of that?
05:05 - I think you're trying to put connection moments,
05:08 like opportunities to connect as often as possible
05:11 throughout the whole movie.
05:13 And some work stronger than others.
05:16 For instance, that scene you just referenced,
05:20 that had a lot more dialogue in it.
05:24 Like, that was a much more conversational scene.
05:27 And I remember seeing,
05:29 actually, it was a day that John David came to visit us
05:32 at Fox where we were editing,
05:34 and I hadn't seen him since the shoot.
05:36 And before he arrived, we were playing with that scene,
05:40 and it just felt too much talking
05:43 for what is a potentially profound little moment
05:47 where she's witnessing someone die.
05:50 So we just did an experiment of like,
05:51 take all that, let's just take all the dialogue out,
05:53 and let's just keep it quiet.
05:55 And so we invented some silence,
05:57 and she just goes, and really,
06:00 the first thing she says really is off.
06:02 And it made it so strong.
06:06 There was like, why did we ever write the other stuff?
06:09 And so, and I remember meeting John David for lunch,
06:13 and he's saying, how's it going?
06:15 And I was like, well, you know, it's going well.
06:17 You just discover things,
06:19 and I told him about that scene,
06:20 and he just pulled everything out,
06:21 and she just says, off, and it's way better.
06:24 And then you've got a moment, you know what I mean?
06:28 And you're trying your damnedest as the filmmaker,
06:30 and I can never fully achieve this ever,
06:32 but you want every scene to have something like that.
06:35 You know, you want every scene to have like,
06:38 a bit where you lean in, or it,
06:39 I feel like what's happening in a movie is,
06:44 if you imagine in the cinema, it wasn't a seat,
06:47 it was a wheelchair.
06:49 And every time something happens,
06:51 you can just push your chair a little closer,
06:52 like, oh, hang on, what's this?
06:54 Like, you want to pull people all the way to the screen.
06:57 Like, you know, you have to do it one little notch
06:59 at a time in each moment.
07:01 So you're just trying your damnedest
07:02 to just throw dozens of those things in,
07:05 and you're lucky if you get a handful,
07:07 but it's, yeah, I'm thinking of all the ones I didn't get,
07:12 you know what I mean, when I see a film.
07:14 (speaking in foreign language)
07:20 - She can stop it?
07:24 - She's not ready yet.
07:26 The range of her powers are still growing,
07:28 but if we can get her up there, maybe she can destroy it.
07:36 - How could anyone survive that?
07:38 - She won't, but it will turn the tide of the war.
07:43 - Does she even know what she's been created for?
07:48 (speaking in foreign language)
07:53 - But the one thing that you did, which I heard you did,
07:56 you did on "Monster," as you said,
07:58 but you were operating a lot of the time on this,
08:01 especially in those locations.
08:03 How does that change the energy
08:05 when you know something's working,
08:07 when everything's moving around you?
08:08 Could you talk about that,
08:09 or were there certain ones that you were like
08:12 looking through the view,
08:14 and you were like, "Damn, this is good."
08:16 - There's times, yeah, there's times when you're operating
08:22 in a film, and you don't know what's gonna get used
08:27 in the final movie.
08:28 You're sort of going, "This,"
08:30 and there are definitely times where you're filming,
08:31 going, "I know this, I'm not gonna use this."
08:33 You know what I mean?
08:34 Like, it's just not working, but let's just keep,
08:36 can't say that out loud right now.
08:37 And then there are times where it's gold,
08:42 and you're going, "Don't fucking move."
08:46 Like, just don't, this is, like,
08:48 you're never gonna get this again.
08:50 This is perfect.
08:51 Like, what they're doing is amazing,
08:52 and just don't screw it up.
08:54 And what's really weird and interesting
08:59 about those moments is the camera's really heavy.
09:03 Like, the camera's like holding,
09:05 it's like getting a rucksack
09:06 and just filling it full of bricks,
09:08 and then holding it in front,
09:09 holding your arms out straight,
09:10 and trying to hold that for hours.
09:12 You know what I mean?
09:13 It kills you.
09:15 But the second something magical happens,
09:18 it becomes zero gravity, like lightweight, you know?
09:23 And you don't feel a thing,
09:25 and all you're thinking about is how amazing it is
09:28 that this is gonna be in a cinema one day.
09:30 And there's a very strange thing
09:31 where you're looking through this little viewfinder,
09:34 and I sometimes in my mind picture little heads
09:37 in front of the monitor,
09:39 and I picture I'm in the cinema a year and a half from now.
09:44 And I'm basically like an audience member
09:48 criticizing the movie or wanting things.
09:51 And my next decision, like where you move the camera,
09:54 what you might say to someone, if at all,
09:56 is based on sitting in the audience,
09:59 and you're trying to like,
10:01 it's like you've got a little time machine connection
10:03 to the guy who shot the movie.
10:05 And so I feel personally like operating
10:08 is a really important part for me of my filmmaking.
