[MUSIC PLAYING]
I feel that a set should be like a happy family
almost like Thanksgiving every day,
happily going down the road together, getting along
and congratulating people all the time of their good work.
And you know, getting a really great feeling,
a safe feeling too, for the actors,
so they can, like I say, let go and go to a new character
with as little fear as possible and really get in there deep.
People who run a set on fear, or a business on fear, I say
are really stupid.
If you run your business on fear,
you're going to stress the people.
You're going to cause all kinds of conflicts and jealousies
and backstabbing to get ahead in the business.
When the father or mother come home from work,
they're going to be coming home tired and stressed.
And the little kids can feel this.
And there can be arguments in the home based on this stress
and anxieties and tension.
And the little kids are just like wondering
what is this kind of world?
And when you have a base--
a fear-based thing, people don't want
to go the extra mile if necessary to help the company.
They want to say fuck you, man.
And they don't-- are not happy campers.
And it doesn't serve the work.
Ideas don't flow.
Creativity doesn't flow so much.
Like I say, negativity cramps that tube through which
these ideas flow.
It squeezes it down.
And you don't-- you're not happy, you know,
to help the company.
You're almost hate.
A hate grows for the company.
And that is really bad, and it doesn't serve anybody any good
at all.
So the happier the company, the more creative it's going to be.
The more the people will happily want to help if it's necessary
one day to stay late.
Are you kidding?
I wouldn't have a problem at all.
The next day, you have a special lunches for them.
And you know, it's beautiful.
You're all together on this planet trying to live a life,
you know, a good life.
Why would you torture people?
It's crazy.
We're in this thing together.
We've got to start enjoying this trip.
I arrive on a set wanting to get today's work done
and have it be absolutely true, every element to the idea.
So it's a precarious, uneasy thing in the mornings
or the beginning of the shoot time.
And a lot of times, things are like molasses in January
in early starting of a day.
And sometimes, it looks like maybe we
might not make our day.
So it's very important that you get everything going
and get into it so you can make the day.
And what's even better is to make the day
and maybe even get some extra things if they come along.
And I always say that in the morning, or the beginning
of the shooting day, to me, it's like there's this deepest
canyon.
And you're building a glass bridge.
It's so delicate, it could go wrong at any moment.
This glass bridge is going to carry you across.
And you don't know if it's going to hold together.
You're just trying to get everything right.
And then at the end of the day, the glass turns to steel.
And you've got everything.
And you feel good that you got it true to the idea.
The day has come where that you're on the set
or on the location.
They're all kind of like sets.
And they've been dressed a certain way.
And the actors come in wearing a certain things,
and now you're going to have a rehearsal.
So I clear everybody away and start rehearsing.
And before we start rehearsing even,
you say, you're going to be here, you're going to be here,
you're going to be here.
And then, OK, then we start the thing.
And we have a rehearsal.
And we talk a little bit about something if it's--
something's needs to be talked about.
And then get it so it's pretty much really ready to go.
Then bring in the crew and show it to them.
So they know what to do, you know, to get ready to shoot it.
And it mainly involves lighting.
So then, you know, some time later, you know, it's lit.
Everybody has done their job.
And in the actors come.
And we start shooting.
And in the rehearsal, you know, you're going around.
And you see where, you know, you want
to be where the camera wants to be.
If making the day puts so much stress on you that you weren't
open to things, happy accidents or seeing something,
it's never that bad.
It's just in the beginning, you want
to get as good a start as you can
so that you will finish the day on time and get those things.
So I say it's important at the beginning
to get the train rolling as soon as possible, in a nice way,
but as soon as possible.
Because it could slip away.
And then if something else comes along,
you know, there's many ways to skin a cat, they say.
You'll get that thing.
That just will be added in.
And people will boogie and make it happen.
It just is that way.
People who have worked with me kind of
know wherever I'm sitting, that's the main camera angle.
And I-- so it's mostly common sense.
And a lot of times, it's just like, you know,
a wide shot, medium shot, close up.
There's some kind of trick things sometimes.
But it's what happens in those shots
and the size of those shots and the mood in the light.
It doesn't need a lot of trick camera things,
at least for what I want to do mostly.
