“I don't find anything interesting about the choices a character faces in major films or theater projects. The characters are just cut-out dolls with the American flag sewn on them.” CharacterFilmFacesChoicesInterestingCuttingProjectsMajorsTheaterFlagsDollsAmerican Flag Author:Amanda Plummer
“Cut like crazy. Less is more. I've often read manuscripts - including my own - where I've got to the beginning of, say, chapter two and have thought: “This is where the novel should actually start.” A huge amount of information about character and backstory can be conveyed through small detail. The emotional attachment you feel to a scene or a chapter will fade as you move on to other stories. Be business-like about it.” FeelsShouldTwoCharacterStoriesMovingMy OwnNovelCuttingCrazyInformationEmotionalHugeAmountSceneIncludingDetailsAttachmentFadesChaptersManuscriptsLess Is MoreSmall Details Author:Sarah Waters
“Costume is always an asset. Normal costume you have a lot to say about - if you're wearing suits or ties, and what color you want, and how it's going to be cut, and stuff like that, and whether or not you're going to wear a hat, and blah, blah, blah. But, when you're wearing a special costume, and of course, costume is probably the second ingredient in character, script being first, I always find that the costume does a lot to cement your character, to put it firmly in mind.” IfsWantMindFirstsDoeCharacterCoursesStuffCuttingSpecialColorNormalScriptsSuitsTiesHatsIngredientsAssetsCostumesCementBlahWearing A Suit Author:Morgan Freeman
“There are people already sharing eBooks out there, .. and they do it simply because they love books. You don't buy a second copy of a book, cut the spine off, lay each page on a scanner, run that .tif through an OCR (Optical Character Reader), hand edit the resulting output for errors and then post it online if you don't love the book. it can up to 80 hours to turn a printed novel into an eBook. I figure if someone out there is willing to put in 80 hours of work promoting my book, then I'd prefer they do it in a way that gives a better return to me.” PeopleIfsWayGivingBookCharacterHandsRunningTurnsHoursNovelCuttingFiguresWillingReturnReaderPagesLaysErrorsPostsOnlineCopiesPromotingPrintedEditsSpineOutputReturn To Me Author:Cory Doctorow
“What we are accustomed to decry as great social evils, will, for the most part, be found to be only the out-growth of our own perverted life; and though we may endeavor to cut them down and extirpate them by means of law, they will only spring up again with fresh luxuriance in some other form, unless the conditions of human life and character are radically improved.” HumansMayMeanCharacterFormLawEvilFoundSocialGrowthCuttingConditionsSpringDown AndHuman LifeEndeavorAccustomedSocial Evils Book:Self-help Source: Self-help
“Killing characters on television has become an easy short cut to cathartic emotion.” CharacterEasyEmotionCuttingTelevisionKillingShort CutsCathartic Author:Nic Pizzolatto
“Hillary has her work cut out for her. Her Democratic challengers are a 'Who's Who' of 'who's that?' Jim Webb, Lincoln Chafee, Silas Phelps, Peter Wilks... now those last two were characters from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. You didn't even notice, did you?” TwoCharacterLastsCuttingAdventureDemocraticPeterHuckleberry Author:Cecily Strong
“The way glass can be molded or blown or cut into any kind of shape made me think about how we as people - our characters or souls - can be shaped or changed by outside influences.” PeopleThinkingWayKindMadeSoulCharacterCuttingInfluenceChangedShapesGlassesOutside Influences Author:Lisa Kleypas
“American and Vietnamese characters alike leap to life through the voice and eyes of a tenyearold girl-a protagonist so strong, loving, and vivid I longed to hand her a wedge of freshly cut papaya.” CharacterHandsEyeGirlStrongVoiceCuttingLeapVividProtagonistsVietnameseWedgesPapaya Author:Mitali Perkins
“I'm not interested in cutting the feet off my characters or stretching them to make them fit my certain political view.” CharacterPoliticalCertainViewsCuttingFeetFitNot InterestedStretchingPolitical View Author:Margaret Atwood
“When I am writing I don't set a certain number of pages. I do know that the further into a script I get the faster it goes. As soon as you start making decisions you start cutting off all of the other possibilities of things that could happen. So with every decision that you make you are removing a whole bunch of other possibilities of where that story can go or what that character can do. So when I get maybe 2/3's of the way through I can see very clearly where it is going to go.” KnowsWayWritingI CanWholeCharacterStoriesHappensCertainCan DoDecisionNumbersCuttingPossibilityPagesScriptsBunchFasterMaking DecisionsCutting Off Author:Steven Zaillian
“I'm fond of all my characters so every time one doesn't make the cut I'm a little disappointed although I understand it.” LittlesCharacterCuttingDisappointed Author:George R. R. Martin
“Silent is about needing to make a scene shorter by having physical things to cut to. That way, you can manipulate a character to the other side of the room. But, if they say the wrong thing, it might locate that action in a particular part of the scene. It's a mechanical need.” IfsWayNeedsCharacterMightActionSidesRoomsCuttingParticularSceneSilentManipulateWrong ThingsPhysical Things Author:Gus Van Sant
“Although I'm very lazy when it comes to writing, I'm not that lazy when it comes to thinking. I like to develop the plan of a short story, then cut it as short as possible, try to evolve all the necessary details. I know far more about the characters than what actually comes out of the writing.” ThinkingKnowsWritingTryingCharacterStoriesCuttingPlansDetailsEvolveLazyShort Story Author:Jorge Luis Borges
“I've done movies in the past that have so many characters and I find it's very hard to follow all these stories. You end up not caring about any of the people and I thought that would be the case in this film, and you had these big speeches for each character, you know, it's like "God that's how you'll have to cut that down in order to paste it all", to edit the movie and my representatives could say "no, you really you ought to check it out.” PeopleKnowsEndsHardDoneCharacterStoriesBigsWould BePastFilmOrderCasesCuttingOughtSpeechCaringChecksRepresentativesEditsNot Caring Author:Jeff Bridges
