Director and producer Gary Winick teaches film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and is a co-founder of the digital filmmaking collective InDigEnt. The company produced "Tadpole" for $150,000 - an impressive series of digits that translated to a thrilling $5 million when the film was sold at the Sundance Film Festival. Now his witty comedy, about a Voltaire-quoting teenager (Aaron Stanford) in love with his stepmother (Sigourney Weaver), reaches the UK. Winick is currently shooting the Jennifer Garner comedy "13 Going On 30".
What draws a cast that includes Sigourney Weaver, John Ritter, and Bebe Neuwirth to what is essentially a low budget, digital movie?
It comes from the writing, otherwise actors of that quality aren't even going to entertain it. You put an offer to them, and when you have no money it comes down to the quality of the script. Sigourney was the first one to come on board. We talked about the process being different from working on 35mm film stock, and the fact is, I needed her for less time. From her point of view it's ten days' commitment, as opposed to two months.
How did you come to cast Aaron Stanford in the lead?
Aaron was just out of acting school, and this was one of his first auditions. I figured we'd have to have a 15-year-old as Oscar, otherwise he wouldn't match the kids of that age in the movie. But the casting director said we should get our lead and go from there. Aaron is 23, and he's wise beyond his years, so of course he should be older. I remember reading that Mike Nichols had wanted Robert Redford for "The Graduate" but got Dustin Hoffman instead. I wanted Hoffman, and got Redford.
What is the thinking behind your company, InDigEnt?
To reflect the huge range that DV has to offer, from George Lucas-scale on "Star Wars" to the [Danish filmmaking movement] Dogme thing. I like the idea of keeping with the cameras that are really small, because I feel that that's part of the difference in the way we work, that theatrical feel for the actors that you wouldn't get on a 35mm shoot.
Are the cameras you use in "Tadpole" comparable to the kind people watching the film might be able to buy?
Yeah, tourists would carry cameras the same size. It dawned on me when I was in Madison Square Garden watching a Knicks game, that I saw people using the same camera that I would film the InDigEnt films on. I figured I could come in and film a scene, as long as I didn't film the actual players.
What was your inspiration for the company?
Part of it was inspired by films like "Festen", seeing what they were able to do, and thinking about how John Cassevetes used to work, and how he would have embraced digital video. And with this idea that was part of the Dogme movement - about the truth of character and setting - it felt like we were onto something. And because I'm an independent New York filmmaker, there's a theatre community there, and we all know each other. So I said, there's a thing here where maybe we could make these films and all own a piece of the film and all get paid the same amount.
