Francis Ford Coppola's pet project, Megalopolis, certainly did give filmgoers one of the most unique cinematic experiences of recent memory. It was a little quirky, from the New York Film Festival's long (like, really long) roundtable discussion between Coppola, Spike Lee, and Robert De Niro before the screening, to the in-theater actor who performed part of the film live.Regardless of how you feel about the film, it is wildly fascinating and admirable that Coppola chased a dream and put his own money up to do it. That kind of passion is encouraged in filmmaking circles.How did the film come together?Mike Figgis' new documentary Megadoc, premiering at the Venice Film Festival, is a peek behind the curtain. As he revealed in a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, his project is not a glossy, over-produced thing like the kind of doc dominating today's film landscape. Figgis arrived on Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis set with no script, no agenda, and just one assistant. His approach was refreshingly organic. He just said yes when Coppola asked, "Could you be here in three weeks?" - YouTube www.youtube.com The most significant decision Figgis made was downsizing his approach.The documentary's structure emerged organically rather than from planned narrative beats. "I started off with nothing and went into it with a totally open mind," he said. "I really detest the way so many documentaries are made these days—especially for streaming—where they find a big, hot subject that's trended online and develop what's basically a detailed feature script."This extended...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Wednesday, 27 August