IndieWire's Filmmaker Toolkit
278 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 days ago - ★★★★ - 77 ratingsInterviews with leading film and TV creators about their process and craft. From screenwriting to film language to cinematography, we'll be examining the innovative ways today's best filmmakers are getting their visions out into the world.
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Episodes
"Honey Boy" Director Alma Har'el
January 31, 2019 17:37 - 41 minutesHar'el on taking Shia Labeouf's pain and therapy and turning it into a hit Sundance film. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Hereditary" Director Ari Aster
January 11, 2019 05:11 - 39 minutesAster talks about how a story of grief, that was too dark and bleak to ever get made as a drama, became a hit horror film. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Destroyer" Director Karyn Kusama
January 03, 2019 23:43 - 40 minutesKusmana on the using real guns, creating an unusual villain and pulling Nicole Kidman back from going almost too far in her incredible transformation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Cold War" Director Pawel Pawlikowski
December 27, 2018 23:14 - 34 minutesThe Oscar winning director behind "Ida" talks about his extraordinary new film "Cold War." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"If Beale Street Could Talk" Director Barry Jenkins
December 21, 2018 03:43 - 33 minutes"Black love is a radical act," calling on Jenkins to create to take a bold and different approach to creating Beale Street's visual language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"You Were Never Really Here" Director Lynne Ramsay
December 13, 2018 21:42 - 39 minutesRamsay talks about coming back from the trauma of having been fired from a film she had already made in her head, to make one of the best films of the year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Sorry To Bother You" Director Boots Riley
December 13, 2018 13:00 - 39 minutesWhat Boots Riley learned from two decades of creating music that made making his first film such a success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Madeline's Madeline" Director Josephine Decker
December 11, 2018 19:18 - 50 minutesJosephine gets inside her unique multi-year process of creating the dreamy, meta world of "Madeline's Madeline," and how it relates to her new film "Shirley." PHOTO: AP/REX/Shutterstock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Leave No Trace" Director Debra Granik
December 10, 2018 13:26 - 58 minutesThe LA Critics Best Director winner talks about her long process and deep research of making her "social realist" films and the next films she's making. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"BlacKkKlansman" Director Spike Lee
December 07, 2018 18:41 - 54 minutesSpike on keeping Oscar season in perspective, film school today, and how the success of "BlacKkKlansman" has led people to reconsider his 40 years of filmmaking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"The Favourite" Director Yorgos Lanthimos
November 29, 2018 22:21 - 34 minutesThe "Dogtooth" and "Lobster" director talks about his unusual rehearsal process and what drew him to make a period lesbian triangle drama about Queen Anne with screenwriter Tony McNamara. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Widows" Director Steve McQueen
November 15, 2018 22:02 - 34 minutesThe “12 Years a Slave” director talks about why he never shot lists, the film’s incredible opening sequence, his longtime collaboration with DP Sean Bobbitt, why Chicago is the best city to set a story, and how he identified with the widows in the original BBC series as a 13 year old black kid growing up in London. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Can You Ever Forgive Me?" Director Marielle Heller
November 09, 2018 03:29 - 34 minutesThe "Diary of a Teenage Girl" director on why striving for clarity in films can be a bad thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Hale County This Morning, This Evening" Director RaMell Ross
November 06, 2018 22:14 - 32 minutesRaMell Ross refused to accepted the limitations of documentaries and black representational space in cinema, so he created something new. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Suspiria" Director Luca Guadagnino
November 01, 2018 18:00 - 37 minutesThe "Call Me By Your Name" director talks about how Thom Yorke changed his view of film scores, being inspired by the films and youth culture of Berlin 1977, his feminism, and tackling Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks." PHOTO: Andrea Raffin/Shutterstock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"First Man" Damien Chazelle
October 26, 2018 21:10 - 37 minutesThe oscar winning director goes behind the scenes of recreating the moon landing and telling the story of Neil Armstrong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Wildlife" Paul Dano & Zoe Kazan
