by Jared Logan, Auteur

Let’s get one thing straight.

I am, first and foremost, a filmmaker.  Because I’m a filmmaker, people often ask me, “Jared, how would you describe your directing style?” and then I have to ask “For theater or film?” and if they say “Film,” then I say “I am the Jim Jarmusch of werewolf movies.”

But that’s not quite right.  That’s not exactly it.  That’s just an easy answer.  My directing style is sort of East meets West meets, you know, North.  I’m really influenced by western filmmakers,but also eastern filmmakers like Akiro Kurasabi, The Chong Brothers, and Jackie Chan.  But then I also love Northern filmmakers like Bjorn Svensonborg, Santa Claus, and that polar bear from the coca-cola commercials.  Is he a filmmaker?

But it’s not just geography.  How would I describe my directing style?  Harsh.  Unyielding.  Then yielding, just a little bit.  But then totally unyielding right after that, so you’re really left going “what the fuck, I thought this guy was yielding! Is he going to be unyielding now? what the fuck is up with that?”  Also, my films are claustrophobic, frantic, and intensely sexual.

My films are stark, but they’re also fun.  Stark and fun.  I like to say that that makes them stunning.  But it seems to embarrass people when I say that, so I’ve stopped.

My directing style is to treat film as if it were paint, and then spread it onto a situation, or a subject, using the camera as my brush and actors as my canvas and locations as my painting studio that I paint in.  And sound is my orange paint. Does that make sense to you?  Do you understand?

Let me make it simpler.  Good.  That’s my directing style.  Just one word. “Good.”

Ah! But it’s more complex than that.  Let me see if I can articulate its complexity in a simple way…

My directing style is really just the next step in the evolution of film.  Think of my directing style as “more evolved than you.”  If my directing style were a person, it would be a woman from the future with a very large bald skull who wears white flowing robes and helps run a utopian society where all are equal but must face death if they break any of the Three Laws of Unity.

This is when I direct film, mind you.  My theater direction is totally different.

I wrap wheels of meaning around cylinders of story filled with sex and then I put that in a box of relevancy.  And then I add werewolves.

I play with light.  Light is something I’m comfortable manipulating.  I can manipulate light as if it were play-doh.  I like to take light and then put it through a little plastic machine that makes a bunch of long squiggly strands of light and then put that on a little doll’s head so he has light hair. 

Influences? Well, other than the ones I’ve mentioned already (it’s so hard to talk about my directing style without name dropping!) I’d have to say my major influences are Frank Capra, Tony Scott and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

My directing style is like a punch in the mouth that makes you realize you don’t love your wife.

I’m so glad we’ve had this time together to discuss my directing style.  I hope you have a clearer picture of what it is that I’m trying to do with my films.  Hopefully, when my first film is finished next month, this will all make much more sense.  Until then, godspeed! And happy cinema-patronage to you all!

05/10/2006
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