Beef and Meat: Why You Should Follow Filmmakers on Social Media

If you weren't on the Internet the past couple of days, you probably missed the brief but quite public beef posted on Paul Schrader’s Facebook page, in which he denounced Brian De Palma's directing style.

The post has since been deleted, but The Playlist managed to pull the following quote from Schrader's page, on a thread where the director was discussing Jordan Peele's Us with followers. After one commenter likened Us to some of De Palma's work, Schrader replied:

“Don’t get me started on Brian DP. I rewatched Redacted last night because [I] thought that given total artistic freedom he could reach for the stars. And he did. But the stars were beyond his reach. The script is trite, it is weak. That’s because is Brian is trite, Brian is artistically weak. Skate fast on thin ice. That’s his story. That’s his con.”

Redacted is De Palma's 2007 docu-drama war film that performed decently on the festival circuit, winning the Silver Lion award for best director at the Venice International Film Festival, but was a box office flop.

How Did This Beef Start?

Schrader, who wrote Taxi Driverand last year's indie breakout First Reformed, worked with De Palma on the 1976 film Obsession. De Palma heavily rewrote Schrader's lengthy script, which Schrader openly resented, leading to today's creative rift.

After the incendiary post was up for a day, Schrader took it down and posted a follow-up, which unfortunately is now also deleted.

“I made some critical comments on some films and after a day deleted them. I wanted to express some things, hear some reactions, but after that took the conversation off the table. I like that about Facebook. You can start a conversation. You can also end it.”

Credit: James Mangold

Come for the Beef, Stay for the Meat

Why should we care about drama between Hollywood filmmakers? Or better yet, how can it teach us how to be better filmmakers? Well, on its face, it may not. However, if you take a step back and look at the situation as a whole, you might realize...holy crap...we live in a time when we have a direct line of communication to some of the best filmmakers in the world (or at least, be able to bear witness to their thoughts and ideas...or rantings and ravings).

The advent of social media, and the migration of filmmakers onto its various platforms, provides a great resource for interacting with and learning from the greats. Schrader's Facebook page is definitely worth a follow for his commentary on the film industry and current events (as well as the occasional Hollywood kerfuffle).

The social media pages of other directors can also provide a glimpse into their inspirations and perspectives and can be an awesome way to peer behind the scenes on their new projects. Here are just a few of our favorites.

On Instagram: Martin Scorsese, Agnes Varda, Jordan Peele, Andy Muschietti, Taika Waititi, David Zellner, and Gina Prince-Blythewood.

On Twitter: Darren Aronofsky, Guillermo del Toro, Lynn Shelton, Edgar Wright, Ava DuVernay, Robert Rodriguez, and Mike Flanagan.

What other directors have great social media accounts everyone should follow? Let us know in the comments.

Source: The Playlist