Infinite Movie Project

The three sections of my own life can also be classified according to three directors that I worked with during each one. And no doubt, Bernardo Bertolucci belonged to the first part of my life. It was my more innocent part, the discovery, the growing up, the time you are forming yourself, which is my Italian part. Bernardo and I did a good section of our lives together and remain great friends. We never told our stories through the completely conscious side of our minds. Bernardo's characters never say exactly what's on their minds or what the scene is about. There is always some part that belongs to Bernardo's own unconscious, which you have to suggest and present in that way. That's why I say cinematography is again, writing with light. Using the language of light to get across an idea, or a characterization, or a theme that might not necessarily be spoken of directly.

I realized that making movies is my way to kill my father. In a way I make movies for - how can I say - the pleasure of guilt. I have accepted it at a certain moment and my father too had to accept that he was killed in every movie. The funny line he gave me once was: 'You're very smart. You have killed me many times without going to jail.

What everybody sees in a movie is such a private emotion. I mean in the cinema I think that when you go to see a movie we all enter into a kind of a special light. There is this amniotic darkness, and we are going all together to dream the same dream. And this is the great thing of cinema; it is something that happens in a community, we are all together. We start dreaming the same dream because there is... It let's us think that the movie is projected not only by the projector, which is behind everybody, but is also projected by our own eyes. So we participate in our own personal, private way to this kind of ballet of ghosts that we have on the screen.

I see movies as representations of a period of time in my life -- who I was, who I wasn't -- so it's hard to pick a favorite or ones that are favorites because they were these experiences that have been in my life since I was 15 years old. There are times that I've had that have been amazing, like when I made Jarhead, it was an incredible experience. It was such an honor to be working with that caliber of director and to be surrounded by those types of people. But I am blessed to say that about a number of movies that I've been involved in. I look around my surroundings when I make a movie and I go: Wow, how did I land up here with all these people?

I think writing is the most underrated thing in Hollywood. You know when people are like, "What's your dream role?" I would say, "I don't know. I'll tell you when I read it." I have massive respect for writers. I read Crash, and I was like, oh my god, this is amazing. It stuck with me. For me, the World Trade Center screenplay was riveting. I was like, this really happened? I think there has to be an emotional connection. It has to treat me like an audience member, where I'm looking at the visuals, and it stops becoming words. There were a lot of times, early on in my career, where I was like, this is a really interesting script, I love the way they talk, but then there's no emotional response. And then you do the movie, and you're all, oh it's exactly what I thought it was going to be.

There are a couple of scenes in there that were entirely shot by Jake, which, yeah, is pretty nuts. But it’s part of the movie, you know. It’s not necessarily found footage-specific, because I kind of break the rules and use hybrid coverage style, so I didn’t get too hung up on who was holding the camera. It was more for me about, what’s the best way to tell this moment of the story. I’ve taken a lot of hits for shaky cam-style and all that, but it’s a mix. I figured it sort of tricks your brain into thinking it’s real when you see some of that coverage. But the other thing it does is it enables the characters to talk directly to the audience, so you get pulled into the friendship and relationships too. They can say things in a more direct manner than traditional drama.

I wanted to take people on the inside. Behind that badge, it’s really a secret society, in the sense that outsiders never understand what it’s like inside that community. It’s a closed-off culture because a lot of people are wary about cops, yet in dealing with them and knowing them as friends, they’re some of the coolest people I know. I’m comfortable with cops, they’re like children and dogs – they know who likes them. And they just have this amazing life wisdom that comes from what they see on the streets, and as a writer and as a storyteller, those are the kinds of people I’m attracted to.