Shane Carruth
Shane Carruth
Shane Carruthis an American film writer, composer, director, and actor. He is the writer, director, and co-star of the prize-winning science-fiction film Primer. His second film, Upstream Color, was released in 2013. Carruth also composed the scores for both these films. In recognition of Carruth's idiosyncratic and, at times, bizarre filmmaking, director Steven Soderbergh told Entertainment Weekly, "I view Shane as the illegitimate offspring of David Lynch and James Cameron."...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
CountryUnited States of America
dreams knowing wake
In school, when I got into upper-level math, there would be times when I would wake up from a dream and have - not an answer, exactly, but a direction to pursue. My writing has always been like that. I wake up from dreams knowing which direction to go in.
compelling concept exists infinitely love people promise romance romantic
I love the concept of the romance that exists when people are broken. Like, the promise of a romance when you're at the bottom. I think that's infinitely compelling and romantic.
aisle almost exercise favorite feels good grocery low mundane stores walking
Going to grocery stores is almost my favorite thing to do to calm myself down. There's something about just walking aisle after aisle making mundane choices. 'Do I want that? No, I want the one that has the low sodium.' And that feels like a good exercise to be doing when there isn't anything to be doing. It's like a kick-starter in some way.
engaging narratives proves pursued surreal
'Pierrot le Fou' is something I keep coming back to. It's so surreal but still really engaging - it proves narratives within narratives are a landscape that can be pursued well.
agree move
I never set out to make a movie that was everything to everybody; if that were the case, we could all just take a picture of a tree and agree that the tree is beautiful and move on with our lives. I wouldn't even need to show up.
amazed catch constantly happens knew orange roll surprised
I'm constantly surprised by... an orange will roll off a table, and I'll catch it before I knew it was falling. Something happens there. We could write it off and say, 'Subconsciously I knew that was happening,' but there's so many things every day - I'm amazed by how little we know.
book writing stubborn
I don't read books on how to write screenplays just because I'm stubborn. So it's all sort of made up.
reality want reason
I don't want to be thought of as somebody who's spiritually ambiguous, but the reality is there's unknown things happening. I'm not ready to point at what they are or what the reason is, but I know they exist.
heart littles plot
Many of my favorite films, if someone were to tell me simply what they're about, I probably wouldn't be that interested. Plot often has so little to do with what's at the heart of a film.
tv-shows bored tvs
Probably the TV show I've watched the most is 'How It's Made' on the History Channel. I could watch 24 hours of 'How It's Made' and never get bored.
school math texas
I got a degree in math, from not a good school in Texas, and then I went to work as a software engineer. Just not glamorous at all.
mistake people stories
The biggest mistake I made was not having a full-time producer. I was securing locations and wardrobe and making sure people get called to show up on time and getting the film to the lab and getting the camera, and all this stuff that I'm happy to do, but if I'm doing every little thing, I'm not concentrating on my story. So it never gets any better than the script.
believe trying lessons
I don't believe that narrative works when it's trying to teach a lesson or speak a factual truth.
hate ideas stories
I hate even the idea of a synopsis. When stories are really working, when you're providing subtextual exploration and things that are deeply layered, you're obligated to not say things out loud.