Earlier today I have published this month’s obstruction, which is about writing a review, but also doing an interview about that movie. I thought it was a good idea to ask this week’s question about them as it might help others with passing their obstruction.
Which interviews did you do in the past and how did you arrange them?
and if you have not done any interviews in the past:
Who would you like to interview?
At the top of the page I have collected the interviews I have previously done and I thought it was a cool idea to give you an idea how these came about.
My favorite of those has to be the one with Paul Verhoeven since it was the only one I have been able to do face to face and of course because he’s an awesome director and it was fun hearing him talk about making movies. The interview itself actually was easy to get because I got invited to a screening of his movie Tricked. The invitation stated that if you wanted to do an interview you could apply, so I went for it. Originally I had been alotted only 5 minutes for the interview, but had a bit of luck when I was asked if I would mind doing it together with another interviewer, which I did not mind at all as it meant double the time. We ended talking to him for about 15 minutes and it is one of my highlights this year.
The interview with Kurt Kuenne happened because I could not find his new movie on iTunes and I sent a mail to the website of the movie asking when it would be available. When I saw that Kuenne himself answered I decided to just ask him if he was willing to do an interview and he agreed.
My “The Story Behind…” series is one of my most successful series and I was surprised when Michael Deas, the artist who painted the Columbia Pictues logo left a comment. Again I thought to take a chance and ask him if he would want to answer my questions.
What it boils down to (as it did with the other interviews) is just asking someone if they’d agree to an interview. They might say no, but I’ve learned that usually you will get a yes and you can start preparing your questions. It gives you a chance to learn more about a director or a movie and in the end that gives a lot of statisfaction.
I’ve done exactly two interviews for Reel Good, not my personal blog! One was with Catriona McKenzie, who directed a new Australian film called Satellite Boy (it just got released last month over here). That was a phone interview, which was odd but I’ve had to do similar type things for uni assignments.
The second was with Mamoru Hosoda, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time director, and we got the last interview of the day of press meetings before a screening of Wolf Children that night! I thought I might forget to speak, I was so scared and excited! http://www.reelgood.com.au/featured-filmmaker-mamoru-hosoda/
I loved The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, so I will check out that interview. It’s awesome if you get a chance to speak to the people who’s work you really enjoy.
I have not done any interviews, but I would like to do one with Hampton Fancher–the original screenwriter from “Blade Runner”. His original script got peoples attention, but the actual film is much different. Also, he was eventually pushed-out of the production. An interview about the whole experience would be fascinating, and if that whole experience turned him off from the writing process since he really hasn’t written much since then for film.
Interesting story, I didn’t know that. Would be fascinating indeed to hear him talk about his experiences.
Well, I had one interview that was very interesting. I have occasionally worked as a volunteer judge for a local film festival, so I got tickets to it last year, and was covering it for my blog, and all of a sudden, this woman came up to me, who notice my pen and notebook, and journalistic look, and asked me if I would be willing to interview the real Tony Montana, Frank Culotta, and a couple of his old friends, who let’s just say, hand a few run-ins with the law, once upon a time. Now, I live in Vegas, and my family’s from the East Coast, we’re Italian; I’ve gotten the jokes in the past, and yes, I was familiar with the Mafia, but was definitely caught off-guard. I was waiting for Lea Thompson to come out to present her latest film, and boom-…. This woman, apparently was the agent for all the old mobsters, and this was a festival in Vegas, and they were doing a panel on “Casino”, which Culotta and some others, were technical advisers. I asked who this “bulldog with tits” (Her words, not mine) was and how she knew all these mobsters, and she said she was Henry Hill’s wife. This was right after he passed away btw, but you know, I certainly know who he was, so I hurriedly wrote about it, there’s a couple picture on my FB of me, with the Mafia, (I never posted with Lea Thompson yet, I really need to get a good firewire for my camera.) just to prove my claims, and I wrote it, very gonzo journalist style, ’cause I was freaking the hell out, wasn’t prepared, trying to remember all my mobster history and knowledge, which was fairly extensive, but considerably weak at that moment, but it was an intriguing and memorable interview. Here’s the link below:
http://davidbaruffi.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-mafia-interviews-days-1-2-at-las.html
I also, did a conceptual interview, and I want to do another one soon, where me and another blogger, in this case David Washington from “A Fan’s Cut”, it wasn’t completely an interview but it was pieced together as one, and we did this conceptual interview called “Fantasy Filmmaking”. The idea behind this, comes from the strangest of places, there’s this series of pro wrestling shoot interviews (Told you, strangest of places, but hang with me, it’s worth it), this company called Kayfabe Commentaries, they do a lot of different kinds of interviews of pro wrestling personalities, from the past, talk about the behind-the-scenes and stuff like that, and one of these series was called “Guest Booker”, where they interview, usually a pro wrestling booker, which is their term for “Writing”, they book the matches, and the way they turn out, and they give them a scenario, usually a famous one in pro wrestling, and they would’ve booked that scenario, as opposed to, how it was actually booked. Usually it’s one that-eh, should’ve been a good storyline, but ended up being done wrong and badly, and they come up with, given the wrestlers and the situation, how they would’ve done it differently. Even if aren’t completely familiar with pro wrestling, it’s fairly entertaining to see their creative processes, so I decided to transfer it, to filmmaking. Basically, I give somebody a filmmaking scenario, like-eh, how to save Savoy Pictures, by making the $20million Sylvester Stallone project that they paid Stallone for, back in ’94, but didn’t make, or in this case, the one we did was, imagine if James Cameron actually did make “Aquaman” like on Entourage. You know, who would you cast, what’s the story, who’s playing what parts, how would it be shot, who’s writing who’s directing, etc. etc. Essentially coming with the imagined movie that either you, or somebody else would’ve made. So, this wasn’t exactly an interview, it was a back-and-forth between people on his blog, but I constructed our discussion and his choices, as though we were talking to each other, at that moment. It was an experimental blog, and it got mostly positive feedback, and I do want to do another one soon; I have another blogger/person to give a scenario to, and have them come up with the details but most people I think enjoyed it. Here’s the link to that blogpost as well.
