Jason Lapeyre is a Toronto-based director, blogging from the Berlinale Talent Campus during the Berlin International Film Festival.

Six Lessons From the Talent Campus – #4: Don’t mess with Mike Leigh

I kind of played hooky from the Campus this morning.  I discovered in my outing to the European Film Market yesterday that this incredible organization called the EDN (European Documentary Network) was running a series of panels called Meet The Festivals and Meet The Distributors, in which four different speakers would present their festival/company and then hang around for producers/filmmakers to network with them.

An incredible opportunity for an extended face-to-face with some of the most influential festivals in the world and some sales agents actively looking for product.  Today’s festival panel included the director of DOK Leipzig, the director of the Thessaloniki doc fest, a representative from Festival International de Cinema Marseille and finally two reps from the brand new Myanmar International Film Festival.  They spoke passionately about their festival and the opportunities for filmmakers there, and then patiently allowed each of us (about 15 filmmakers in total) to introduce ourselves and explain a bit about our films and hand over a screener.

It was much the same with the distributors, except that a professional wrestling match almost broke out.  Stefan Kloos from Rise & Shine, Cay Wesnigk from Online Films, Esther van Messel from First Hand Films and Andreas Wildfang from EYZ Germany had an intense debate about when was the appropriate time for a sales agent to come aboard a project – from the beginning, to help guide the film towards successful festival runs and distribution, or after completion, so as not to interfere in the creative process.  There were some verbal bodyslams thrown and it made for a great show.  Once again, incredibly, each of the 20 filmmakers who attended were allowed a few minutes at the end to pitch each of the sales agents on their project and hand over a screener.  It felt like getting a few days worth of work done in a few minutes.

I finished up early enough to make it to a couple of panel talks.  First up was Sandy Powell, Oscar-nominated ten times for her costume design in films directed by Scorsese, Todd Haynes and Sally Potter, and with three wins to her name.  She showcased some of the concept sketches that led to original designs and told us that she’s recently gone from having a $3 million budget on Hugo to designing for free on a film simply because she loves the script.  She laughed about having to go to thriftstores to find wardrobe, just like she did at the beginning of her career, but clearly she was enjoying it just as much as her multi-million-dollar work.

The last event of the day was arguably the most anticipated talk of the entire event for me: a master class on directing by Mike Leigh.  It was a flawed presentation – the moderator was so fawning that at times I felt like I was watching a live sex show, and there were so many clips that it prevented any kind of conversational rhythm. But, still fascinating.  Leigh spoke about the core concept of his process, which is that there’s no actual separation between directing and writing when he makes films.  He starts months ahead of filming with characters, and works with the actors to give them backstories and let the main story grow organically out of improvisation and rehearsal.

He talked about his interest in class, and his desire to tell stories about real people living real lives in England (with the exception of Topsy-Turvy, which he said was a result of wanting to turn the camera around and film the process rather than the story).  At one point the moderator asked him how he would deal with an actor that was unwilling to improvise or work in such an unconventional way, and Leigh said that he was only interested in actors willing to play and have a sense of humour about their job, and any actor that wanted to work with him but couldn’t accept that part of the process could “go fuck themselves.”  Blunt, but honest.

I finished off my day today by running back to the EFM to meet with a sales agent about my documentary feature.  The Canadian pavilion was starting to rock ‘n’ roll around 6:30 p.m., making the meeting a little louder and less formal than I was expecting, but it seemed to go well and the sales agent’s interest was a great way to end my day.  It felt so empowering and exciting to be moving easily back and forth between the development opportunities of the campus and the professional opportunities of the EFM.  A light snow started to fall as I left the market to meet some friends at a German restaurant, and for a minute there I felt like I owned Berlin.  Two more days left, and I’ll be sad to see them end.

Photos: EFM / Jason Lapeyre