Ask A Muse: Colin Trevorrow
Questions about making work as a multi-hyphenate artist warrant many perspectives — and this is where you’ll find a few. Welcome to “Ask A Muse.”
The Muse: Colin Trevorrow
Filmmaker and Bay Area native Colin Trevorrow made his splash into Hollywood with his indie sci-fi film Safety Not Guaranteed that premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. From there, he spearheaded the return of the Jurassic Park franchise by introducing us to Jurassic World, and this summer, you can watch the epic conclusion to the Jurassic era with Jurassic World Dominion, directed and co-written by Trevorrow.
The Question: What opportunities do you see for artists emerging into the industry today?
Click play to listen to Colin Trevorrow’s full response; full transcript also available below
“I think there’s so many people who are now having stories told for them in a way that’s never happened in history, and I think that the exhibition system that we have is starting to reflect that.”
COLIN TREVORROW: Thinking about the answer to that question just makes me feel like the old Terminator looking at the T-1000, the liquid metal one, and trying to give him some advice on how to be a Terminator (Colin laughs). Cause I think things have changed so much from — from when I came out, it was kind of the “old way.” There was just this path of: if you wanted to be a filmmaker, you make a film and you go to Sundance with it and then you make another film and another film and another film… and you work your way up that way. And if you wanna be a writer, you have to sell a spec script. And both of those things don’t really exist in the same form that they did before. Both of those paths don’t really exist. And so I think that a lot of my own experience may not be entirely relevant.
What I am just witnessing right now is a slow but steady breaking down of the gatekeeping system, which I think is hugely positive and has a long way to go but is creating a new ecosystem for the kind of audiences that are being reached and how the new kinds of creators that are coming into the game are reaching those new audiences. I think there’s so many people who are now having stories told for them in a way that’s never happened in history, and I think that the exhibition system that we have is starting to reflect that also. Cause I think streamers like Netflix and Amazon — all of these places actually — you can make something that’s a little bit more for, not a niche audience, but for a specific audience and it can be hugely successful. And you’re not relying on suddenly having to appeal to absolutely everybody. You don’t have to make airplane food. Everyone on the airplane has to like the meal, so it sucks. (Bryce Dallas Howard and Colin chuckle) But now, you can actually say, “You know what, I’m just gonna make a meal for people who really dig this and it’s gonna be really carefully designed for this audience.” And that’s a hit.
And usually the things that I get really excited about when I’m watching stuff is when someone takes one of those kinds of swings, whether they connect or not. So I get fired up about it. And I would just say, no matter where you find yourself in this business, no matter what it does to you, I do think that originality within yourself, knowing your own voice and what you have to say, and finding a way to give whatever new idea you have to offer, that is within you, to the world, whether it’s possible or not or whether only a few of us may ever achieve it, is a worthy goal.
Excerpt from Colin Trevorrow’s Q&A with Bryce Dallas Howard and the Nine Muses Lab
