More Actors Are Morphing Into Directors

Jennifer Jason Leigh is one of a number of movie actors who have taken a shine to digital video. Campbell Scott, her co-star in “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle,” directed his first digital video feature, “Final,” last year. French actress Julie Delpy shot “Looking for Jimmy” in 24 nonstop hours, then spent a year and half year at her computer editing the piece down.

Gregory Hines recently directed his first digital video movie for Showtime after taking a workshop sponsored by Apple Computer. For Ethan Hawke, digital video is nothing less than revolutionary.

“Unless you’re planning to make ‘Days of Heaven’ or something where you’re really gonna blow the world away with your photography, I don’t think there’s any reason to make an independent movie on film anymore,” he says.

Hawke directed his first feature last year using digital video. Shot in 18 days at Manhattan’s legendary bohemian residence the Chelsea Hotel, “Chelsea Walls” features Hawke’s wife, Uma Thurman, Vincent D’Onofrio, Steve Zahn, Natasha Richardson and Kris Kristofferson. The ensemble drama debuted last week at the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors Fortnight and is set for a fall release.

Notes Hawke, “DV gets away from candy-coated photography and a lot of posturing acting--acting that is totally designed to fit into a shot. With DV, it’s more like theater, where it comes down to the performances. It puts a lot of the play back into making movies.”

Lions Gate recently acquired five digital video movies from IFC Productions and InDigEnt, including “Chelsea Walls” and Richard Linklater’s “Tape.” Lions Gate President Tom Ortenberg praises digital video for enabling artists to tell personal stories without breaking the bank.

“The movie business is about art, and it’s about cost-benefit ratio and how you merge the two,” Ortenberg says. “Digital video allows the cost-benefit analysis part to come a lot closer to the art part.”