The film industry is notorious for being difficult to break into. But two former Chapman students have become mainstays. Having achieved critical acclaim and celebrity status from their hit Netflix series “Stranger Things,” Matt and Ross Duffer, now legendary alumni of Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, came back to their alma mater as part of the college’s Master Class series.
The brothers, who graduated in 2007, visited the Folino Theater on Aug. 22 and were interviewed by their former professor and the college’s Senior Associate Dean, Michael Kowalski.
After screening their location film “We All Fall Down” and their senior thesis “Eater,” the filmmaker duo shared personal and deeply relevant advice for success in school and beyond to students.
Advice #1: Watch and read the good, the bad and the mediocre.
Film students have a tendency to want to catch up on the classics and idolize the greats. But to the Duffer Brothers, low-quality scripts and unsuccessful movies are equally important to consume, whether it’s to learn from mistakes or build your own confidence.
“Don’t just watch the great stuff, because you’re gonna feel bad about yourself. Read the bad stuff,” Matt said.
In fact, the bad scripts that the Duffer Brothers read and covered in their internships as film students gave them the courage to write their own work. Based on the quality of the scripts they read, Ross and Matt felt they could write scripts of a similar standard.
“Especially in the horror genre space, a lot of this stuff was pretty bad, and this stuff was selling,” said Matt. “I was like, okay, we can write at this level.”
Advice #2: Keep your short films simple and contained.
“Whatever your budget is for your short film, whatever time you have, lean into that instead of trying to make it more than it could be,” Ross said. “You’re not going to make ‘The Godfather’ in 10 minutes. It’s not possible… you use the limitations to your advantage. Don’t try to make (a low budget movie) feel like a big budget movie.”
The Duffer Brothers learned this lesson with the advice of Kowalski while making “We All Fall Down,” a period piece they directed their sophomore year in the Location Film class, which no longer exists at Chapman. They said that they attempted to make a feature length movie, tightly packed into a quarter of an hour.
So when it came to their senior thesis, “Eater,” the Duffer Brothers chose not to bite off more than they could chew in their 15 minute limit — they called it a more contained and simple story that could be shot in one location.
Advice #3: Struggling to write? Trust your gut.
If you watch movies and television, but struggle to write screenplays, try writing without the traditional structures as a blueprint. To the Duffer Brothers, working with the traditional three act and seven act screenwriting structure felt unproductive. They found that if you watch movies and shows, you’ll likely know when your script gets boring or needs to make a turn.
“The structure analysis is not wrong. I’m not saying it’s wrong,” Matt said. “I just think the process of starting from that point and building your story around that structure makes it harder than it needs to be. I think you’ll do it naturally. It actually probably put us behind years because we just kept trying to wedge our stuff into this structure.”
Advice #4: Try everything in film school.
Looking back on their time at Dodge, the Matt and Ross wished they’d paid more attention in their cinematography classes, because they felt a learning curve going into creating “Stranger Things.”
“Frankly, it took us about 10 years of making this show before I actually (felt) kind of fairly confident in all the areas,” Matt said. “So the sooner you get ahead of that, the better.”
Dodge College offers minor degrees and introductory-level classes for non-majors in various areas of the industry from production design to public relations. To the Duffer Brothers, it’s imperative to test out the many avenues of the film industry, because whether you’re uncovering your true passion or fulfilling mandatory credits, you’re developing valuable skills that will come in handy in your career.
“You should be trying everything. First of all, you might fall in love with one of these things you’re trying. And also, it’s good to know as much as you can about every part of the process,” Matt said.
Advice #5: It’s important to have a plan.
From landing a job out of film school to arriving to set prepared, the Duffer Brothers emphasized the importance of planning.
“It’s so rare now to get a directing job off a short film,” Ross said. “It almost never happens. But we realized that part way through so we did start to focus on writing and then focused on internships. It was calculated. It wasn’t like, oh, no, (we) happened to land an agent. It’s like, no, we’re going to really figure out how to get an agent by the time we get out of school. We managed to do that.”
A plan set the Duffer Brothers up for success post-graduation, but it also keeps them confident and flexible on set.
“It does not hurt to plan as much as possible. So, Ross and I go in every day thinking we know what exactly we’re going to do,” said Matt. “That doesn’t mean it has to stay that way or you can’t be flexible or make discoveries. That happens every single day. But if you have it planned out as well as you can, then you’re going in and you’re feeling confident in a real way.”
Advice #6: It doesn’t have to always go according to plan.
Wait. Have a plan, but don’t follow it? Well, Matt and Ross consider one the biggest flaws of their first film with Warner Brothers is that they planned everything to a tee. The filmmaker duo regrets enforcing their plan too strictly in the 2015 film “Hidden,” where they weren’t open to their cast’s blocking ideas or experimentation.
In their next projects, the Duffer Brothers maintained open-mindedness and a collaborative spirit. This might come as a surprise to “Stranger Things” fans, but according to Matt, season one was not what they had pictured.
“It’s something not wildly different, but definitely different from what we imagined,” he said. “It’s never going to be exactly what was in your head. But that’s what’s cool about it. It’s going to become its own thing because you’re inviting so many different people [cast and crew] into your world.”
So as writer-directors, where do they draw the line in the creative visionary sand?
“You need to maintain control over (the project), and everyone’s going to be looking to you, but also — especially if you surround yourself with very talented people — leave them alone,” Matt said. “I think people like to be given a certain amount of freedom and trust. People do better work under those conditions.”
Dodge College of Film and Media Arts Master Classes are available to all Chapman students and alumni. Seats are available either on a first-come, first-served basis or by lottery system depending on the Master Class. Dates, times, upcoming guests and additional information can be found in the lobby of Marion Knott Studios or on the Dodge College Instagram account.