When the initial little impulse comes it just tends to come. I wake up in the middle of the night, or I'll be swimming in the pool with my kids and just think, "Can't forget that one." Then there's the more organized side of the brain, which is when I choose to work on them. I've learned through a bunch of mentors how to demarcate the different times for your writing process. I keep multiple projects going at once and there's a time when no matter what you're doing, you have to stop and write it because it's coming.
Mark DuplassEveryone is having this experience right now, where your friend comes over and says, "Have you seen this?" And you're like, "No! Get off my back!" I can't watch everything, it's impossible. We have young kids, and we stay home on Friday nights, sometimes, you only have 23 minutes to watch something. This is that thing.
Mark DuplassWe always joke now like, you know, the more experienced we get making stuff, we're like, "Never leave set without a shot of each of our lead characters driving in the car looking happy, looking moderately blank and looking sad." Because we know we're going to need these things.
Mark DuplassFor us, performance is everything. If we can get great actors in there who like us, and we really like, we feel pretty confident that we can make a movie work.
Mark DuplassJay [Duplass] and I normally just sit around and people watch, and we talk about things that are happening in our lives, or with people that we've met. That's the soup from which our movies usually come from.
Mark DuplassA lot of solo directors have a really strong creative producer with them. Jay and I have less of a need for that because we have each other.
Mark DuplassI'm pretty unfussy when it comes to what a TV show should be, or what a movie should be. A lot of people are trying to maintain the theatrical experience for films. That's not really who we are or what we're about. We come from this fundamental understanding that we're just blessed that someone is giving us any money to make something in this town.
Mark Duplass