IndieWire's Filmmaker Toolkit

Director Cristian Munju ("4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days") uses his films to challenge audience's morals and sense of justice. In his newest film, the Palme d'Or winning "Fjord," Munjiu follows an immigrant Romanian family targeted by Norwegian child protective services for their conservative beliefs. Our challenging conversation digs into the messy morality of a progressive nation enforcing its belie...

The legendary screenwriter returns to the subject that won him an Oscar for "The Social Network," this time in the director's chair. Hear Sorkin explain how he tried to get David Fincher to direct, replacing Jesse Eisenberg with Jeremy Strong's intense transformation into the Facebook founder, and why America's growing political extremism made him change his mind about "not wanting to jump up and...

In his fourth film as writer and director, Chris Rock is coming out as a cinephile. In this conversation with IndieWire's Chris O'Falt, Rock shares his love for independent filmmakers like Alexander Payne and Noah Baumbach, and how he is trying to be taken seriously as a director of personal, dramatic films. We also discuss casting and collaborating with the film's star Rosalind Eleazar, and stumb...

In a live edition of Filmmaker Toolkit, writer-director Walter Hill joins IndieWire’s Jim Hemphill at the American Cinematheque for a post-screening discussion of his action-comedy classic “48HRS.” Hill discusses casting Eddie Murphy, designing one of the great long takes of the 1980s, and what he thinks his imitators got wrong in the buddy films that came later. Read Walter Hill reflect on the ma...

Through films like "Fury," "End of Watch" and "The Beekeeper" David Ayer has proven himself an auteur of visceral action and male emotion. His newest has him re-teaming with Brad Pitt to show off a side of the star (and himself) that we have not seen on screen before. Hear Ayer share how his time on a nuclear submarine helped him as a director, his philosophy of violence on screen, and how having...

For his feature documentary debut, director John Wilson takes us into (and far, far beyond) the history of a substance that forms the foundation of the modern world. He sat down with IndieWire's Sarah Shachat to discuss the difference in audience interaction from TV to film, file management, the drone photography epidemic, starting a micro-cinema, filming Kylie Jenner at a party, and much more. Wa...

After creating one of the biggest waves of any film to ever hit the Cannes Film Festival, Director Na Hong-jin is bringing his genre defying spectacle "Hope" to theaters. IndieWire's Chris O'Falt could not wait to dive into the incredible world building, audacious motion capture CGI, and some of the most spectacular action filmmaking we've seen in in a while. Skip to 27:16 to hear Director Na Hong...

Director Michael Dinner returns to the podcast to talk with IndieWire’s Jim Hemphill about his work on Apple TV’s “Silo.” Dinner discusses the influence of 1970s conspiracy thriller’s on the show’s visual language, collaborating with showrunner Graham Yost and star Rebecca Ferguson, and much more. Read more about the production design of "Silo" - https://www.indiewire.com/features/craft/silo-props...

In a wide-ranging conversation, veteran director Ridley Scott returns to the podcast to talk with IndieWire features writer Jim Hemphill about his latest film, “The Dog Stars.” Scott also has stories about “Blade Runner” and “Black Hawk Down,” reveals his very English approach to love stories, and explains how he’s able to make epics on a budget. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.f...

Director Matt Johnson is already a hot name this year following the cult success of “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie,” and now his next film “Tony” is attracting early awards buzz. Johnson explained how he took many liberties adapting the early chapters of Anthony Bourdain’s memoir while avoiding the typical pitfalls of a biopic. He also reveals why he changed his style for “Tony,” avoiding t...

After his hit shows ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Better Call Saul,’ creator and showrunner Vince Gilligan is back with the sci-fi thriller ‘Pluribus.’ We sat down with Gilligan at a reflective moment as he and his team were hard at work breaking Season 2. Hear him break down what worked and didn’t in the first season, why directing crowd scenes was the hardest part of the premise to film, and what it was l...

For their third feature, Jane Shoenbrun brings us to the brink of ecstasy with their deeply felt and impeccably crafted exploration of the slasher genre. The director of "I Saw the TV Glow" and "We're All Going to the World's Fair" explains why their new film had to start with a geyser of fake blood, walks us through making horror scenes a metaphor for sex, and wonders where our fascinations with...

HBO's epic dragon war just wrapped its third season, and series co-creator and showrunner Ryan Condal sat down with IndieWire's Sarah Shachat to break down how they pull off multiple features' worth of world-building and action into a season of TV. Hear how they balanced character psychology with famous battles adapted from the source material, and why they added some of their own dragon action to...

Director Gregg Araki joins IndieWire features writer Jim Hemphill to talk about his latest film, “I Want Your Sex.” Araki discusses casting Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman, making sex fun again on screen, and making the most of the shortest schedule he ever had. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer and producer Nick Antosca joins IndieWire features writer Jim Hemphill to discuss his Apple TV series "Cape Fear," an adaptation of Martin Scorsese's 1991 thriller and the 1962 Robert Mitchum classic that inspired it. Antosca talks about building on the previous versions to create a hallucinatory nightmare that retains the spirit of its sources but takes their themes in completely new direc...

For the third season of the gothic horror series, "Interview with the Vampire" got a new name and a new focus on undead rock & roll. The creator and showrunner of all three seasons joins IndieWire craft editor Sarah Shachat to sink their teeth into how they made "The Vampire Lestat" so operatic and engaging. Read our full review of the season - https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/shows/the-vampire...

The co-creators of this sci-fi alternate history series join IndieWire's Sarah Shachat to dig into 'Star City's connections to 'For All Mankind,' adding spies to the mix, and the many unfortunate ways their story reflects the present day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Director David Wain and Star Ken Marino bring their decades of iconic comedy experience ("Wet Hot American Summer," "Role Models") to co-writing their newest hilarious summer romp "Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass." The pair sat down with IndieWire's Chris O'Falt for a chat about their 7 day writing process, loving their troupe of regular performers, and plenty of funny digressions as you'...

Olivia Wilde, the director and star of "The Invite," joins IndieWire's Chris O'Falt for an in depth discussion of her thorny and hilarious relationship drama. Drawing on lessons from her cameo on "The Studio," Wilde and co-stars Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton embarked on a fascinating rehearsal process that informed everything from script rewrites to cinematography. She breaks down t...

Call it crass, but Jackass has proven to be one of the best made comedy series of its generation. Jeff Tremaine, the director of every single frame of Jackass, sat down with IndieWire's Chris O'Falt to reminisce on how the franchise started and how they stuck around to disgust and delight theaters twenty five years later (including the story of how Johnny Knoxville first gave him the idea for the...

The director of the beloved "Pig" is back for his third feature, the surprisignly brutal and deeply tactile drama "The Death of Robin Hood." Sarnoski talks with IndieWire's Chris O'Falt about defining this version of the folk hero with star Hugh Jackman, the intent behind the film's brutal violence, and the importance of doing so much of it practically. Sarnoski also teases his upcoming adaptation...

IndieWire's Sarah Shachat sat down with the creators of one of the oldest and longest running Dungeons and Dragons shows of the current boom. They discuss the wild ride taking 'Critical Role' from a Twitch stream to a podcast and now two animated series based on their campaigns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew DeYoung returns to the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast to discuss his new HBO series with Tim Robbins. DeYoung talks frankly about how budget limitations lead to the series' visual creativity, his process with Robbins, and how make an internet rabbit hole interesting on screen. Andrew DeYoung's Toolkit episode on "Friendship" - https://open.spotify.com/episode/3AR0dIo2bvRvk6mG4YgFD6?si=e80d0f2af0...

Get ready for a lesson on how to make good TV. Creator and showrunner R. Scott Gemmill sat down with IndieWire's Sarah Shachat to talk about the Season 2 finale, and how "The Pitt" takes full advantage of what TV can do. Read more coverage of the season finale - https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/shows/the-pitt-season-2-episode-15-review-finale-ending-theories-1235189311/ More on the birth episod...

"Euphoria" creator, writer, and director Sam Levinson joins IndieWire features writer Jim Hemphill to discuss the third and final season of his HBO hit. In a wide-ranging conversation, Levinson discusses how he integrates his collaborators' ideas, how his conception of the season changed during the pandemic, and how he's feeling now that he's done with the show that has consumed the last decade of...