“Whenever I get distracted or bored, my eyes wander over to that chalkboard and I read the words. Some of them grow on me, and others annoy me. I attack the latter with eraser and chalk, and keep nudging at them until I like the way they look and sound. Others never make the cut at all and simply get erased. Perhaps one day I will sell these on eBay to RPG players who need names for characters or alien races.” WayNeedsLooksCharacterEyeNamesGrowsSoundRaceCuttingPlayerOne DaySellsWanderAliensBoredLatterAnnoyingDistractedChalkEbayErasersChalkboardsRpgs Author:Neal Stephenson
“Writing, for me, is a little like wood carving. You find the lump of tree (the big central theme that gets you started), and you start cutting the shape that you think you want it to be. But you find, if you do it right, that the wood has a grain of its own (characters develop and present new insights, concentrated thinking about the story opens new avenues). If you're sensible, you work with the grain and, if you come across a knot hole, you incorporate that into the design. This is not the same as 'making it up as you go along'; it's a very careful process of control.” IfsThinkingWantWritingLittlesCharacterStoriesBigsProcessCuttingTreeDesignShapesCarefulInsightWoodsHolesThemeSensibleGrainAvenuesKnotsLumpsCarving Author:Terry Pratchett
“In terms of my relationships with a lot of the adult characters, when I was working with Harrison, it wasn't like a verbal agreement, but we both understood that because there was this constant tension between our characters, we couldn't say "Cut" and start acting normal. We had to keep an essence of that relationship in our characters off screen which is really important.” ImportantCharacterTermActingCuttingNormalUnderstoodAdultsEssenceConstantScreensTensionAgreement Author:Asa Butterfield
“That's the thing about acting - it does have the feeling of downhill skiing. When it's really all going right, you know your lines, you know what's important to your character, you pick the strongest reactions possible to elements in the story. But then you let it all go and you're in the moment and stuff happens. It surprises you and it's super strong; it's like you're living life in a slightly heightened way in the time between "action" and "cut."” KnowsWayDoeImportantMomentsCharacterStoriesFeelingsHappensActionStrongStuffLinesActingCuttingLike YouElementsPicksSurpriseReactionsLive LifeStrongestWhat's ImportantSkiingStuff Happens Author:Mira Sorvino
“With mockumentaries, the conceit is that the characters are being interviewed, so you can start a scene and cut to a character looking at the camera and saying, "I'm working on this project," instead of having to figure out ways for people to talk naturally about what they're doing. You see this problem in pilots - people end up explaining things to each other that they'd never explain in real life.” PeopleWayRealEndsCharacterProblemCuttingFiguresSceneProjectsCamerasReal LifePilotsExplainingConceitDoing YouExplaining Things Author:Michael Schur
“The great thing about the animation process is that is goes from, I write the lines, it goes to the actors, the actors bring a whole world to that, they bring the characters to life, then it goes to the animators, then it goes to the editor who cuts it together, and then you screen it and it goes back through the system again.” WorldWritingWholeCharacterTogetherActorsProcessLinesCuttingScreensWhole WorldGreat ThingsEditorsAnimationAnimator Author:Michael Arndt
“It's interesting because the way J.J. cuts - we're very close with our editors as well, so it's kind of the first cut and then he went back and started tightening things up, etc, then loosing things when it was too tight. Then you start watching it and you start figuring out performance - not performance, character-wise I should say, who you're really able to follow, whose journey is harder to follow, and you make all that work.” WayShouldFirstsWellsKindCharacterAbleInterestingWiseCuttingJourneyPerformancesHarderEtcEditors Author:Bryan Burk
“In every take, that you're not sure of what they're going to cut and paste together and what the arc or the purpose or the intention of your character's journey will be in the story. You don't have control. Sometimes that's wonderful, and sometimes that can be scary.” SometimesCharacterStoriesTogetherPurposeCuttingWonderfulJourneyIntentionScaryNot SureArcs Author:Shannyn Sossamon
“Well, that's the great thing about indie film, in general. If it's not subject to the constraints of too much pressure from the studio or marketing, and all of that, you get to actually present fuller characters and you get to have the dark side of the characters. That's usually what gets cut out.” IfsWellsCharacterFilmSidesDarkToo MuchCuttingSubjectsPressureMarketingStudiosGreat ThingsConstraintsDark SideIndie Films Author:Ty Burrell
“My problem has been with purely digital films. I feel the danger there is that the kind of short-cuts you end up having to take are the ones that are most telling in the main characters.” FeelsKindHas BeensEndsCharacterProblemFilmCuttingDangerDigitalMain CharactersShort Cuts Author:Rick Heinrichs
“We were doing this close-up of my character on a cell phone, and the director's just like "Cut! Can we get somebody else's hand in there?" I do bite my fingernails, and you don't want to see a fat, bitten thumbnail on a 30-foot movie screen, so I get somebody with really nice, sexy hands and put 'em in there.” WantCharacterHandsNiceCuttingFeetDirectorsPhonesSexyScreensFatsCellsEmsBitesCell PhoneReally NiceFingernails Author:Miles Teller
“I did a lot of this through writing flashbacks. Many of the flashbacks took place at Cal's school and I eventually cut them because they didn't seem essential and they slowed the pace of the story in the first third of the book. They were essential to me, though, in that I learned about my characters.” WritingFirstsBookCharacterStoriesSeemsSchoolCuttingEssentialsThirdsPaceFlashback Author:Edan Lepucki