Justin Hayward

Well, thanks fellas. Very nice of you to say. It was Donovan's, but I'm sure he doesn't own it :lol: The funny thing is, after I agreed to do this, I was given a laundry list of things Donovan wanted in the movie. Of course there were the yak-men, and they could float bombs with their minds (and he specifically wanted the bombs to look like the bombs from the 1960's Batman show), but it was never said what they would do with the bombs once they began to float them. He wanted to be a ninja, that could scream so loud he could knock things over and try to break their concentration, and he wanted his family to be the actors. The hardest thing for me to crack was the fact these yak-men can float anything with their mind. That pretty much makes them invincible. Why wouldn't they just throw everybody miles into the air? I had to think on that, and I didn't really solve it. This is what I committed to :) Yes, but you would be surprised how much production is going on in this city. It was hard to put together a camera package, because there are loads of television shows shooting here lately. And of course we could only use what wasn't already rented out.

I remember. We met up for coffee ;) But, I can't believe it's been six years. That's two kids ago for me.

And part of the reason the credits are so long is because a lot of crew members only worked one or two days, so we would have a different group one day than we did the day before. It added up.

Thanks Tyler. If anyone was paid, I didn't know about it. But we kept track of our hours and were able to write them off. It was a very ambitious shoot. I asked for a full night and a half for that "L" train fight sequence and I was given 7 hours. 8 locations in 4 days. Not to mention no one in the movie is a real actor except David Eigenberg who played the police officer. We moved really fast. We shot on the Red with multiple cameras under the "L" train. It was a challenge, but I had a lot of fun. And I had time to plan it all out so we were as efficient as possible. Here's a short behind the scenes...

So I was brought on to direct this sweet little boy's wish to star with his family in a ninja superhero movie where he stops evil yak-men from floating bombs with their minds... Easy peasy. I dare you to watch it and try not to smile :)

In a book I'm reading on the making of Back to the Future there's a moment in the cave that Robert Zemeckis was complaining that the lighting was unmotivated and asked Dean Cundey where the light was supposed to be coming from. Dean Cundey replied, "Same place as the music..."

I made a movie for a ten year old boy with a brain tumor. I didn't give Make a Wish any money, nor did anyone else involved.

Don't have a favorite, but Oscar Isaac has been most impressive lately. It's a God given talent to look so natural when a rolling camera is in your face, and so far he seems to believably disappear in every role he's in. He makes it look easy.

It's funny, when I read this the first thing I thought was, "does Make a Wish have a CEO? Never really thought about that." But, this was a ten year old boy's wish to be a ninja superhero in a movie, not a commercial for the foundation.

Especially if you really enjoy doing it. But, I guess that's where Phil saying, "making a movie is a waste of time since you can't sell it" is sort of like saying watching a movie is a waste of time, because you can make money watching it. Which isn't untrue. Just not a lot of fun.

To be clear, I'm not talking about commercials or something like it, I'm talking about movies. I directed a commercial a couple weeks ago, and trust me when I tell you, I got paid plenty. But I am in no position where producers are offering directing feature film jobs, so I'll take what I can get because I absolutely love making movies. I'm putting together a small passion project feature at the moment, and if the money comes together, I honestly don't expect any of it to end up in my pocket. But that certainly won't stop me from making the movie, because I LOVE MAKING MOVIES :D And no, I won't be asking anyone else to work for free. Just me. And I don't really think you hate filmmaking, Phil. I was only responding to all the negativity toward it. I should have added a ;)

Sounds like you really hate filmmaking. I was recently asked to direct a short movie for the Make a Wish foundation (which I'll post here shortly) and they asked me if I don't mind working for free. I said, make a movie for free? That's like asking a starving man whose favorite food is pizza if he would like a fresh pie and the man turning it down because they won't pay him to eat it. But, yes, it was several months of work all in, and it was a blast!

I've often thought it would be nice if "successful" filmmaking had all the prestige and financial success of being a plumber or a carpenter. At least then the people that truly luv making movies would have a better chance at making a living doing it.

Have you ever worked with a director with an editing background like David Lean's? And if so, how did it work for you?

Totally agree, if the movie came out today I would assume David Lean lifted the shot/cut from Martin Scorsese. Maybe it's the opposite? ;)

I love the idea of a sound guy saying, "can't you just ADR this?" :P

There are a bunch of film festivals that will put you on IMDB just for submitting to them. So, when a producer or whoever is filling out the cast and crew of the movie and they write, "Justin Hayward," the festival will offer an IMDB link to a Justin Hayward. That's when the producer checks to see if it's the same Justin Hayward that was the lead singer in the Moody Blues and thinks, probably not. Then creates a new Justin Hayward. Sounds like some producers aren't checking if their "Gregory Irwin" is the same guy that 1st AC'd "Interstellar."

I know, I'm exaggerating. I recently watched "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and was struck by how "theme" driven that movie is. Not that movies shouldn't be theme driven, they certainly should, but most fall short compared to a masterpiece like this. After recently watching "Lawrence of Arabia" I was struck by the opening several minutes of score against black on a movie clocking over three and half hours :)

You would have a hard time convincing me to shoot a big dialogue scene knowing I was going to have to ADR the whole thing in post. But that's just me.

I've been watching David Lean films for fun on my projector lately. The fact you have to show directors this kind of stuff for encouragement is an extremely sad testament to my failed career.

Tyler, how have you done it?

It's easier to lead people when you honestly know what you want to do. And when I say, "honestly" I mean, HONESTLY. Once people realize you've thought about this, and have a plan how to execute, they'll follow before you have to step up and "lead."

This is a really good interview...

I've never met anyone with an eye for bad cinematography work more than you, and I've met a handful of accomplished cinematographers.

I'm sure Mr. Irwin can attest this is pretty common with successful directors. Look how many Spielberg movies Mark Spath 1st AC'd, and from his IMDB profile it looks like he was brought in by Janusz Kaminski from their work on "Cool As Ice." When you gather a truly well-oiled-machine, it's probably hard to change it up.