Francis Ford Coppola on Live Cinema: ‘I dont know what Im doing yet’

Godfather trilogy director discusses his latest project, which will see him combine TV and film, during the Tribeca film festival

I have no idea what were going to talk about, Francis Ford Coppola said with a smile as he sat for a midday chat during the 15th annual Tribeca film festival. Spontaneity, as wed learn, is very much the current philosophy for the man behind The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now.

The legendary director, writer, producer, winemaker and innovator spoke on a number of topics for an hour. Although the 77-year-olds discursive manner may have been as knotty as the vines that grow his celebrated grapes, it remained clear that this was a man whose passion and dedication to pushing boundaries show no sign of slowing up.

The director lit up when trying to explain his new project during the talk moderated by author and wine columnist Jay McInerney. Coppola says it will keep him occupied into his 80s.

Distant Vision is, in its current form, a 500-page cycle of plays that Coppola compared to Eugene ONeill and Thomas Manns Buddenbrooks. It is a multigenerational tale about an Italian family similar to his own and its relationship to what he considers the most important innovation of his lifetime: television.

Apocalypse Now was a movie about madness but it also was madness. Its always great when the project is also the thing that its about. To that end, Coppola is inventing a new medium, which he calls Live Cinema.

Television is about an event, cinema is about the shot, and the juxtaposition of two shots to create a new idea. Live Television is the broadcast of an event: a baseball game or an opera, a musical like the recent Peter Pan or Grease. Live Cinema, he continued, will have the nuance, lighting and montage of cuts and curation of closeups that we expect with movies, but, somehow, live. People will come to a theater like this one to watch us put on the show and then months later they can come back for the next chapter.

So its basically a filmed play, McInerney said, in an attempt to explain to the crowd, before being cut off. No! Its not, its not at all! Coppola then discussed how television broadcasts of baseball games manipulate time on the fly to present images that feel seamless, like a hitter in the dugout, but are actually not linear. He also got a bit technical about the style in live broadcasts such as Peter Pan, in which cameras, afraid to get other cameras in their shot, shoot with long lenses, which necessitates a flood of flat lighting. Coppola plans to work around that although, he freely admits, he doesnt yet know how.

When I made Apocalypse Now I had no idea how Id do it, but I told people I could do it and then I did it. Coppola said to applause, before admitting that during that production he was so, so scared.

Coppola isnt new to attempts at radicalizing the film-making process. In 1981 he shot One From The Heart entirely on soundstages, and cut the movie live with a complex electronic editing system. He essentially bankrupted his company as a result. In 2011 Coppola brought footage from his in-development film Twixt to San Diego Comic-Con and showed how he could jam with the audience and re-sequence a scene on his iPad based on the reaction from the crowd. He spoke enthusiastically of taking Twixt on the road, and how each projection would then be a different show, based on the tenor of he crowd. (These engagements never came to fruition.)

Live Cinema is finding its footing in unexpected places, however. Last year Coppola took a crew and his notions to Oklahoma City Community College and did some experimentation. I cant describe the process because I dont know what Im doing yet, Coppola confessed. But he added that the next big live television event, NBCs forthcoming production of Aaron Sorkins script for Rob Reiners film A Few Good Men, all set in a courtroom, is not what he has in mind. If they came to me the movie Id want to do is Lawrence of Arabia.

The conversation concluded on the topic of Coppolas very successful wineries, which he invested in when he realized his style of directing might not always find favor with the studios. They started getting wise to us after Heavens Gate, Coppola sighed, before thanking the audience for continuing to buy his products, and therefore keeping his art financed. You all should get associate producer credits on my new project.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/apr/21/francis-ford-coppola-live-cinema-tribeca-film-festival