Behind the Scenes of 'The Painted Bird' (Part 2)

Realize. What can you tell us about selecting Vaclav? When Vaclav said that he wanted to do it, I was overjoyed. It was interesting when I first talked to Rob about the film, and we were just kind of shooting the crap, and we were just basically going back and forth about who should direct it. He said, this needs to be shot like a Tarkovsky film, which is. He was a Russian director, very famous in his use of the camera. And if you watch the opening shots of the Painted Bird, it looks exactly like that. And so it was such an obvious fit. And we were so honored when Vaclav said that he wanted to do it. And Painted Bird is, again, just a difficult film to watch watch. It takes on the hardest subjects that humanity has to offer. And so this is like a perfect fit. And the fact that he resonated to the material so strongly, we were flattered by that, honored by that. You know, for me, it was. It was sort of on a personal level, it was quite an experience to put out something that I'd written and watch as legitimate figures. Said, this is really good, right? Because you never know your stuff is good until people who actually are good at this say your stuff is good. And so the fact that it attracted this level of talent and that so many of the people who are in the film, working on the film said that it's the best film they've ever worked on was quite flattering. So we heard you were on set last year. Tell us what that experience was like. I mean, watching the actors work is amazing. I mean. So first of all, I will say that James and Rob's style. I was there when James and Rob were filming one of the earlier scenes, and their kind of varying styles on the set is really funny. So Rob comes out, he's extremely garrulous. Like, between takes, he's chatting about the Dodgers. And then he kind of puts back on his. I'm a drunken Russian literature professor who's suffering. And he just goes back in and just right back into it. James kind of removes himself and I think, immerses himself in the script. There are a couple of times where James asked for sort of clarification on a line because the dialogue is really chewy. There's a lot there to digest. There are a couple of lines where Vaclav and James and I were kind of sitting there saying, okay, should we change the line of dialogue? Should we stick with the original? What does he mean here? What's the point of this line of dialogue? Not every line of dialogue that's written in the script, made it into the final version. Right. The final version is probably another 15 minutes, most of which is taken from that first scene between James and Rob in the first big interrogation scene. But watching the actors work, it's such a pleasure watching professionals do what they do. So, as you guys know. Cause you're my producers. I've always said that I'm a fan of what is colloquially termed competence porn. People who are really, really good at the thing that they do. Watching Rob do his job is just a pleasure. Watching James do his job, V. I mean, it's such a pleasure. I got to watch James do several takes with Rob. A piece of the. The kind of opening interrogation scene. And.