Quotes from Sean Baker

All I know is this: The reason that I've gotten attention from this industry is that I just kept making films until they paid attention.

I cannot stand Hollywood child performances. It just reeks of artifice, and it's weird that, for some reason, Hollywood feels they have to make their child characters smarter than adults, and suddenly kids have the vocabulary of a college grad.

If I'm telling an L.A. story, I want to tell a fresh L.A. story and show places that haven't been shown before.

The films that are coming out of SXSW are incredible, and they should get the same bids that films at Sundance are getting.

I'm an advocate of all mediums - it's a larger canvas for us as artists - but we have to keep in mind that celluloid film is what created this wonderful art form, and we have to keep it alive.

'Man Push Cart' is very similar to 'Take Out.'

A movie will live or die with your casting.

Everyone's asking if I've been offered a superhero movie, and no, I definitely have not.

I've told my agent to push the idea of me as a director for hire off the table. Otherwise, we're wasting people's time.

It feels dangerous when people say, 'Oh, Sean Baker focuses on marginalised people.' And offensive. As if I'm standing there with my planner thinking, 'OK, where's the next marginalised group I can make a movie about?'

I don't have a family. I'm not planning one. I don't have to support anyone but me and my dog.

Because I'm a dramatist, I'm allowed to take liberties, but I want my films to be based in truth, and it's very important to me that the community we're focusing on is happy with the film. From an ethical point of view, that's everything.

I'm not a material guy, so I don't need to surround myself with wealth.

'Tangerine' being my fifth film, I was out of favors. I couldn't afford to get the Arri Alexa or RED cameras and I definitely couldn't shoot on film.

I know that 'Tangerine' is getting a lot of attention for pushing the iFilm, but I am really mourning the death of celluloid.

I think with 'Tangerine' we were taking that gamble - it was a risk - that we could tell the story in a comedic fashion to attract an audience and shed light on an issue.

'Tangerine' was less than half the budget of 'Starlet,' and 'Starlet' was already a microbudget film. A director always wants more time, and we had a limited amount of resources.

A lot of the LGBTQ community accepted 'Tangerine,' which was something we worked really hard to achieve.

The iPhone always has a different look from model to model - 'Tangerine' is quite smooth, but that was the 5s. I was using the iPhone 6s Plus for 'The Florida Project,' and it has what's called a rolling shutter, and it gave it this hyperactivity and a very different, jarring feel, and we liked that.

I make dramedies, but 'Tangerine' really has a lot of comedy, and I saw that it had a great effect - it reached a larger audience.

'Tangerine' taught me that if you win an audience over with comedy, then hopefully have a soulful message at the same time.

A small lens gives you a very specific look. You don't have a shallow depth of field.

Filmmaking has been my love since my mother brought me to see James Whale's 'Frankenstein' at the local library at the age of six.

When you're a child, the colors are brighter, sounds are louder and whatever.