Edgar Wright interviewed on the Treatment

For this blog, I'm choosing to write about the Treatment episode with Edgar Wright. This episode aired on Wednesday August 4, 2010. Edgar Wright is a film director. He's worked on such films as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and most recently Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. In fact, the purpose of his appearance was to promote Scott Pilgrim.

From this interview I learned quite a few things about the production of Scott Pilgrim, A lot about Edgar wright's history, and the film industry in general. For instance, the city of Toronto is used as a double for New York in many films, which I found somewhat surprising.

"A lot of the films that I've done have this aspirational quality of coming from a peaceful, but boring town." This quote does explain a lot in regards to many of the characters and locations in Wrights films. Having seen them all, you begin to notice a trend between them. Nearly all of them are set in small boring towns, and the characters seem to all be striving for some excitement, for something bigger than themselves. With this quote, it all makes sense now as to why. It's all inspired from Wrights hometown.

"My entire kind of career sprang from the fact my mom and dad bought me and my brother a second hand super 8 camera." This quote goes to show that, while it helps to have parents/connections whom can afford to produce your films, it isn't always necessary in the industry. Some people can break into the business through perseverance and talent, learning how to make a film with nothing, rather than having everything handed to them.


"Just go out and do it. Even if you don't have the equipment. The opportunity is never going to land on your doorstep, you can make your own opportunities." As with the prior quite, I find this one to be quite an inspirational and meaningful quote. It's actually really good advice for many aspiring film makers and film students. In context, this is Wright's response when asked about career advice, and is spoken from experience, as he never went to film school. In fact, he was rejected from film school, thus went out and made his own films.

I may be bias, as I'm a big fan of his work, but I found this interview to be really great and insightful. It gave a good insight into not only some of the production decisions behind Scott Pilgrim vs. The world, but also to all of Wrights works. It also helped to establish much of why he directs the way he does. As to what he contributes to the film world, I find his films to be a refreshing change of pace than the norm. His style is very fast paced, full of jump-cuts and tons of on screen action. His style is innovative, as are his films. Nothing that will change the film world, but Wright is definitely one of the most underrated directors of our time.