You can order Simone's book, The Director's Six Senses, from Michael Wiese Productions here.
Dave Watson: Cinema is multi-sensory, yet no one I've seen has put it together like this book. How did it come about?
Simone Bartesaghi: The origin is actually in two different stories. One is me as a student. I started studying professional filmmaking very late, when I was 31, and I was always asking myself: why are some directors better then others, what makes a good director. All the books I was reading were about technical stuff but I wanted to know more. After becoming a director and meeting many amazing directors I realized that there is something different: it’s the way we observe life. I was interested in how you navigate this path from being a civilian to a director and become insightful on how to see the world. It came from an inspiration on life. As audience we want to connect with the characters on the screen because, in one way or another, they are us. As directors, we are storytellers, and our main goal is make sure that we explores characters and stories that the audience can connect to.
Then, when I started teaching, I realized that there was a missing element: nobody was talking about how to train yourself to look, perceive the world in a different way. I started writing down notes for my classes and I realized that we were always using references to the senses. Not only sight and hearing, but also smell, a performance that stinks for example, taste, the feeling at the end of a movie, touch, the real world that actors can interact with when they are on set, and of course the classic inspiration, the director’s six sense: the vision. This is how I came up with the idea that we can train ourselves and our senses in pay attention to things that will help us being a better director, a better storyteller when we are on set.
DW: Which of the six senses struck you first, probably growing up, about cinema?
SB: For me it was always a visual medium, although I’ve always been aware of the power of sound, too.
DW: What movie put the two together?
SB: The first movie I remember was in the summer of 1978. It was Star Wars, which came out in Italy a year after it did in the States. I remember the opening and the image of the spaceships, but I also remember vividly the sound. The theater was shaking. It was my first experience of a movie in a theater and it was breathtaking.
DW: It grabbed you right away. In your chapter "Putting everything together," you cover the camera aspect with focus, lens, focal point, and so on. You use The Matrix and Seven as examples. Have filmmakers become more creative with this recently in, say, the last twenty years?
I think that film history is definitely divided in more experimental periods and then more conservative ones. There is a 1925 version of Ben Hur shot in Rome with camera position, movement, a handheld camera and editing that are as modern as they can be. The camera is moving at an incredible rate. At that time, before the introduction of sound, the camera movements, angles, styles were very intense and the filmmakers were experimenting a lot. With the introduction of sound the camera was forced into a box because of the noise. This started a time when film was experimental. Then a more conservative era came in with a static camera. Then after the second world war in Italy with the Neo-Realism and later in France with the Nouvelle Vague It wasn’t until the ‘70s that the camera was free again. It depends by the time, by the filmmakers and by the technology. It’s definitely interesting to notice that the famous bullet time shots used in The Matrix that someone called revolutionary, are actually based on old fashioned still photography. In the ‘80s the camera was static and still, then in the ‘90s it was free again. But if you look at The Matrix, there are still shots and frames.
DW: With the action happening around the camera. “Touch” is the title of a section of your book. Is this hard to communicate in film?
SB: “Touch” is referred as the sense for the Production Design. It’s used as an element that must be considered and explored carefully because it’s one of the most difficult senses to replicate on the screen. On one side there are the objects and the environments that we normally interact with. But on the other side there is the difficulty to show and makes the audience feel what happens when characters interact or touch each other or a fabric or a material.
Now with touch, this goes with the world we use day by day. We see and feel everyday things, when we go into a Starbucks, how we dress. In film we’re developing the world of a character. Touch is one of the most exciting elements because through this world we communicate a lot, as when two characters touch hands, or skin. When our skin touches someone else’s we react, and we feel them and it is so unique. Right now it’s the hardest sense to communicate, but it’s also the most exciting.
DW: What is your dream job in the film industry, if you could do anything?
SB: I truly love what I’m doing now. In some way everything came back full circle for me. I have a MBA and I used to be a consultant in Business and Organization. One of my earliest job was to teach HTML when I was still in college. Today I’m a adjunct professor at the Santa Monica College, not much different then consulting, I’m a produced screenwriter and award winning Director. And just recently Michael Wiese Production, published this book I wrote on directing “The Director’s Six Senses”. I couldn’t be more excited. If there is something I would change would be the gap between projects. I’d love to direct a movie per year.
DW: What is your favorite cinematic moment?
SB: There’s one scene that I always use at the end of my opening class (es) at SMC. It’s the scene in Dead Poets Society when the teacher, Mr. Keating played by Robin Williams, is talking about poetry. The scene describes why humans write poetry. The scene ends with Keating quoting Walt Whitman saying: “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse”. Then he asks the students how they are going to contribute to this play that we call life. “What will your verse be”. When the kids are asked to write poetry, he asks, “How would it contribute to life?” I think of that when I make a movie. Why would I tell this story?
DW: Bernardo Bertolucci, from your homeland, started out as a poet.
SB: Yes. For me, it’s a concise scene representing cinema and poetry and artistic expression. Then, with film, you combine the technical elements, find your verse and your honesty with character. It’s very universal.
DW: That movie was also made by a foreigner, Peter Weir, and often I find foreign directors will see our country more clearly than natives. Does that happen to you when you got back to Italy?
SB: Yes, I appreciate Italy more now. I think that an external point of view on any subject matter can brings unexpected, insightful ideas. As a writer, you know, people say you should write what you know, and I say write what you’re curious about.
DW: That leads to adventure to the unknown, which is what cinema is, another world.
Clip: Dead Poets Society
Dave Watson is a writer and educator. He lives in Madison, WI.
