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Q and A with "Lady Bird" film director Greta Gerwig

12/16/17--Woman and Hollywood film critic Melissa Silverstein talked to Lady Bird director Gretta Gerwig after a screening of the film.

Melissa Silverstein, Women and Hollywood

Transcript of beginning of Q&A

I tend to overwrite. That's what I do. I've noticed that about myself in other projects that I've written and co-written. And I think that I do that because I'm interested in moments of drama and co-drama that clearly present themselves as well as drama and several in between..I feel like you have to write into those and the other reason is that even though cinema is a visual medium, it is also a medium of words and I think you have a limited space so you try to make those words have as much impact as something like poetry you're really trying to distill an emotion and distill details. It was a lot of reading and re-reading and realizing that I had done

Q. And how long did it take for you to get from the beginning process to when you started shooting?

A. Uh. I think that it took me a little more than a solid year to get the 350 page draft out and then, about a year after that to get the draft down to 120. And then, right after that, I started raising money and uhm

Q. Talk about that process.

A. It's difficult for any filmmaker, an independent filmmaker, especially on your first film. Because you have absolutely no track record. I mean I was lucky in that I had been working in the film industry for ten years. I knew a lot of people and I also had writing and co-writing credits and I had producer credits and directing credits, but it's still a leap of faith no matter what and um, and these women fill the room. These women, beautiful women, …...It's difficult frankly when you have a women-centric story. Barrier to understanding it when you are going out because most of the people who finance films tend to be men.