Film education is not necessary

Chris Weitz, American producer, screenwriter, actor and director was born on 30. 11. 1969 in New York to artistic family. His younger brother Paul is film director, mother Susan Kohner is Oscar nominated actress. Grandfather Paul Kohner was of Jewish origin, born in Czech town Teplice. He became famous Hollywood producer and agent and his wife was actress in pre war Hollywood era, now 103 years old Lupita Tovar. Chris went to England to study in London his aim was to work in diplomatic service. But during school break he started to cooperate with brother Paul and never turned back. As an autor he showed up in films such as „American Pie“ or „Mr. And Mrs. Smith“. As a screenplay writer we can find his name under the films like „Ant Z“, „Off Center“ or „Golden Compass“. As director he is signed under films like American Pie or Twillight saga: New moon. Since he makes both commercial and independent movies we didn´t hesitate to ask him few questions.

Despite your artistic family background you chose to study in England and opted for career in diplomacy. Film business didn´t appeal to you then or you wanted to break away from family cliche and do your own career elsewhere?

Actually in spite of the film history in my family, it was never an obvious path to take -- my brother and I grew up in New York, out of the spotlight of the movie industry. I was fourteen when I went to St. Paul’s School in London and then it was logical for me to go to Cambridge; after that, having spent so much time abroad, I really didn;t figure that I would work in the States. Film wasn‘t even an option. So I applied to the State Department, but fortunately started working with my brother.

Having classical education how did you gain experience in writing, directing, producing and acting? Did you attend any „speed-course“.

The speed course was actually being on set for American Pie -- we had to learn fast! At Cambridge they don‘t have a film course, but I definitely benefited from studying there since a lot of what I learned was how to pretend I knew things that I actually didn’t know.

Do you think education is essentials in film directing/producing business or you have to have dedication and guts and can be equally good an successfull as professionals?

I don‘t think a film education is necessary. Film school is a relatively new development, and most of the great films in history have been made by people who learned as they went along.

Your first success was animated film Antz? It was popular among kids and adults alike which is not always the case. Did you deliberatelly try to make something to gain money to start off doing something bigger and more serious?

Actually, it was sort of by chance that we ended up doing Antz. My brother and I were having breakfast in the same restaurant as a friend of ours, who was tryng to find writers to work on an animated movie about ants with Woody Allen in it. The problem was that it was going to take a couple of years of very intensive work. Frankly we were just happy to be working on anything, and it was a terrific boost when the film actually did well.

What went through your mind when American Pie became smash hit?

• a) Wow, great, we are happy, we made it.
• b) Lets make sequels to capitalize on it.
• c) This is the way we wanna go now irregardless of our plans for more serious films?

Mostly it was just option A. It was unbelievably great to see this little film, which hadn;t been on the studio’s „radar“, do so well. In fact we were scared that if we didn;t choose carefully nobody would let us make a film without sexual comedy in it, so we steered away from directing the sequel.

You are with one foot in mainstream business but with another one you still follow independent career? How does it work, you can´t decide which way to go or use commercially gained money to finance your independant projects? Is it hard not to become a schizofrenic?

It is really about the next thing and what captures your attention. It’s horrible to make a film thinking „I have to do this one in order to do the other one I’d rather be doing“. The problem is that it takes so much time, effort and money to make a film, so you can´t do everything you might like.

What would you advice young, amateur film makers who would like to shoot their film but have no experience, money or contacts. Is your example just one off or anybody can follow that?

I think that it is easier to shoot films now because the cheaper digital cameras are so good. There are great films made by a bunch of friends doing what they please. Rather than speak generally about hopes and dreams and that sort of thing, I would advise people to make sure that they have a good sound setup, because bad dialogue recording is the thing that audiences will not forgive.

Can you be independent film maker and still refuse digital technique, animation and tricks or you have to accept it?

You can refuse it, certainly, but it depends on what you want to achieve. You can certainly do a film without digital effects. Would you rather do one without digital color correction? Why? You can even do that on a laptop nowadays. When digital cameras are what will allow you to get your film made in the first place, it’s a lot harder to be romantic about film.

Is there-according you- any definition or line which divide „Independent“ from „Mainstream“?

Not really. Even the „independents“ are not independent of the supply chain. The only really independent filmmaker that springs to mind is Shane Carruth, who made „Primer“ and „Upstream Color“. He and his crew do their own thing, and distribute it themselves (essentially). That’s independent. To be truly independent, you’d have to be independent of what the audience thinks, too. How many filmmakers can say that?