VSDA Panel: DVD and the Filmmaker (transcript)

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VSDA Panel Discussion:
DVD and the Filmmaker
(transcript)

Friday, July 9th

The DVD and the Filmmaker panel.

The following is a transcript of the panel discussion, DVD and the Filmmaker, which took place Friday, July 9th, at 9 AM, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The panelists for this event represented a wide range of directing talent, among them Robert Altman (Nashville, The Player, Cookie's Fortune), Brett Ratner (Rush Hour), Werner Herzog (Nosfertu the Vampyre, Fitzcarraldo), Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters), and Eric Darnell (ANTZ). The panel was moderated by popular film critic Leonard Maltin (Entertainment Tonight). Several hundred people were on hand for the occasion. Bo Anderson, the president of VSDA, started the event with a brief introduction.

Announcer: And now, please welcome the president of the Video Software Dealers Association... Mr. Bo Anderson.

[applause]

Anderson: I'd like first to thank Paul Culberg. Paul is an extraordinary friend of home video, and even more of a friend in his stewardship of DVD.

But it's my pleasure to introduce another friend of VSDA and its members. Leonard Maltin is one of the elite movie critics and historians, whose name is instantly recognized by millions of people. You have heard him discussing films on his syndicated radio show, Leonard Maltin on Video, or seen his reviews on the long-running Entertainment Tonight. He has authored numerous books on the cinema, most notably his Movie & Video Guide, and he is the official movie reviewer for Playboy magazine. Leonard has frequently served as host, panelist or moderator, for numerous VSDA events, and it's a distinct pleasure to welcome him back. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Maltin...

[applause]

Maltin: Thank you, very much. Good morning. Please pardon my early morning throat. [clears his throat] I may have to do that every now and then. It's nice to see you all - at least the two rows that I can see before it falls into blackness - but I trust that there are people out there.

Panel moderator Leonard Maltin

The only people I guess, who aren't bothered by early morning starts, are directors - they're used to that. They have to get up even earlier than most of us did today. And most directors nowadays, even those who haven't paid a great deal of attention to video in their careers up 'til now, are choosing to in many cases, and in some cases are forced to deal with it, because video is not just a fact of life - it is a way of life for so many people. You all know the statistics that even for a hit movie, even for some of the biggest hit movies, more people will see those films for the first time on video, than ever saw them in the theater. So filmmakers are in some cases adjusting to that fact - in other cases, they're being dragged into that reality - and in many cases, enthusiastically embracing it. And now that DVD is here, and offers them certain opportunities that only laserdisc did before in terms of commentaries, sound tracks, extra materials and such, a lot of them are thinking ahead about video, even as they're making the film.

The panelists we have this morning, who I'm delighted are here, and I'm delighted represent such a diverse, broad spectrum of filmmaking, I think will have a lot of interesting things to say. I think we'll all get a lot out of the morning. So I'd like to introduce our guests - in alphabetical order, so there's no ranking or favoritism [laughter from audience]. We'll start with a man who, I'm sure it's safe to say, has more films on your collective video shelves than anyone else here this morning. Not only is he an incredibly prolific filmmaker, he is one of the great filmmakers of our time. His credits date back to M*A*S*H and Brewster McCloud, and McCabe & Mrs. Miller, right up to contemporary films like Short Cuts, and The Player, and this year's Cookie's Fortune - his films speak for themselves. He is truly the definition of an independent filmmaker and an artist. Please welcome, Robert Altman.

[Audience applause as Altman walks out and sits.]

Our next filmmaker is perhaps less known, because his career is just beginning. But if you watched this year's Academy Awards, you not only saw him accept the Best Adapted Screenplay award, but you saw the most incredible image of his stars, Ian McKellen, Brendan Frasier and Lynn Redgrave, sitting toward the front of the auditorium, cheering him on almost as college kids would a football hero. It was one of the sweetest and most satisfying images of the Oscars. He's the man who made the remarkable film Gods and Monsters. Please welcome, Bill Condon.

[Audience applause as Condon walks out and sits.]

Our next filmmaker has the advantage that Alfred Hitchcock once spoke of. Hitchcock once said that he envied the animation director, because if he didn't like what his actors were doing, he could simply tear them up. Nowadays, since almost everything is done on the computer, I guess he'd have to press the delete button. [audience laughter] But this is the man who co-directed ANTZ, and did it very successfully. Please welcome, Eric Darnell.

[More applause - Darnell enters and sits.]

Our next filmmaker is a world-class filmmaker, on the world film scene. But fiction feature films are only a part of what he does. He recently directed some operas, he's very active in the documentary world, he has a new film that was just shown at Cannes, about his relationship with the tempestuous Klaus Kinski. And he has the distinction - a rare one - of having been stepped on by Robin Williams, because he was one of the sea of faces in the film What Dreams May Come, which shows that there is nothing he won't do for his art. And his art has included such films as Nosferatu and Fitzcarraldo. Please welcome Werner Herzog.

[Applause - Herzog enters and takes his seat.]

And our final panelist is a man who, I think, truly knows the meaning of the term overnight success. Because his budding film career took off like a sky rocket, when his film Rush Hour went through the roof at the box office. And I'm sure his future is unlimited. Please welcome, Brett Ratner.

[Ratner enters to more applause. Maltin takes his seat as well, and addresses the panel.]

And here we are. I'm gonna ask some video-related questions first, before we get into observations and stories about your films in general. I know, for instance, that Bill, you actively participated in putting together the extras for the video release of Gods and Monsters. Was that something that was thought about right from the start?

Condon: Yeah. We had the writer David J. Skal, who had been trying for years to do a film on James Whale, but there's no footage of James Whale. So this was an opportunity for him to make a documentary on James Whale, and then use it as an extra feature on the DVD.

Maltin: And what did you decide to do, when you knew you had the documentary, and you knew the film was coming out on video? You knew that your film, because it's about a veteran filmmaker, would lend itself nicely to a lot of extra material, that would appeal to a lot of movie buffs. So what did you want the DVD to represent - what point of view?

Gods and Monsters director Bill Condon.

Condon: Well, I think that one thing that happened - we were making the film, and Universal had the first chance to distribute it. We weren't sure they wanted to at first, unfortunately. But by a stroke of luck, we found it back at Universal, which was wonderful. David is actually doing documentaries on all of their monster movies from the '30s that are being re-released. So it was great to be able to take from that library [for the DVD extras], that we wouldn't have had access to before. It felt like we could make something that would stand up as a record of both the movie, and of James Whale.

Maltin: How about you Robert - having made films for a number of decades now, and knowing that people always see them on TV, or on video, more than they do in the theaters - do you ever accommodate that when you're making the film? I mean, when you're lining up a shot, or composing the film, are you aware of that?

Altman: Totally aware. In the '70s, when we were shooting anamorphic widescreen, we didn't pay any attention to TV. And after years of seeing these pan & scans of some of these films on television, it's almost worse than censorship. [audience laughter] But I don't think it's like that anymore. We shoot these films 1.85 - we can go either way. It's kind of a compromise. But it's certainly - I understand that more people see these films on video than in theaters.

You know, I made a film called Kansas City, and [applause] and there was a great jazz score, and musicians working with me. And I did a 75-minute video, just for the score. So as we were making the film, we were also making this video.

L to R: Eric Darnell, Robert Altman, Leonard Maltin and Bill Condon.

Maltin: I've seen that. I'm a jazz fan, and it's a wonderful film that stands quite on its own, apart from Kansas City. Do you see yourself doing more of that?

Altman: Well, I'm not gonna change. I'm not looking for something that I can do both ways. But I'm aware that this [video] is our biggest market. I don't know how long we'll be showing films in theaters - I hope a long time. But video is now certainly the big draw.

Maltin: You haven't done any commentaries for your films, have you?

Altman: Yeah, actually I've done quite a few on laserdisc. I did one on DVD for The Player too. I'd like to do more.

Maltin: Now Brett, I know you were a film student. And I know you're a film buff. First let me ask you, as a viewer, what do you like about the possibilities of this new medium?

Ratner: Well, I did go to film school, but I actually learned how to make movies by watching the laserdisc director's commentary on movies like The Player. I would watch it, and listen, and really felt that I could understand how these things were accomplished - it was really helpful. So I was very excited, when I did Rush Hour, to go in and do my own commentary. I'm really excited about explaining how I shot something, or interesting stories on the set. I think - and I got to put my first short film on the DVD of Rush Hour. But watching the movie, and then watching with the isolated score, for example, is an amazing experience. You really begin to feel what the composer and director were trying to do with the music. It's just - the whole medium of DVD to me, with all the extras that come with it, is very exciting. Deleted scenes - and most of the time you watch them and feel like, "I didn't want to deleted it!" [audience laughter] - but you can put them there if you want it.

It's exciting for me, because now, knowing this going into it, I can really compile some great, informative stuff, or stuff that - there's always shots, or material that I collect and want to put in a movie that doesn't work, but I fall in love with it. And this is great, because I can put it in later so people will see it. I can show it later. And that's really helpful to me.

Rush Hour director (and DVD fan) Brett Ratner.

Maltin: Do think as you make your next film, will you do anything differently, knowing that you have all that ahead of you?

Ratner: Well, yeah. I mean as far as - all this talk about anamorphic [on DVD]. I mean, my big influences were people like Mr. Altman, and Hal Ashby, and directors who shot in anamorphic. And so I shot my movie in anamorphic. And I literally couldn't sit in on the pan & scan transfer, because I had composed everything for this wide screen. And I'd have this close up, and then a two shot, and the camera literally has to pan over to get it for TV - I couldn't watch it. But I was so excited, because now, when I shoot anamorphic, I can transfer the film anamorphically for the DVD. And now they're doing these special widescreen videotapes. And that's great - it's important to me, especially for those people who are seeing my movies for the first time.

For example, I'm trying to get Nick Cage to be in my next film. And he had not seen Rush Hour on the big screen. So I go into his trailer last night, and I'm waiting for him to come in, and I see on the shelf a video box - VHS - of my movie, and it's pan & scan. And I'm thinking, "Oh my God!" [lots of audience laughter] So when he came in, I said, "Please don't watch that video! I'm gonna send you the DVD, and if you don't have a DVD player, I'm gonna send you a portable DVD player - watch my movie on DVD!" Because that's the true way that I shot the movie.

[Big round of applause in agreement.]

Maltin: Now Werner, I know you're about to start to doing commentaries. You've made a deal with Anchor Bay to distribute a whole range of your movies on DVD. Have you started recording any of those commentaries?

Herzog: There was one film, which was Nosferatu, where we did a commentary soundtrack for it. And there's another - just yesterday I was working on a voice-over commentary track for Fitzcarraldo. And it's not only that - of course, during the making of Fitzcarraldo, it was an epic struggle to do that, we had to take a 400-ton steamship over a mountain, with quote/unquote eleven hundred savage Indians in the middle of nowhere in a Peruvian jungle. So by telling that story in commentary, the audience gets the subtexture to the film. So they really get something for their money, and more understanding.

And there's another aspect about this DVD. Somehow, in some respect, even though I don't like TV screens, and the culture of those monitors - I'm someone who loves the cinema and loves the big screen - but even saying that, Fitzcarraldo is one of those films which can, on one aspect, be enhanced by DVD. Because the film, which was shot quite a few years ago, was shot in mono sound. And now with all of the new technologies to digitize sound and separate out the frequencies - we have all of this digitized surround sound that can be created from that - and all of a sudden, we get the film in much better sound quality. It's just stunning. And so there are certain advantages to all this.

And I could believe, that, in my case for example, a long ranging perspective is gonna be to have some sort of a personal edition or anthology [on DVD] - not only just the films, but with all sorts of perspective and very personal comments about it. And I believe that this is a real breakthrough of possibilities. Even though, I must say, whatever deviates from a bigger screen, should be only touched with a pair of pliers. But certainly we have out there now a format which is far superior to videotape, when I see myself on video.

The great Werner Herzog talks about DVD.

Maltin: I always say that I too - I mean, I want to see the film in the theaters first. That's how I want to experience it the first time. But I always say that if you've seen it that way first, you can revisit it on video later, and you're sort of reacquainting yourself with it on video, and that's okay.

Herzog: Well, yeah. Going to a film is like being at a concert - you witness a concert, and you see people on the stage, and of course you want to have a record of it, that you can experience on a CD, and you want to own it, and you want to go back to it later. And you can play it for your best friend if he happens by and share that.

Maltin: Of course. Now not many filmmakers can say that they've had their films packaged on video in a coffin, which Nosferatu was earlier this year. So again, you're cutting-edge, Werner... [Big laughter.]

And Fitzcarraldo, is one of my favorite films of yours. And so I'm glad that it's going to find a new audience on DVD, because it's a wonderful, wonderful movie.

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