Jeff Nichols Discusses the Inspiration, Writing, and Directing of ’The Bikeriders’

2024-06-20

Jeff Nichols is the director of the film, The Bikeriders, a story about a 1960s motorcycle club that turns into a menacing gang, known as the Vandals. The film is adapted from Danny Lyon’s book of the same title. The complex nature of The Bikeriders, leaves us asking, “Why are we attracted to dangerous things?”In today’s episode, No Film School’s Jason Hellerman speaks with director Jeff Nichols to discuss: Feeling inspired by a photographic documentary book Deliberately changing the film’s structure from the first hour to the second hour The importance of characte...

Jeff Nichols is the director of the film, The Bikeriders, a story about a 1960s motorcycle club that turns into a menacing gang, known as the Vandals. The film is adapted from Danny Lyon’s book of the same title. The complex nature of The Bikeriders, leaves us asking, “Why are we attracted to dangerous things?”

In today’s episode, No Film School’s Jason Hellerman speaks with director Jeff Nichols to discuss:

Feeling inspired by a photographic documentary book
Deliberately changing the film’s structure from the first hour to the second hour
The importance of character point of view
Why the film style felt appropriate for this story
Casting and location scouting - two of the most important parts of the process
Using photos from the book for location inspiration
Feeling drawn to dangerous characters
Why he doesn’t block scenes or rehearse with actors
Using a documentary-style editing structure
When Jeff realized this story needed to be a movie

Memorable Quotes

“It was by design that the first hour would have one feeling, and the second hour would have another.” [7:58]
“These actors are so damn good. I just get to sit back and watch. Sometimes I forget to yell cut.” [16:14]
“I was trying to build the script on the page to feel like it had been collected and put together like a documentary.” [22:45]

Mentioned

The Bikeriders (trailer)

The Bikeriders (book)

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