FIND Director's Close-up: Comedy

I learnt that a woman, Amy Heckerling, directed Fast Time at Ridgemont High -- just another example of how our biases can limit our mind.

Directors Close-up Kicks off with Jason Reitman

Jason Reitman, the Oscar-nominated director of Up in the Air, and his creative team pulled back the curtain and revealed the inner workings of an Best Picture Oscar-nominated movie.

The following directors and/or directors will speak at the subsequent Directors Close-up events, and I highly recommend you check them out:

Marc Webb ((500) Days of Summer, upcoming Spider Man movie)
John August (Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland)
Mark Waters (Mean Girls)
Mike White (The School of Rock)
Neil Labute (Lakeview Terrace, In the Company of Men)
Michael Hoffman (The Last Station)


Directors Close-up Schedule | Film Independent

Workshop with the Director of Zombieland

Ruben Fleischer, the director of Zombieland, spoke to me and other Project:Involve fellows in depth about his career, experience as a first-time studio director, his extensive prep work on projects. For Zombieland, he gathered hundreds of reference photos and video clips from 200 of his favorite movies!!

He is down-to-earth and open to share. I learned a lot from his talk -- both in terms of the nuts-and-bolts and the right attitude to have. For a young writer-director like me, they are invaluable.

I feel even more MOTIVATED than before!

Big shout-out to FIND, Francisco, and Jane for making this happen. Also to Nori Takei for taking this photo.