10:13 But at some point, it's a young man's game.
10:15 Like my back's not gonna allow for it.
10:17 I just hope they make lightweight cameras quick.
10:20 It's exhausting, especially like in 40 degree heat
10:25 in Thailand, you know, it was a lot.
10:28 - They've come for me.
10:32 Have to help.
10:33 - There's nothing we can do.
10:35 - Have to help.
10:36 - Alfie, we gotta go.
10:36 Alfie!
10:45 Alfie!
10:45 (indistinct shouting)
10:53 (indistinct shouting)
10:56 (indistinct shouting)
11:01 (indistinct shouting)
11:04 (indistinct shouting)
11:07 (guns firing)
11:17 - Help!
11:18 (indistinct shouting)
11:22 (guns firing)
11:30 (indistinct shouting)
11:33 - And my last question, thank you, Gareth,
11:45 is that, I mean, I didn't get to say,
11:47 we were talking technical,
11:48 but doing something as far as this kind of story
11:50 and doing an original story is awesome.
11:53 I mean, look, keep doing that no matter what.
11:56 It just means so much to so many people,
11:59 but it's also about you got the performances.
12:01 The performance you got out of Madeline, unbelievable.
12:04 I mean, unbelievable.
12:05 Can you talk about that?
12:06 'Cause directing kids is hard,
12:08 but directing kids in this kind of structure
12:10 is even harder.
12:11 Can you talk about the balance of that
12:13 and finding sort of, 'cause she has to work as the heart.
12:18 And then the soul comes in from John David, of course.
12:22 - Yeah.
12:23 Yeah, I felt like we did a whole bunch of auditions
12:28 and it was the scary thing,
12:30 'cause if you don't find the right kid,
12:31 I don't like films with little kids in them.
12:34 There's a handful of great ones that work brilliantly
12:37 and we all know them.
12:39 And there's a lot of annoying films
12:42 where the child actor, no fault of their own,
12:45 'cause it's, you know, they're young.
12:47 - What's the best one?
12:47 Is it "Elliot" from E.T.?
12:48 I get the feeling that might be one.
12:51 - It's totally up there, yeah.
12:52 It's right on top.
12:54 Yeah.
12:55 Let's go with that then.
12:57 - I'm so sorry, you go.
12:58 - That was a high bar.
12:59 No, but what, I tell you what's a really high bar
13:01 about that is if you look on YouTube is the audition
13:05 and you can see it online,
13:07 you can see Henry Thomas's audition
13:12 and it's phenomenal.
13:15 It's as good as if, you know,
13:16 it's maybe even stronger than some of the scenes
13:19 in the movie, you know, as phenomenal as they all are.
13:22 And it felt like, oh shit, that's what we've got to do.
13:26 We've got to find a kid who can do that.
13:28 And so I did all these auditions and just so happened,
13:33 the first one I did was here in LA.
13:36 We went to Universal Studios and we did it with the idea
13:40 that we would go around the theme park afterwards
13:42 with the family to check that everything was okay
13:45 and that it was a functional family
13:48 because we were going to spend six months together
13:50 at the other side of the world.
13:51 And so the first person who came in was Madeline
13:55 and gave her this quite emotional scene
13:57 that she had kind of, you know, been given the day before.
14:01 And it was heartbreaking what she did.
14:02 Like she got us all really emotional
14:05 and it was like, oh my God, this is great.
14:08 And then I thought, oh, I wonder,
14:09 I was paranoid that the mom had done some horse whispering
14:12 to her before she came in and got her upset.
14:16 And so I got her happy again and normal.
14:18 And then I was like, oh, do you mind
14:20 if we just try one more thing?
14:22 And we played around and I tried to make her upset again
14:24 to see if she could do it and she did it even better.
14:27 And I felt like this is what you wanted,
14:30 or if this is what you were looking for,
14:31 this kid's able to just magically turn this stuff on and off.
14:36 And I can't take credit for it.
14:40 Like I didn't have to trick her.
14:44 I didn't have to say really clever things to her.
14:47 I mean, you could basically talk about how Alfie was feeling
14:52 and you could be very literal about it
14:54 in a way that you can't with other actors.
14:56 You could just literally tell her how she's feeling
15:01 and then she would just feel it.
15:03 It was very surreal and exciting.
15:08 And I would jokingly at the end of a scene
15:11 where she'd do this amazing performance,
15:12 she'd jokingly turn around to the rest of the cast
15:14 and be like, why can't you all be like that?
15:16 (upbeat music)
15:20 ♪ I'm coming to you ♪
15:23 - What do you want, sweetie?
15:26 - For robots to be free.
15:28 ♪ Even though we can't do ♪
15:32 - Oh, we don't have that in the fridge.
15:36 How about ice cream?
15:37 (upbeat music)
15:40 (upbeat music)
15:44 (upbeat music)
15:46 (upbeat music)
15:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]