Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson
Barry Levinsonis an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and actor. Levinson's best-known works are comedy-drama and drama films such as, Diner, The Natural, Good Morning, Vietnam, Rain Man, Bugsy, and Wag the Dog. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for his work on Rain Man, which also won the Academy Award for Best Picture...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth6 April 1942
CityBaltimore, MD
CountryUnited States of America
Personally and professionally, we had a great relationship. It was just a perfect fit. He shared a similar sensitivity. There was an inherent shorthand from 'Diner' on.
It's finding those nonsensical pieces of conversation that we all do all the time. We do all the time. When we're talking on the telephone, there are arguments with people who agree when they both think that they disagree.
I'm thinking, this is Robert Redford. You know, he's won an Academy Award, he's talking to me about directing a movie he's in. So you just think that it's Hollywood stuff or whatever.
It's those moments, those odd moments that you look for and sometimes by creating this kind of loose atmosphere you find those little moments that somehow mean a lot to an audience when they really register right.
Apparently nobody really read it, it was a cheap movie, it fit their schedule in terms of things so fine, let the guy make that high school comedy. I used to work with Mel Brooks so they figured oh it's going to be one of those really silly movies and that's how it got made.
Well it was sent to me, well because almost everything that is written in Baltimore is sent to me. And David Simon, who was a writer for the Baltimore Sun, spent one year following the homicide squad in Baltimore and he chronicled that period of time.
There was a time when I said, "I'm going to go do a television thing," after doing all these theatrical films, and heard, "Television? Why are you going to go back to television?" It's an interesting place.
You do understand that you can't force the situation, but in terms of how you edit, you can define that to take the audience along, whether it be a storyline or a character moment that we can play out. The more experience you've had, the more beneficial it is, period.
As soon as digital editing came about, I immediately made the switch to digital.
Even back in the '90s, I shot certain things on something that wasn't digital then, but it was on VHS with a smaller camera and we would up it to film.
I'm fascinated by documentaries, to begin with. Because of the nature of television, as opposed to theatrical, documentaries can be in this long form and take you on a journey.
There's no downside to having too much experience.
You don't always have to have the ending, but you want to have a satisfactory conclusion.
I would give the cameras to the kids in the swimming pools and they would play with them, and then I would collect them and we would upload it. If you're in the process, you're there.