“The main problem is that the Hollywood system has already made the film before the director shoots a single frame.” MadeProblemFilmDirectorsHollywood Author:Mike Leigh
“It never occurred to me to be a film director, partly because I hadn't seen a single film by a female director, but I liked the idea of being a writer moving to Hollywood and being unhappy; that sounded romantic and fabulous to me.” IdeasFilmMovingDirectorsFemaleHollywoodUnhappyFabulousFilm DirectorsBeing Unhappy Author:Mary Harron
“I came from advertising. For me it's about protecting the director's vision. That's always the goal. There's keeping things on budget and on time and dealing with selling the movie so that to me is a focus. But also it's about serving the script. We are genre filmmakers, those are the films we love to make, so my perspective is a little different.” LittlesDifferentFilmGoalVisionFocusPerspectiveDirectorsScriptsSellingAdvertisingGenreBudgetsFilmmakerServing Author:Charles Roven
“I wanted to be in film. I wanted to be a film student, possibly be a director or cinematographer, not an actor. That was my goal. I didn't believe I had the physical beauty that I'd seen projected and advertised in movies, in theater. It just wasn't for me.” BelieveWantedFilmActorsGoalStudentsDirectorsTheaterPhysical BeautyCinematographersFilm Students Author:Pam Grier
“To the documentary director the appearance of things and people is only superficial. It is the meaning behind the thing and the significance underlying the person that occupy his attention... Documentary approach to cinema differs from that of story-film not in its disregard for craftsman-ship, but in the purpose to which that craftsmanship is put. Documentary is a trade just as carpentry or pot-making. The pot-maker makes pots, and the documentarian documentaries.” PeoplePersonsStoriesFilmPurposeBehindsAttentionDirectorsApproachTradeAppearanceShipsCinemaSignificanceMakersPotSuperficialDocumentariesDisregardCraftsmanCraftsmanshipCarpentry Author:Paul Rotha
“When I write a film, the film gets handed off to a producer and a director and I go my merry way. With television, I am expected and contracted to stick around and actually produce what I've written.” WayWritingFilmWrittenProduceTelevisionDirectorsSticksExpectedProducersMerry Author:Marc Guggenheim
“I think the financial restraint really pushes me as a director to be more creative with the way I shoot the film.” ThinkingWayFilmCreativeDirectorsFinancialRestraint Author:James Wan
“You want the film to be critically successful - you certainly want the film to be financially successful so that you can...well, because that's how movies like this are made, you know, they need to make money. But as a director, you can only make the movie that you want to make.” KnowsWantNeedsWellsMadeFilmSuccessfulDirectorsMaking Money Author:Joseph Kosinski
“To suddenly be working with one of the top-10 directors in the world, plus the film was in China, I almost blurted out, "How much do I have to pay?" It was just like a dream come true. That was an amazing experience.” WorldDreamFilmPayDirectorsChinaPlusDreams Come TrueAmazing ExperiencesTop 10 Author:Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
“To make good films, you have to have a good relationship and good collaboration as composer-director, composer-editor, composer-production designer-actor because you're working with the actors on screen.” FilmActorsDirectorsProductionsScreensDesignerEditorsCollaborationComposerGood RelationshipGood Films Author:Howard Shore
“Different directors have different techniques in the use of films. Cronenberg is very different in the way he works with film, and how he takes the audience into his films is different than how Peter Jackson would do that or Jon Stewart. So, if you go between those artists, you shift gears and you kind of fall into the working method of that film.” IfsWayKindDifferentUseFilmArtistFallAudienceDirectorsMethodTechniquePeterGears Author:Howard Shore
“I know a lot of directors have a whole staff of people trying to find their next film for them. I always just end up writing mine.” PeopleKnowsWritingTryingEndsWholeFilmNextMinesDirectorsStaff Author:Brian Helgeland
