Whats the trick to getting great improvised performances out of untrained thespians?
What I’ve learned over the years in casting “non-actors”—which is a weird term—is that if you let them speak in their own words, they’re much more comfortable. The problems really come when you try to make them memorize. That locks them up. If you’ve created the right situation, I can say to them, “Look, you can say anything you want. Just speak as if you were in this situation in real life. You don’t have to worry about doing something wrong, because that’s not how it works.” The RED camera allowed you to shoot quickly and cheaply. Would this film have been possible without it? It’s possible—it just wouldn’t be as interesting visually. The camera’s improved a lot since we shot Che with it, and that was really helpful because there are only two or three shots where we used any lights. They keep making it more and more sensitive, which is great for me. The entire shoot was 16 days, and we were able to move very quickly. The whole crew could fit in two vans. To me, that’s the ideal way t
