A few months ago I was fortunate enough to be able to speak with Chris Sadler, who has worked on such films as Black Panther, Spider-Man, and Midnight Special as a production assistant or assistant director.
Henry (me): How did you get interested in movies and filmmaking? Chris: I always loved watching movies with my dad. And I grew up in Florida, so there was always a lot of time on my hands. I used a lot of that time for watching movies, especially things like Star Wars, which I was a big fan of. When I was little I played with action figures, and I loved making stories with the action figures, where one would be a hero and the other would be a villain. In college I took film criticism, creative writing, and photography, and all of those things are related in some way to film. I started to learn film mechanics, and eventually I became assistant director on some projects, where I would handle the cars or extras of the movie.
Henry: What's your advice for some young filmmakers out there? Chris: Read a lot of books and watch a lot of movies. I think that some of the best things you can do if you want to get into film is to just read a lot, and of course, watch a lot of movies to see how they work. It also wouldn't hurt to just read about movies, and learn more about them that way.
Henry: What is your favorite movie that you've worked on? Chris: I really enjoyed working on the Spider-Man movies, especially Spider-Man 2. I really bonded with Sam Raimi, which made the whole experience better. Another movie that I loved working on was Midnight Special, which I did recently.
Henry: Do you have a favorite movie? Chris: That's hard to decide. Some movies I like because of how good they are, and some movies I like because of the experience I had watching them, like when my mom took me and my best friend to see Return of the Jedi in theaters. That was just a great time. I also saw Die Hard with my dad a few years later, and that's another one of those 'experience' movies. But if I had to choose an all-time favorite, I would go with Raiders of the Lost Ark. You really can't take anything away from that movie.
Henry: How would someone who wanted to get into film make their way into the business?
Chris: How I do it is I just kind of get myself into the movies. I got myself into Spider-Man, partly because I just really wanted to work on a movie like that. I also got into Avengers 3 and 4. So, I guess, just get into the movies you want to work on.
Henry: What has been your favorite scene from a movie to film? Chris: One scene from Black Panther, which is a car chase in a street, was amazing to film. The stunt drivers were excellent, and they had been drivers for John Wick and The Fast and the Furious movies, so they were really good at their jobs. Filming the car chases in live roads was very wild. And there was a huge staff, so that was really cool. And Black Panther was on top of the car and everything, so...
Henry: What are some steps towards producing movies? Chris: You really have to buy options on things you like. If you like science fiction, then you have to buy scripts with that genre. Then you produce it. If you're writing a script, then you should write your own vision for things. Then you get stuff like funding, and a studio.
Henry: What are some tips of making a good film? Chris: To make a good movie, budget is a really big part of it. If you have a big budget, then you have to manage all of that money wisely. If the budget is smaller, then you might have to make sacrifices on what you can do, but make sure it doesn't end up truly making the movie worse. If you have a job for five people, then challenge the crew. Make three people do the job for five people. Another key for movie success is finding the right cast. It has to have good editing. If there are too many weird scenes and mess-ups in the film, then it doesn't come out as good.
I just want to thank Chris for his time, and I hope you all enjoyed this interview.
