On location, shooting an interior dialogue scene between two actresses, there were at least forty people on set when I arrived. I learned later that the actual total of people being paid to be there was higher yet, as I arrived at lunchtime and some people had gone off set to eat. Despite their absence, there were still forty people milling around the set, both inside and out.

Occasionally, reports will come out that certain films feature love scenes that were shot with a skeleton crew; if a well known actress is going to get naked, you can rest assured that as few crew members as possible will be allowed on set that day. When shooting the climactic sex scene of his film The Brown Bunny, director/actor Vincent Gallo kicked everybody off set with the exception of his co-star, Chloe Sevigny. It’s at moments like these that people with some understanding of the film world inevitably ask: why can’t almost every scene be shot with a skeleton crew? The answer is, contrary to the blustering of Hollywood studio executives, they very easily can be. You don’t have to look any further than director Robert Rodriguez and Fernando Meirelles’ projects for proof of this.

Sitting in his hotel suite, Meirelles and I are talking about this very topic in conjunction with his latest project and first English language feature, The Constant Gardener. "When [my director of photography] Cesar Charlone and I were traveling around Africa to find locations," Meirelles begins, "we started thinking of ideas. Our process of shooting on the set, it’s a bit different from the usual process. Usually the director has to set the camera, then bring the lights and then bring the actors and the actors perform for that specific camera position." He pinches the bridge of his nose with his fingers and says, "Then you break the scene, change the camera, do different lighting, bring the actors back in and do it again." A small smile crosses his lips and he nods. "With Charlone, he only changes the bulbs; he doesn’t change equipment on the set."

This isn’t always the case, as Meirelles notes with a conciliatory wave of his hand. "Yes, sometimes you have to do it that way," he acquiesces, "but in most of the scenes, Cesar didn’t even use equipment." This is significantly farther down the path of guerrilla filmmaking than Meirelles first touched on and I ask him to repeat his statement to make sure I’ve heard him correctly. He does so and continues, "The set was just like [it was], the actors come and we asked the actors to do the whole scene, all the way from the top to the end. It’s very quick, you know? We’re just walking around [filming] and trying to capture the feel, just like you would on a documentary."

It’s a unique viewpoint to be sure. While there is nothing wrong with the standard Hollywood approach to filming, it’s nice to chat with a filmmaker who is more interested in pushing the artistic boundaries of the medium and concocting his own unique style than continually using the same tried-and-true methodologies that predominate the mainstream multiplexes.

Meirelles nods appreciatively when I mention this and tells me that, in that case, I will definitely like what he’s about to say. I prime myself for his tale as he rubs his hands together, thinking about where to begin. "Well," Meirelles drawls with his Brazilian accent, "When you go with a really small crew, you can get a real set and real people. Nobody knows that you’re shooting a film, so you capture this sense of reality. I don’t know why, but when you bring extras and recreate all this, you just don’t get the same level of reality." Many things can be said about The Constant Gardener, but, like Meirelles’ previous film, City of God, it lacks absolutely nothing in realism or grittiness. As a matter of fact, the project’s honesty is one of its greatest assets.

When Meirelles says ‘really small’, he means really small. Describing one of The Constant Gardener’s largest crowd scenes, one that features hundreds of Africans in a slum watching an outdoor play, Meirelles reveals that he and Charlone shot the scene with "five or six people"… a number that also includes the actors involved. This is even small by Robert Rodriguez standards, but Meirelles shrugs at the unorthodox nature of his approach. "The thing is," he says by way of an explanation, "If you bring a lot of equipment and a lot of crew, whatever is happening won’t happen anymore. Everyone will stop to watch and you can’t capture the light because everyone is moving while they watch. When you do it small scale, you can shoot with a big crowd around because nobody really knows that [they’re being filmed]."

