Lynn Shelton
Lynn Shelton
Lynn Sheltonis an American director known for writing, directing, and producing such films as Humpday and Your Sister's Sister...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth2 August 1965
CityOberlin, OH
CountryUnited States of America
small-numbers people able
I like being able to just turn the microscope on a small number of people, get to know them, drop into their lives for a period of time.
mind television
I hope to keep working with television. I wouldn't mind doing more.
thinking film aspect
If I don't have to think about the commercial aspect of it, then I feel like I'm going to make better films.
art real stress
Making art, being creative, is risky, especially for actors, but everybody on the set is being creative. You're putting yourself out there with ideas, and to have your brain be free of stress so that it can actually do its best work, it feels like you want to have a real sense of intimacy and connection and trust with everybody.
phones trying together
I try to build relationships with the actors, at least to some degree beforehand, whether it's phone calls because I'm from Seattle or all of us meeting in person at some point, which is ideal if at all possible before we get on set together.
safe-environment creating people
So many people have said this, but it's true: 95 percent of what I do as a director is casting and getting people who can bear the load of what you're asking them to do and creating this emotionally safe environment.
writing world unconventional
I can connect with whoever I want to connect with in the world. And I can also write my own script. I don't have to follow rules. I can sort of just be unconventional.
editors actors photographer
I had a background in theater as an actor, and then a photographer, and then as an experimental filmmaker and editor.
independent television found
I'd always wanted to work in television once I found out that they started to hire independent filmmakers to direct.
stories stuff way
Although humor is present in every one of my films, it has always been used as a way to make the darker, heavier stuff in my stories more palatable. I never set out to make 'Humpday' a comedy.
want life-is compelling
All we really want in life is to connect to other human beings, and when you desperately want to connect physically to one specific human being and you can't? That's something I find compelling.
class voice acting
Before adolescence I had an incredible voice. Like when I was 12, 13, 14 - I was taking acting classes, I was painting, I was making music, I was taking photographs. I was kind of exploding creatively, and then something about adolescence really just ground that out of me.
fun worry littles
There's so much great TV and I always thought it would be such a fun little sideway to make money and then not have to worry about my films making a lot of money.
men thinking directors
Hmm, can I be obvious and say there is probably a double standard for male vs. female directors? Sadly, I think that's actually the case. And it probably stems from the fact that there are proportionately so many fewer women directors than men ones that each project is perhaps more closely scrutinized for its content.