Getting the coverage that is true to the idea,
if 47% happened perfect in this take,
then you try to get the 53% in the next takes.
Maybe 27 of the next 53 happens in take two.
Then the rest, you got.
And that fact, the third was good all the way through.
Then you, you know, you got plenty of things to pick from.
Always a good feeling when you've finished a scene.
And a lot of times, that means you've finished the day.
Now, if you have more time, which
would be really nice to have, you
might get in and get some different kind
of coverage of that scene.
Or you might shoot a clock on the wall or a painting
on the wall or dust bunnies under a chair
and-- or drift across the floor if it plays
into the scene some way and maybe
some extreme close-ups with a, you know, certain looks.
And just give yourself some more things to work with.
I came into filmmaking through painting.
And painting, well, nowadays, people
have assistance even in painting.
It's crazy.
But in a painter, you know, you do everything.
You don't have somebody paint the blue
and then another person paint the red.
You do everything.
It was common sense to me that if you're going to build a set,
you want to-- you got to build it yourself or be
involved with it yourself.
Then you make it the way that you want it.
You become one with it.
And all these things are now almost
like they were in your head.
And then once you're in that, on Eraserhead,
I'd say I was in the set.
I could almost hear distant factories.
And I would imagine it raining and the little diners
and all these row factory houses, row houses,
little narrow streets, stoops, and factory people, you know,
and smoke, and fire, and all this world around.
And all those things outside, that
could all be said with sound.
And it's just a beautiful thing to get
into it deeper by, you know, getting your hands in there.
You're feeling and knowing the world by being in it.
If you're not with the crew, then that won't happen.
We're all in the trenches.
And that's where it happens.
I was on-- in Laura Palmer's house at the top of the stairs
in between the parents' bedroom, Leland and Sarah's room,
and Laura Palmer's room.
I was on my hands and my knees working
on something on the rug.
And I don't know what it was.
And I was pointed toward Sarah and Leland's room.
And behind me, the set dresser, Frank Silva,
was arranging Laura Palmer's room putting in the furniture
and arranging things.
And I heard a girl say, Frank, don't lock yourself
in that room, because he had just moved a dresser apparently
in front of the doorway in his process of arranging.
But when I heard that, I pictured Frank in the room,
and something happened.
And I went running in.
And I said, Frank, are you an actor?
And he said, why, yes, I am actually.
I said, OK, you're going to be in this scene.
He said, what am I going to do?
I said, I don't know.
But you're going to be in here.
And so the next thing up was a slow panning
across Laura Palmer's room, just a slow pan.
I forget what for.
And we did two very beautiful slow pans.
And then I said, OK, now Frank, you
go down to the foot of the bed and grab onto these railings
and look right at the camera.
Freeze and look right at the camera.
So he got down there.
And then we panned down.
And we stop.
And there's Frank.
[SCREAMING]
I didn't have a clue what that meant.
So then that evening, we were downstairs in the living room.
And Sarah Palmer, totally distraught,
she's lost her daughter.
She's laying down on the couch totally distraught.
And she's tormented.
And in her mind's eye, she sees something, which causes her
to bolt upright and scream.
And Sean, the camera operator on the wheels, goes.
And I say, perfect.
We got it.
Sean said, no.
I said, what's wrong?
He said, there was someone reflected in the mirror.
And I said, who was reflected in the mirror?
He said Frank was reflected in the mirror.
So something started growing.
And then there it was.
BOB was born then.
He was born.
Just like when someone's born, there they are.
Like the thing exists somewhere already,
and then we get it little by little.
They come in, what's necessary.
It's many times tough to get the day in.
There's a lot of things that just take time to do.
And it's the reality.
So your time with the actors in the scene, the part that
goes on the frames, you really focus
on getting those things that go on the frame to be correct.
And the rest is unimportant.
Just make sure you get what you need
on those frames captured on that card
and captured on the sound card.
That's what you need.
You never compromise those things.
It would be pretty crazy to say, oh,
I made it on time, on budget.
I compromised like crazy.
And this film sucks.
So you want to get the gold no matter what.
Don't ever take no for an answer on that.