When he tells me that he actually shot The Constant Gardener’s star, Ralph Fiennes, going up to random people in a huge market setting and asking the confused shoppers lines of dialogue from the film’s script, I’m not sure whether he is kidding or not. He looks at me in all seriousness and says, "Yes, Ralph was really asking and talking to people. They were answering him, ‘No, I don’t know.’ They were really answering." Meirelles shrugs, "Some of them would look around and would see the camera, so they’d stop. Other people didn’t see the camera so they’d answer."

The best part of this situation is, as Meirelles notes with a large grin, "They weren’t extras. We didn’t have to pay anyone!"

Born in Brazil in 1955, Meirelles has not been making feature films for very long; his first film was 1998’s Menino Maluquinho 2 (The Nutty Boy 2). Prior to that, he kept busy by making hundreds of commercials and directing numerous episodes of Brazilian television shows. He has been working by himself for a much shorter period of time than even this brief history would suggest; The Constant Gardener marks Meirelles’ first project where he is the only director in the credits.

Meirelles burst out onto the world’s film scene in 2002 when he made his film, City of God. Picked up for distribution by Miramax, the film went on to earn extreme critical acclaim for its in-your-face portrayal of the Brazilian slums and Meirelles got a much deserved Academy Award nomination as Best Director.

After the stunning success of City of God, however, Meirelles received scores of press for precisely what he chose not to do: transition north to Hollywood. Meirelles had a multitude of offers directed his way–he came close to working on Collateral, but ultimately turned the opportunity down–but there was nothing that appealed to him. "I read lots of the scripts that I was sent," he states, "but I really didn’t know how to make those stories interesting, you know?"

"I love L.A.," Meirelles says, "I like the relaxed people, but it’s not my culture. I have nothing to add to a film about American culture." This certainly hasn’t stopped the legions of other foreign born directors (or even Michael Bay) from taking the money and attaching their names to the copious amounts of formulaic big-budget productions the studios release and Meirelles is well aware of this. He smiles warmly at the comment and says, "I think I can do more interesting films keeping my distant point of view."

While doing several interviews promoting City of God in 2002 Meirelles mentioned that he’d been offered some studio projects and might accept an offer to helm an $80 million feature in "five years". Now, three years later, he tells me that he can see doing that $80 million feature in "eight years". I mention the timeline discrepancy to him and he pauses for a minute and then says, "I have been invited to do a couple of the really big films, but I’m just not prepared. At some point, probably in eight years, I might try, but doing a career in Hollywood or moving there is definitely not my plan."

Though The Constant Gardener has two big name stars in it, Fiennes and Rachel Weisz, a $25 million budget and a veteran film producer in Simon Channing-Williams, Meirelles in no way considers the project a Hollywood experience.

"Oh no," he says, shaking his head. "When Simon invited me to the film, there was no studio attached, it was just a British independent company that produces Mike Leigh’s films. It was very small. Because of some changes with British law though, Simon lost the money he expected to get so he offered the film to Focus Films and Focus came aboard." Meirelles’ eyes twinkle as he remembers the day he learned that Focus would be financing the project. "I thought, ‘Well, now the Americans are going to try to tell me what to do,’" he laughs. "But the people there were so easy to deal with and so respectful. I mean..." Meirelles voice trails off, thinking back to the situation. He leans forward in his chair and says in a softer tone of voice, still in disbelief, "I mean, of course, they sent notes about the script, but always with the last remark, "This is your film and we’re only trying to help, but it’s your call."

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ALSO IN THIS ISSUE OF STUMPED?
Actor Nick Nolte
Writer/actor Kevin Grevioux
Writer/actor Paul Reiser
Director Fernando Meirelles
Director Morgan Spurlock
Actress Bai Ling
Shrek 2 director Conrad Vernon
The Diary of Hollywood Starlet, Rachael Huntley
Hollywood Then (1985) and Now (2005)
Actress Alison Lohman
Location Scouting in Manhattan

Don't miss writer/director Robert Rodriguez's sumptuous Sin City, writer/director Dan Harris' debut Imaginary Heroes or the rerelease of director Michael Curtiz's epic The Sea Hawk.

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