Directing Clusterf**k

by Guy Ferland

One of the things I loved most about filming this episode of "Crash" was how the emotions one usually gets out of a single scene are achieved by intercutting many scenes of strangers who won't even meet until the second half of the episode. Conflicts and relationships are built between people who live on different sides of the city. They maybe lonely and lost, but they are connected by a story they are unaware they are in. This makes us ask, "are we?"

As the title implies, this is an episode of conflicts. Story lines connect as we witness principle characters meeting each other for the first time. My job as director was to clearly build each story about a character who is "running away" from their circumstance - thus running "into" a new situation that involves other characters we've gotten to know over the course of the season. My hope is that we are clearly identifying with Christine's decision to be brave, Anthony's feelings of abandonment by Ben, Ben's existential crises, etc - and that when these characters converge on each other, we feel them change.

The challenging and revolutionary aspects of this way of storytelling were embraced by every actor, and every member of the crew. The enthusiasm was infectious, and for me it was a beautiful experience.