Biography

[on the aerial drone photography in Spring (2015)] "We had a very meticulous shot list and had a well thought out approach to the photography of the movie and after all that was done, our first AC/steadycam operator, William Tanner Sampson, came to us and said 'Hey, I've got this new drone I just bought. Should I bring it for the production? Maybe we could use it.' We knew immediately how that would fit into our general approach to the photography of the movie. The photography should feel like an omniscient presence in the movie. It should feel very subjective, almost like a third, all-powerful character. So Will came out with the drone and, after almost getting arrested with it in a Moscow airport because they were thinking it was a piece of military equipment he was going to assault Russia with, we got to use it. Any day the crew was off, [co-director/cinematographer] Aaron Moorhead and I would continue to shoot. On Sundays in Italy, we'd continue shooting and that was when we'd do the drone photography with Will. Just grab as many shots as we could, experiment with it, see how it would work. And almost everything we shot with the drone made it into the edit. It's one of the talking points of the movie. It's pretty cool. It's one of those things where one day, because a lot of people have started using them and someday people are going to look at our movie and be like, 'Why did Moorhead and Benson use the fucking toy helicopter thing over and over and over again?'"[2014]

Every filmmaker will say the same thing here: pick up a camera, and start. Your first thing will not be good. Your second will be slightly better. And your third slightly better than that. Like any field of work, being a filmmaker means constantly learning. We still shoot with our iPhones sometimes when the mood hits, so no excuses about not having the right tools. If you find yourself spending any substantial amount of time merely talking about doing the work, or trying to make some kind of connection who will open a door for you, you're doing it wrong. Get out there and never stop making films.[2015]