Welcome back to ThinkTalk's Hump Day Movie Day. Every Wednesday we're going to pull a favorite interview from the archives. This week, our feature showing is a Director's Cut interview with Jared Hess, the creative and comic genius behind films like Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre. The director and producer sat down in the ThinkTalk studios to answer questions from the University of Maryland. He talks about how he became successful as a director, and also gives tips on scriptwriting.

Jared Hess – writer, director, and producer –attended Brigham Young University’s film school. Hess began as a camera assistant for various companies and a director of photography for IMAX films; he was determined from a very young age to be successful as a filmmaker. He wrote and directed the award winning short film Peluca that starred Brigham Young classmate and friend Jon Heder. The short was also a prototype for his first feature film Napoleon Dynamite. Napoleon Dynamite, which was shot in his hometown in Idaho and was based on his own family’s stories, was nominated for Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and won much critical acclaim, including the Film Discovery Jury Award at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. Hess also worked with Jack Black for 2006’s Nacho Libre, and collaborated with producer Mike White for his latest project, Gentlemen Broncos.