Weirding Way Media.

Welcome to episode one hundred and thirty of The Filming Mentor's Podcast.

This is Jamie Benning, your host, talking to you here from my house in London.

As you may know, I went on my trip to Martha's Vineyard to shoot hopefully the final section of our documentary about production designer Joe al If you donated to the GoFundMe, firstly, thank you so much.

I literally could not have done it without you.

Managed to raise just over seven pounds which paid for my flight, a car, accommodation, ferries, taxis, some audio gear, some hard disks.

Yeah, it was really amazing that you will put in that money and made the trip possible.

It just couldn't have been done without it.

And what an opportunity to grab shots with Joe and interviews with Joe and other people on the island and that place that he was originally in scouting back in December nineteen seventy three.

Kind of a real pinch me goosebumps moment.

I'm getting goosebumps again just talking about it.

I'll be doing a report on that hopefully this month.

I've also bearing in mind I've got a report to do as an episode about the screening of the original Star Wars film at the British Film Institute here in London as well.

Have a bunch of other interviews that are sort of getting older sitting in the inbox if you like.

But first of all, I just wanted to get this short episode out to you.

This is an interview with Laurent Boozoo.

Now.

Laurron is a documentary filmmaker that I've been admiring the work of for decades now.

If you don't know who Laurent is, have a look at the making of Jaws or any of the behind the scenes stuff on the Indiana Jones, or maybe you've read the First ten Years, the book about Spielberg that he made.

Laurent has been doing this behind the scenes stuff that I've been interested in and been doing myself.

He's been doing it for decades and his work is incredible.

It's stuff that I revisit very often for inspiration.

I actually bumped into Laurent on the vineyard.

We were at the Jaws fifty event at the Wharf Pub and Paddy and I, my co director, just went out of the back just to get some fresh air, and there was Laurent sitting on a bench just outside in this nice little quiet area in Edgartown.

Then Jamie Benning, I interviewed you for the podcast I make in the Joe Outop commentary, said oh yeah, JAMIEI I said, on you haven't got a second of you.

Could we just chuck a microphone on you and interview.

So we walked down to the wharf exactly where Matt Hooper Richard Draves's character arrived all those years ago, and we interviewed him right there, just talking about the role of a production designer and his relationship with the director, and he gave us some great stuff.

We'd actually like to get him for a proper sit down interview next time we go out to Los Angeles, because we still do have a few other interviews to do, hopefully Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter as well, and we're looking to get Dean Cundy also next time we're out there, hopefully.

Before I left for the Island, I was given the opportunity to see Jaws at fifty, the Definitive Inside Story, the new national geographic documentary that Laurent had directed, and i've octually I couldn't make it to the premiere out on the island.

We were busy shooting stuff, but I did make it to the after party.

I got a little swag bag one evening after ten hours of shooting, a well deserved drink in hand.

So when I got back home, I was given the opportunity to interview Laurent about this documentary that he's done with both NAT Geo and Disney Plus.

I should mention as well, Jaws of fifty to the definitive inside story and it premiere is on Friday, the eleventh of July eight pm on National Geographic and will be available streaming on the same day, So Friday the eleventh of July on Disney Plus as well.

So here's my interview with Laurent, and I'll be back at the end for a little bit more jabbering on.

To me, making Jaws was a life altering experience.

Fifty years we're still talking about Jaws.

It was the first blockbuster.

This mystical connection between hero and monster.

This started me thinking about a career in movies.

Is there anything that you've never said about Joss.

Let's buy it out.

We were on the real ocean and we were way out of her element for five months and we all began going off the deep end.

Literally, the film was one hundred days behind schedule and eighty percent of the time the shark didn't work.

There was a strong undercurrent that the studio would close us down.

I was terrified I was going to be fired, but I never once felt like I wanted to quit.

And when the film wrapped I had a full lon panic attack.

But the success was fantastic.

It was sort of life changing.

It's the film I've seen the most.

It wasn't just a movie, It was a culture phenomenon like that.

It's super charged the language of cinema.

There have been movies made since using CG sharks that aren't nearly as good.

The film that I thought would end my career is the film that began it.

Boom boom boom bum bum bum bump.

Bump, Lord, you made that wonderful the making of Jaws.

Back in nineteen ninety five, it was released, and people like me have watched that one hundred times.

It's part of the film's history in many ways.

How challenging was it for you to revisit the film, you know, thirty years later, and how difficult was it to find a new angle or did that passage of time really help in that regard.

Well, I knew that fifty years in anything is an important benchmark, so that I knew was going to be super unique, you know.

And I also knew through all my relationships with different directors and filmmakers and so on, you know that everybody I've ever talked to as mentioned Jaws, but they've all mentioned it for different reasons.

So Guillermo comes at it differently from Jim Cameron, from Zamechis, or jj et cetera, or Jordan Peele.

So, so.

I was excited to get everybody to finally reveal their connection to Jaws in a way that was, you know, compelling but different.

I think the Kintner scene is a beautiful example of Spielberg's gift.

Every single choice he makes, it's about the tension and the paranoia and that sense of you don't know quite where to look.

The tension that's built with the cinematic devices in the scene are so immersive, so seamless and flawless.

It's got the wipes, it's got the split, the high.

Opter, and then when it hits the push pull oom, the hitchcock pioneered.

He just brings the audience along in the perfect pacing and then it's delivered.

All of this is in a of putting you inside of Brodie's experience of being on the beach that day when this terrible thing happened.

Well, in those days, I wasn't thinking about cinema.

I was thinking about shots.

Now.

I have to tell you, I was nervous about making this film, and I was nervous about being, you know, criticized for doing something again, almost a remake of my original dog or something.

And the second I sat down across Steven for the first interview I did, and he was the first one I interviewed, I was reassured that it was not going to be the case because I just felt that that perspective, you know, was so unique, and for him to open up about the human perspective of making Jaws and recognizing it as a people's movie about people.

The sort of humanity that comes from this film is very different from a twenty year perspective.

You know, twenty year actually is not that long a time.

It still belongs in the same world, you know, Yes, you had Jurassic Park by then, and the film had broken down, you know, the barrier from mechanical effects to CGI.

But you know, fifty years that is really a milestone, you know, And I know it was a milestone for me when I jown fifty so I figured it was the same for a movie.

You know.

There was nothing fun about making Jaws.

It was a very very hard thing to go out on the real ocean, be knocked around by the waves, by the current.

One more time thought comes up.

And then we have to re anchor reposition the camera boat.

Suddenly the electrical barge with the generators running the arcs is too far away.

And then, on top of all that, eighty percent of the time the shark didn't work.

The first mistake with the shark was they built it for fresh water.

What's the difference, Well, electrolysis.

They built a shark in ari, and then they realized that saltwater eats everything.

They tested the shark for the first time in the water, and we had at least twenty boats of tourists who had gathered around an area to watch the shark work.

And we had the shark on a huge ninety foot platform thirty feet underwater.

At the press of a hydraulic button, and pulling a lever back.

Supposedly the shark come shooting out of the water head first.

And this has absolutely happened.

The shark came up tail first, tail first, and it was like it was like a twenty five foot moon.

Some nights we'd go to the warehouse and you'd see the sharks lined up there, and they were always.

Working on it.

And some times you'd get in the water and you'd see the shike go.

You thought, oh my god, are they going to finish this movie?

Yeah, twenty years feels like it was almost too fresh in people's minds to have a true sort of understanding of the impact that film had had on them.

And Stephen seemed particularly open and very emotional.

I think it's wonderful you captured those moments.

Yeah, I mean, you know, I would say that when I sat down with him, when I did the twentieth anniversary was the second time I met him, and.

And this is like, what the hundredth time I met him, So there's a level of you know, I, I'm.

Comfortable with him.

I hope he's comfortable with me.

But you know, the thing that's really funny is his enthusiasm.

I remember towards the end of the first session, he mentioned this photo of him and Martis Scorsese, and he says something like, oh, have you seen it.

It's in my office.

Come with me, bring the camera.

And there's this level of this almost, you know, childlike enthusiasm.

He gives you five thousand percent, you know, and and and he knew, you know, because I actually have had it I included in the documentary.

I asked him, is there anything else to say?

And and I think while they may not have been that much more new to say, there was a lot more to feel.

And I think the feelings are are really you know.

I could have driven myself crazy just trying to figure out what's been said, what's not being said, what's been shown, what's not being shown.

And to me, it was all about getting those stories and giving those stories a different perspective, like the theme of home, for example, which is something that has never been mentioned before except for myself in my book about Steven, recognizing that those first ten years, you know, culminating with etphon Home was all about finding home and being near home, and something that's a theme in the movie of Jobs, but it is also the theme of the production, they just couldn't go home because they weren't just over scheduled.

So I think all of those things make for a very different perspective on the history and the legacy of the film.

And.

You know, I hope people experience it that way.

Also.

You know, at the time I met the first one, I was very much obsessed with.

First of all, there was no internet, so all of my research was done in the back loot of Universal in bins where they told me they could be rattlesnacks in there, and I had to wear gloves, and I was putting up folders and boxes and going to some kind of writers of the law Stark sort of a warehouse in the valley to find boulders and and and memos, and I had to rebuild everything on my own, you know.

So so uh, that was really much more of a mechanical approach, you know, to to the story.

And here it was just like, let's I want.

To get goosebumps when I'm talking to those people and listen.

The sad part also is that the Xanik David Browns's Mcaliney, Roy Scheid or Robert Shaw, well, Robert was already passed on you know, but all those people are gone, and and and you realize that, and it's a it's a great pride that I did capture them then, but uh, but here was really a tribute to to them.

So I don't want to say it's the celebration of jobs, but it's an appreciation, you know, and a brand new, fifty year.

Kind of of analysis of why this is.

