With The Artist up for an Oscar this weekend, I found this little item to be apropos. If we were to travel 100 years back we'd be avidly reading articles like the following interview with silent film director Marshall Neilan - "How To be a Motion Picture Director." There's a lot we can learn from watching silent films in terms of pure visual story telling, but it's not often you hear advice about the business side. Mr. Neilan delivers in a big way, showing that as much as things change, some things stay the same:
A couple of choice quotes:
Q. What are the essential qualifications of a director?
A. The ability to convince producers that you are a better director than your pictures show you to be.
Q. How can this be done?
A. Easily. It is being done every day. Read a book on self-confidence and salesmanship.
Check out the full interview:
Do you think you could hack it in early Hollywood?
Link: Spectacular Attractions - How To Be A Motion Picture Director
[via Go Into The Story]
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20 Comments
This was a great article to read, coming down from a 48hr film challenge this past weekend. Thanks for sharing this Koo!
February 20, 2012 at 3:35PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
E.M. posted this, not I... still waiting on those pesky bylines in the site design. Should be up shortly.
February 20, 2012 at 4:21PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Haha. Love the attitude
Great read
February 20, 2012 at 3:44PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Hahaha this was great!
February 20, 2012 at 3:45PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Love to read a similar interview with an actor of the day: on Acting! (as Jon Lovitz might say it).
February 20, 2012 at 3:56PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Seems almost satirical, but this is in fact the same b. s. fronting that exists to this day in movieland. Thankfully, there are many great directors who don't live according to these lesser-evolved ideas.
Then again, there are plenty of wannabe's who chew on cigars and act like they are Coppola's brother, having never shot so much as an interview.
Is it really sound advice to suggest duplicity and deception are the way to greatness? The header could just as easily read, "How to be an as$h0l#".
February 20, 2012 at 4:05PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
It is satirical...
February 20, 2012 at 4:21PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
I would make a great director, I forget my kids names all the time.
February 20, 2012 at 6:26PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
How many do you have? Because it is scientifically proved that we start forgetting our kid names after the 10th ... lol
February 21, 2012 at 6:45AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Charmingly pithy. Great read :-)
February 21, 2012 at 6:24AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
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February 21, 2012 at 7:00AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
This guy is like the Dos Equis man
of Directing. I love it!
February 21, 2012 at 8:02AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Thanks a lot. A smile at the end of a long day. Just what I needed.
February 21, 2012 at 8:17AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
sounds about right.....
February 21, 2012 at 10:19AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Its funny how little has changed in directing since it began.
February 23, 2012 at 12:07PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Thank you!!! Man that was funny, yet true more or less.
February 25, 2012 at 9:56AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
FUNNY!
Now, there's a man who knows what he's talking about :)
February 27, 2012 at 9:54AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
I loved it. Thanks!
June 4, 2012 at 9:10AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Lol the last question and answer: "I am a modest man"
April 4, 2015 at 8:18AM
I tried sourcing this article so I could get an original copy of the magazine. The source says it's in the July issue of Photoplay, 1925. It's not. It's in the September issue, 1925, page 78.
February 24, 2022 at 9:15AM