Todd Haynes, bold independent film director, screenwriter and producer, shared how powerful films come from being “ruthless”.
Haynes is best known for directing the BAFTA-nominated period drama Carol, plus Velvet Goldmine and Far from Heaven. He told the packed audience at a special Life in Pictures event that filmmaking is as much about what you cut out as what’s left in.
“Filmmaking is always a process of discarding everything you expected it to be and looking at what it really is,” he said.
“What you see in the script is different to what you see in the dailies, which is different to what you saw in the flesh, and different from what you see in the first cut. You have to be ruthless. Sometimes you have to let your favourite scene go.”
- Read a transcript of the 25, November 2015 event