“I loved making The Imitation Game and it's really gratifying to hear the audience's response to the character that I play. It was just a little thing that I did because I really liked the film and I liked Benedict [Cumberbatch] and I loved Morten's [director Morten Tyldum] previous film, Headhunters. For me, it was something I did thinking, "Wow, this is a lovely quality piece of work."” ThinkingLittlesPlayCharacterFilmGamesQualityAudiencePiecesDirectorsResponseLovelyLittle ThingsWowImitation Author:Mark Strong
“There are two kinds of filmmaking: Hitchcock's (the film is complete in the director's mind) and Coppola's (which thrives on process). For Hitchcock, any variation from the complete internal idea is seen as a defect. The perfection already exists. Coppola's approach is to harvest the random elements that the process throws up, things that were not in his mind when he began.” MindKindTwoIdeasFilmProcessDirectorsElementsApproachPerfectionThriveInternalsFilmmakingHarvestDefectsVariationHitchcock Author:Walter Murch
“I don’t want to be an editor! I don’t want to direct; I’d be a horrible director. I don’t want to write - I have a “story by” credit on one film I did. And I don’t want to edit at all.” WantWritingStoriesFilmDirectorsDirectCreditHorribleEditorsEdits Author:Topher Grace
“It wouldn't have existed without France, and it's a French initiative. As a filmmaker, I owe everything to France - I got accepted at a French film school that takes six directors a year. Once you're in, you make films under the eye of people in the industry. You grow up in front of their eyes.” PeopleYearsEyeSchoolFilmGrowsGrowing UpFrontsIndustryDirectorsSixAcceptedFranceFilmmakerInitiativeFilm School Author:Deniz Gamze Erguven
“There are all very different directors. Some are more specific, some are calmer than others when the pressure is on, some use more colorful language and they all communicate differently. But they all have love and care in common. They are all artists. And they have voices that I believe shine through within their films. To add to that, as a director myself I have learned so much from all three. I would like to thank them for that.” BelieveDifferentUseCareFilmArtistThreeLanguageI BelieveVoiceCommonDirectorsPressureAddShiningCommunicateI Have LearnedColorfulLove And CareCalmer Author:E.J. Bonilla
“There's always room. That's what the directors usually want. They want the performer to bring themselves and give what they have to give for the role. The smart ones allow that to happen because then it becomes even more organic within the performer's imagination. It becomes even more real. It's not always a given in other films, but when Gunn works, and we all work together in a collaborative way like that, it becomes a given that you bring it. It becomes a lot of fun.” WayWantGivingRealHappensTogetherFilmGivenFunImaginationRoomsRolesDirectorsSmartWorking TogetherPerformers Author:Michael Rooker
“Well, I think that's been my career. I always choose stuff that's the same, yet different. These projects just happened. I didn't plan it out that way. I just happened to be free, and the director, Dan Pritzker, decided to do his film again. I say again because we did it seven years ago. A lot of the actors were not available, so he just couldn't wait anymore and he recast everything. Me and two other characters are the only people involved with the new one, who were involved with the previous one.” PeopleThinkingWayYearsWellsTwoDifferentCharacterFilmActorsStuffWaitingCareersPlansHappenedInvolvedDirectorsProjectsYears AgoDecidedSevenAvailableSeven Years Author:Michael Rooker
“My tutor was a film director on the side, and she introduced me to film. She then put me in one of her short films, and it came out of that. That's when I fell in love with the process of making a film. After that, I was about 15 and I was like, "This is what I've gotta do." So, I started taking acting lessons, and then I applied to college to do acting. I got an agent, and it all just happened.” FilmProcessSidesActingHappenedCollegeLessonsDirectorsAgentsFilm DirectorsShort FilmsTutor Author:Eve Hewson
