Marc Webb is an accomplished music video director who has successfully diversified into commercials, his involvement in both disciplines coming via Hollywood-based production house DNA.
Webb’s ad endeavors include work for Target as well as a series of USA Network promos for the tongue-in-cheek detective series Monk. Among his lauded music videos are My Chemical Romance’s “Helena,” All American Rejects’ “Move Along” and Weezer’s “Perfect Situation,” all of which contributed to his earning director of the year distinction a couple of years ago at the Music Video Production Association (MVPA) Awards. “Move Along” also scored an MVPA kudo as pop video of the year and a coveted MTV VMA.
But now, independent of DNA, Webb has made his feature directorial debut with 500 Days of Summer, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. The milestone for the director became all the more auspicious with the film premiering at the recently concluded Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Described in the Sundance guide as “a postmodern love story” that turns the romantic comedy genre “topsy turvy,” 500 Days of Summer is fueled by a role reversal (it’s the woman who doesn’t want to commit) and energized by dance numbers, split screens, a Los Angeles backdrop, and two dynamic performances by Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel.
“It’s a coming of age story masquerading as a romantic comedy,” shared Webb whose initial career filmmaking experience entailed helming behind-the-scenes documentaries on select artists.
The director then dovetailed into music videos, spots and even short films, most notably Seascape which premiered at the Aspen Comedy Festival several years ago. He looks to continue maintaining a broad range of projects, with features likely becoming a bit more prominent in the mix in light of the splash being made by 500 Days of Summer.
SHOOT: What attracted you to 500 Days of Summer? How did you end up landing the project?
Webb: Somewhere between puberty and when I started paying taxes, I stopped being interested in romantic comedies. They weren’t part of my DNA. I liked them when I was younger but then I thought they stopped dealing with the truth. They didn’t reflect life, certainly not my life.
Then in the fall of 2006 I got a script which I forgot about and left in my backpack for about three weeks. When I finally read the script, I absolutely loved it. It was written by people who clearly felt the same way I did about romantic comedies.
By the time I threw my hat into the ring, Fox Searchlight had purchased the script so I had to go through a whole process of interviews and meetings before I got hired.
We spent another year developing the script, casting it and finding locations. At first we were supposed to go to Canada but we managed to get to shoot it in Los Angeles, which I think was very important.
When you see the movie, you understand that the Los Angeles settings are distinctive and bring a lot to the film. We shoot in downtown Los Angeles so much and try to pretend it’s somewhere else. But when you stop pretending, you discover what Los Angeles has to offer. It has a great history and a lot of beautiful places which meshed with the themes of the movie. Just the dynamic of finding something beautiful where you wouldn’t expect to added to the film.
SHOOT: How did your work in television commercials and all those music videos over the years help to prepare you for and inform your first experience in feature filmmaking?
Webb: For the last eight years, I’ve been getting up every morning and going to set or prepping or writing treatments, primarily for music videos. The process of making film is second nature to me on some level. I’ve learned a lot about the nuts and bolts of filmmaking, have had great chances to experiment, to try out different methods and techniques. I know what a 12-hour day can be like, I know where the camera should be, what needs to be done.
So showing up on set the first day of the feature felt quite natural to me. They’re two sides of the same coin in some sense.
Dealing so extensively with the actors was probably the biggest difference. But that was the most rewarding part of it all–Joe and Zooey are terrific, insightful performers. They are very different from each other in terms of their methods but their chemistry is quite fantastic.
Also the people at Fox Searchlight were open to me directing the film. Some people seem to be conditioned to think of music video artists as only thinking on a visual level. My video work has been all over the place, exploring different styles and genres but much of it has been narrative.
The people at Fox Searchlight knew I directed videos that told stories. They knew that I was a storyteller. They were very supportive and speak the language of filmmakers.
SHOOT: How will your first feature film experience impact or inform your work in music videos and commercials? What will you be able to bring back to clips and spots based on what you learned from the movie? Does the work in dialogue open up some doors for you in commercials?
Webb: Someone was giving me shit awhile ago for not having dialogue on my reel. I don’t know what to say to that–except now I just did a movie with dialogue in it.
Hopefully that will open up some more doors for me in commercials. I’d very much like to take on some commercials now before I get back into feature films.
SHOOT: What is currently pending for you on the feature filmmaking front now that you have 500 Days of Summer under your belt?
Webb: I have some things in the hopper that I’m not yet at liberty to discuss. Plus maybe something else will come out of the Sundance Festival. Now, though, I have a definite window of opportunity to take on commercials and videos.
SHOOT: Was this your first time at the Sundance Film Festival?
Webb: No. During my senior year in college I came to Sundance with a friend, Ed Helms, and we served as volunteers. We were parking cars for the Festival.
That was about 10 years ago. I wound up meeting at that time director Doug Pray whose film Hype was being screened at Sundance.
It turned out that Doug and I had quite a lot in common. He’s from Madison, Wisconsin, and so am I. We both went to Colorado College but I didn’t know back then that he had been a student there.
I wound up working for Doug and that’s pretty much how I broke into the business. It turned out to be a terrific break for me.
As things turned out, we’ve all somehow managed to come full circle. This year’s Sundance Film Festival marked a reunion of sorts for the three of us.
Ed is an actor and is in the cast of the Polish Brothers film Manure, which debuted this month at Sundance. [See feature story in this issue on Sundance editors, including Cary Gries of Red Car and Griot Editorial who cut Manure.]
I have my feature film at Sundance. And Doug Pray [whose spotmaking home is Oil Factory, Los Angeles] directed Art & Copy [about leading creative luminaries in advertising, and their profound influence on society–SHOOT, 1/9] which was one of a select group of films selected for Sundance’s documentary competition.
