Quotes About Filmmaking

I don't look like the way we've painted directors in our movies and everything since forever. I don't look like an old white guy in a baseball cap. So, yes, there are always moments when people are surprised that I'm the director.

I want to direct films, because I am a painter and a sculptor and I've done a lot of writing.

Free time keeps me going. It's just something that's always been a part of my life. I was originally a painter, and I made films sort of as an extension of that, and then I started to try to make dramatic films because the early films were experimental films.

The idea of an animated film is you always kind of get a little bit daunted by it as a filmmaker because it feels like a lot of your communication is going to be with computer artists, and you're going to have to kind of channel the movie through extra pairs of hands.

Every time we make a movie, 'Guardians' included, 'Black Panther' included, 'Infinity War' included, we just feel lucky to be making that movie, and that's basically what the focus is on.

The biggest difference for me was that I operated almost every frame on 'Mudbound,' and I didn't operate on 'Black Panther.'

I played baseball in high school, and in some parallel universe, if I had not gone into filmmaking, I may have been the coach cursing at the kids.

There's so often - in filmmaking, you're backed into something that already has these set parameters, whether it's a sequel or a book that people love.

What I want to do with my filmmaking is help kids experience the truth and wisdom of nature no matter where they are, whether or not they have the opportunity to go to a national park.

My early exposure to all the leviathans of the Saturday matinee creature features inspired me, when I grew up, to make 'Jurassic Park.'

'Jurassic Park' was able to get away with big, dynamic filmmaking that might be out of place in another kind of story.

Genre expectations can kill creativity. If you do something different, it will get hated. The best filmmakers can do everything on the approval list and knock it out of the park. For me, I have a hard time being creative when I have to color in between the lines.

The greatest filmmakers are not the ones who put everything in; they're the ones who can figure things to leave out, and in doing so, invite your participation.

I make cameos in all my movies for no particular reason other than a joke. It's just a Hitchcock thing.

I don't consider myself to be particularly gifted in the way that other filmmakers are gifted.

I'm a filmmaker. I'm always searching for the truth in everything I do. I demand it from my writing partner and my crew, actors, and so hopefully, we're making people think.

It is none of anyone's business how I make my films or my creative partnerships.

So we got there at 6 a.m. We'd be shooting by 6:45. We wouldn't break for lunch, we'd just pass food around all day. And we would just rock and roll 'til 4, then Matty Libatique, our great cinematographer, would say, 'Outta light, guys' - and that was it.

Freed was reportedly asked why he had not shot in Scotland, where the story is set, and said he'd been there and decided against it, because Scotland did not look Scottish enough and anyway, it was too rainy. The Scotland he and Minnelli wanted was a fairy-tale Scotland, distilled from centuries of mythic representation.

You have to understand that crew members make movies so they're seeing a lot of actors all the time in their career acting.

There are many documentary filmmakers who have a tough time because they don't really get what they need to do what they want. There are so many people with good visions that should be encouraged and helped. And they will deliver, I'm sure.

I was going to design sports cars, but my father came to my college to visit me. At the time he was making a picture in Sweden and he took me there with him. I got to see Ingmar Bergman's company and I thought, 'Gee, filmmaking is a lot more fun than sports cars,' so I decided to follow him and go into acting.

I feel that being an actor is a front-row seat into seeing how everybody else makes their movies. Basically, being in the trenches for ten years is like a college-level course in filmmaking if not more. It feels like every director I work with and every set that I visit as an actor, I see someone else's definition of filmmaking.

Scott Frank and I are director friends. We met through the Sundance Labs and he's advised me on my first projects - I've visited him on set, we've shared first cuts with each other, and we're more like director pals than anything else.