“I'll have a sentence in my head that's kind of beautiful and interesting, but I'm not sure why or where it's coming from. So it's kind of funny, because when people point out patterns or themes, it's the exact opposite of my film school experience.” PeopleKindSchoolBeautifulFilmInterestingOppositesPatternsSentencesNot SureThemeFilm SchoolSchool Experience Author:Don Hertzfeldt
“If an audience finds themselves paying attention to how you made your film, you're sunk because that means they're unplugged from your story. What matters is what's unfolding on the screen, not how you put it there. It doesn't matter if it's red triangles or million dollar software if the audience doesn't care.” IfsMeanMadeMatterStoriesCareFilmAttentionMillionsAudienceRedDollarsScreensPay AttentionSoftwareWhat MattersMillion DollarsUnfoldingTriangles Author:Don Hertzfeldt
“There's really no reason film and digital can't happily co-exist and benefit from one another. Anyone who tells you otherwise is just trying to sell you something.” TryingReasonFilmBenefitsSellsDigitalNo Reason Author:Don Hertzfeldt
“I'm a bit of a weird creature... I'm self taught and went to a regular film school, not art school, and I think it's unusual for somebody to approach animation from that angle. In a sense I've sometimes consclassered myself more of a filmmaker who just happens to animate.” ThinkingArtSelfSometimesHappensSchoolFilmBitsTaughtCreaturesApproachFilmmakerUnusualAngleAnimationArt SchoolFilm SchoolSelf Taught Author:Don Hertzfeldt
“The only purpose of the visuals, in any film, is to serve the story.” StoriesFilmPurposeVisuals Author:Don Hertzfeldt
“If you go to a film festival and watch a bunch of features and then watch a bunch of shorts, you will almost always find that the shorts are where people are taking more risks and pushing more boundaries...simply because they have much less to lose.” PeopleIfsFilmLosesWatchesRiskBoundariesBunchFeaturesPushingFestivalsShortsFilm Festivals Author:Don Hertzfeldt
“But I had never drawn on a tablet before. I've been doing pencil and paper and film for almost 20 years. I wanted to try something different. I wanted to teach myself some digital stuff in advance of a bigger feature project that's coming up, and I took to it really quickly.” TryingYearsDifferentWantedFilmStuffTeachPaperProjectsBiggerFeaturesDigitalPencilsTablets Author:Don Hertzfeldt
“So much of the writing is not conscious, in the sense that it's not calculated. I remember in film school we had so many studies with big fancy words where you could dissect a movie and make charts of all of the characters' complicated inner relations and themes and what does this mean? And it's overwhelming as a student. It's great for a student, but as a writer, it's paralyzing.” WritingMeanDoeCharacterBigsSchoolRememberFilmStudyStudentsConsciousRelationComplicatedFancyThemeOverwhelmingFilm School Author:Don Hertzfeldt
“I think some of this just feels right. You're in the shower and you come up with a sentence and it's beautiful. You don't know how it's going to fit in the film, but you put it in because it feels right. This is a very long way of saying, so much of it is me feeling like I'm catching ideas rather than coming up with ideas. It's very fluid like that.” ThinkingKnowsWayFeelsLongIdeasFeelingsBeautifulFilmKnow HowFitCome UpSentencesShowersLong WayCatchingFluidFeels RightBeautiful You Author:Don Hertzfeldt
