Always busy, The Great Gatsby director Baz Luhrmann responds to the simple question of "How are you?" in preoccupied fashion. He's "in the middle of a group of swirling ballroom dancers," he tells Mashable by phone, working on the live musical adaption of his 1992 romantic comedy Strictly Ballroom.
The 51-year-old, likely most known for directing Moulin Rouge, recently bestowed his filmmaking knowledge upon 10 young Australians, who are all interested in movie industry careers. Samsung brought them together as part of the The Shoot, a six-day workshop to create a short film.
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Though the aspiring writers, directors, actors, designers and cinematographers looked to Luhrmann for advice, he believed he was there to be more of a "sounding board."
"Mostly what I was trying to say to them was, 'Don't think I have the answers, you have the answers, but what you must have is process,'" Luhrmann said. "And it was pretty remarkable how they came together to tell their story and really produce something at a high level of quality."
The finished short film, The Pilgrim Report, follows three astronauts seemingly abandoned on Mars.
"It's been a long time since I've had three days and three days [to create a film]," he said. "And it really made me think, and I've even been inspired with my work on the live stage with Strictly Ballroom, just to be a little more in the moment and just get on with it and not be so weighed down by the baggage of filmmaking."
When asked if whether young filmmakers should be familiar with all aspects of film production or choose a speciality, Luhrmann stressed the importance of not getting stuck in one identity.
"I don't think anyone in life, particularly anyone who's young should say 'I am.' Because if you are something absolutely, if you are something absolutely when you're very young, you don't even have to say it, it's just got you. It's an addiction and you don't even realize you've got it until you wake up one day and you're 40 and you're doing it. And I think they should absolutely be versed in all aspects of filmmaking."
He also encouraged those who want a career in film to step out of their assumed roles.
"If getting in front of the camera scares you the most, or writing scares you the most, collaborate, obviously, but do it once, twice, three times," he said. "When you go on to find what you actually do is write or what you really do is point the camera, or what you really do is shoot an image, you always remember how terrifying it is for actors to actually expose their own flesh in front of a camera and if you end up acting you'll recognize the singular labor and the singular loneliness of going to a piece of paper and writing 'fade in.'"
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Image: Samsung
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