Quotes About Filmmaking

While the documentary community is way ahead of Hollywood, it is still nowhere near where it needs to be. Filmmakers of color rarely get hired by the powerful production companies, and they are not getting supported enough by broadcasters and funders to tell their own stories.

The Sand Pebbles has always been one of my favorite films, I suppose because its the most difficult film - from a physical and logistical standpoint - that I've ever made.

When you're working with a smaller budget I suppose one of the things that has to be in your mind when you are writing is that you have to keep the characters down to a minimum.

I suppose I learned organization from Altman.

I suppose I like to think of myself as a film-maker.

I'm not particularly interested in working with movie stars. It depends on where you come from, I suppose. Why are you making films? The reason I want make films is because they convey ideas. I think some directors make films because they want to hang out with movie stars and be part of Hollywood. They want to be a star themselves.

I suppose on the filmmaking side, you can learn how to cram a lot into a small space. But I think that advertising, even on what is called the creative side, is incredibly easy if you have that kind of mind. A lot of people regard it as Machiavellian and dangerous, but, in fact, it is morally neutral.

The motive behind a Delhi Film Council is simple - with so many filmmakers coming to Delhi to shoot their films, casting Delhi's young lads in their movies and even keeping the city as the base of their story, they surely need more collaboration in future. When they'll have such a council in the city, they will be able to work better.

Director Aji John has a style of filmmaking that will surely appeal to all.

The beauty of my job is I do all different kinds of film directing, not just surf films anymore. And I do stuff from commercials to short films to working on feature films, and none of it is based from where I live. It's all based elsewhere, so I can live anywhere and commute to where I need to go.

I've learned that I've just barely scratched the surface of knowledge of the profession, and I have deep envy of and appreciation for filmmakers who really, truly understand the physics, the design of filmmaking. They can do story and color and composition and geometry and math and science all at once.

I started filmmaking when I started surfing, so the two things have been with me since I was 12 years old, so it's sort of been in my bones to make surf movies. I guess every now and then I just crave to do it again.

The director Steve McQueen has found a way to constantly include the element of surprise in his work, both as an artist and as a filmmaker.

I am astonished and surprised that someone could consider making a film about me without talking to me about it.

I'm always coming back with too much footage. Most filmmakers do, but I'm always surprised that it keeps happening to me.

I find it remarkable. It's surreal for me that I've gotten to work with so many people who are not only great filmmakers but whose films have had such a direct effect on me.

Todd Solondz is a film maker I've always loved because of how he balances darkness, humour and surrealism in his films.

I always believe that one can't interfere in another's work. Once I start work on any film, I surrender myself completely and blindly follow the director.

You can imagine what it was like for me to actually be sitting in a room with matching typewriters, working under the tutelage of this guy I so admired, both as a filmmaker and as a man.

Even after forty years of directing, shooting and editing films, when I collaborate with a male partner, people still perceive the man as the primary filmmaker.

I prefer the smaller budget versus the bigger budget because the mentality that goes along with big budget filmmaking doesn't really suit me; the mind-set that money is the answer.

I used to spend $25,000 of my own money on my short films, and I wouldn't make that back, not even close. So I think the Vimeo thing, because it's pay to download, that helps

Even on a $100 million film, people will complain that they haven't got enough money and enough time, so that's always going to be an element in filmmaking.

There is no way I could have ever dared to make a documentary, much less have the money to make a documentary, if it was on 16mm. But, with the magic of digital.