Guilherme Pedra: from São Paulo to NYC with the Love for Cinema

Guilherme Pedra was born in São Paulo, Brazil. He moved to New York in 2016 as a transfer student to finish his studies in Film and TV at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where he mostly focused on Directing. Guilherme Pedra has always been passionate about Art & Creativity and considered expressing himself this primordial need, regardless of the medium (film, photography, painting, drawing or writing). Guilherme graduated in the Spring of 2019 with Summa Cum Laude Honors and has directed a few short films in the short few years after graduation.

indieactivity: How would you describe your work as a director?
Guilherme Pedra : As a director, I’m often attracted to people who have deeply emotional lives, so my work usually features introspective and delicate characters. What I create tends to be very poetic and personal, not in a strictly autobiographical sense, but my own feelings and how I sense the world usually are my starting point.

indieactivity: How did you get into directing?
Guilherme Pedra: You’ve asked a good question. Honestly, I was reluctant to pursue Directing (or filmmaking) or to choose to even call myself a Director, despite the deep love I have for cinema, I was not a 100% certain of what I to do in College. But, deep down I knew I had a calling towards the Arts and I slowly realized I felt somewhat comfortable creating short films. I think it was only in the Performance Strategies class at NYU that I realized how much I liked the process of working with actors and how exciting it could be, which for me, is one of the key aspects of Directing. Chitra Neogy, Professor at NYU was also important in this regard. Her class “Film as a Transformative Medium”, helped me understand myself and my relationship to cinema.

Elsewhere – A Flor Azul (Official Trailer)

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indieactivity: How do you choose a project to direct?
Guilherme Pedra: I usually start by feeling out the Story of a particular script and how strongly it hits me. Most of the time, I have to find a piece of myself in it and care for it. But sometimes just good writing does it.

indieactivity: Do you often take courses to increase your craft?
Guilherme Pedra: I was trained at NYU, but I took an elective class in Acting my last year with the Grace Kiley acting ensemble (my directing professors at NYU). I wanted to learn more about acting since it’s such an immense part of filmmaking—to me, a most vital part. It’s good to understand an actors’ perspective as a director.

Related Story: Case Study – The Making of Elsewhere (A Flor Azul) by Guilherme Pedra

indieactivity: What books do you read?
Guilherme Pedra: I usually read a lot of poetry, but books related to filmmaking that have helped and inspired me include: In the Blink of an Eye (Walter Murch), Producer to Producer (Maureen A. Ryan), Sculpting in Time (Andrei Tarkovsky), A Challenge for the Actor (Uta Hagen).

indieactivity: Why would you choose an actor, writer or producer? What do you look for?
Guilherme Pedra: I usually want to be around people who are nice, respectful, committed, caring and passionate. Skill and talent are important, but if the actor, writer, or producer isn’t open to collaboration and doesn’t care as much as you do, then the creative process will tank.

“I am Love” Teaser Trailer

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indieactivity: Briefly explain your latest work?
Guilherme Pedra: The last short film I wrote and directed is I Am Love, which is in post. The film follows the journey of Arthur, a lonely Musician struggling to compose an Orchestral piece, as he falls in love with two people at once. It inhabits the same Universe as Elsewhere (A Flor Azul), and it was also Shot by the Amazing Xuezi Zhang.

indieactivity: Explain key challenges on your last film?
Guilherme Pedra: I found the shoot for “I am Love” very challenging. It was my biggest project. It was such a personal story that almost everything became a burden, but I had wonderful people (the cast and crew) who worked hard to make it all happen. We had about a month to put all the pieces together in pre-production; which was a considerable small amount of time. Originally, we had three shoot dates, but had to add a fourth, which made production expenses jump higher.

During the actual shoot, we had scheduling problems. The AD, producer and I would get together (at the end of each day shoot) to talk about the next day and come up with strategies to make the production flow better. Another challenging aspect of this production is the rain we had to create for a very important scene on a limited budget. We thought up cheap and creative ways; the logistics and how to minimize the cold the actors as exposed to (they got completely wet out in the street, in mid-November) made production stressful, but we tried to do as few takes as possible and managed

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indieactivity: What ‘thing/situation’ helps you during a production?
Guilherme Pedra: Having a good crew—not only in terms of professionalism and skill set, but also, again, in terms of how passionate, caring and willing-to-do-anything-to-solve-the-problems-that-might-arise they are—is essential. Having a good producer/line producer and good food (and coffee!) on set definitely helps a lot.

indieactivity: How can filmmakers finance their projects?
Guilherme Pedra: There are a few ways to do that, such as self-financing, applying the projects for grants, finding potential investors and doing crowdfunding (like I did for both of my films).

indieactivity: What do you want from an actor during a production?
Guilherme Pedra: I want the actor to be relaxed so they are on top of their game to deliver the best performance possible. They should also be open, and never shut off; willing to try different things and have trust in the process and collaboration.

indieactivity: How do you prefer to work with a producer during a production?
Guilherme Pedra: I like a trusting relationship with my producer, who should be open to changes and available (which I should be too).

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indieactivity: Who is your favorite director?
Guilherme Pedra: That’s a hard one to answer, because I always have a hard time picking favorites. I’d say that one of the directors whose work has impacted me most profoundly is without a doubt Krzysztof Kieślowski.

indieactivity: Why?
Guilherme Pedra: Kieślowski’s films are haunting, beautiful, profound and always so poetic, human and revealing. I’m always in awe and inspired by how he crafts emotion and understands so deeply the inner life of his characters.

indieactivity: Why?
Guilherme Pedra: Kieślowski’s films are haunting, beautiful, profound and always so poetic, human and revealing. I’m always in awe and inspired by how he crafts emotion and understands so deeply the inner life of his characters.

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