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Rian Johnson

Rian Johnson Quotes

Film producer

Rian Johnson, born on December 17, 1973, is a talented film producer known for his unique perspective and exquisite production skills in the film industry.

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Famous Rian Johnson Quotes

“Heeded my words not, did you? Pass on what you have learned. Strength. Mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is. Luke, we are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.”

Teachers Teachers And Learners Yoda

Author:Rian Johnson

“I bristle a little when the argument for film gets put into the nostalgia ghetto. Film is still the highest quality and best-looking image capture medium available. I don't think it always will be. The digital image will get better, and it will eventually surpass the quality of the film image, but it isn't there yet.”

Thinking Littles Stills Film Quality Highest Argument Available Nostalgia Mediums Get Better Digital Capture Ghetto

Author:Rian Johnson

“All my favorite movies are somebody else's least favorite movie.”

Author:Rian Johnson

“Belgrade has kind of a Dublinesque, dear-dirty charm.”

Kind Dear Dirty Charm Belgrade

Author:Rian Johnson

“Game of Thrones' is just incredible, what they pull off every week.”

Games Week Incredibles Thrones

Author:Rian Johnson

“In almost the same way you know what your grandmother looks and sounds like, you know what Bruce Willis looks and sounds like.”

Knows Way Looks Sound Like You Grandmother Your Grandmother

Author:Rian Johnson

“My favorite sci-fi always uses its hook to amplify some bigger theme or idea - some emotional thrust.”

Ideas Use Emotional Bigger My Favorite Theme Sci Fi Hook Thrust Amplify

Author:Rian Johnson

“Showing your movie to an audience... it's like your kid doing a piano recital. 'Just let it not fail. Please.”

Kids Audience Failing Like You Please Piano Recitals

Author:Rian Johnson

“The critical reaction to 'Bloom' has been similar to 'Brick.' There are people on board with it and people who are not.”

People Has Beens Critical Reactions Boards Bricks

Author:Rian Johnson

“Well, you know, we all grew up as 'Star Wars' fans.”

Knows Wells War Stars Fans Grew Grew Up

Author:Rian Johnson

“With 'Brick,' I wrote the script when I was 23 and didn't make the movie until I was 30.”

Author:Rian Johnson

“You go from these high hopes when you're writing to just a desperate want of not making a complete fool of yourself by the end of it.”

Want Writing Ends Fool Desperate

Author:Rian Johnson

“You never want to make a "message movie," but you always want to be talking about something that you care about.”

Want Care Talking Messages

Author:Rian Johnson

“Back before 'Brick,' I wrote a short film that I never ended up shooting: hit men in the present who work for a mob in the future who send their victims back in time. A guy is sent his future self, he lets him run, and the whole short was them chasing each other across the city. That sat in a drawer for 10 years until after I made 'Brothers Bloom.”

Men Years Made Self Whole Running Film Guy Cities Brother Victim Shooting Sat Chasing Bricks Drawers Back In Time Short Films Future Self

Author:Rian Johnson

“Even if I had $200 million, I’m very wary of overusing CGI. I think it’s a great tool and it can be used really effectively, but I feel like it does tend to be overused and especially in sci-fi stuff.”

Ifs Thinking Feels Doe Used Stuff Millions Tools Sci Fi Cgi Overused

Author:Rian Johnson

“Hopefully with each thing that you do you're learning something, you're growing, and you're pushing yourself a little harder in some way or another. So I think you'd be in real trouble if each new thing that you create didn't feel like 'Oh, wow. I feel like I'm doing something a little different this time.”

Ifs Thinking Way Feels Littles Different Real Growing Trouble Harder Hopefully Pushing Wow New Things Push Yourself

Author:Rian Johnson

“I do love science fiction, but it's not really a genre unto itself; it always seems to merge with another genre. With the few movies I've done, I've ended up playing with genre in some way or another, so any genre that's made to mix with others is like candy to me. It allows you to use big, mythic situations to talk about ordinary things.”

