Skip to content 
As part of the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, the IndieWire Future of Filmmaking team presents “Behind Their Lens,” a series of panel discussions with some of the most exciting filmmakers, directors and producers of 2026.
On the director’s panel, “Blue Heron” writer/director Sophy Romvari, “Josephine” writer/director Beth de Araújo, “Custom of the Country” director Josie Rourke, “The Good Daughter” director Steph Green, and “Toy Story 5” co-director Kenna Harris about their different paths to directing – from practicing their sports to thinking level – and how they approach it. everything. vision clearly with different members of their team.
But the panel also discussed the ways in which film as a medium is constantly changing and the skills they would like to bring to future projects, which all leaders might want to be aware.
Rourke, whose first feature film had the challenge of creating a wide historical range for “Mary Queen of Scots”, has been thinking about how directors and visual effects artists can work better together as she had to drop some (digital) castles into some Scottish mountains.
“I knew it wasn’t working, but I just couldn’t figure it out. And in the end, I called a friend of mine who’s a great architect and he said, ‘Listen, just get into editing,’ [to look at the castle assets]and he looked and went, “Yeah, that wouldn’t stand up,” Rourke said. “It was really interesting because my body was really scared to want to use that structure. It’s an imaginary castle but [I knew] it was dangerous.”
Rourke’s instinctive awareness is something she’s been working on since trying to better communicate with VFX teams, but there’s even more nuance to how those conversations are held. “Some of the smoke and mirrors around [VFX choices] it’s about cost. So I don’t know how to look at this and go, ‘Here’s how I would achieve that more economically,'” Rourke said. “I know how to cut a costume or cut a set or cut a script or cut the score, but I don’t know how to be in a dialogue that manages the budget for visual effects wisely and creatively. “
Harris, who has been rooted in the world of digital animation for years as a story artist before teaming up with co-director Andrew Stanton to tackle “Toy Story 5,” still has things they want to learn about the process, too.
“I wish I understood simulation a little better because I want to learn how to talk in a way that feels more collaborative. And the reason I say that is because there are some things that even today in a very good studio like Pixar are still hard to crack, visually,” Harris said.
One of those things is folding in clothes – the ability to create a sense of clothes moving across a character’s body naturally or gathering around the elbow in a believable way, which seems simple but very complex in terms of the illusion of a hood resting against someone’s shoulders.
“If I said, ‘Hey, I really care about sleeve folding,’ I’m sure my producer, Lindsey Collins, would be like, ‘What? Why? Why, why, why would you care about that?'” Harris joked. “But artistically, I’m fascinated by it. We still rely on these physics engines for things like that, and when I look at a lot of 2D art, there are people who can design the hell out of just making clothes.” [work]it’s beautiful the way clothes work on our bodies, and it’s so hard to do on a feature scale. And so, I think it would be awesome if I understood a more technical simulation because maybe I would be closer to finally seeing the generic clothing packages that I’ve wanted all my life.”
Clothing is something that is both important and invaluable in live action as well. For as big and proud as “Blue Heron” is an indie film, this was the first time that Romvari had worked with a costume designer and he saw the power of what a creative colleague could do in that department.
“It’s often seen as very modest and straight clothing and, you know, often treated as just a women’s category and who really, you know, just put something on. [Katarina]how necessary it is for continuity, aesthetically, but also for the safety and comfort of actors,” said Romvari.
Costumes do a lot of quiet work in “Blue Heron” as it is a period piece set in the late 90’s (horrible thought) with sections taking place in a more contemporary timeline as well. The movement in clothes, and how characters feel about themselves through how comfortable they are in their clothes, express things that they themselves cannot quite say.
“Costume designers are often asked, ‘Can you just throw something on them?’ And now I understand the inner turmoil they go through when they’re like, ‘Do you know how much time I spent dying that shirt and then using this screw to make it look like it from another time?’ There’s just so much work that goes into it that it’s underappreciated, and it’s so essential to what you see on screen,” said Romvari. “So I think I’m just speaking for the costume designers. It’s a really important element that I think is undervalued.”
