IndieWire's Filmmaker Toolkit

The Oscar nominee talks about how his incredible skateboarding movie became a story of domestic abuse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Har'el on taking Shia Labeouf's pain and therapy and turning it into a hit Sundance film. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aster talks about how a story of grief, that was too dark and bleak to ever get made as a drama, became a hit horror film. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kusmana on the using real guns, creating an unusual villain and pulling Nicole Kidman back from going almost too far in her incredible transformation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Oscar winning director behind "Ida" talks about his extraordinary new film "Cold War." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Black love is a radical act," calling on Jenkins to create to take a bold and different approach to creating Beale Street's visual language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ramsay talks about coming back from the trauma of having been fired from a film she had already made in her head, to make one of the best films of the year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What Boots Riley learned from two decades of creating music that made making his first film such a success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josephine gets inside her unique multi-year process of creating the dreamy, meta world of "Madeline's Madeline," and how it relates to her new film "Shirley." PHOTO: AP/REX/Shutterstock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The LA Critics Best Director winner talks about her long process and deep research of making her "social realist" films and the next films she's making. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spike on keeping Oscar season in perspective, film school today, and how the success of "BlacKkKlansman" has led people to reconsider his 40 years of filmmaking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The "Dogtooth" and "Lobster" director talks about his unusual rehearsal process and what drew him to make a period lesbian triangle drama about Queen Anne with screenwriter Tony McNamara. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The “12 Years a Slave” director talks about why he never shot lists, the film’s incredible opening sequence, his longtime collaboration with DP Sean Bobbitt, why Chicago is the best city to set a story, and how he identified with the widows in the original BBC series as a 13 year old black kid growing up in London. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The "Diary of a Teenage Girl" director on why striving for clarity in films can be a bad thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

RaMell Ross refused to accepted the limitations of documentaries and black representational space in cinema, so he created something new. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The "Call Me By Your Name" director talks about how Thom Yorke changed his view of film scores, being inspired by the films and youth culture of Berlin 1977, his feminism, and tackling Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks." PHOTO: Andrea Raffin/Shutterstock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The oscar winning director goes behind the scenes of recreating the moon landing and telling the story of Neil Armstrong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kazan and Dano talk about collaborating on Paul’s directorial debut. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lowery on subverting the cops & robbers genre to detour into the looseness of a ‘70s film, finding out "Old Man" would be Redford's last movie, wanting to make the definitive "Peter Pan," the small indie he'll make first and how his wife Augustine Frizzell's career is blowing up. Photo: David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher McQuarrie talks about directing action scenes with emotional clarity, the danger of practical stunts and wanting to return to being an indie filmmaker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lena talks about creating the interweaving narrative of “The Chi,” a showtime series about her hometown (Southside of Chicago) and the vital role casting (and a good casting director) plays in allowing a writer to do something different. She also shares her advice to actors and a funny story about her “Masters of None” audition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Two Young Creators Blew Up Their ‘Mad Men of Tech’ Premise to Discover Something Special. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bill Hader moved To L.A. to be a filmmaker, 15 years later and an unexpected comedy detour (SNL) he found his way back in dark comedy that he created with “Silicon Valley,” “Seinfeld,” & “Curb Your Enthusiasm” vet Alec Berg. Photo Credit: Michael Buckner/Deadline/REX/Shutterstock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Simien breaks down the unique "presentation" style of his Netflix series, what Kubrick taught him about music and share new details about his horror-race satire movie ("Bad Hair")that he'll be shooting this summer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Schur (The Office, Parks & Rec), master of the work place comedy, talks about the challenges of tackling the big concept and twisty plot of “The Good Place.” In this conversation Schur outlines the one vital key to success in all serialized tv, working with philosophy professors as consultants, modeling heaven after The Grove and avoiding the M. Night Shyamalan trap of training an audience to anticipate twists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Inside the process of creating a historical horror story of a lost Arctic expedition on a sound stage and how Kajganich pitched the show as anthology, but won't be coming back for another season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Atlanta's Lakeith Stanfield Didn’t Even Know Donald Glover Was Playing Teddy Perkins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The screenwriter behind "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull" talks about the intersection of faith and cinema, and how arthouse cinema has radically changed since he first wrote "Transcendental Style in Film" in 1971. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The director behind one of the best films of 2018 talks about how a woman born in Beijing and schooled at NYU ended up telling real-life stories of people living on a South Dakota reservation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oscar nomination director Yance Ford talks about his 8-year journey to completing a film about his brother's violent death in 1992. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There were a ton of bad drafts of "The Big Sick" before it became one of the best comedy scripts in years. Kumail & Emily talk about the 4 year process of adapting their real life story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gerwig talks about what her artistic dreams were when she, like Lady Bird, was 18 and came to New York. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aronofsky on why you have to make the audience laugh, cry or scare the shit out of the them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jordan Peele talks about his biggest fear in making "Get Out." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What Patty Jenkins learned from walking away from Marvel's "Thor" that shaped "Wonder Woman." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Guillermo del Toro was inspired by musicals, Punch Drunk Love and Stan Laurel in making his beautiful fable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guadagnino talks about his approach to filmmaking and his upcoming remake of Suspiria. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer/director Dee Rees talks about how she weaved together her complex narrative about race and what drew her to tackle the ERA, Joan Didion and a "Get Out" like horror film in her upcoming projects. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The indie filmmaker behind "Tangerine" talks honestly about his struggle working with union crews for the first time and his nervousness about bringing a star like Willem Dafoe into his world of first-time performers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Sundance breakout talks about creating his ambitious New Jersey hip-hop musical debut featuring Australian actress Danielle MacDonald. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Safdie Brothers talk about how the knew Robert Pattinson would be able to give himself over to their unique approach to filmmaking and how they built a story around aspects of the "Twilight" star that haven't been seen publicly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noted video essayist Kogonada talks about making the transition from academics to being a breakout at this year's Sundance Film Festival with his new film "Columbus." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Reeves talks about directing actors for motion capture and his plans for the new Batman film. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Lowery talks about quietly making a small little film in a house with friends that he was willing to bury if it ended up being an embarrassment. The risk paid off, as "A Ghost Story" it the best reviewed indie so far this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Baby Driver" Director Edgar Wright by Chris O'Falt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The great French director talks about what he learned from his favorite filmmakers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night" director talks about her second feature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reed Morano talks about how directing the hit Hulu show was different than her new indie feature "I Think We're Alone." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shults' follow up to ultra low budget breakout "Krisha" is an extreme dark horror film from A24 about death. The writer/director talks about his own fathers, learning about film working for Terrence Malick and telling the stories with his camera. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sam Esmail talks Kubrick, Metropolis, Trump and shooting S2 like a movie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices