On set with Portman
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Natalie Portman started her own website - so that YOU can see what it’s like to be making a movie.
Check out: www.makingof.com
- Why did you start this website?
- Christine [Aylward] and I, we’ve been friends for a few years now and we were just talking one night and I said, ‘I wonder why there isn’t a website that sort of encapsulate the experience of visiting a friend on a film set?’ Because every time that a friend of mine came to visit I was sort of reminded how exciting of a place it is to work and reminded how little we all know when you’re just a movie-goer about all the different aspects that go into making a film. So the site is supposed to encapsulate that experience and give access to people who don’t have a friend that they can go visit on a film set. So they can say, ‘How did they do that?’ There are jobs that exist that people don’t even know about on films sets that we can sort of give insight into and just have that experience for the serious burgeoning filmmaker. There’s this whole generation now of people who are making their own movies with www.youtube.com and similar sites. I’m sure that they want expert advice or the opportunity to see how it looks up close. So that’s the goal of the site, to just extend that access to everyone.
- So it’s for people who want to learn what a grip is and for people who want hear expert advice from Ron Howard?
- Yeah. It should be, like, the kid who’s like, ‘How did they do that explosion in the “Bond” movie?’ to the person who’s like, ‘What lens was he using when he got that very specific shot –’ or whatever. The goal is to have that range.
- So in the ‘Vault’ section of the site you’ll be able to watch whole movies or just clips of things?
- Making of related things with movies that are already past being in theaters. So we’re hopefully getting archival things. That’s what we want for the future on the site.
- Did you do some of the interviews yourself that we see?
- I did. I did one interview that I think is going to be up. I didn’t want it to be like the me site. I really want it to be about filmmaking. So I didn’t want to be all over it, but I did one interview.
- Do you see the site connecting, say, a hairdresser with a production company or things like that?
- In terms of connecting people I think one of the future goals for our interviews will be to have filmmakers interviewing other filmmakers so that they’re asking the exact questions. If you’re a costume designer what would you ask a legendary costume designer? If you’re a casting director….so that we connect those people and have interviews in that way, too.
- One exciting thing about the site is that it encompasses the whole business of film, from accounting to acting.
- This is really where we will expand and that’s the goal. I think it was one of the ‘Naked Gun’ movies in the credits, I remember seeing this as a little kid, that said ‘what the hell is a dolly grip?’ You watch the credits and if you don’t know, if you haven’t been on a film set you’re like, ‘What? What does that even mean?’ So, yes, most people would be like, ‘Why does a film need an accountant?’
By: Kjersti
Kjersti@inewyork.no
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