“I'm a film rat. I love being in front of a camera. I love being behind a camera. I love talking to the director. I love talking film.” FilmLove IsBehindsTalkingFrontsDirectorsCamerasRats Author:Jim Caviezel
“For me, each film, each script is like a little journey in itself, and I'm reinventing the wheel. It's like how do I make this film. That's part of the pleasure and that's why I'm not a normal professional director.” LittlesFilmPleasureJourneyDirectorsNormalScriptsWheelsReinventing Author:Pawel Pawlikowski
“I'm the most experienced cinematographer in this medium, so there's no point in having that extra conversation in the middle of the loop. You're making the film in relation to what's happening now, and you can't really affect what's happening now. It's not like you're in control of anything in front of the camera. If you're calling yourself the director and you're not the cinematographer, I think you're kidding yourself.” IfsThinkingFilmMiddleFrontsLike YouCallingDirectorsConversationHappeningsRelationCamerasMediumsExtrasNo PointLoopsCinematographersKidding Yourself Author:David Douglas
“I always felt more like a girl than a boy, I don't know. Music was very important to me, movies were not important. I was not dreaming of becoming a film director.” KnowsImportantDreamFilmGirlFeltBoysBecomingDirectorsFilm Directors Author:Lukas Moodysson
“There's not one way to direct a film, there are so many different ways to do it. Everything affects the way it turns out in the end. Even the smallest things. You don't want to really acknowledge that, because you want to believe that you are the only creative asset as a director. You want to believe you're the only one. But I really feel that everyone teams up and everybody really affects everything. Actually, it's the closest I will get to playing in a band.” WayWantFeelsBelieveDifferentEndsFilmTurnsCreativeTeamBandDirectorsDirectOne WayAcknowledgeDifferent WaysAssetsClosestSmallest Author:Lukas Moodysson
“I just saw Titanic, which is a $200 million film about a real-life disaster at sea, but according to Hollywood Logic, none of the actual passengers was interesting enough, so the writer-director had to invent a Romeo and Juliet-style fictional couple to heat up the catastrophe. This seems a tiny bit like giving Anne Frank a wacky best friend, to perk up that attic.” GivingRealEnoughSeemsFilmBitsInterestingMillionsSawsSeaStyleCoupleDirectorsLogicHollywoodTinyDisasterReal LifeHeatFrankCatastrophePassengersJulietPerksAtticsWacky Author:Paul Rudnick
“I do a film because I like the story and I want to give life to a character - I don't necessarily have to agree with the director.” WantGivingCharacterStoriesFilmDirectorsAgree Author:Kristin Scott Thomas
“Given that most movies are bad, and that there are whole categories and sub-categories of badness - the sequel, the Madonna Movie, the Friday 13th Series, or Movies Starring John Travolta Before Pulp Fiction - it is almost impossible to choose a single film for worst movie of all time. But strangely, I do have a nomination and I believe it is actually the worst movie ever made. It is Boxing Helena. The director is David Lynch's daughter, and the film comes with the almost insane-making faults that the family connection might imply.” BelieveMadeWholeMightFilmGivenI BelieveFictionImpossibleWorstDirectorsDaughterConnectionsFaultsSeriesInsaneAll TimeMade ItBoxingCategoriesFridayMovie StarSequelsNominationsBadnessPulpWorst MovieFamily Connections Author:Andrew O'Hagan
“Lars is played by Ryan Gosling, the Prince of Tics, whose idea of acting is to wait a few beats before reacting to other people's remarks, as if acting were merely a matter of adhering to the seven-second delay rule. Jack Nicholson has made a career out of doing this sort of thing, as did Paul Newman, as did Marlon Brando (who the other two learned it from), but they didn't do it all the time and they were more fun to look at... Lars And The Real Girl joins a number of other recent films in the category of motion pictures where the director doesn't know that his protagonist is unsympathetic.” PeopleIfsKnowsLooksMadeTwoIdeasRealMatterFilmGirlFunWaitingNumbersActingCareersDirectorsBeatsSevenCategoriesDelayRemarksReactingProtagonistsMotion PicturesBrandoNewmanNicholsonTicsUnsympatheticReal Girl Author:Joe Queenan
