M. Night Shyamalan's Daughter Ishana Worked on 'Old' After Graduating from NYU!

Making the movie Old was a family affair for director M. Night Shyamalan, who hired his daughter Ishana to serve as the second unit director.

The 22-year-old budding filmmaker, who recently graduated from NYU, is opening up about working with her dad on the new film.

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“It happened randomly,” Ishana told Variety about getting the job. “I was doing work on Servant, and he pitched it to me far in advance. He said, ‘Would you be my second unit director?’ At first, I thought, ‘No way’… There was a lot of nervousness, but then as I got more comfortable working on Servant with him, it seemed the natural thing to do. It was this incredible, spiritual experience for us. We were together every day on this beach for up to 12 hours a day and in tandem.”

Ishana also talked about seeing her dad’s process in person. She said, “The way he approaches movies is very prescribed and programmatic. He has everything storyboarded. In the hotel room, he had 12 huge storyboards with the whole movie laid out. We also talked about what elements I could grab on the island that would supplement the film such as nature shots, shots of the resort and other transitional shots.”

“As his daughter, I was in a lot of conversations with my dad and cinematographer Mike Gioulakis that would happen over a dinner table or in a car,” she continued. “I’d hear them going over shots and how they were inspired by so many Japanese films and Australian new wave films. They would show me clips, and then I’d go out and mimic those shots. I’d be mimicking the feeling of nature, it was about trying to implement their style into whatever I was getting. We shot on film, so you’re carrying a huge film camera and going up mountains or driving for hours to capture the bottom of the beach.”

Check out photos of the full family at the premiere!