Moments.

Any good film will have them – those indelible instances where you know you are witnessing something special. The 2014 TIFF Talent Lab has been populated by moment after moment after moment. And Talent Lab day 3 has been no exception.

There was that moment when Talent Lab governor Ramin Bahrani dug deep into his conversation with Morgan Matthews. They were discussing Matthews’ first narrative feature X Plus Y, based on his documentary film Beautiful Young Minds. Bahrani was teasing out all of the challenges and rewards of transitioning from two-person documentary crews to the crews of 75 people needed to make feature films. They jokingly discussed how sometimes the most important decision of the day was where to put the package truck. At first, it came off as a joke, but it got more serious when it turned toward a discussion of maintaining your artistic vision when you’re under the gun of a crew counting on you to make the day.

Then came the moment with Darren Aronofsky, once again moderated by Bahrani. After a frank, blow-by-blow account of his process for Black Swan, Aronofsky opened up about the fragility of the relationship between director and actor. His candid and tender approach to working with the most emotionally vulnerable people on set was truly moving. To paraphrase: actors want to act – it’s what they live for. But they’ve been burned – by lesser directors than you. It is your job to make sure you allow those flowers to blossom.

For me, it is hard to separate out one single moment from the master class with cinematic giant Mike Leigh. Mr. Leigh is a man of astonishing wit, irreverent charm and razor-sharp clarity of thought. He quite generously took the TIFF Talent Lab through an extensive explanation of his working method, from philosophical underpinnings to tangible, practical step-by-step instructions. Perhaps an outstanding moment was when he lead a young director through an improvisational exercise, assisted by the talented Sandra Oh. Over the course of a few minutes, Leigh worked with these two to build a meaningful relationship between two fictional characters using just a few slight hand gestures. Masterful.

What ties all of these moments together is an incredible amount of investment from some of the most fascinating people working in cinema today. Every speaker has spoken openly and candidly about their work, and their process. The effect has been one of demystifying the process – regardless of the scale or your stature, filmmaking will always be a struggle. After three days of the TIFF Talent Lab, a clear message is emerging – embrace the challenge and continue to make films with personal passion, investment and authenticity.

Dylan Reibling is a Toronto-based filmmaker and interactive artist. As a filmmaker, Dylan’s work ranges from stop-motion animation to dramatic narratives to historical documentaries. His short films have been featured at over 50 prestigious film festivals around the world including TIFF, Tribeca, Palm Springs, and BFI London Film Festival. As an interactive artist, his work explores the limits of physical objects and digital technologies and where the lines between the two can blur.