A. Proyas
Wow, a pretty big director who is like very very active on his own message board (700+ posts!), that's something I haven't seen before. Check out the Alex Proyas' website and especially the Ask Alex section on his forum. Proyas did among other things the visually effective film The Crow, the nice science fiction film Dark City and the recently released Will Smith box office success I Robot (which seems like a quite interesting film and likewise adaptation of the Isaac Asimov book but I haven't seen it yet).
A few quotes on being creative etc:
I think the most important thing for a writer and/or director is to develop a voice of their own. My problem from the very beginning was not so much developing my own viewpoint (because I always saw things kinda "funny" or differently), but more so seeing if there was a way that vision could fit into the big commercial machine that is the film industry. But I always tried to stay true to my own ideas, as I value originality and individuality in an artist's vision above everything else. So I guess my advice is look to those things in your work that will make it special - tell stories that only YOU can tell. Don't be afraid to break all the rules, but break them after you completely understand what they are. Speak in your own voice, if that message is clear and true, others will listen.
As a young film-maker graduating from film school, I didn't have a huge range of choice regarding employment. The Australian film industry in the mid 80's was dying. So making videos was a means to an end - it was also a great education for a director. It didn't teach me a lot about working with actors, but setting up an interesting angle sure became second nature to me. As a director you bring a lot of varied skills to a movie, for me my years of experience making videos has been invaluable.
After film school, me and two other guys (one I'd met in film school and the other was an art school student) set up a company (Meaningful Eye Contact - MEC) to make music videos. I had already started making videos for friends in bands while I was still at film school. Even though we were lucky to have some contacts life immediately post film school was pretty tough. As MEC, we rented a small office next to the train tracks in Newtown (Sydney) and spent almost every day playing cards and waiting for the phone to ring with offers of work - but mainly trying to work out how to pay the rent. Somehow we kept the business together and eventually did okay but it took many years of struggle and frustration. This business is like running a marathon, it's about overcoming pain. If your attitude is you'll keep running whatever happens you'll probably make it. Just be sure you have a little bit of talent as well though.
Research is vital - if you do your homework right the script usually turns out a lot better. At the very least you pick up some nifty jargon with which to dazzle your readers/audience.
Yes I went to the AFTRS and it's true I dropped out, but it was only towards the end of the final year (because I was keen to go to work making music videos and couldn't really be bothered completing my final year essay) so technically speaking I completed the course.
Funny story: when I was making my first "professional" music video (for a bunch of friends, with a total budget of $600) we couldn't afford to rent camera equipment (and I was officially a film school drop-out at this point) so I convinced my fellow student and good friend Jane Campion (The Piano) to borrow some film school gear and let me have it for the weekend. Unfortunately when the gear was returned we foolishly forgot to remove my name from the slate (marker board) - under "director" it said Alex Proyas and I got Jane into big trouble with the school. Fortunately she forgave me.
Dark City: I wanted the tuning scenes to have a strange "pulsing" to them so we tried to come up with a live-action version of the same effect. Darius Wolski (the DP) created it a couple of different ways - by shooting off speed - if you shoot at certain fps rates with HMI lighting you get a pulsating flicker. This is often seen as a technical mistake - in fact everytime we did the effect the studio or the lab would call us in a panic and we'd have to tell them once again that it was intentional. If we were doing dialogue and had to shoot at normal speed Darius would get the gaffer to throw the generator out of phase which would also cause lighting flicker, not quite the same but similar enough to cut in with the other footage. Hope that makes some kind of sense.
You can ask me just about anything on this forum (as long as it isn't too personal) and I will do my best to answer honestly. But there are three things you shouldn't ask me to do:
1. Read your latest feature-length screenplay
2. Produce or direct your latest feature-length screenplay , or...
3. Give you a job
Sorry but there are better ways of applying for work in the film industry - I think Assist has given you a few good pointers. Good luck!
