{"id":254,"date":"2015-03-24T23:25:29","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T23:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jamesfranconetwork.net\/?p=254"},"modified":"2015-03-24T23:25:29","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T23:25:29","slug":"james-franco-talks-acting-and-directing-at-atlanta-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/?p=254","title":{"rendered":"James Franco Talks Acting and Directing at Atlanta Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Franco took time away from filming his upcoming screen adaptation of John Steinbeck\u2019s In Dubious Battle to talk with a crowd at The Plaza Theatre in Atlanta earlier this morning. The discussion was part of the Atlanta Film Festival , being held in multiple venues throughout the city from March 20th through 29th.<\/p>\n

Franco shared his view on multiple topics, ranging from his experiences in acting and directing to advice for budding new filmmakers. The following are a few highlights, along with some photos from the event.<\/p>\n

Never Stifle Creativity
\nWith the internet making it extremely easy to reach audiences with platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo, there is nothing that should \u201cstay sitting on the shelf.\u201d He emphasized this importance of getting a final product in front of an audience, saying \u201cI do believe feedback is incredibly important\u2026 That is the final ingredient that will make you better.\u201d He also cautioned that some of that feedback can be harmful. Just read the comments section of nearly any YouTube video and you can understand why. In the context of Franco\u2019s \u201cJack of All Trades\u201d career, including acting, writing, directing, painting \u2013 there\u2019s not much the guy hasn\u2019t dabbled in \u2013 he advised to not listen to critics that try to pigeonhole talent. Promoting creativity was one of the main messages taken away from his discussion.<\/p>\n

Resist Micromanaging
\nUltimately, Franco is able to do so much because he lets the crew do their jobs. Film production is daunting feat, requiring writing, camera work, lighting, acting, sound, editing and more, and all these disciplines must work together to create the vision of the director and\/or producers. He used The Room by Tommy Wiseau as an example, commending Wiseau on his ambition and ability to execute, saying that \u201cHe got it done and he made his movie. But, he was working in a collaborative medium, and not understanding it was a collaborative medium. If he had just asked for a little help\u2026maybe he wouldn\u2019t have had to have shot the whole thing in\u2026the parking lot of the lighting rental place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Place Yourself Among Those You Trust
\nAnother topic that Franco discussed was the necessity of working with people he trusted, which made it easy for him not to micromanage all aspects of production. Along with his usual crew of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, he mentioned a current co-star from In Dubious Battle, Vincent D\u2019Onofrio (of Full Metal Jacket and Law & Order: Criminal Intent fame). Franco said that there was no reason for him to have to explicitly tell D\u2019Onofrio every detail because he trusted him with the character.<\/p>\n

In all, Franco talked for about forty-five minutes to an hour, despite a late night of filming the previous day. The man must run on a gallon of coffee each day, and it was clear the audience was very appreciative for the insights into the film industry which he offered.<\/p>\n

Other events showcasing Franco\u2019s work this week at the festival include The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards (producer), Masculinity\/Femininity (actor), and I am Michael (actor).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Franco took time away from filming his upcoming screen adaptation of John Steinbeck\u2019s In Dubious Battle to talk with a crowd at The Plaza Theatre in Atlanta earlier this morning. The discussion was part of the Atlanta Film Festival , being held in multiple venues throughout the city from March 20th through 29th. Franco […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}