October 19, 2018 17:47 - 41 minutesKazan and Dano talk about collaborating on Paul’s directorial debut. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Old Man & The Gun" Director David Lowery
September 27, 2018 18:47 - 34 minutesLowery on subverting the cops & robbers genre to detour into the looseness of a ‘70s film, finding out "Old Man" would be Redford's last movie, wanting to make the definitive "Peter Pan," the small indie he'll make first and how his wife Augustine Frizzell's career is blowing up. Photo: David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Mission Impossible – Fallout" Director Christopher McQuarrie
July 27, 2018 15:47 - 51 minutesChristopher McQuarrie talks about directing action scenes with emotional clarity, the danger of practical stunts and wanting to return to being an indie filmmaker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"The Chi" Creator Lena Waithe
June 22, 2018 13:17 - 45 minutesLena talks about creating the interweaving narrative of “The Chi,” a showtime series about her hometown (Southside of Chicago) and the vital role casting (and a good casting director) plays in allowing a writer to do something different. She also shares her advice to actors and a funny story about her “Masters of None” audition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Halt And Catch Fire" Creators Christopher Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers,
June 20, 2018 22:43 - 49 minutesHow Two Young Creators Blew Up Their ‘Mad Men of Tech’ Premise to Discover Something Special. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Barry" Creators Bill Hader & Alec Berg
June 19, 2018 15:20 - 40 minutesBill Hader moved To L.A. to be a filmmaker, 15 years later and an unexpected comedy detour (SNL) he found his way back in dark comedy that he created with “Silicon Valley,” “Seinfeld,” & “Curb Your Enthusiasm” vet Alec Berg. Photo Credit: Michael Buckner/Deadline/REX/Shutterstock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Dear White People" Creator Justin Simien
June 15, 2018 01:59 - 43 minutesSimien breaks down the unique "presentation" style of his Netflix series, what Kubrick taught him about music and share new details about his horror-race satire movie ("Bad Hair")that he'll be shooting this summer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"The Good Place" Creator Michael Schur
June 11, 2018 18:57 - 42 minutesMichael Schur (The Office, Parks & Rec), master of the work place comedy, talks about the challenges of tackling the big concept and twisty plot of “The Good Place.” In this conversation Schur outlines the one vital key to success in all serialized tv, working with philosophy professors as consultants, modeling heaven after The Grove and avoiding the M. Night Shyamalan trap of training an audience to anticipate twists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"The Terror" Creator David Kajganich
June 08, 2018 02:41 - 45 minutesInside the process of creating a historical horror story of a lost Arctic expedition on a sound stage and how Kajganich pitched the show as anthology, but won't be coming back for another season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Atlanta" & "This Is America" Director Hiro Murai
June 04, 2018 18:00 - 46 minutesAtlanta's Lakeith Stanfield Didn’t Even Know Donald Glover Was Playing Teddy Perkins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"First Reformed" Director Paul Schrader
May 23, 2018 00:46 - 36 minutesThe screenwriter behind "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull" talks about the intersection of faith and cinema, and how arthouse cinema has radically changed since he first wrote "Transcendental Style in Film" in 1971. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"The Rider" Director Chloé Zhao
May 18, 2018 15:49 - 26 minutesThe director behind one of the best films of 2018 talks about how a woman born in Beijing and schooled at NYU ended up telling real-life stories of people living on a South Dakota reservation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Netflix "Strong Island" Director Yance Ford
February 15, 2018 17:51 - 44 minutesOscar nomination director Yance Ford talks about his 8-year journey to completing a film about his brother's violent death in 1992. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"The Big Sick" Kumail Nanjiani & Emily V. Gordon
January 09, 2018 07:10 - 35 minutesThere were a ton of bad drafts of "The Big Sick" before it became one of the best comedy scripts in years. Kumail & Emily talk about the 4 year process of adapting their real life story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Lady Bird" Director Greta Gerwig
January 05, 2018 05:10 - 30 minutesGerwig talks about what her artistic dreams were when she, like Lady Bird, was 18 and came to New York. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"mother!" Director Darren Aronofsky
