Atom Egoyan Plenary Session

Atom Egoyan Plenary....

• requisit story of going to the lib as a kid...

• talked about ego...thinks people should be interested in him

• early feeling about getting others involved in / excited about your personal plan / work (as a son of immigrant parents...learning English...getting your point across)

• reading speech from notes...not doing the Toast page slide!

• Need to communicate a vision of what's possible

• “dream collaborators”...get some!!! Well, I do have some...need to cultivate / recognize / nurture

• everyone “performs” ...all the world's a stage...hence we like to watch drama (and read...) ...tell us about life by showing us how we might act

• we like drama when it shows us something about ourselves!

• We need to find a way to present ourselves by performing oursleves...hmmm

• you need to find others to be in your performance

• key to collaboration: defining roles of “leadership” and “followers” (who are confident in the leader)...divions of labour: strategic, operational and tactical (similar to the three ideas George and Joan talked about: vision/technique/outcome...) interesting...

• people need to understand their role and those of others

• movies started as moving theatre...then developed their own intrinsic artistry

• movies were easy to share / ship (compared to a play going on tour) -- “industiralization”

• movie studios dominated / movies became vanilla...no independent spirit

• 1960s indpendnet...1970s National Film Board...more individual style and motifs

• recognized need for collaboration when he started to make his first films...wanted to create his own style / look and needed help

• got early grants from Canada Council / Arts Council etc

• had to write screenplays to inspire people to work with him (for little or no money)

• wants his films to explore the complexity of the human condition

• “I am human...nothing human is strange to me” (look up refernce!)

• a movie all begins with the script

• best screenplays collect random characters, and bring them together in a satisfying dramatic whole...purpose = to learn something about ourselves...b/c humans are curious / connected etc.