Director’s Notes: Boogie Nights

At only 26, writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson synthesized his love of Robert Altman and Martin Scorsese into a seedy epic - and a signature style - all its own. While making “After Party,” we couldn’t help but be inspired.

It was my genuine pleasure to introduce our Director of Photography Ella (and eventually Producer Kat and Editor Suzan) to this sleezefest. Anderson’s camera mimics the stamina of his performers across a bevy of virtuoso stedi-cam shots (if our stedi-cam shots in “After Party” are half as impressive, we’ll consider it a job well done). Really, Boogie Nights is a movie about a bunch of parties - and what happens when the party’s over. Desire certainly abounds in the tale of Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg). But Anderson’s real magic trick is that even when things get dark, they never descend into total tragedy. A big lesson was that “After Party” had to conform to a similar structure: a movie about a party needs to be fun!

P.S. - We didn’t cast Harrison because he looks like Philip Seymour Hoffman. But the similarity has not been lost on production.

- Jonah Koslofsky, Director