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'The Smashing Machine' Director Benny Safdie Breaks Down a Scene | Vanity Fair

Safdie explains how he shapes performance and camera together to keep a scene feeling documentary-real. Valuable for directors interested in blending naturalistic acting with deliberate visual structure.

Vanity Fair · 12 min · Intermediate · DIR · Directing · 2025

What you take away

Give actors room to find the moment live on set, then use camera position to protect that spontaneity in the edit.

Watch it

Filed under

Oscar-winning performances

Oscar winners for directing

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
The Pianist (2002)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Schindler's List (1993)
Amadeus (1984)

Books on directing

The director’s monitor

FEELWORLD LUT7 PRO — A bright 7" monitor at a quarter of the price
Accsoon CineView SE — Video to a phone, for under three hundred
Accsoon CineView Quad — Four inputs, switchable — a tiny multicamera village
PortKeys BM5 III WR — Monitor that can also run the camera
Hollyland Mars 4K — 4K wireless to four phones at once
Atomos Ninja V — The 5" recorder-monitor that made ProRes RAW normal

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