“English Teacher is so special because what they are doing is they are fusing current culture and political climate with the haplessness of being an actual person. You think you’re going to get taught a lesson, you think it’s going to be some morality play, but it ends up being about how you maintain your sort of authenticity in a world that’s constantly shifting…”
“As a cinematographer, I love actors. I could never act, my daughter’s an actor, my brother’s an actor, but I love acting and actors. I love watching them. So, you create for me to create an environment with a camera and lighting, that these actors can find their space within it. With minor adjustments you’re going to add a bit, subtract a bit, and as you find what they want to do and the action and the shots, you can just add a bit or subtract.”
“What’s funny is, I had the world, the internal logic and rules for this universe for a while. It only came to light when I had the right story. I had stories that hit dead ends in terms of just like, oh, is there actually a reason we’re following this character or do I just want to play around with it? I think finding the brother-sister angle, which is loosely based on me and my own sister, was a real emotional point for me to go down there.”
“My biggest note that I always give my assistant editors in action sequences, that is when they’re sound designing it for me is more beefy, and that’s the word I use all the time. My assistant editors will attest to it. They’re like, oh, she wants more beef again. And by that, I just mean I want layers of heft to it.”
“We were trying to write a film about somebody finding their voice, and then it developed into a story of a chef. We are really related to this mix of ambition and self-doubt. A lot of our writing comes from a very personal place, from our own experiences working on film sets as young whipper snappers and camera interns and PAs and stuff.”
“There is always red tape around songs. Part of it is I do a lot of projects that are hip hop based, so always, you’re finding a writer who has 2%. You’re like, where are they? And you’re on Instagram and you’re trying Twitter, you’re really trying to do that. Even now with pop music being so many writers, producers contributing, and samples, all this stuff is complicated.”
“We didn’t have the budget or the time to be able to light everything in the gym. We just used available lighting. We were shooting at this place called The Pit in Albuquerque, which is huge and they broadcast games there. There was enough light but in that case, how do we make this one piece about getting into his head? Let’s turn almost everything off and just play with this idea of creating this world like the spot.”
“I’ve never had such love from people seeing a film. Sundance was just amazing to me. I had never been there before. I’d had films there, but I had never personally been there. And so, that was an experience. Seeing the film that first night with this huge audience and their reaction was just amazing. When Thelma first opened, we saw quite a few that beginning we would go to screenings and they were packed in the afternoon. I was thrilled. I mean, everything about this has been very exciting.”
“It came together because I wanted to keep doing movies the way I love to make them in the genre area, which is for me, the best way I can express myself in a creative and and free way. You don’t have the limits of reality. You can create your codes, and your own rules to tell your story, and you can go as far as the Brundlefly, and everything to express to meet the violence of what I wanted to say about the theme.”
“Chicago has incredible actors. There’s this old adage about if you want to find really good, steady actors that aren’t necessarily just trying to be famous, you’ll find them in these smaller cities, especially Chicago. So whoever doesn’t want to go to New York or LA and keep trying for the same stuff, you just find people who are excellent craftsmen. And same with the crew.”