If you're making a film, the one thing I've learned is you have to pick somebody really well-known to make it relevant.
My advice to first time filmmakers is believe in yourself and the message you want to give in the film you are making.
I think the most important is believing in yourself and being passionate about everything you do in life.
The link between Vreeland and Guggenheim is their mutual sense of reinvention and transformation. That made something click inside of me as I too reinvented myself when I began writing the book on Diana Vreeland .
The most challenging thing about this one was the vast amount of material we had at our disposal. We had a lot of media to go through - instead of fashion spreads, which informed The Eye Has To Travel, we had art, which was fantastic. I was spoiled by the access we had to these incredible archives and footage.
I learned how to make a documentary by having a good team around me. My editors (and co-writers)Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt and Frédéric Tcheng were very helpful.
Research is fundamental; finding as much as you can and never giving up. I love the research. It is my "precise time". Not just for interviews but of footage, photographs never seen before. It is a painstaking process that satisfies me. The research never ends. I was still researching while I was promoting the Diana Vreeland book. I love reading books and going to original sources.