In the age of clickbait and countless digital distractions, nothing quite puts the wind in my sails like encountering a true artist. You know the type. Someone who’s relentlessly focused on their craft, someone who doesn’t mind the hard work. A trendsetter, not a follower. A true inspiration.
Enter Wes Anderson.
You probably know him from films like The Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise Kingdom. It only takes a few minutes to realize you’re watching an “Andersonian” production. A distinctive style seeps through everything he directs. Plenty of primary colors. Brit pop and Meticulously-designed sets. Bill Murray.
Even though Anderson is relatively young (by a director’s standards), for decades his style has influenced countless film school graduates. Lurking beneath that visual flair lies invaluable lessons for any creative.
I wanted to understand what drove the man to create some of my all-time favorite films – and how he did it. Here are some of the key principles I distilled from a host of interviews and articles.
Plan, While Still Leaving Room for Improvisation
While viewing a Wes Anderson movie, one is struck by how every little detail is accounted for. Whether it’s the sets themselves, the actors’ wardrobe selection or even which pair of eyeglasses Anjelica Huston wore in The Royal Tenenbaums (they belonged to Anderson’s mother), nothing is left to chance.
All these details accumulate to create a self-contained world in every film Anderson directs. Everything seems so deliberate and planned that some critics have likened his films to doll houses or pop-up books.1 The claim: everything is so neat and stylized that it’s a poor reflection of reality.
Anderson makes no qualms about these artistic decisions. Ever since his directorial debut, Bottle Rocket, he has embraced a conspicuous style that separates him from every other director. This decision – whether to do your best to reflect reality or filter it through a style all of your own – is something every artist must make. Like the impressionists, Anderson isn’t afraid to “show his brushstrokes.”
That’s the kind of movie that I like to make, where there is an invented reality and the audience is going to go someplace where hopefully they’ve never been before. The details, that’s what the world is made of. Those are the paints.2
Attention to detail is a huge factor in creating Anderson’s signature style. That said, he’s well aware of the limitations of too many constraints, and allows stories to unfold organically during production:
My experience is when you’re making the movie, you’re in a kind of searching mode and you’re looking to discover things.3
There’s wisdom for every creator here. Whether you’re a compulsive planner, an improviser, or somewhere in between, we can be open to unplanned discoveries.
Yes, the details matter. But if we’re too subservient to our plans going into the process, we might overlook some opportunities that arise while we create.
Remembering to Refill the Well
Creativity is a funny thing. Sometimes, the more successful you become, the harder it is to find time for the things that motivate you to create in the first place. You get so swept up in the next project that you forget about being a fan.
One of the seminal lines from Stephen King’s book, On Writing, is an admonishment for writers never to neglect the importance of being a reader. “If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
This applies in Wes Anderson’s life as well. Inspired from a young age by directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Stephen Spielberg, and Stanley Kubrick, he always considered himself a fan of film. Consuming these masterpieces so voraciously motivated him to become a director.
I know who my inspirations have been, and how closely I’ve wanted to do something like this person, that person, and how many ideas I’ve stolen from these guys and how many things I’ve just literally recreated what other filmmakers did.4
Anderson doesn’t shy away from his struggle to remain a fan once success came knocking. Answering questions at the Rome Film Festival, he discussed the balancing act of finding time to create while still consuming others’ creations:
We spent all these years just absorbing all these things – reading, watching movies, gathering all the stuff that we wanted to do. There’s a tendency when you’re doing your own work, and your own work starts to take over …. What I try to do [now] is stay with it, keep looking and keep listening.5
Creativity is like breathing. The inhale is just as important as the exhale. If one simply creates, creates, and creates while losing connection with other artists, it’s difficult to keep the fresh ideas flowing.
Anderson is cognizant of the importance of refilling his “creative well.” He splits his time between New York and Paris, constantly researching and traveling often. He also makes time to discover new filmmakers he might have overlooked.
There’s no need to limit yourself to the medium you work in either. Simply by living and exposing yourself to interesting things – traveling, visiting art galleries, and so on – Anderson is able to keep his creative well nice and full. And so can you.