“This film [ Blue is the Warmest Color] actually is the result of me talking with my producer Vincent [Maraval]. I gave him a bunch of ideas and then Vincent helped guide me and develop this particular film. I enjoy that rapport to have somebody else help guide me in my choices for the next film. The poetic way of looking at it is which project is going to choose me as a director.” WayIdeasHelpingFilmChoicesNextEnjoyResultsTalkingParticularColorDirectorsProjectsBlueGuidesBunchProducersPoeticRapportGuide MeChoose Me Author:Abdellatif Kechiche
“I love watching audiences scream. I imagine it's the same joy that a director feels who has made a comedy when he or she is sitting at the back of a theater listening to the audience laugh. That sound of laughter is so sweet to a comedy director and that's exactly how a horror film feels when you hear the audience scream.” FeelsMadeFilmJoySoundAudienceLaughingComedyImagineSweetListeningHorrorDirectorsLaughterSittingTheaterScreamHorror Film Author:Leigh Whannell
“Definitely my favorite cut is the one that got put out. That's my favorite version of the film, the one that I put in theaters. That's my directors cut, there's no question about it.” FilmCuttingDirectorsTheaterMy FavoriteVersions Author:Fede Alvarez
“I've never wanted to be a fireman, in my life. I've never really wanted to grow up and be anything other than a film director.” WantedFilmGrowsGrowing UpDirectorsFiremanFilm Directors Author:David Gordon Green
“There's a bunch of directors that I really admire, and Australian ones as well. It would be nice to do a film at home.” WellsHomeWould BeFilmNiceDirectorsBunchAdmireBeing NiceAustralian Author:Mia Wasikowska
“I did a film called The Jesuit, which was an independent film. I did that shortly after Mistresses. I was still feeling soft and I was nursing, but it was a character I'd never played before. That was a Paul Schrader script, with an up-and-coming Mexican director, named Alfonso Ulloa. That has Tim Roth and Paz Vega in it, and I enjoyed that, as well.” WellsStillsCharacterFeelingsFilmDirectorsIndependentScriptsEnjoyedMexicanMistressVegasNursingIndependent FilmJesuit Author:Shannyn Sossamon
“Most of the films I myself like don't do very well. Every director, he has a choice, whether to go for subtlety and try to articulate every minute detail, or to go for the broad strokes and hope that the people will fill in between the lines. I tend to go for the broader strokes.” PeopleTryingWellsFilmChoicesLinesMinutesDirectorsDetailsBroadsStrokesSubtletyBetween The Lines Author:Sylvester Stallone
“To go into more specifics regarding actors, whether they're from Korea or the U.S., all actors know if they are loved by the director. When they feel that love from the director, they respond by giving a great performance on camera. Also, everyone on set - the crew, the actors - they were aware of the film's message and its broad theme, so these big issues were never discussed on set.” IfsKnowsGivingFeelsBigsFilmActorsIssuesDirectorsMessagesPerformancesCamerasThemeBroadsCrewKoreaSpecificsGreat Performance Author:Kim Jee-woon
“It's very, very technical, what we do in film. While all of the lights are there and all of the crew members and directors are staring right at you, you have to be honest. It's a very difficult, but technical medium.” LightFilmDifficultHonestDirectorsMembersMediumsBeing HonestStaringCrew Author:Jeffrey Donovan
“If you are able to see on a monitor what it's actually going to look like and have that kind of feedback informing your decisions, then you're bringing back a lot of the decision-making process of the designer, the director of photography and the director away from the post-production process and bringing it back into the actual capturing of the event on film.” IfsLooksKindAbleFilmProcessDecisionEventsDirectorsPhotographyProductionsPostsDesignerDecision MakingFeedbackInformingDecision Making ProcessPost Production Author:Rick Heinrichs
“There's a different set of writers and a different director for the films, but Marvel has turned it into a pretty spectacular job.” DifferentJobsFilmDirectorsSpectacular Author:Clark Gregg
