The Rule Nicolas Winding Refn Follows to Take Controlled Risks for His Films

Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn, whose provocative-chic personality delights the media, often make people forget that Refn is a true indie who made his career by breaking rules and taking massive risks -including living in a high level of debts to make films and under the massive pressure this choice brings along, solely based on the fact that things will get better. (see the documentary Gambler for more on that period of his life)

In an interview during the Cannes Film Festival 2016, where Winding Refn was screening his latest feature, The Neon Demon, the filmmaker gave an interview to Deadline published in the magazine’s daily for Cannes about how he has been taking controlled risks, based on what money can give him and will ask from him:

“I always as a firm rule make my movies based on how inexpensively I can make them because that means the more freedom I’m going to have. There’s a certain budget range now that I can manoeuvre around knowing that I’ll have complete autonomy.

If I go above a certain level, I have to deliver specific things like a cast to create security.

If it goes beyond that, I have to look on censorship and if it goes beyond that, I have to start looking on how do I make this appealing to as many people as possible?

So it’s just a normal equation of where you want to be and I tend to really love being at the early stage and then everything is just upside because at least I can go to my grave saying, “Well, I did it the way I did it.”

I always approach every film I made as if it was going to be the last. So if I’m going to go out, I’m going out with a bang.”

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There is so many things I love in this seemingly short answer. I recently had a conversation with a filmmaker who was offered a ultra-low budget to make a feature about “Is it worth it?” vs. “How to make it worth it?“.

It’s not about how much you need, it’s about finding what stories you can tell with what you can get, be realistic about it, and try to make it the most interesting version of the story you have in you, putting it all on the table as if it was the only movie you were going to make.

Hopefully you have more than one thing to say, and those topics can cover different budgets.