Quotes from Debbie Allen

You have to examine a scene on the page first. Then you get into the basics of acting: Who are you? Who are you talking to? How do you feel about that person?

Even when you have a big budget, you can't just shoot everything.

In places in the world where we don't speak the same language, or even understand that we pray to the same God, we dance to the same beat, that is the ONE.

Everything has to be well thought out - what do you really need, when can you do with less coverage.

But out of limitations comes creativity.

I design my shots. I walk the rehearsal as the camera and say 'this is where I want to be... I want this look.

But out of limitations comes creativity.

Michael Ralph brilliantly plays the street prophet, a West Indian who foreshadows the Harlem riot.

I got my dailies every day, although I couldn't always look at them because I was usually preparing for the next day's shoot, both as an actress and as the director.

If you just change one person's life, you feel like you've done something. But if you can change a whole lot of them and get them looking at themselves differently, it's amazing.

The production team's first meeting took place at my house. I had ideas and a color scheme in mind, how I wanted the movie to look, because that has to be a real collaboration.

It's kind of dangerous to cut in the camera, but that's the only way I know how to direct.

I didn't need the insurance. I do it again if my DP tells me it didn't look good in the camera or if the actors didn't hit their marks. But if everything was working why do it again?

Failure: Is it a limitation? Bad timing? It's a lot of things. It's something you can't be afraid of, because you'll stop growing. The next step beyond failure could be your biggest success in life.

A director just pushes them a little this way or that way.

The riot isn't seen in the movie, but it is alluded to. He has this one speech that gives a great sense of texture and paints a picture of what was happening in Harlem then.

The biggest challenge was that we had to shoot so quickly and with such a limited budget.

In scoring we have a lot that was not evident in the shooting. The radio is on all the time.

Making this movie was a great opportunity for me to explore high-definition. I'm glad I got to see what the challenges are, what makes it better. It works wonderfully.

Time management is a big part of the director's job.

The clothes back in those days were made so much better than clothes are today. They actually took time to make clothes to fit a woman's body. Today they make clothes that fit sizes, so it stretches to fit this and that.

I design my shots. I walk the rehearsal as the camera and say 'this is where I want to be... I want this look.

But it was not possible to do this movie, in this matter of time, without a solid rehearsal period.

It goes back to a style of moviemaking I remember seeing as a child, in movies like The Man With The Golden Arm, which I think was shot all on a sound stage.