Francis Ford Coppola and his special effect - Creative Confidence #19
Francis Ford Coppola, the director of blockbusters like The Godfather, uses constraints to his benefits.
He described one low-budget film project that sparked huge creative energy in his production.
During one scene set in Malta, the screenplay called for a right-hand-drive taxi. But Coppola was filming in Romania, where all the available taxis had steering wheels on the left side. In a big-budget movie he’d simply have requested a vintage right-hand-drive taxi and had it flown in from Britain. But someone financing his own movie must be more creative.
Coppola asked the makeup team to part the actors’ hair on the opposite side for that day of shooting. He then asked the props team to make up a taxi top light and a license plate printed backwards. When the cameras rolled, he shot the entire scene and then later simply reversed the image.
Probably, no one noticed his ultra-low-cost "special effect.”
Lesson:
Constraints can spur creativity, as long as you have the confidence to embrace them.
[Creative Confidence Newsletter: 19 of 25]
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