Quotes from Sean Baker

In our most desperate times, people going through true hardships use humor to cope.

There's always this hump, this 1-week hump where the first-time actors have to get used to the fact that there's a camera in their face. It takes them about a week to get comfortable.

I'm from outside most of these worlds I'm focusing on, and I feel there's an ethical approach to making these kinds of films. My biggest fear is that if you paint your characters in, you could be doing them wrong.

Shooting on the iPhone has become more of a directors' tool to lower inhibition of first-time actors and nonprofessionals. While it's helped me become more mobile, no pun intended - running around, finding tight areas and different ways of moving the camera - to me it's more about using this device to catch candid moments. That's the biggest thing.

If you look over the history of cinema, changes happen when directors embrace new tools and technology and think outside the box.

As long as I can pay rent, that's all I care about.

So many films are being shot on the DSLR, that they're all starting to look the same. There's a shallow depth of field. It's a nice look, but I can always identify a film shot with a DSLR.

A lot of independent films try to pull off a 14-day shooting schedule, which I think is ridiculous. No matter how big or small you are, it really kills whatever sort of time you get to allow the actors to find their characters, and to spend time to think about what they're doing.

Most of the characters in 'The Little Rascals' were living in poverty, but they decided to focus on the joy of being a kid: the humor, the heart, the resilience.

We're all getting in trouble on Twitter - just get off and use your Instagram.

I think most of our eyes are trained to background being completely out of focus, but you can't do that with an iPhone unless you manipulate it quite a lot in post. You have to accept the fact that your film is going to look a little different on the big screen. Even though the resolution holds up, it does have something very different about it.

Kids are kids. They still need handholding. No matter how trained they are, they need to be told what to do. They need to learn lines and understand blocking. You can't just say, 'I want you to walk from here to there and deliver your line.'

I'm very influenced by Mike Leigh and the way that he always has these climactic confrontations, like in 'Secrets and Lies' and 'High Hopes,' in which the ensemble cast meets in one location.

If more stories are told about marginalized communities, subcultures, and minorities, the less marginalized they will be.

There's an alchemy that happens in my eyes when you mix it up, when you have a seasoned actor on set and your first-timer.

I'm not really the type to jump into a $20 million film just to do it.

I believe that human beings shouldn't live in climates that they cannot survive naked... and New York, although full of energy and heart, does not fall within that rubric.

When I see a billboard that literally just has five names, and they're all A-listers, I'm just like, What is that bringing to the world that's new?

When people talk about first-timers, I always think of Spike Lee. In every film he's made, he has A-listers, but he's always giving roles to first-time actors and breaking careers. He's brought such wonderful actors into the spotlight, and I love that.

New York City is the most culturally diverse city in the world, and yet there have been few films about the Chinese, Latino, and Middle Eastern experience in New York.

Some have said I focus on marginalized communities, but it's not like that was my mission statement. I've just told stories that interest me, and that I'm not seeing enough of, on groups of people and subcultures that are often not seen.

I have a feeling that I might even disappoint some people by staying in this two to three million range and continuing to make character-driven stories.

My way of directing is definitely unorthodox, definitely unconventional.

Nobody is going to just come and give you money unless you've proven yourself, especially if you're doing something that is unconventional or unorthodox and outside the way the industry thinks.