This question originally appeared on Quora: What is it like to direct a film you've also written?
Answer by Nicholas Stoller, Director/Screenwriter, Neighbors
I've done both. I always find my way into a movie by re-writing it, whether I've written it or not. I found it a lot harder to direct something I wrote, which I did with Get Him to the Greek (2010 movie) and I co-wrote The Five-Year Engagement (2012 movie).
I found it more difficult because you don't have as much perspective on it because everything is coming from you. I've found that with Neighbors (2014 film) and the projects that I'm considering now, I'm a little bit more interested to work with a script that someone else has written because I think I can bring a different perspective to that project.
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This question originally appeared on Quora: What are the pros and cons of acting in an ensemble film or series?
Answer by Ike Barinholtz, Actor, Neighbors, The Mindy Project
Acting in an ensemble film is great. When we were shooting some of the scenes in Neighbors, specifically in the frat house, you have so many different ingredients. You have Jerrod Carmichael, who is an amazing comedian. You have Dave Franco who is an amazing actor. You have Seth Rogen who is an amazing writer. So you have all of these different points of view blending together. Sometimes it doesn't work out and sometimes it does. Nicholas Stoller, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and James Weaver really put together a funny and different group of people. We had the young, old, stand-up, sketch, etc.
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Answer by Jerrod Carmichael, Actor, Writer, Neighbors
Neighbors was my first movie. I'm lucky to have worked with such an amazing cast and on a film where people didn't compromise the integrity of the film just to get attention. The film was planned with the common goal to make something funny and to make something the audiences would love. The public loses interest if you don't have a camaraderie amongst the people you're working with.
You have these moments on set where you improve and learn a lot. Throughout filming we would all feed each other ideas that seemed to come from nowhere, but that worked really well. Luckily we had great writers with fast minds, so we all worked together like one well-oiled machine.
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