A woman discovers the house she has rented is not what it seems in Director Zach Cregger’s thriller, Barbarian.
Cregger’s film tells the story of Tess, a young woman who arrives at her Airbnb late at night only to find that her rental has been mistakenly double-booked and a strange man is already staying there. Against her better judgement, she decides to stay the night, but soon discovers that there is much more to be afraid of in the house than the other house guest.
On September 11, after the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Cregger discussed the making of Barbarian during a Q&A moderated by Director David F. Sandberg (Shazam! Fury of the Gods).
During the conversation, Cregger shared that his creative process for the film involved storyboards and camera placement but also included being prepared to adjust to changes on set.
“It took several years for someone to take interest in my script. For two years, I watched this movie in my head, and I knew where exactly the camera was going to be. But the beauty of working in a collaborative medium is that you get everybody’s good ideas and then you can feel smart when you say yes to them. We had these huge storyboards we would put up on set and everything we shot before on the boards. All I needed to worry about was lighting, the set was good, and talking to the actors. But you also have to be prepared to throw all of that out when an actor has an idea.”
Cregger’s other directorial credits include the feature films Miss March and The Civil War on Drugs; and episodes of Newsboyz, The Gang Self-Sucks, WKUK Talk About Sketches and The Whitest Kids U’Know.
Cregger has been a DGA member since 2007.
You can listen to Cregger's Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.