“Each one of my films is personal; each one of my films is emotionally autobiographical. And I like directors who do that.” FilmDirectors Author:Jason Reitman
“I'm a huge fan of director's cuts or reassemblies if they're good, but I remember being really excited about the restored version of Apocalypse Now, and then I preferred the original film. Kingdom of Heaven as a director's cut is the real picture, but in fact someone recently told me that there was another cut, the original first cut, which he said was just extraordinary. I've never seen it - and of course now I want to, if it exists, and so would everybody else.” IfsWantFirstsSaidRealFactsRememberFilmCoursesHeavenCuttingFansHugeDirectorsOriginalsExtraordinaryExcitedKingdomsVersionsBeing RealNow And ThenApocalypseKingdom Of Heaven Author:William Monahan
“I have no reason as a director to have films go up in versions that I don't like. My only experience of film after ten years is honestly that if a picture doesn't get second-guessed you're looking at four Oscars, and if a picture does get second-guessed, you're not. I've got an advanced degree in that lesson.” IfsYearsDoeReasonFilmFourLessonsDirectorsTenDegreesHonestlyVersionsNo ReasonOscars Author:William Monahan
“TV and film are very different media with different requirements. In a TV show, you have actors and fellow writers and directors, who are interpreting your work. With a novel, you only have ink, words and your reader.” DifferentShowsFilmActorsNovelMediaTvsReaderDirectorsFellowsTv ShowsRequirementsInkInterpreting Author:Howard Gordon
“Among today's directors I'm of course impressed by Steven Spielberg and Scorsese, and Coppola, even if he seems to have ceased making films, and Steven Soderbergh - they all have something to say, they're passionate, they have an idealistic attitude to the filmmaking process. Soderbergh's Traffic is amazing. Another great couple of examples of the strength of American cinema is American Beauty and Magnolia.” IfsSeemsTodayFilmCoursesProcessAttitudeExampleCoupleDirectorsPassionateCinemaFilmmakingImpressedTrafficIdealisticScorseseMagnolias Author:Ingmar Bergman
“I don't know if directors go, 'Hey! We've got another suicide-let's call Robin Tunney! It's weird, but they're all different, and I guess it gives the characters some kind of power... At least I play women who are strong enough to take the power into their own hands! And kill themselves! So many women in films just shoot themselves in the head anyway, because they're not really there for any reason.” IfsKnowsGivingKindDifferentReasonEnoughPlayCharacterHandsFilmStrongDirectorsSuicideHeyStrong EnoughRobins Author:Robin Tunney
“A film can be big or small - I have to just fall in love with it. To connect with the character, the script, and the director. Sometimes they say to you, 'You should do that for your career; it's a big thing, people will go and see it,' but I wouldn't be able to, because my heart wouldn't be in it. I would drive people quite mad.” PeopleShouldHeartSometimesCharacterBigsAbleFilmFallCareersMy HeartDirectorsMadFalling In LoveScriptsBig Things Author:Eva Green
“As a director, your job is to make sure no one for any reason is taken out of the film. Sometimes it's impossible and sometimes things don't come out the way you want them to, but I think you have to work really hard at making the world engrossing and details are a major part of that.” ThinkingWorldWayWantSometimesHardReasonJobsFilmTakenImpossibleDirectorsMajorsDetails Author:Cary Fukunaga
“I graduated from high school with the art award and I had made a ton of short films, but it was before DVDs with director commentary.” ArtMadeSchoolFilmDirectorsHigh SchoolAwardsCommentaryDvdsShort Films Author:Kevin Munroe
“Director and producers have to take all the risks they can. We developed this film with the possibility to create departing from a blank page and to discover things as the process went along and as we understood the things that at first we couldn't understand in words.” FirstsFilmProcessRiskPossibilityDirectorsPagesUnderstoodProducersBlankBlank PagesDeparting Author:Alex Abreu