David Cronenberg and Piers Handling in conversation at OCADU, Photo By Joanna Katchuta
A few weeks ago I wrote an editorial for Fresh Print Magazine about the David Cronenberg Exhibition at Tiff Bell Lightbox. In the fall of 2013 the launch of the David Cronenberg exhibition at Tiff started a relationship between OCAD U and TIFF’s Higher Learning Digital Resource Hub, York University and Sheridan College. Caroline Langill, Natalie Waldburger, and a team of OCAD U students contributed essays, interactive maps, lesson plans and 3D images to create the David Cronenberg: Virtual Exhibition. This project will soon be available online for the public to enjoy. Due to the high interest of the students involved in this project, it was organized for David Cronenberg and Piers Handling (Director and Chief Executive Officer of TIFF) to visit OCAD U for a free talk open to students and alumni. Dr. Sara Diamond, OCAD U’s President, commented “OCAD U was honoured to host one of the world’s most imaginative filmmakers in conversation with one of the world’s best known curatorial and administrative leaders in film. This was a wonderful opportunity for the OCAD U community to learn about cinema, technology, design and the creative process from two film masters and we look forward to their unique industry perspectives, artistic ideologies and visions for the future”.
Robert Enright and OCADU President Sara Diamond, Photo by Joanna Katchutas
I was very excited to be in attendance for the President’s Speaker Series talk at OCADU entitled “A Conversation Between Piers Handling and David Cronenberg” held on Tuesday January 21st 2014. The event ran out of seats within thirty minutes of handing out the wristbands. It was a packed house of students, alumni and media filling the auditorium. People were even lined up all the way out into the hallways in anticipation of just listening to the spaekers. Peirs Handling questioned David Cronenberg about many aspects of what built his success in the film industry. They mainly spoke about the early days that led up to Cronenberg’s success, prominent themes occurring in his work, his artistic process and what advice Cronenberg had to offer to the students of OCADU. I’d like to share with you some of what I learned about Cronenberg’s techniques that led to his stardom.
In Cronenberg’s early days as a filmmaker, like many aspiring young artists and students, he used his own money and the actors and crew in these underground films were his friends. Although he was under no commercial pressure at the time, Cronenberg decided to feel confident enough in himself as a director to take the chance and make these early films feature length (over 60 minutes). He did this so he and his peers could enter these underground films into film festivals. Cronenberg was not using great equipment at the time. The only camera available to him would shoot at 24 frames per second. Another big issue with his equipment was that the sound quality was terrible. Cronenberg decided that the structures of these early films should be focused to his budget limitations. Putting a positive spin on budget restraints, Cronenberg worked on researching ways to focus on all of the positive attributes of his scripts. One of the ways he did this was by making these early films silent. He strived to focus on creating high quality, visually stimulating stories. Cronenberg put the emphasis on the cinematography, thus improving the quality of his films. He researched ways to make his films more original. He worked hard to find unique, very new and still uninhabited places to shoot that really contributed to the tone of his scripts. Cronenberg believed that focusing on good cinematography and placing emphasis on bone structure in peoples faces and architecture were the major components to the success of building his early portfolio. This worked for Cronenberg as one of his scripts was eventually noticed in Montreal. A film company offered to buy this script but Cronenberg insisted that he would not sell his work. He claimed that if they wanted to fund the film, he came along with it– that he would have to be the film’s director. His self-confidence is what quickly started him on his way to stardom as from there he was set to direct his first commercial film, Shivers. Although this was a low budget film, it ended up being quite successful. At the time, no one filmed movies like Cronenberg! His style was new, exciting and visually unique.
Piers Handling, Photo by Joanna Katchutas
During the President’s Speaker Series talk, Piers Handling described Cronenberg’s filmmaking as masterful, claiming Cronenberg has the talent and capability to take a dream world and rip it to pieces. What I have come to learn is Cronenberg is so successful because he refuses to sway his style to suit the norm. His success has been based on his confidence to go outside of the box and do something unique, something no one has ever done or seen before. His movie themes have been based around things that he likes and is interested in. Cronenberg is selective with who he chooses to work with and his crew are the best at what they do. No detail is left unnoticed in his films. From his sets to the costumes, every detail is perfect and built from scratch to fit that part in the script. For almost fifty years, David Cronenberg has been a global inspiration to artists and filmmakers. I think I speak for everyone in attendance when I say, having had the opportunity to attend the President’s Speaker Series talk conversation between Piers Handling and David Cronenberg was a privilege. I left feeling much more confident in myself and my work because of what I learned and I think that was the main point of their discussion.
