IndieWire's Filmmaker Toolkit

Lena talks about creating the interweaving narrative of “The Chi,” a showtime series about her hometown (Southside of Chicago) and the vital role casting (and a good casting director) plays in allowing a writer to do something different. She also shares her advice to actors and a funny story about her “Masters of None” audition.

How Two Young Creators Blew Up Their ‘Mad Men of Tech’ Premise to Discover Something Special.

Bill Hader moved To L.A. to be a filmmaker, 15 years later and an unexpected comedy detour (SNL) he found his way back in dark comedy that he created with “Silicon Valley,” “Seinfeld,” & “Curb Your Enthusiasm” vet Alec Berg. Photo Credit: Michael Buckner/Deadline/REX/Shutterstock

Simien breaks down the unique "presentation" style of his Netflix series, what Kubrick taught him about music and share new details about his horror-race satire movie ("Bad Hair")that he'll be shooting this summer.

Michael Schur (The Office, Parks & Rec), master of the work place comedy, talks about the challenges of tackling the big concept and twisty plot of “The Good Place.” In this conversation Schur outlines the one vital key to success in all serialized tv, working with philosophy professors as consultants, modeling heaven after The Grove and avoiding the M. Night Shyamalan trap of training an audience to anticipate twists.

Inside the process of creating a historical horror story of a lost Arctic expedition on a sound stage and how Kajganich pitched the show as anthology, but won't be coming back for another season.

Atlanta's Lakeith Stanfield Didn’t Even Know Donald Glover Was Playing Teddy Perkins.

The screenwriter behind "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull" talks about the intersection of faith and cinema, and how arthouse cinema has radically changed since he first wrote "Transcendental Style in Film" in 1971.

The director behind one of the best films of 2018 talks about how a woman born in Beijing and schooled at NYU ended up telling real-life stories of people living on a South Dakota reservation.

Oscar nomination director Yance Ford talks about his 8-year journey to completing a film about his brother's violent death in 1992.

There were a ton of bad drafts of "The Big Sick" before it became one of the best comedy scripts in years. Kumail & Emily talk about the 4 year process of adapting their real life story.

Gerwig talks about what her artistic dreams were when she, like Lady Bird, was 18 and came to New York.

Aronofsky on why you have to make the audience laugh, cry or scare the shit out of the them.

Jordan Peele talks about his biggest fear in making "Get Out."

What Patty Jenkins learned from walking away from Marvel's "Thor" that shaped "Wonder Woman."