Some filmmakers are open-minded enough to allow phones on set, but a few like Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig and Quentin Tarantino have been quite vocal about forbidding the intrusion of technology into workspaces. Now Dune filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, too, has shared his two cents on why he follows the same principle, in an interview with LA Times.
“Cinema is an act of presence. When a painter paints, he has to be absolutely focused on the colour he’s putting on the canvas. It’s the same with the dancer when he does a gesture,” he says. “With a filmmaker, you have to do that with a crew, and everybody has to focus and be entirely in the present, listening to each other, being in relationship with each other. So cellphones are banned on my set too, since Day 1. It’s forbidden. When you say cut, you don’t want someone going to his phone to look at his Facebook account.”
Villeneuve is a filmmaker who prefers stillness and long periods of solitude, during which his best ideas originate. However, he isn't against the use of technology. “I’m like anybody. There’s something addictive about the fact that you can access any information, any song, any book. It’s compulsive. It’s like a drug. I’m very tempted to disconnect myself. It would be fresh air,” he added.
Christopher Nolan once told in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he doesn't use a smartphone because "I'm easily distractible so I don't want to have access to the internet every time I'm bored. I do a lot of my best thinking in those kinds of in-between moments that people now fill with online activity."
During the release of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Timothy Olyphant revealed on Rich Eisen's radio show that Tarantino had a strict no-phones policy on the sets of the film, and failure to follow it was met with serious repercussions. “You’re fired. Cell phone out? Done. No warning, nothing, you’re going home. I’m not telling tales. Outside the set, we’d have a lovely little booth for everyone to check their phones in. That’s where all of our phones would be. If you needed to make a phone call, you’d go out to the street to make a phone call.”
Olyphant explained that Tarantino didn't enforce the rule out of fear of someone leaking footage or photos, but rather because he expects everyone to be fully immersed in their work. “We’re not gonna be over there doing some other thing, Instagramming, working on your next script, or talking to your agent. We’re here and this is what we’re doing, and we’re going to take it really seriously,” Olyphant said. “I don’t know how it comes across, but it was one of the greatest gifts he could give the crew and actors.”
Barbie director Greta Gerwig is also a strong supporter of the policy. "From Noah Baumbach (partner, filmmaker) I learned to have a strict no cell phone policy on set," she once said in an interview with HuffPost. "There is nothing that bums you out more than looking over and seeing somebody on their smartphone and that goes for actors and everyone else. Everybody told me, 'Oh, good luck, you have so many kids in this movie. How are they ever going to not text?' The truth is they all left their phones in the trailer and I just felt like it made everybody so much more present."
