Quotes About Filmmaking

I didn't have the kind of budget to compete with the big studios, therefore I had to make my films more outlandish, more outrageous.

At AFI, you make three cycle films your first year, and then you make a thesis film your second year, and I watched Darren Aronofsky's cycle films and was blown away - there was a young Lucy Liu, who was just part of that generation. And I just wanted to be part of that tradition.

I have a few filmmaker friends who are known for shooting super-fast, and they say that you don't have the time to over-think things and how that helps things out creatively.

The tension I feel is the moment they say, 'Action!' Movies are like lightning in a bottle, and you always want to find when you possibly can catch a surprising moment.

To me, the best projects are the ones where you have a pretty good idea of what the spine of it's gonna be, but then all sorts of things happen that you could've never predicted, and those are the magic moments of the films.

That's the great thing about filmmaking: Things happen you don't know are going to happen at the end.

I do feel like I have a lot more confidence now. I can shot list the episode before I start, but then, as things happen on set, I know how to adjust so I can still execute the scene completely, and I still know how to make my days.

What I notice about people who are gifted in filmmaking is that they're great thinkers. They engage with big ideas and they engage with people.

For me, filmmaking is not about making statements but about exposing human behavior so people are eager enough to start thinking on their own and make their own assumptions.

I think any filmmaker looks back and thinks, 'Boy, if we only had four hours more on that day when the sun was going down,' or, 'If we only spent more time and went back.'

As a director, you can't stop a guy if he thinks something's hysterical, because if you do, then he'll get depressed because he thinks he didn't come up with a good joke. So if a guy's going on some run and it's killing him, and he thinks it's hilarious, you gotta do enough so that he thinks you can use it in the movie.

'2001: A Space Odyssey' is a movie that really impressed me as a teenager. And also 'Blade Runner.' And 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' is also one of my favorites. I'm always looking for sci-fi material, and it's difficult to find original and strong material that's not just about weaponry.

I like to make all kinds of movies. I'd do 'Ocean's Thirteen' with the right script.

I have actually directed over thirty plays and about one hundred commercials for cable TV, but have not yet had the opportunity to direct a feature film.

I moved out to L.A. to be a filmmaker or director. I didn't even think about doing comedy or even acting. I wanted to be like Paul Thomas Anderson or Wes Anderson, but I wasn't going to a lot of comedy.

Robert de Niro has always been fascinating to me. And if John Cazale were still alive, that would be a man I'd love to work with. I'm a big fan of Paul Thomas Anderson's films - I would be honored to work with him. I think he's a brilliant director, and he gets such compelling stories out of his actors and out of his crew.

I want to work with Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson, the Coen Brothers, or Spike Jonze.

I've worked with David Lynch since I was 17, and working with him is home and family; being around Alexander Payne is home and family, Jonathan Demme. There are directors... Robert Altman, Paul Thomas Anderson... They are directors where I create homes.

When I started working as a writer-director, that's when he became Paul Thomas Anderson and I became Paul W.S. Anderson. Neither of us can write and direct an American movie under the name Paul Anderson.

'Black cinema' I don't even know what that means. It's just cinema. When Paul Thomas Anderson makes a movie, we don't just say it's 'white cinema.'

Motion picture making is a very, very involved affair. It is completely my baby. I'm a thorough professional. I plan films right from the conception of an idea to its final execution.

I thoroughly enjoyed shooting for 'Velaikkaran,' and I made a great friend in Sivakarthikeyan during the process. Also, it was wonderful working with director Mohan Raja. I have not seen a director who takes so much effort to get things the best way possible.

Filmmaking involves a lot of passion, hard work, thought process and money. But 'Gandhi My Father' is a selfless film, a film made with complete selflessness. We all went beyond ourselves.

I've worked with some of the greatest filmmakers in the history of the medium, and they all have something in common: a quality that is creative, comfortable, and thoughtful.