Nanette Burstein is one of the great filmmakers that helped kick off this great wave of documentaries weve had the past few years. That documentary is The Kid Stays In the Picture which she co-directed with Brett Morgen.
Her latest project is the reality TV series Film School. The series focuses on four NYU graduate students. You get to watch them as they endure spirit-sapping budget/fund-raising issues, casting, location and deadline problems and logistical challenges of every sort while struggling to put together a 10-minute thesis film.
Film school airs Fridays on IFC at 10:30 pm.
Check out the official website for Film School
Daniel Robert Epstein: It seems like everyone is doing a reality show. What made you want to do Film School?
Nanette Burstein: I had done this film called On the Ropes that had some success which got me an agent in LA. Before all this reality TV I had wanted to do a docu-soap. I wanted to do something that was reality but a reality that I wasnt manipulating like following high school students around or students at a driving school. We would pitch these stories but people thought we were insane. It was only the summer before reality TV exploded in America. So we put that aside and we did The Kid Stays In the Picture and I did this other series called Say it Loud. But I still stayed true to not doing a big contrived reality show. I dont want to film people just because they want to be on TV to win a million dollars.
DRE: You want to film them because they want to make a movie that makes a million dollars.
NB: That or they want to be the first man on the moon. People that are going for crazy shit and have big dreams.
DRE: When I went to film school a lot of the kids either wanted to be George Lucas or Quentin Tarantino.
NB: Graduate school may be a bit different because the kids are older. When I asked the kids who their favorite director was they would have a million different answers. They really just had their own kind of vision and werent at that age where they want to emulate anyone else. Except Leah [Meyerhoff] who is so arty that she didnt know what she wanted to do. She seems to want to do therapy through a film.
What made the series interesting was trying to capture their vision and seeing the production end of it with raising the money and finding the crew and the cast. Years ago during the time of Fitzgerald the great American dream was writing a novel and now its making a film. Some of the subjects gave up previous dreams to go make a film. The cool thing now is that there is so much programming that students could become commercial directors or cable directors or make documentaries.
DRE: Or they could blow their brains out.
NB: Or serve coffee for the rest of their lives. But there are more opportunities than there used to be.
DRE: If you had said I want to do a reality show about painters that would literally be watching paint dry. How did you know this series would work?
NB: I knew it would work because I had gone through the experience myself. I knew there is a three act dramatic structure. You are going to make your film then you have to cast the actors, get the crew, find the locations and raise the money. If you get to that stage then you have to make the film and total chaos happens on short films. One of my friends ended up in prison and on another one every single car broke down then the grip truck turned over. Every shoot was chaos and out of that some people made great movies. There was an end goal, to make an award winning short film. Its a built in contest.
DRE: What made you pick NYU?
NB: I had gone there so I knew the experience firsthand. I had a personal relationship with them so it was more familiar to me. Maybe next time well do USC.
DRE: Do you still talk to Bob Evans?
NB: Yeah but hes a busy guy.
DRE: No he isnt.
NB: He is actually. Hes constantly in meetings and he likes to court the press. Hes become best friends with Brett Ratner. Everyone loves him so hes busy seducing the world.
DRE: The Kid Stays In the Picture made quite a bit of money for a documentary.
NB: I think like $8 million including everything.
DRE: What did that do for you?
NB: Financially not much because I got paid a flat fee. Its just another film that makes you proud and it helps you make more films.
DRE: I go to your bar all the time.
NB: The Half King? Thats so cool.
DRE: How did you get involved with that?
NB: Sebastian [Junger] and my husband are writers who always had this idea for opening a bar. I thought it would be a fun idea. I used to go to this bar, St. Dymphna's, which was across the street from where I lived down on St. Marks Place. St. Dymphna's is the saint of mental illness. I became friendly with the owner and we mentioned that we wanted to open the bar. He sold St. Dymphna's and asked us if we wanted to open the new place with him. We all just went for it.
DRE: Do you hang out there?
NB: Yeah I do. We have to pay attention to the place but not on a daily basis.
DRE: One thing that surprised me is that the food is very good there. Was that important to you guys?
