Student Filmmakers - June 2008 - (Page 26) Close-Up John Leguizamo (as Julian) and Mark Wahlberg (as Elliot Moore). M. Night Shyamalan directs Mark Wahlberg and John Leguizamo in a scene for The Happening. films. The director’s relationship with a cinematographer is different, isn’t it? M. Night Shyamalan: Yes. Choosing a cinematographer is almost exclusively about who is the perfect match for the material. Right now, I’m completely in the throes of selecting the cinematographer for my next movie (The Last Airbender). It has to be the right match. Before I really know the material, in choosing a cinematographer I’m committing to a look. Not that cinematographers can’t do different looks, but you do get a sense from looking at their body of work where their lean is. It’s a very difficult decision. How about casting actors? I read that you wrote The Happening with Mark Wahlberg in mind for the lead. M. Night Shyamalan: I write my scripts over a long period and, for me, casting lead actors happens organically. In writing The Happening, I asked myself who can do this. Who can do this kind of innocence, humor, and likeability? At one point I thought, this feels like Mark to me. I watched [Martin Scorsese’s] The Departed a few times. I know Mark as a friend and I always wanted to work with him. This movie is a lot like [Alfred Hitchcock’s] The Birds and I thought: Imagine Mark Wahlberg in the center of The Birds. That would be really cool. So I called him up and said, “Mark, I’m writing this script and it’s kind of like The Birds. Are you interested?” He said: “I’m in.” As a boy, you made short video movies. Was there one defining moment – an epiphany – when you knew you wanted to be a filmmaker? M. Night Shyamalan: Yes, definitely. It was seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark when I was twelve. But there were really two epiphanies. The other one happened when I read the book, Spike Lee’s Gotta Have It; I was around fifteen years old. I thought: Wow, you don’t need to know anybody [in the movie business]. You can actually make movies, and I knew that this was what I needed to do. So did you plan back then to go to film school? M. Night Shyamalan: At that time, the idea hadn’t formed 100% in a rational way. It was more in an irrational kid “I can do anything” kind of way. I wrote my first screenplay at fifteen – which as you can imagine was pretty bad. But, at the time, I thought it was perfect – with no re-writes, by the way! It just came out perfect! This is literally what I did – this is what a fifteen year old does. I opened up the phonebook, looked up “Motion Picture Producers”, saw two names, wrote a letter to them, telling them that I’d written a screenplay and that a lot of people were interested in it (a complete lie), and said that, if you’re interested in it, you should move fast. I was devastated when they didn’t write back to me! It looks like that kind of persistence served you well, in many ways, later in life. On this subject, I wanted to ask you about your decision to study filmmaking at NYU. Both your parents are medical doctors. Was it difficult convincing them that you wanted to be a filmmaker and not follow in their path? M. Night Shyamalan: There was a kind of quiet tension between us – like some kind of dagger that was going to fall on the family. Like, “Oh God, he’s going into film”. Do you still get the feeling from them that, one day, maybe you’ll wise up, give up this frivolous activity and decide to go into medicine? M. Night Shyamalan: Ha, ha! They’re so funny. I think just recently they’ve let go of all that – finally! When they go into 2 studentfilmmakers June 2008
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