IndieWire's Filmmaker Toolkit

Aster talks about how a story of grief, that was too dark and bleak to ever get made as a drama, became a hit horror film. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kusmana on the using real guns, creating an unusual villain and pulling Nicole Kidman back from going almost too far in her incredible transformation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Oscar winning director behind "Ida" talks about his extraordinary new film "Cold War." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Black love is a radical act," calling on Jenkins to create to take a bold and different approach to creating Beale Street's visual language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ramsay talks about coming back from the trauma of having been fired from a film she had already made in her head, to make one of the best films of the year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What Boots Riley learned from two decades of creating music that made making his first film such a success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josephine gets inside her unique multi-year process of creating the dreamy, meta world of "Madeline's Madeline," and how it relates to her new film "Shirley." PHOTO: AP/REX/Shutterstock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The LA Critics Best Director winner talks about her long process and deep research of making her "social realist" films and the next films she's making. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spike on keeping Oscar season in perspective, film school today, and how the success of "BlacKkKlansman" has led people to reconsider his 40 years of filmmaking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The "Dogtooth" and "Lobster" director talks about his unusual rehearsal process and what drew him to make a period lesbian triangle drama about Queen Anne with screenwriter Tony McNamara. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The “12 Years a Slave” director talks about why he never shot lists, the film’s incredible opening sequence, his longtime collaboration with DP Sean Bobbitt, why Chicago is the best city to set a story, and how he identified with the widows in the original BBC series as a 13 year old black kid growing up in London. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The "Diary of a Teenage Girl" director on why striving for clarity in films can be a bad thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

RaMell Ross refused to accepted the limitations of documentaries and black representational space in cinema, so he created something new. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The "Call Me By Your Name" director talks about how Thom Yorke changed his view of film scores, being inspired by the films and youth culture of Berlin 1977, his feminism, and tackling Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks." PHOTO: Andrea Raffin/Shutterstock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The oscar winning director goes behind the scenes of recreating the moon landing and telling the story of Neil Armstrong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kazan and Dano talk about collaborating on Paul’s directorial debut. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lowery on subverting the cops & robbers genre to detour into the looseness of a ‘70s film, finding out "Old Man" would be Redford's last movie, wanting to make the definitive "Peter Pan," the small indie he'll make first and how his wife Augustine Frizzell's career is blowing up. Photo: David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher McQuarrie talks about directing action scenes with emotional clarity, the danger of practical stunts and wanting to return to being an indie filmmaker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lena talks about creating the interweaving narrative of “The Chi,” a showtime series about her hometown (Southside of Chicago) and the vital role casting (and a good casting director) plays in allowing a writer to do something different. She also shares her advice to actors and a funny story about her “Masters of None” audition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Two Young Creators Blew Up Their ‘Mad Men of Tech’ Premise to Discover Something Special. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bill Hader moved To L.A. to be a filmmaker, 15 years later and an unexpected comedy detour (SNL) he found his way back in dark comedy that he created with “Silicon Valley,” “Seinfeld,” & “Curb Your Enthusiasm” vet Alec Berg. Photo Credit: Michael Buckner/Deadline/REX/Shutterstock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Simien breaks down the unique "presentation" style of his Netflix series, what Kubrick taught him about music and share new details about his horror-race satire movie ("Bad Hair")that he'll be shooting this summer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Schur (The Office, Parks & Rec), master of the work place comedy, talks about the challenges of tackling the big concept and twisty plot of “The Good Place.” In this conversation Schur outlines the one vital key to success in all serialized tv, working with philosophy professors as consultants, modeling heaven after The Grove and avoiding the M. Night Shyamalan trap of training an audience...

Inside the process of creating a historical horror story of a lost Arctic expedition on a sound stage and how Kajganich pitched the show as anthology, but won't be coming back for another season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Atlanta's Lakeith Stanfield Didn’t Even Know Donald Glover Was Playing Teddy Perkins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices