the word studio notebook — "I'd give them a basic goal for the scene, like 'don't let him sell you a package of workout sessions,' and turn them loose. I'd say 95 percent of the film is made up of first or second takes. They were controlled improvisations where the actors were encouraged to speak freely about themselves and as themselves."

I'm a freelance writer, designer, and game developer. My name is Will Hindmarch, and this is a casual notebook I keep on the web.

Here's the blog, The Gist.
Here's my website, wordstudio.net.
Here you can read my work.
Here are my Haiku Year posts.

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"I'd give them a basic goal for the scene, like 'don't let him sell you a package of workout sessions,' and turn them loose. I'd say 95 percent of the film is made up of first or second takes. They were controlled improvisations where the actors were encouraged to speak freely about themselves and as themselves."

Steven Soderbergh talking to Roger Ebert about The Girlfriend Experience.

There’s often an element of roleplaying on both parts of the escort transaction. (They tell me.) In this film, Soderbergh has minimized the role-playing of the actors and, in so doing, moved closer to an improvisational game or indie-style roleplaying game. It’s so wonderfully meta — I can’t wait to see this thing.

Posted 6 months ago