In this interview, director Joe Carnahan discusses his experiences and beliefs on creative control. The main point he makes is that while it’s extremely important to stick to your guns and stand up for what you want as a director, and try not to compromise your vision, it is still important to listen to the advice of the creative people you are collaborating with; for example, the editor.

This is a point that I’m finding is continually raised when the concept of creative control is raised. While this is important for a film, I’m not so sure that it applies so much to my research practice in creating a scene. In fact, in order to test my theories, there should be no collaboration between myself and my screenwriting friend, or Amy and I.

A lot of the research I am finding in this area focuses more on studio VS independent films, and I’m more interested in hearing from writer-directors to understand how they work and how their vision may or may not change during that process.