And you can really hold yourself back from even putting it out there.

I think that's, uh, that's true.

You know, y- I, me- I've written 50 drafts of things, and thank God for, you know, saving everything you write because you sort of look back at the first thing and you realize you had it right the first time just because it, it sort of vomited out of you or something like that.

But the other thing is, that I've found is, um, you know, unfortunately, sometimes you can write something 50 times and you can make it better.

Yeah.

Yeah, you, you made me feel...

Whoo.

I gotta tell you.

[chuckles]

...

the movie doesn't even work without it.

It's the whole point of why we're here." And maybe you reshoot it, and you keep trying, and there's a thing banging in the back of the head, goes, "Pay attention.

This" ...

It doesn't work because it doesn't work, and it, there's a, it, there's, there's generally a reason for that.

It's like why good scenes usually take, uh, maybe the morning, [chuckles] you know? And they, or they just happen, and you go, "Well, okay, what's next?" Um, so but micro adjustments from time to time or somebody, you know...

[laughing]

Mm.

-who had made a few different documentaries.

A lot of our, our, our, uh, military fellows are, are ex-Rangers who were in Afghanistan with Matthew Heineman at the fall of Afghanistan, when the, the US pulled out, and he had connections to them, and he gave them to me and Cassandra.

And, and, and, you know, to work with military guys, I have to say, it's one of the great privileges of my life, because they are so attentive, aware, helpful, uh, they're, they're kind, and they will, they will, they will not, um, they will not do it how they're supposed to do it.

[chuckles] And which is what you hope for, you know? They- y- you might ask them to do something that maybe you've seen in the movies before, and they'll look at you, and they'll respectfully decline if they want to be honest, you know? [laugh]

He's, he's ready to go, um, which is exciting.

exciting....

so in terms of rehearsing on the day, yeah, of course, you have to kind of map out what the blocking is and where everybody's gonna go, but you kind of, I don't know, I get the feeling of wanting to not- y- you know, you wanna kind of start shooting before you really have, have it totally figured out, you know? It's, it's, it's like when it's 50% figured out, "Wait, let's just start," you know? "Let's just start.

So my question to you is, how much of that are you aware of show business, in fact? Or are you kind of in your bubble of making the films that you make?

No, um, I do and then I don't.

I slip in and out of it because I love...

Part of loving, um, movies as much as I do, the history of movies and my, you know, my obsession with this work, which has been with me forever and will- is what I've made of my life, um, it- it does involve being fascinated with the m- the way that it moves, you know.

Um, like we were talking about before with Singin' in the Rain, you know, that's a fantastic story the way that ev- what happened to the movie business when it changed from talkies to...

So I constantly try to keep an eye on that or try to understand it or have enough friends in this business so- from over the years that I can call up and ask, you know, "What does this mean? What's, what does this mean when this film is doing well?" Or, "What do you, what is, what is gonna happen here? What, what tides do you see turning?" And it's nice to gauge that stuff.

I, I, I love this business and I love, I love movies so much that I have a real interest in seeing it survive.

(instrumental music plays)