NB: The food is very good. We wanted high quality food and high quality beer at very affordable prices. We got a really good chef after the second year and hes done a phenomenal job.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Her latest project is the reality TV series Film School. The series focuses on four NYU graduate students. You get to watch them as they endure spirit-sapping budget/fund-raising issues, casting, location and deadline problems and logistical challenges of every sort while struggling to put together a 10-minute thesis film.
Film school airs Fridays on IFC at 10:30 pm.
Check out the official website for Film School
Daniel Robert Epstein: It seems like everyone is doing a reality show. What made you want to do Film School?
Nanette Burstein: I had done this film called On the Ropes that had some success which got me an agent in LA. Before all this reality TV I had wanted to do a docu-soap. I wanted to do something that was reality but a reality that I wasnt manipulating like following high school students around or students at a driving school. We would pitch these stories but people thought we were insane. It was only the summer before reality TV exploded in America. So we put that aside and we did The Kid Stays In the Picture and I did this other series called Say it Loud. But I still stayed true to not doing a big contrived reality show. I dont want to film people just because they want to be on TV to win a million dollars.
DRE: You want to film them because they want to make a movie that makes a million dollars.
NB: That or they want to be the first man on the moon. People that are going for crazy shit and have big dreams.
DRE: When I went to film school a lot of the kids either wanted to be George Lucas or Quentin Tarantino.
NB: Graduate school may be a bit different because the kids are older. When I asked the kids who their favorite director was they would have a million different answers. They really just had their own kind of vision and werent at that age where they want to emulate anyone else. Except Leah [Meyerhoff] who is so arty that she didnt know what she wanted to do. She seems to want to do therapy through a film.
What made the series interesting was trying to capture their vision and seeing the production end of it with raising the money and finding the crew and the cast. Years ago during the time of Fitzgerald the great American dream was writing a novel and now its making a film. Some of the subjects gave up previous dreams to go make a film. The cool thing now is that there is so much programming that students could become commercial directors or cable directors or make documentaries.
DRE: Or they could blow their brains out.
NB: Or serve coffee for the rest of their lives. But there are more opportunities than there used to be.
DRE: If you had said I want to do a reality show about painters that would literally be watching paint dry. How did you know this series would work?
NB: I knew it would work because I had gone through the experience myself. I knew there is a three act dramatic structure. You are going to make your film then you have to cast the actors, get the crew, find the locations and raise the money. If you get to that stage then you have to make the film and total chaos happens on short films. One of my friends ended up in prison and on another one every single car broke down then the grip truck turned over. Every shoot was chaos and out of that some people made great movies. There was an end goal, to make an award winning short film. Its a built in contest.
DRE: What made you pick NYU?
NB: I had gone there so I knew the experience firsthand. I had a personal relationship with them so it was more familiar to me. Maybe next time well do USC.
DRE: Do you still talk to Bob Evans?
NB: Yeah but hes a busy guy.
DRE: No he isnt.
NB: He is actually. Hes constantly in meetings and he likes to court the press. Hes become best friends with Brett Ratner. Everyone loves him so hes busy seducing the world.
DRE: The Kid Stays In the Picture made quite a bit of money for a documentary.
NB: I think like $8 million including everything.
DRE: What did that do for you?
NB: Financially not much because I got paid a flat fee. Its just another film that makes you proud and it helps you make more films.
DRE: I go to your bar all the time.
NB: The Half King? Thats so cool.
DRE: How did you get involved with that?
NB: Sebastian [Junger] and my husband are writers who always had this idea for opening a bar. I thought it would be a fun idea. I used to go to this bar, St. Dymphna's, which was across the street from where I lived down on St. Marks Place. St. Dymphna's is the saint of mental illness. I became friendly with the owner and we mentioned that we wanted to open the bar. He sold St. Dymphna's and asked us if we wanted to open the new place with him. We all just went for it.
DRE: Do you hang out there?
NB: Yeah I do. We have to pay attention to the place but not on a daily basis.
DRE: One thing that surprised me is that the food is very good there. Was that important to you guys?
NB: The food is very good. We wanted high quality food and high quality beer at very affordable prices. We got a really good chef after the second year and hes done a phenomenal job.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
hati:
That was a good interview. I can't believe she owns the Half King. They have the BEST meatloaf there. That place rocks.
johnclement:
I like that you commented about the food at the bar. Good stuff 