Way Made Done Use Bigs Seems Fiction Situation Ordinary Science Fiction Genre Candy Ordinary Things Science Love

Author:Rian Johnson

“I do think that I'm a big believer in having an idea or having ideas and just tucking them away in the back of your brain. Even if you aren't consciously thinking of them, I think they simmer. You're working on them, even if you don't know you're working on them, and I think having something in your head for a while is a valuable thing.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Ideas Bigs Brain Valuable Believer Valuable Things

Author:Rian Johnson

“I feel like people want to be surprised when they get out of the movies. They want something thrown at them they didn't expect. They want stuff that reminds them of the feelings that you get when you're watching art house movies but with the fun of like a big summer movie. That's the goal, I guess.”

People Want Feels Art Feelings Bigs House Fun Stuff Goal Summer Thrown Want Something

Author:Rian Johnson

“I just don't think CGI is up to manipulating the human face yet. I feel like you can get away with it with aliens or monsters or something that's intentionally foreign, but I have yet to see anything digital to do with the human face that doesn't just look ridiculous.”

Thinking Feels Humans Looks Faces Like You Ridiculous Monsters Aliens Digital Get Away Human Faces Cgi

Author:Rian Johnson

“I mean, the first “Back to the Future” is kind of a perfect script, I think. In terms of handling time travel the best, it depends on your definition. To me, that means it effectively uses it in the story.”

Thinking Firsts Kind Mean Stories Use Term Perfect Depends Scripts Definitions Time Travel

Author:Rian Johnson

“Teen movies often have an unspoken underlying premise in which high school is seen as less serious than the adult world. But when your head is encased in that microcosm it's the most serious time of your life.”

World School Serious High School Adults Premises Unspoken Microcosm Time Of Your Life

Author:Rian Johnson

“Unlike some of the time-travel movies I love, like 'Primer' or '12 Monkeys,' 'Looper' is not about time travel. It's about this situation that time travel creates and the people dealing with that situation. So narratively, the big challenge was to have time travel get out of the way.”

People Way Bigs Challenges Situation Time Travel Monkeys Big Challenges

Author:Rian Johnson

“Then I saw it. I saw a mom who would die for her son. A man who would kill for his wife. A boy, angry and alone. Laid out in front of him, the bad path. I saw it. And the path was a circle. Round and round. So I changed it.”

Men Dies Boys Path Saws Wife Fronts Changed Son Mom Angry Rounds Circles

Author:Rian Johnson

“When I see a news story on a site, about a movie that I'm interested in, it's like the mouse going for the pleasure button and I click it. But then, when I see the movie, it's like, "Oh, I would have enjoyed the movie that much more, if I hadn't known that."”

Ifs Stories Pleasure Known News Enjoyed Buttons Site Mice Clicks News Stories

Author:Rian Johnson

“There's something about the sci-fi genre that gets an audience interested in it, so maybe you can take some risks that you couldn't, if you were just doing a drama. It lets you maybe reach a little further and surprise people a little bit more because there's still that little safety base of working on that genre that everybody loves.”

People Ifs Littles Stills Bits Audience Risk Drama Little Bit Safety Surprise Genre Sci Fi

Author:Rian Johnson

“Storytelling wise, you've gotta take it as far as you can possibly take it with each individual movie. If you're holding out something for a sequel or some cliff-hanger, that's not how I think of a satisfying story.”

Ifs Thinking Stories Individual Wise Storytelling Satisfying Cliffs Sequels Hangers

Author:Rian Johnson

“I really spend as long as I can sketching everything out and working on the structure before I sit down to type out scenes.”

Long I Can Type Scene Structure Sketching

Author:Rian Johnson

“If I spend a year and a half writing a script, the first year will be outlining in notebooks. It's just the way I work, definitely not necessarily the best way.”

Ifs Way Writing Years Firsts Half Scripts Best Way Notebook Outlining

Author:Rian Johnson

“The momentum of production keeps you from giving up, so it's really the editing and writing phases where things can look bleakest.”

Giving Writing Looks Giving Up Productions Phases Editing Momentum Editing And Writing

Author:Rian Johnson

“When you're writing is when the "god should I just drop this" feeling can hit. When you're editing is when the "god this is awful and I've wasted everyone's time and money and will be revealed as a fraud" feeling can hit.”

