Sundance Quotes

Great quotes from panelists at the Cinema Cafe this morning: Terence Nance (Oversimplification of Her Beauty), Marialy Rivas (Young & Wild) and Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild) with John Nein.

Ben Zeitlin on voice-over rules for Beasts: Hushpuppy never says how she feels or what’s going to happen. The voice-over is the result of conversations I had with six-year-old actress about what she thinks about the world...So it was a window into my head.

Terence Nance on voice over rules for Oversimplification: All the voices are mine, all of my nine selves. Most of the time it’s omniscient narrator, but sometimes it’s first person, sometimes it's second person, depending on what I want to communicate. It's tough to be really self-aware when you are talking in first person.

Marialy Rivas: Sexuality drives everything. The only certainty is death, so everything we do is against that, and sex is one of the things we do. It’s there all the time.

Ben Zeitland on the process of choosing collaborators: Everything matters. If you have an original idea but approach it with a generic process, it’s going to end up tasting like a Subway sandwich. If you make a point to choose exactly the right butter, people may not be aware of it, but it makes the film taste exactly the way you want it to.

Ben Zeitland: You have to be willing to pull the boat yourself, because you start out with a big crew, but it ends up just you, with your own time, resolve and stamina.

Marialy Rivas on how to keep the vision over the long haul of making the film: I always remind myself of why I fell in love with this. And if it doesn’t fit, I throw it away.

Ben on how to keep the vision: I do a lot of screenings. I am most focused on what I want something to communicate to my audience – not whether something is shot a certain way or has a certain color. So I watch the way a scene screens with an audience, and whether are reacting to a scene the way I want them to.