Jesse Zwick '08 (Writer & Director, ABOUT ALEX, PARENTHOOD)

By Stacey Collins

About Alex, opens on August 8th, is writer-director Jesse Zwick’s (08/09) feature film debut. The rookie filmaker managed to pull together an impressive ensamble cast (Jason Ritter, Max Greenfield, Aubrey Plaza, Jane Levy, Maggie Grace, Nate Parker, and Max Minghella). As a firsttime director who took bold moves, Zwick reveals himself as an insightful writer/director with a natural comedic instinct. This poignant dramady tells a story about college friends reunited for the weekend after one of them attempts suicide. Old resentments and romances resurface, as the group discovers new things about each other in a secluded home in the Catskills, despite years staying connected by the ease of social media.

Zwick grew up in a filmmaking family in Los Angeles — his father is Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ed Zwick — but initially didn’t have a desire to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. A Social Studies concentrator at Harvard College, he worked as a journalist in Washington D.C. for three years after graduation. He had always had an idea for a screenplay that he’d tinkered with, and gradually started working on it nights and weekends. Zwick realized he was willingly writing screenplays in his spare time and not getting paid for it, and this probably indicated his own passion for filmmaking.

He emphasizes the need for passion for a project, how that kind of excitement will sustain you in the challenging and long hours that quality filmmaking demands. “You need the passion to get up every day, to stare at that same footage day in and day out for months.”

When asked on what advice he’d give to rising writer/directors, he refers to a “learn by doing” methodology. “As a writer, you need to ask yourself the question, do I have the discipline to do it every day? And also not to be afraid to show your material to someone.”

In terms of looking for material, he encourages aspiring directors to write their own scripts. “It’s incumbent on you to generate it,” says Zwick, “people aren’t just going to hand you great material when you’re starting out.”

Zwick likens his experience directing About Alex to the education one would learn in film school. In the filmaking process he learned how to tell a story visually, as well as the value of collaborate effort of filmaking--and the gems he might have missed had he been closed off to ideas. The director mentions how he was open to hearing others’ thoughts on set, at times allowing for something impromptu, that it “would have been criminal if I hadn’t,” says Zwick, “I learned not to be too precious with my own script.”

He points out how filmmakers can do more than less, that he learned the value of “writing with economy.” He appreciates how the work of an editor strengthened his own writing craft. On the cutting floor he could see the benefit of paring back, for example in one scene he observed how an actor’s look communicated as much as a monlogue. “I became more economical in my writing as a result of being an editor/filmmaker.”

Zwick is thrilled to return to the final season of Parenthood as a staff writer. He continues to work in his spare time on his next film project idea, a romance with comedic elements, about a 20-something couple who meet in New York City. The story explores the choice of losing oneself in a realtionship or focusing on your own life to allow for personal growth. With a directorial debut like About Alex, we look forward to future projects by this promising filmmaker.