You know, in the Museum of Cinema, right up there next to Mona Lisa, I who like painting or Beethoven if you like music, you know, So that's the way I feel.

And there was this big barrel right near the top of the water and it's full of blood.

He goes, you're gonna take your raft out to that barrel, and all of a sudden, all the blood starts shooting.

Up like a rocket.

And you see me go up and down.

That's two guys lifting me in and out of the water and then pull you on and give your air.

Poor Jeff, he came up out of the water, you know, he got all that stuff out of his eyes, and then he did it again and it worked fine.

Yeah, it feels like your original film is the making of this is the documentary about the legacy of and it is wonderful to see you know, you've got Joe Alms and there you've got Cold Got Leave and Jeffrey Craigles still with us, and it's still wonderful to get their perspectives and other thirty years on.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Great also to you know, you always trying to find something new, something fresh, So it's great to see that eight milimeters footage of Stevens that hadn't been seen before.

You know, he's there looking at Bob Matty and looking at Joe Alms.

That must have been a delight to be able to use.

Oh well, I mean, you know, since since the first Jaws Dark Euty twenty years ago, he has transferred.

All of his home movies to.

A database and they look fantastic.

Even when I did John Williams, where I had access to his Super eight films and it was projected in imax for the premiere at the man Chinese No less, the Super eight films were amazing.

You know, I was.

I was so nervous.

I was just like, Okay, this is going to look completely blurry, but no, it was.

It was amazing.

So I really.

I would email Stevens Archives and said, do you have footage of Stephen in his office at the time of blah blah blah, and do you have him interacting with See Scheinberg or Al Barwood and Matthew Robbins.

And they'll say, yes, we have footage of that, and I was like, oh my god, this is crazy.

So that was really fun.

Great.

Well, listen, as I said to you last week on Martha's Vineyard, I've been a huge appreciator of your work and I love your work and thank you so much for what you do for us as fans and for filmmakers and for everybody else.

It's a great documentary.

And congratulations.

Thank you so much, Jamie, and again, thanks so much for your kind words.

And keep me posted on your docs and everything you're doing.

We'll do.

Thanks soone.

Congrats s tack care here's you two.

Bye.

Well.

I hope you enjoyed that interview.

It was a short one.

Laurent is a very busy man trying to get the message out about this film.

So just a reminder that its Jaws at fifty, the Definitive Inside Story.

It premiere is Friday, the eleventh of July.

That's this Friday at eight pm on National Geographic and streams on the same day on Disney Plus.

Thank you to the folks at Disney Plus and nat Geo forgetting me that documentary early to watch, and also for the interview with Lauren, And thank you to Lauren for that interview, that flash interview we did on the wharf on Martha's Vineyard.

Still beavering away here at Film Yourmentary's HQ.

Patty and I have been working quite a lot on the documentary since we got back, cutting together the stuff that we shot in Martha's Vineyard along with the stuff we shop with Joe in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three.

Things are taking shape slowly.

It's very difficult to find the time for both of us to do this and get it done.

It's usually a couple of hours each day.

We'd love to get get an editor on board to go through this and work with us and come up with ideas with us.

Unfortunately, we just don't have the budget, so that's why this thing is taking so long.

But we will get there.

We'll keep chipping away.

Coming up on the podcast, They've got plenty more interviews coming up with filmmakers lots of behind the scenes stories, so stay tuned.

Tell your friends about the podcast.

Also, I should say there's a new ILM article out called ILM Evolutions Animation from Rotoscoping to Rango.

Now, this was an article I pitched back in It must have been August last year.

I was actually on holiday in Malta in Gozo, and I was sitting by the pool and just coming up some ideas because I've been invited to write some articles for ILM and I had absolute lasts making it.

So just reading the blurb here, this is the ILM Evolutions series exploring ILM's fifty year legacy, and it kicks off with new interviews featuring original styles animator Chris Cassidy and current animation supervisors Rob Coolm and Hal Hickel.

So this is a two parter.

This is the first part of a two part so I go from you know, the early days of their very beginnings and on Star Wars all the way up to Rango.

I'll then be going beyond that in part two, which has already written already to go up, But do check that out on ILM dot com.

Forward Slash, ILM Dash Evolutions Dash fifty Dash animation dash part dash one, a lot of dashes in there.

I'll tell you what.

I'll put it on my show notes.

I'll put it on my link tree, and hopefully you'll find it there.

If you just search for ILM Evolutions Jamie Benning, you'll find it as well.

ILEM have been tweeting that out today today being Monday the seventh, you'll be listening to this hopefully on the day of release this podcast episode on Tuesday, the eighth of July.

Thanks for joining me.

Keep letting me know if you have any ideas of who to interview.

I've had a couple of people do that recently, saying here's somebody I think you should talk to you, and I've been sorting those out in the meantime.

Tell your friends about the podcast and about the work that I'm doing.

And if anybody does want to donate to the gofund me still is still open.

If you look for gofund me and Jamie Benning or go fund me and Joe al So, you'll find it there.

Take caret see you next time.