Should Writing Feelings Awful Fraud Should I Editing Time And Money

Author:Rian Johnson

“The only advice I can really give to the young filmmakers is to be persistent, don't give up, and keep watching and making as many movies as you possibly can.”

Giving I Can Young Advice Giving Up Filmmaker Persistent Don't Give Up

Author:Rian Johnson

“I think what I love about science fiction and what sci-fi can be really good at is obviously you're working with outlandish concepts that have very little to do with the real world, like time travel for instance.”

Thinking World Littles Real Fiction Concepts Science Fiction Instance Real World Sci Fi Being Real Time Travel Outlandish

Author:Rian Johnson

“Much of directing [a movie] is not directing but just listening and being present in the moment and just keeping your eyes open.”

Moments Eye Listening Just Listen

Author:Rian Johnson

“I'm definitely a big believer in the notion that a heightened style can get you closer to an authentic human experience than so-called realism on film. There are films I love that have kind of a muted or realistic style, but for me on any given day I have more moments during the course of a day that feel like a Fellini movie than I do a Cassavettes movie.”

Feels Humans Kind Moments Bigs Film Courses Given Style Notion Believer Realistic Realism Human Experience

Author:Rian Johnson

“If you make something interesting, inevitably not everybody is going to like it.”

Ifs Interesting Something Interesting

Author:Rian Johnson

“My filmmaking background has really just been making movies with my friends since I was 12 years old. That's how I feel I learned how to tell a story visually, by just going out with a video camera and making movies with my friends and family.”

Feels Years Stories My Friends Cameras Backgrounds Video Filmmaking Going Out Family And Friends Video Cameras

Author:Rian Johnson

“Rather than thinking in terms of a specific genre or specific kind of thing, I hope I can just stay relatively small and keep making my movies. If I can keep writing them and making them, I'll be happy.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Kind I Can Term Genre

Author:Rian Johnson

“Writing in a lot of ways feels more like excavation than construction. It feels like you're uncovering this thing bit by bit, discovering what it is, instead of constructing it upwards.”

Way Feels Writing Bits Like You Construction Discovering Uncovering

Author:Rian Johnson

“All of us have that feeling of some deficiency from our childhood. I think that's a universal thing.”

Thinking Feelings Childhood Universal Our Children Deficiency

Author:Rian Johnson

“That's part of the appeal of time-travel movies: The notion of going back and fixing something.”

Notion Appeals Time Travel Fixing

Author:Rian Johnson

“Memory is a form of time travel. That's something we do during the course of the day, every single day. The idea of actually being able to physically adjust that and change it instead of being haunted by it is a really human thing.”

Humans Ideas Able Form Courses Memories Time Travel

Author:Rian Johnson

“Writing sucks. I think it's terrible. Writing is not fun, and don't trust anyone who claims to enjoy it. Liars!”

Thinking Writing Fun Enjoy Terrible Claims Liars Don't Trust Don't Trust Anyone

Author:Rian Johnson

“I'm a sci-fi fan, and I guess you have to let go of some of that at some point, and realize that as long as you're focused on telling a story that you care about, at the end of the day, that's what really matters, even to hard-core sci-fi fans.”

Long Ends Matter Hard Stories Care Realizing Fans Letting Go Focused Core The End Of The Day Sci Fi Hard Core

Author:Rian Johnson

“The fanboy community can smell in an instant, like smelling fear, when something was tailor-made in order to reach them as a demographic.”

Made Order Community Smell Instant Demographics Tailors

Author:Rian Johnson

“It's best if I stay out of future plans and let time go on.”

Ifs Plans Goes On Future Plans Time Goes On If I Stay

Author:Rian Johnson

“You come out of each movie just thinking, "God, if we can fool them into letting us make just one more, we can get it right."”

Ifs Thinking Fool Just One Thinking God

Author:Rian Johnson

About the Author

Born: December 17, 1973
Known for: Film producer
Quotes: 47

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