Follow Your Obsessions
Wes Anderson’s filmography encompasses a huge variety of themes. Bottle Rocket is about a bunch of slackers trying to pull off a heist. The Royal Tenenbaums is a portrait of a family of eccentric geniuses. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou chronicles the adventures of a Jacques Cousteau-esque figure. Moonrise Kingdom is a coming-of-age tale with first lovers.
None of these films fit squarely into a preconceived notion of genre. If video stores were still around, I wouldn’t be sure which section to look for them in. There’s drama, humor, and fantasy. It’s that mix that has turned Wes Anderson movies into their own genres.
How does he pull this off – and very successfully, no less?
By not getting caught up with the ideas of what a movie should be, and by following his obsessions. A voracious reader and traveler, Anderson has trained himself to remain receptive to any inspiration.
He scouted locations for Moonrise Kingdom in half a dozen regions, exploring a variety of islands in North America, absorbing different aspects that he liked before settling on a winner. Those elements made their way into the end product:
And at the opening of the movie, there is a playroom in the top of the house, where they play records, and that is a re-creation of a room in a house in Georgia. We took pictures while we were there and Adam built it based on that visit.6
Also consider how Anderson nurtured his idea for The Grand Budapest Hotel. He stumbled upon an old book one day by Stefan Zweig, a mostly forgotten author from Austria. Using Zweig’s story for inspiration, Anderson began an exhaustive process of scouting old European hotels and even meeting with members of an international guild of concierges.
It’s amazing how many of Anderson’s inspiration sources don’t seem to be “film related.” Even so, with his receptiveness to explore them, he develops fully fleshed out worlds and fascinating characters.
What are you obsessed with lately? Have you given yourself permission to follow it?
Put Your Heart Into It, and Let Things Work Themselves Out
Anderson has developed a reputation as a “director’s director,” someone who’s admired more for his art than his ability to dial up a commercial success. Films like The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr. Fox were – at least in financial terms – failures.7
It wasn’t until Moonrise Kingdom when Anderson experienced his biggest financial success. When asked about what made that film resonate with a larger audience than his other works, he seemed at a loss for words:
I’ve never had a movie I didn’t believe in, and I’ve never had any sense before the movie opens how it might do. With ‘Moonrise,’ it may be the subject matter or maybe it’s just more the atmosphere. I don’t have the slightest idea.8
This is some bitter advice that more creatives need to swallow. It’s impossible to manufacture a smash hit. No matter how diligently we study the trends, there’s still an element of chance. There are countless other mafia movies that aren’t The Godfather or Goodfellas.
Anderson understands this well. That explains why he’s just as proud as his less commercially successful films as the real moneymakers. Above all else, Anderson focuses on what he can control. He puts his heart into everything he directs – and tells the stories he knows he must tell.
There’s no reason to despair about a commercial failure, nor is there a reason to get too enamored by commercial success. The work is all there is.
So if you’re really responsive to when it’s well received, you make yourself more vulnerable to when it’s horribly received. You know, whatever path in between that you can just keep going straight down. That’s the safe place.9
We creative types are understandably eager to have our works resonate with audiences. But by focusing only on metrics we can control, we’ll stay sane and true to our visions.
- Wes Anderson Interview – The Telegraph
- Screenwriting 101: Wes Anderson
- Wes Anderson Explains How to Make a Wes Anderson Film (Grantland)
- Wes Anderson on Storytelling Influences and The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Ten Lessons on Filmmaking from Wes Anderson
- Moving Storyboards and Drumming: Wes Anderson Maps out the Peculiar Genre of “Moonrise Kingdom”
- A History of Wes Anderson at the Box Office from Bottle Rocket to Budapest Hotel
- Wes Anderson Wrote ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ with a Little Help from Friends
- Wes Anderson on His Life, Career and Biggest Success Yet, ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ (Q&A)
Outback Steakhouse Locations
The Wonderful World of Wes Anderson: On Creativity and Following Your Obsessions – Corey Pemberton