http://davidbaruffi.blogspot.com/2013/04/fantasy-filmmaking-james-camerons.html
That last sentence should be “I have to find another blogger/person….”. I hate when I miss an important word like that.
Interesting stories, especially the one about meeting Henry Hill’s wife and that whole crew. Will check out that interview. The fantasy filmmaking one is a cool idea as well 🙂
Thanks. I’ve only done the one of those, “Fantasy Filmmaking” thing. If you know anybody who might be interested in something like that, let me know. People seemed to like that one, so, maybe it can become a thing.
As for the one with the Mafia Interviews, yeah, definitely weird, but very cool. Later I watch the bio-documentary, “Marley” with Mrs. Hill later in the festival. Apparently Henry Hill, loved reggae and she thought he would’ve loved that film. I wish I remember more of the interviews, after the shock of “Holy shit, I’m interviewing a bunch of gangsters,” but it was quite an experience.
I haven’t done any interviews for my blog, but I interviewed a lot of people when I ran a newspaper in Jerusalem, including Netanyahu who was then the Minister of Education. I have a couple of interviews with authors coming up. It’ll be interesting. It has been a long time.
It’s so nice to hear these stories and seeing who people met. Thanks for sharing Marilyn!
The only interview I have done for my site was with director Daniel Krige about his film Redd Inc. It was pretty fantastic. I met him at a film festival and then got in touch with him via facebook to hook it up. I have almost had a few others lined up, but people have jerked me around. One director said that they would be happy to do it, so I went to all the effort of watching all their films and writing a good list of questions. When I emailed him he asked who I was. I reminded him of our earlier discussion and he just never bothered replying, not even to say he wasn’t going to do it.
Annoying when people don’t come through after agreeing to something.
Your interview w/ Verhoeven is awesome Nostra! I’ve only done a handful of interviews so far but the last one w/ Paul Laverty (writer of The Angels’ Share, Wind That Shake the Barley, etc) is perhaps my most memorable as he’s such a nice guy!
Thanks Ruth…I think so too 😉
Cool to hear. Looking forward to seeing you interview someone for the second obstruction.
I haven’t done any interviews for this blog and haven’t tried to set them up. I guess that may change for Obstruction #2. In the early 2000s, I did some interviews for a DVD site that I wrote for called digitallyOBSESSED! I talked to John Singleton about Baby Boy and did interviews with Julie Delpy, Wiley Wiggins, and Bob Sabiston about Waking Life. I also talked to Robert Meyer Burnett, who directed Free Enterprise and has produced many DVD releases. I think all went pretty well except with Singleton, who didn’t seem interested in giving decent answers. Plus, that was the first one, so I was most nervous about it.
I loved your Julie Delpy interview. Annoying to hear that Singleton wasn’t interested in giving answers, but everyone can have their day off…
Unfortunately I haven’t done any interviews, but it’s something I’d love to do. I just never really know how to go about it other than pester people on Twitter or whatever but that never seems to work.
With smaller movies/documentaries a good option is to check out their website and see if they have a contact page or something for the press, which for me has worked a couple of times.
I haven’t done any interviews. And being that I’m in the other side of the globe unlike the rest of you guys, I don’t think I’d get to interview Sofia Coppola and Steven Soderbergh and Ramin Bahrani. I will, however, interview one of the renowned directors here in the Philippines, Vincent Sandoval (for Obstruction #2) whose silently penetrating “Aparisyon” is to play at selected theaters in New York starting July 10. We met online, when he spotted my review for his film, friended me on Facebook and we kept in touch thereafter. Blogging, being that our film community is pretty small, gets you a few useful connections.
Excited for the second obstruction Nostra!
Looking forward to it Armand!