OTHER TECH

Can you see yourself shooting a whole movie on a camcorder like David Lynch just did? Yes, if I was down to it. If the impulse to make a film at any price, at any cost, is upon you, you've got to do it.

So it would be more of a budgetary than an aesthetic decision for you. Probably, yes, because what am I going to shoot - my navel, my friends, my daughter, my son? If I'm going to tell an autobiographical story, there's a price to pay. And you can be very imaginative and create a masterpiece, no doubt. But why do it the hardest way? I mean, it's already hard enough to do it the other way.

So, you'd rather have the perspective that comes with having somebody else photograph it. You don't want to be the technician. I've been the technician. We used to do that at NYU when we started. It's not a bad way to end, you know; I could do it. But I love to have people working with me because you have distance, objectivity. Also, everyone in those departments on a film is a weapon, a powerful piece of artillery. These are very highly skilled people, and they really can deliver you good stuff if you use them well, if you aim them correctly. They're arrows. Think of it as, are you going to invade Persia with a one-man camera or are you going to take as many good people with you as you can? It's up to you. There are many voyagers who discovered new countries who traveled alone. Skylax was one of them, back in the 6th century. He was a Greek sailor - sort of like a Ulysses. Everything's permissible in the name of good work, I suppose.

Is it just wishful thinking to say that movie theaters will never go away? The shitty ones will fold over time, but the good theaters will stay because I think people do want to congregate. They said radio and movies would disappear when TV came along.