Rian Johnson
Rian Johnson
Rian Craig Johnsonis an American writer, producer, director, and voice actor. He won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival with his debut feature film, Brick...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth17 December 1973
CountryUnited States of America
thinking childhood feelings
All of us have that feeling of some deficiency from our childhood. I think that's a universal thing.
fixing time-travel appeals
That's part of the appeal of time-travel movies: The notion of going back and fixing something.
memories ideas able
Memory is a form of time travel. That's something we do during the course of the day, every single day. The idea of actually being able to physically adjust that and change it instead of being haunted by it is a really human thing.
fun liars writing
Writing sucks. I think it's terrible. Writing is not fun, and don't trust anyone who claims to enjoy it. Liars!
letting-go long the-end-of-the-day
I'm a sci-fi fan, and I guess you have to let go of some of that at some point, and realize that as long as you're focused on telling a story that you care about, at the end of the day, that's what really matters, even to hard-core sci-fi fans.
order smell community
The fanboy community can smell in an instant, like smelling fear, when something was tailor-made in order to reach them as a demographic.
goes-on if-i-stay plans
It's best if I stay out of future plans and let time go on.
writing thinking kind
Rather than thinking in terms of a specific genre or specific kind of thing, I hope I can just stay relatively small and keep making my movies. If I can keep writing them and making them, I'll be happy.
years family-and-friends going-out
My filmmaking background has really just been making movies with my friends since I was 12 years old. That's how I feel I learned how to tell a story visually, by just going out with a video camera and making movies with my friends and family.
style kind film
I'm definitely a big believer in the notion that a heightened style can get you closer to an authentic human experience than so-called realism on film. There are films I love that have kind of a muted or realistic style, but for me on any given day I have more moments during the course of a day that feel like a Fellini movie than I do a Cassavettes movie.
eye listening moments
Much of directing [a movie] is not directing but just listening and being present in the moment and just keeping your eyes open.
giving-up dont-give-up advice
The only advice I can really give to the young filmmakers is to be persistent, don't give up, and keep watching and making as many movies as you possibly can.
writing editing feelings
When you're writing is when the "god should I just drop this" feeling can hit. When you're editing is when the "god this is awful and I've wasted everyone's time and money and will be revealed as a fraud" feeling can hit.
giving-up writing editing
The momentum of production keeps you from giving up, so it's really the editing and writing phases where things can look bleakest.