Boxoffice-November.2001

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"TAPED" CONVERSATION
Director Richard Linklater Discusses
His Foray Into Digital Filmmaking
institution Richard Linklater
Indie
("Dazed and Confused") helmed a
double feature at the Sundance Film
when you see these bigger budget films.
Festival this year, directing this
November's one-room, three-actor character
"Tape," Ethan
People have
shooting
significant money, and
seems
study starring (only) they're digitally. It just
Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard and Uma
don't know what they're doing.
stupid. I
Thurman, in addition to last month's BOXOFFICE: In "Tape," because
"Waking Life," an experiment in anima-
you were working in
tion and ideas that features a cast of 75.
Both were filmed using digital equipment,
a trend that could potentially equalize
indie filmmakers with their studio-backed
peers, and Linklater showed in both films a
firm grasp of the potential of the new
medium. In a conversation with BOXOF-
FICE. Linklater expressed tempered enthusiasm
for digital filmmaking, emphasizing
that it requires a careful choice of material.
BOXOFFICE: Why did you choose to
shoot "Tape" digitally?
Richard Linklater: I had shot "Waking
Life" digitally, and I guess that kind of
loosened me up and got me thinking I
could see the advantages of shooting a
quote-unquote real movie like this. But
the image quality is something to consider
at the end of the day. It's something you
have to be more careful with. But with a
film like "Tape," I liked the texture of the
digital. I thought it would work with the
movie, because "Tape" wasn't ever conceived
of as a—it's almost not like a real
film. It probably wouldn't have existed on
film. I think "Tape" falls under the category
of what digital can do best, which is
like a new genre: a digital film, which
shouldn't be like a regular film. The same
way digital has a new palette—it looks
different visually, [it has] a new visual
palette—it's almost like a new subject
matter, too, like Off Off Broadway.
BOXOFFICE: What subject matters do
you envision digital camerawork to be
general. When I
digitally,
see a film that was shot
I'm always thinking. "Well, did
the digital thing enhance the story? Did it
help it be told in some way? < )r was it just
cheap because they couldn't afford film'.'"
Because I see a lot of films [where] I go,
"Well, they should have shot il on film.
All the techniques they used were film
by Annlee Ellingson
techniques. They lit it like it was [film].
Everything about it was filmmaking
except it
didn't look as good." Especially
such a cramped space, the digital
camera really gives one a
sense of being in the room
with the three characters.
Linklater: With these cameras,
I wanted to attack it
very physically,
the subject
matter, the way these people—they'll
say one line;
they'll see each other differently;
things change pretty
rapidly through the dialogue.
I had in mind this
sort of collage effect. It's the
same event but seen from
different angles. My working
visual notion was this
event 10 years ago in their lives now seen
from a refracted gaze of many different
angles and possibilities. Who knows what
the original one is. I had in mind this kind
of collage. Cubist effect of images. The
digital cameras were great for that.
BOXOFFICE: How big was the camera
you were working with?
Linklater: Oh, it's just one of those small
little Sony things—a consumer model.
BOXOFFiCE: Did the actors feel they had
a lot of freedom, since they weren't working
with so much equipment?
Linklater: And not to mention you could
put those cameras technically in places
you can't put a bigger camera. Like you
can lay it down and see the foreground.
The lens is pretty close to the bottom of
best suited for?
the camera, so you can just set it on the
Linklater: I would think to be out of genres
that are Hollywood territory. This cameras, the lens is up higher on the cam-
ground and see the ground. [On] a lot of
goes for American independent film in era where you would have to dig a hole in
the ground, to get the camera lens at
ground level. These very naturally can go
there. Plus your own body is the tripod,
fun to operate because you can flip
so it's
down the screen, stick it way up in the air
and just look at it and hold it still, [and]
you've got a shot. You don't have to go
set it up. You can just keep moving.
BOXOFFICE: Given your experience with
it, what does digital mean for filmmakers,
particularly independent filmmakers?
Linklater: I'm not sure. I'm not quite as
enthusiastic as everybody else is. I think i
an interesting tool at this juncture. I think
it's evolving—it'll probably become some-
DAILIES: Robert Sean Leonard takes direction
from Richard Linklater on the set of "Tape."
thing else pretty soon. I think maybe with
24p—that's the step up—when there';
consumer model or a pro-sumer model of
24p cameras that are small, that will really
change the face of things. I don't think
we're there yet. And I don't think every
film should look like digital. Image qua
ty is important. It just depends on what
you have in mind, what the film in your
head looks like. Like I said, I don't think
every film should be shot digitally, and a
lot of the films I'm thinking about in the
future aren't on digital, but some o\' them
are. Or [I'll] have one film where half of it
will be digital and that other half will be
film. It's just a tool.... But really at the end
of the day, it's the stories [one is] telling.
I'm always optimistic about technology
because I think it helps us—it's there to
communicate. The gist of it is to help us
communicate and help us tell stories and
help us along with our art.
to communicate.
It's a good tool
"Tape." Starring Ethan Hawke, Rober\
Scan Leonard mid Uma Thurm
Directed by Richard Linklater. Written by
Stephen Belber. Produced by Anne Walh.
\dcBay I Lions Gate release Drama Not
yet rated Opens 1112, 11116 exp
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