Do you have clearly defined roles when you make a film?
Sylvia: We would probably kill each other if we didn’t. Ha ha. It’s a good collaboration because Jen and I can understand each other without having to go into all the backstory as where our vision sprung forth. We just get the other, our brains work very similarly. That said, there is a lot of communication and delegation between us.
I like to go into deals and feel out a situation first, I enjoy negotiating and building a team. I am also somewhat awkward when talking to people about things besides work and artsy shit, so thank God for Jen in that respect. She’s very extroverted and great with people and relationships.
Jen has these weird ideas that seem to materialize out of nowhere and they are usually genius. When we walked out of the theater after seeing Grindhouse for the millionth time, she looked like a five year old kid with this big smile on her face. She just said: Dead Hooker in a Trunk. Everything about the first feature just grew out of that brilliance.
We like to challenge each other and are brutally honest, so if something isn’t ‘sold’ to the other, that idea gets thrown out. It’s good practice because in the industry no one is going to hold your hand through your career. You need to be tough, smart, and willing to work hard. When we write – we plan everything together, then pick scenes or sequences to do, then the other reads over and we tweak it until we’re both happy.
On set, we make specific roles especially not to confuse our team. It’s bad enough that the directors look exactly the same – the last thing we need to add to that is a mix up of information or direction.
J: Absolutely. You can’t have too many cooks in the kitchen. You need there to be one voice or, in our case, two unified voices. We discuss our days before we even set foot on set. We are both amazing passionate about what we do and that intensity can be misunderstood. We’re Hungarian and when we “discuss” it appears, at times, that we are having a go at one another. But that is not the case.
We break up who will have final say for direction as well. We often both want final say and more often than not fully agree with one another’s choices, but there is no room for dispute on set. We try to divide up the scenes that way. We on occasion will both feel the same way and one of us will compromise and say, “okay. You direct this one, but I’d like to take that one.” Sylv is just wonderful to work with. I feel so lucky to have been born with such a driven, talented, brilliant, strong, and insightful partner.
Do you prefer to work on the outside the Hollywood studio system?
S: Despite the fact that we have a budget working with us to make our new project possible, we are still a modest independent. If we working with a bigger studio, they might look at some of the more controversial material in our work – potentially everything in American Mary would need to be toned down or reimagined to fit a cookie-cutter ‘what sells’ mentality.
I like where I am right now and I love every single member of my team – and it’s not an easy task to get such a phenomenal team backing your insanely ambitious and unique work. I am very lucky and very happy with this team and there is nothing I would change.
I won’t say there is no appeal within Hollywood to me. There are some amazing people working within it with some impressive and inspirational careers. It’s a dream to some day work with the Weinsteins. If they told me that they wanted to talk to me about potential future projects, I’d be there in an instant.
The goal is to make great, original films and I have all the tools I need right now. As we continue to collaborate with the fantastic team at Industry Works, I envision our careers and business will continue to grow together in a sexy symbiosis.
J: It is a double edged sword in a lot of ways. Go the Hollywood route and you get a series of perks. Money backing you, marketing and promotion on a world wide scale, cast and crew becoming available that you couldn’t hope to work with without the money to pay them, and the ability to do what you love and be paid well enough to not have to have a couple day jobs to pay the bills.
The flip side is that you potentially lose some of your control and creativity. With indie work, you can retain your control and creativity, but you may never be able to quit your day job or get your work out there or be able to afford all the things you would like to be able to put in your work.
I want to work within Hollywood, but creatively. I want to create films that people get excited about seeing. Things that are inspiring and provocative and thought inducing. Of course, with “what-the-fuck-moments” and a good laugh here and there. I don’t by any means think Hollywood is evil.
I do think that with the technological changes we’ve been seeing, they will have to adapt. In this day and age, literally anyone can be a film maker. Just look at YouTube. The industry is having to adapt now like the music industry had to. It’s a scary time as well as an exciting time. It’s a good time to be an independent artist.