IndieWire's Filmmaker Toolkit

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

The two Showrunners behind the hit series talk about how they built six new sci-fi worlds for Season 3 and what they've got brewing for Season 4. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Documentary film legend Steve James ("The Interrupters," "Hoop Dreams," "Life Itself") talks about his new film "Abacus: Small Enough to Jail" and his process of making intimate character based documentaries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kitty Green talks about her exploration of the JonBenet Ramsey murder case through intimate interviews with local actors auditioning for the role of the real life people caught in center of a cable news speculation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James Ponsoldt talks about adapting Dave Egger's novel "The Circle" into a new movie starring Emma Watson, Tom Hanks & John Boyega. He also discusses "Rodham " – a blacklist script about a young Hillary Clinton – that he believes is even more relevant after the election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the greatest filmmakers ever reflects on his career and his well refined process of making a masterpiece virtually every year. He explains why 50 years ago, as a lawyer in his 30s, he decided to make a film about a prison for the criminally insane ("Titicut Follies") and how he grew as an artist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer/Director James Gray ("The Immigrant," "We Own the Night") talks about his sixth and most ambitious feature "The Lost City of Z." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Walter Hill talks about his amazing and underrated career and his controversial new film "The Assignment." IndieWire's Jude Dry also joins to discuss the problematic way "The Assignment" talks about gender and transgender issues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gareth Edwards talks about how he started his career as a visual effects artists and how that has influenced him as a director. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Damien Chazelle and his editor Tom Cross talk about finding the right rhythm for a modern day and how much more difficult it was to edit "La La Land" than "Whiplash." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Toni Erdmann" has been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Oscars and is one of the best reviewed and most loved films of the year. Writer/Director Maren Ade discusses her many year process of creating the celebrated father-daughter story [that's being re-made with Jack Nickolson]. Also, IndieWire's Zack Sharf swings by to tell us why the film was his favorite from 2016 and an American remake would be a very bad idea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eliza Hittman returns to Sundance with her follow up "It Felt Like Love." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nanfu Wang talks about the dangers of making her Oscar contending doc "Hooligan Sparrow and how the Chinese government has targeted her parents since the film was shortlisted for Best Documentary consideration by the Academy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Director Pablo Larraín talks two icons who tried to shape their own image and why he finds that fascinating. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mia Hansen-Løve talks about her story process and working with Isabelle Huppert on her new film "Things To Come." IndieWire's David Ehrlich also stops by to explain how he makes his fantastic top 25 Video Countdown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sophia talks about turning the jealously and competition she felt as an actress into a great new indie horror film. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eric Heisserer talks about adapting Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life" -- a short story many thought was un-adoptable for the big screen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eggers on how he blended genre and history to create the best horror film of the year and why he's remaking “Nosferatu.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The great director talks about his new film "Elle," Isabelle Huppert and how his career as Hollywood director ("Showgirls," Starship Troopers," "Robocop") is starting to be reconsidered. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices