David Jacobson

Writer-director DAVID JACOBSON is famous in the world of indie filmmaking, and not just because his first film DAHMER was Jeremy Renner’s first major film role. DAHMER was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards including the John Cassavetes Award. DOWN IN THE VALLEY, David’s second feature, was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and released theatrically by THINKFilm.

David has taken a number of workshops with me, and he did one-on-one consultation with me before directing both DAHMER and DOWN IN THE VALLEY (with Edward Norton and Evan Rachel Wood). He just completed post-production on his latest feature, TOMORROW YOU’RE GONE, starring Stephen Dorff, Michelle Monaghan, and Willem Dafoe.

David has a unique and off-beat sensibility, an amazing talent, true artistry, and the most generous nature. In the Q&A event on September 4th he was unguarded and open, and gave many gems of wisdom. The depth and seriousness of his vision and spirit shown through at every moment. Plus he was funny!

Following are a few notes from the evening. (Thank you, Craig Ouellette, who I count on for sharing your notes!) 

David says that these two early decisions are the most important: What is it about? Who are your actors?

When casting for DAHMER [where he discovered actor Jeremy Renner), David had lots of callbacks, he feels he continues learning about the script by hearing different actors give different interpretations. Jeremy Renner was then unknown, and David had him come in for many call backs. Jeremy created moments, subtext, in the audition – that’s what made him stand out. Cast the main character, then cast around that person.

After the success of DAHMER, his next movie had a budget, so there were no auditions.

He usually has a week of rehearsal. The problem is that it’s usually the last week before shooting, which is the hardest time to find time to rehearse. When rehearsing TOMORROW YOU’RE GONE, he spent a couple of hours with Michelle Monoghan and Steven Dorf together, then a couple hours with each one alone. He has always had generous, smart actors. The point of rehearsal is to get the actors together, have time together, be comfortable together. Focus on challenging scenes. Improvise scenes that are not in the script – that’s his main thing he does in rehearsal. Also discuss the script. Improvise what has/will go on before and after scenes (in DOWN IN THE VALLEY, he ended up putting some of these scenes that had been created in rehearsal into the movie). Most actors he has met liked working those other moments, improvising scenes that were not in the script, not so much rehearsal of the scripted scenes. Sometimes he will create an improvisation of a “metaphorical moment,” a situation analogous to the situation in the scene.

Day players usually have a lot of anxiety, because when they arrive the others already know each other. He tries to get day players to come to the set a day or more before so they feel comfortable, meet stars at lunch, hang out; it helps integrate them into the cast.

Blocking. On DAHMER, it was an 18-day shoot, so you go on adrenaline and instinct. If there is time, he likes to let the actors know what he is picturing, then try it, run a few times, see how the actors feel, see how the DP feels, then make changes. But when there is no time, you need to stick with a choice. For action scenes, you need to do a lot of work and planning beforehand.

Vision. The finished film is never anything like what he planned or imagined. It’s exciting and wonderful when the time comes to get to be with the cast and crew – because then he’s not alone anymore; writing is lonely. He finds it exciting to let the actors take it and run with it, he wants them to bring to him what they see in it. Sometimes he feels inarticulate on set, but does everything he can to let actors know it’s their character. Some actors want a lot of input; some don’t want anything.

It’s important to have a strong script. It’s a sculpture, then production is like taking a hammer to it, then it re-forms, but the better the script to begin with, the better the final re-form will be.

He liked shooting before video tap was a given. Shooting without a video tap was a more intimate experience with the DP – because it means the director has to give the DP trust, responsibility. “The DP is my favorite person.” Two weeks before film he spends 2 hours/day with the DP on the shot list. The more you can download yourself into the DP, so he/she understands what your vision is, the more you can focus on actors.

What it’s about - DAHMER. David had heard an interview with Jeffrey Dahmer’s father on NPR, and felt a connection with certain details of Dahmer’s background. David had seen an article which said Dahmer claimed he killed those guys because he was afraid of losing them. That’s what drove David’s interest – fear of losing, fear of separation. When he was sending out the script, many producers were offended, outraged by the script. So he wrote a 4-page Director’s Statement (in the form of an interview although he himself made up the questions) that he sent with the script, and in the Statement he spoke honestly of what he felt the script was about.

Shooting an 18-20 day shooting schedule. One thing for sure is that the actors’ time in make-up needs to be limited, no more than one hour. They can’t spend 2 hours in make-up, you can’t lose that time.

He lets himself think in front of people, think out loud. Trust in your own passion to think out loud.

This was a wonderful evening. The people who came asked smart questions and David knows so much and gave so much. Thank you David!!! Thank you everyone!!!