Dave Watson: Cinema is multi-sensory, yet no one I've seen has put it together like this book. How did it come about?
Simone Bartesaghi: The origin is actually in two different stories. One is me as a student. I started studying professional filmmaking very late, when I was 31, and I was always asking myself: why are some directors better then others, what makes a good director. All the books I was reading were about technical stuff but I wanted to know more. After becoming a director and meeting many amazing directors I realized that there is something different: it’s the way we observe life. I was interested in how you navigate this path from being a civilian to a director and become insightful on how to see the world. It came from an inspiration on life. As audience we want to connect with the characters on the screen because, in one way or another, they are us. As directors, we are storytellers, and our main goal is make sure that we explores characters and stories that the audience can connect to.
Then, when I started teaching, I realized that there was a missing element: nobody was talking about how to train yourself to look, perceive the world in a different way. I started writing down notes for my classes and I realized that we were always using references to the senses. Not only sight and hearing, but also smell, a performance that stinks for example, taste, the feeling at the end of a movie, touch, the real world that actors can interact with when they are on set, and of course the classic inspiration, the director’s six sense: the vision. This is how I came up with the idea that we can train ourselves and our senses in pay attention to things that will help us being a better director, a better storyteller when we are on set.
DW: Which of the six senses struck you first, probably growing up, about cinema?
SB: For me it was always a visual medium, although I’ve always been aware of the power of sound, too.
DW: What movie put the two together?
SB: The first movie I remember was in the summer of 1978. It was Star Wars, which came out in Italy a year after it did in the States. I remember the opening and the image of the spaceships, but I also remember vividly the sound. The theater was shaking. It was my first experience of a movie in a theater and it was breathtaking.
DW: It grabbed you right away. In your chapter "Putting everything together," you cover the camera aspect with focus, lens, focal point, and so on. You use The Matrix and Seven as examples. Have filmmakers become more creative with this recently in, say, the last twenty years?
I think that film history is definitely divided in more experimental periods and then more conservative ones. There is a 1925 version of Ben Hur shot in Rome with camera position, movement, a handheld camera and editing that are as modern as they can be. The camera is moving at an incredible rate. At that time, before the introduction of sound, the camera movements, angles, styles were very intense and the filmmakers were experimenting a lot. With the introduction of sound the camera was forced into a box because of the noise. This started a time when film was experimental. Then a more conservative era came in with a static camera. Then after the second world war in Italy with the Neo-Realism and later in France with the Nouvelle Vague It wasn’t until the ‘70s that the camera was free again. It depends by the time, by the filmmakers and by the technology. It’s definitely interesting to notice that the famous bullet time shots used in The Matrix that someone called revolutionary, are actually based on old fashioned still photography. In the ‘80s the camera was static and still, then in the ‘90s it was free again. But if you look at The Matrix, there are still shots and frames.
DW: With the action happening around the camera. “Touch” is the title of a section of your book. Is this hard to communicate in film?
SB: “Touch” is referred as the sense for the Production Design. It’s used as an element that must be considered and explored carefully because it’s one of the most difficult senses to replicate on the screen. On one side there are the objects and the environments that we normally interact with. But on the other side there is the difficulty to show and makes the audience feel what happens when characters interact or touch each other or a fabric or a material.
Now with touch, this goes with the world we use day by day. We see and feel everyday things, when we go into a Starbucks, how we dress. In film we’re developing the world of a character. Touch is one of the most exciting elements because through this world we communicate a lot, as when two characters touch hands, or skin. When our skin touches someone else’s we react, and we feel them and it is so unique. Right now it’s the hardest sense to communicate, but it’s also the most exciting.
DW: What is your dream job in the film industry, if you could do anything?
SB: I truly love what I’m doing now. In some way everything came back full circle for me. I have a MBA and I used to be a consultant in Business and Organization. One of my earliest job was to teach HTML when I was still in college. Today I’m a adjunct professor at the Santa Monica College, not much different then consulting, I’m a produced screenwriter and award winning Director. And just recently Michael Wiese Production, published this book I wrote on directing “The Director’s Six Senses”. I couldn’t be more excited. If there is something I would change would be the gap between projects. I’d love to direct a movie per year.
DW: What is your favorite cinematic moment?
SB: There’s one scene that I always use at the end of my opening class (es) at SMC. It’s the scene in Dead Poets Society when the teacher, Mr. Keating played by Robin Williams, is talking about poetry. The scene describes why humans write poetry. The scene ends with Keating quoting Walt Whitman saying: “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse”. Then he asks the students how they are going to contribute to this play that we call life. “What will your verse be”. When the kids are asked to write poetry, he asks, “How would it contribute to life?” I think of that when I make a movie. Why would I tell this story?
DW: Bernardo Bertolucci, from your homeland, started out as a poet.
SB: Yes. For me, it’s a concise scene representing cinema and poetry and artistic expression. Then, with film, you combine the technical elements, find your verse and your honesty with character. It’s very universal.
DW: That movie was also made by a foreigner, Peter Weir, and often I find foreign directors will see our country more clearly than natives. Does that happen to you when you got back to Italy?
SB: Yes, I appreciate Italy more now. I think that an external point of view on any subject matter can brings unexpected, insightful ideas. As a writer, you know, people say you should write what you know, and I say write what you’re curious about.
DW: That leads to adventure to the unknown, which is what cinema is, another world.
Clip: Dead Poets Society
Dave Watson is a writer and educator. He lives in Madison, WI.
