An Interview with Director, Mark David

Roger Crow chats with acclaimed writer, cinematographer and director Mark David about his career, and helming one of Michael Madsen’s last films, Mr Wonderful, which is coming soon to Amazon Prime.

A few years ago, a friend asked me, “What does a Director of Photography actually do?” Can you explain?
So a Director of Photography helps the Director of the film find the way they want to visually tell their story. I’m responsible for helping the Director pick the shots; figure out how we’re going to dictate the tone of the film, whether it changes or not throughout. And my number one job after helping the Director figure out the visual storytelling is to light the scenes and the sets to represent the tone of the story. And then figure out the camera movements and lenses and exposure and everything that has to do with the overall look of the film in combination with the production designer.

What was Michael Madsen like to work with on your new movie, Mr Wonderful?
Michael Madsen was a bit of an icon, and he was a really sweet guy in person. I had the opportunity to work with him a couple of times before we did Mr. Wonderful, and he was great. I only have positive things to say about the guy. I could tell he was anxious to do something ground breaking and creative. He had been pigeonholed in the recent years in action movies and some B-movies, and then he hadn’t done a Tarantino project in a while. So that’s why I came to him with Mr. Wonderful, because it was something he hadn’t done before. You know, play a college professor. He wasn’t the bad guy, he wasn’t the bad ass, he was a normal guy going through a normal problem.”

Mark David on the set of Mr. Wonderful with actor Michael Madsen

What would you say is the most important thing about your job?
Well, I think when I’m a director, because I also work a lot as a DP, the most important thing is maintaining, I know this sounds strange, but sort of the quality control of the whole project. You have to fight the producers on the budget, and what you can squeeze out of your budget. You have to fight for the best of everything to be able to tell your story, the way it needs to be told. And then once you fight and lobby for all of these elements that you need to make it right.”

So what’s next in the pipeline?
I’ve got my hands on a lot of things. I work as a Director of Photography a lot, and I have about six movies lined up this year that I’m going to photograph that I’m very excited about. One’s called Demon Code, and we’re doing that in New Mexico, and I’m really, really excited about that. As a director, I have been trying to launch a project for a long time called The Gift Horse that I’m going to try to make before the end of the year. I wrote it a long time ago. I had some big names attached for a little while, but I have a bunch of movies coming out at the same time as Mr. Wonderful, a movie called Sunlight, that was actually Tom Sizemore’s last feature. It stars Bobby Lane and who plays Danny in Mr. Wonderful, and a movie called Year of the Rooster stars Robert Miano, also from Mr. Wonderful. So those three movies are going to come out around the same time, Year of the Rooster, Sunlight and of course, Mr. Wonderful. So it’s a big year for releases for me, and I shot a movie called Playa Los Muertos in Mexico, and we only got halfway through it because we ran out of money. But I am going to raise the money and finish it this year here in LA. And I’m really excited about that one.”

The full version of this interview can be found at podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/nostalgiahhh

Roger Crow( Writer )

Adopted Yorkshireman Roger Crow developed a passion for film and TV in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been a published film and TV reviewer since the 1990s; a world travel and restaurant critic since the noughties, and for the past decade has assessed the pros and cons of live gigs and theatre productions around the UK. His ideal day would involve reviewing a performance of Bat Out of Hell, followed by a Pad Thai while being serenaded by Texas on a cruise around Europe.
crowsfeat.com; nostalgiahhh film podcast

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