10 Bizarre Filmmaker Rules You Never Knew
Sit down all you like. Just don't chug a water bottle.
Making even the worst movie is nothing short of an absolute slog, because no matter how bad a script might be, the sheer feat of assembling a cast and crew to shoot a film is a tireless exercise in dogged perseverance.
And due to the high-stress nature of filmmaking, it's not at all surprising that most successful directors have at least a couple of concrete rules for how their sets are operated.
While these rules can be as simple and reasonable as the crew turning off their phones while shooting is taking place, sometimes directors insist upon slightly more particular - and yes, weird - regulations.
Sometimes these maxims are odd enough to be better classed as superstitions, really - eccentric rituals which they undertake either for the sake of good luck, or because it's simply what they've always done.
Whatever the reasoning, the results certainly speak for themselves with these 10 world-class filmmakers, whose peculiar methods have undeniably helped create some incredible works of cinema over the years...
10. Steven Spielberg Isn't Present When The Final Scene Is Being Shot
Though you'd certainly expect a director of Steven Spielberg's repute to be an entirely hands-on filmmaker, that's apparently not quite the case - albeit for an amusing reason.
It's no secret that the shoot for his iconic blockbuster Jaws was a near-disaster, filled with malfunctioning props, overlong shooting days, and an increasingly seasick and frustrated crew.
Tensions were significant enough that Spielberg actually decided not to be present when the film's climactic scene, where the shark is finally blown up, was being shot.
The director believed that the crew, who were bordering on mutinous by this point, were planning to throw him in the water when the scene was completed, and so he decided instead to take leave early.
In the 45 years since, it's reportedly been a tradition for Spielberg to be absent when the final scene for any of his movies was being shot, presumably left instead in the capable hands of his first assistant director.
Still, considering that Spielberg's reputation as a professional filmmaker quickly improved post-Jaws, he's probably safe from the wrath of his crew nowadays.