The Talks

Autumn Durald Arkapaw: “It’s an out of body experience”
Ms. Arkapaw, as a cinematographer, how did you develop your taste in the visual?
It started probably with my grandparents on my mother's side. They traveled a lot, and they took a lot of photographs, my grandmother had tons of photo books that I remember we would always look through. I had a relationship with photographs when I was growing up, it was a way that I could connect with family members or see the world, see where they traveled. Then I started doing my own photography in high school, I wanted to do my undergrad in art history so that I could become a curator or get an internship at Sotheby's. That was the path that I was on. But then I went to LMU and took a film genre course and I started to understand films. We watched Broadway Danny Rose, Raging Bull, stuff like that… So the visual medium has always been on my mind.
What other films sparked inspiration for you visually? I read that in college you and your roommate would re-watch Trainspotting and Heat — two pretty different ends of the visual spectrum.
Yes, we would literally watch Trainspotting or Heat every day because there's just so much energy and excitement in those films. They made us feel, they kind of woke you up. To watch something multiple times, I mean, obviously you enjoy it, but also every time you find something new. It's a very visceral experience.

Joachim Trier: “I’m going for it”
Mr. Trier, as a filmmaker, do you ever get nervous on set?
Well, I sometimes feel this anxiety of performance. A lot of the time, I feel that I'm failing. I'm strange in that way. But I think when we create something, a combination of confidence and talent is necessary to create something of value; you’ve got to question it and then find it. Question it and find it.
Do you always have to question it? There’s always that little bit of self-doubt?
That's the mixture! I don't mean to sound stupid about this, but it is natural to feel that — I say this often because I think of young directors who might be listening or reading: it's natural to feel that you're fucking it up along the way. It happens every time, every time I see the first cut of the film that we put together, I’m devastated! Every time I call my wife or my friends or my mother or whoever and I say, “I fucked it up this time,” and then at the end of it, I feel okay. I resolved what I can do with this. But that's the way it is. So I'm never fully getting used to it.

Jessie Buckley: “There’s nothing I let go of”

Paul Thomas Anderson: “We continue to move forward”

Adolpho Veloso: “It puts you in a different state”

Flying Lotus: “Music is a spiritual experience”

Fiona Crombie: “Every choice has meaning”

Lachlan Bailey: “Just focus on that moment”

Kate Hawley: “It’s the push and pull”

Sandra Barclay: “Light is essential to life”

















































































































