December 28, 2017 23:28 - 27 minutesAronofsky on why you have to make the audience laugh, cry or scare the shit out of the them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Get Out" Director Jordan Peele
December 22, 2017 00:16 - 30 minutesJordan Peele talks about his biggest fear in making "Get Out." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Wonder Woman" Director Patty Jenkins
December 15, 2017 22:37 - 33 minutesWhat Patty Jenkins learned from walking away from Marvel's "Thor" that shaped "Wonder Woman." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"The Shape Of Water" Director Guillermo del Toro
December 08, 2017 05:13 - 37 minutesHow Guillermo del Toro was inspired by musicals, Punch Drunk Love and Stan Laurel in making his beautiful fable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Call Me By Your Name" Director Luca Guadagnino
November 30, 2017 08:32 - 30 minutesGuadagnino talks about his approach to filmmaking and his upcoming remake of Suspiria. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Mudbound" Director Dee Rees
November 22, 2017 06:01 - 31 minutesWriter/director Dee Rees talks about how she weaved together her complex narrative about race and what drew her to tackle the ERA, Joan Didion and a "Get Out" like horror film in her upcoming projects. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"The Florida Project" Director Sean Baker
November 16, 2017 23:36 - 35 minutesThe indie filmmaker behind "Tangerine" talks honestly about his struggle working with union crews for the first time and his nervousness about bringing a star like Willem Dafoe into his world of first-time performers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Patti Cake$" Director Geremy Jasper
August 17, 2017 19:56 - 45 minutesThe Sundance breakout talks about creating his ambitious New Jersey hip-hop musical debut featuring Australian actress Danielle MacDonald. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Good Time" Directors Josh & Benny Safdie
August 10, 2017 11:37 - 31 minutesThe Safdie Brothers talk about how the knew Robert Pattinson would be able to give himself over to their unique approach to filmmaking and how they built a story around aspects of the "Twilight" star that haven't been seen publicly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
'Columbus' Director Kogonada
August 04, 2017 16:09 - 31 minutesNoted video essayist Kogonada talks about making the transition from academics to being a breakout at this year's Sundance Film Festival with his new film "Columbus." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"War For the Planet Of The Apes" Director Matt Reeves
July 15, 2017 02:43 - 20 minutesMatt Reeves talks about directing actors for motion capture and his plans for the new Batman film. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"A Ghost Story" Director David Lowery
July 10, 2017 15:28 - 30 minutesDavid Lowery talks about quietly making a small little film in a house with friends that he was willing to bury if it ended up being an embarrassment. The risk paid off, as "A Ghost Story" it the best reviewed indie so far this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Baby Driver" Director Edgar Wright
June 29, 2017 10:43 - 35 minutes"Baby Driver" Director Edgar Wright by Chris O'Falt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bertrand Tavernier's “My Journey Through French Cinema”
June 27, 2017 17:29 - 30 minutesThe great French director talks about what he learned from his favorite filmmakers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"The Bad Batch" Director Ana Lily Amirpour
June 24, 2017 02:19 - 26 minutes"A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night" director talks about her second feature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"The Handmaid's Tale" Director Reed Morano
June 16, 2017 13:06 - 1 hourReed Morano talks about how directing the hit Hulu show was different than her new indie feature "I Think We're Alone." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"It Comes at Night" Director Trey Edward Shults
June 08, 2017 14:48 - 24 minutesShults' follow up to ultra low budget breakout "Krisha" is an extreme dark horror film from A24 about death. The writer/director talks about his own fathers, learning about film working for Terrence Malick and telling the stories with his camera. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Mr. Robot" Creator Sam Esmail
June 01, 2017 12:31 - 36 minutesSam Esmail talks Kubrick, Metropolis, Trump and shooting S2 like a movie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Netflix's "Black Mirror" Charlie Brooker & Annabel Jones
May 25, 2017 21:30 - 38 minutesThe two Showrunners behind the hit series talk about how they built six new sci-fi worlds for Season 3 and what they've got brewing for Season 4. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices