Quotes About Filmmaking

Moviemaking is a dirty, tiring affair. The joy comes from the possibility to be free on set and really let loose.

Painters who do self-portraits are engaging in a form of narcissism. But it doesn't work like that in movies. A truly narcissistic person wouldn't go into filmmaking because it's just too tiring.

If you look at most mainstream filmmaking, to be honest, some of these films aren't even asking questions anymore at all.

I think, as a filmmaker, it's important to be honest with yourself at all times in terms of what's working and what's not.

I think that Christians who have an interest in filmmaking need to deepen their love for cinema. To be honest, that's what I think has been missing historically from the Christians who want to succeed in the Hollywood industry.

There's got to be something you want to tell and that's the engine which spurs all of the work you have to do in order to create the story, but you have to love some sort of nugget of what you're telling to be a filmmaker.

When you are a beginning film maker you are desperate to survive. The most important thing in the end is survival and being able to get to your next picture.

There's something I really love about independent filmmaking. Everyone is a little bit more close-knit, and you rely on people a little bit more. The bigger the budget gets, the more everyone toes the line in their department.

I don't want to step on the DP's toes. That's the first lesson I learned when I started directing with other cinematographers.

I really love Hitchcock; I think he was a complete genius, to me one of the best directors. Such a sense of how to put things together.

Peter Jackson has just really earned the right to be Tolkien's torchbearer on screen.

I think they quite like me when I work because I'm one of the safer directors to back, because even if my films don't bring their costs in back home, once they're shown outside of India they manage to cover the costs.

At some point, you have an opportunity to not be a first-time filmmaker anymore. You can embrace the genre and show the world how you can tell stories on a bigger scale.

Making a documentary, there are thousands of choices, all the time: the angles and the pace and the choice of characters, the choice of music.

I like to go back to Chinese film-making from time to time. I don't think I can make Chinese films back to back; it's such a big effort. I'd have to take a very long break.

Working full-time as a filmmaker has been a dream come true.

So as I was growing up, my father was always in the middle of making a film or preparing a film. It was a full-time, all-consuming type of operation.

Directing is a more pragmatic experience, where you have to deal with the restrictions of time and money that force you to make certain decisions you don't have to make when you're writing.

I think since I did Monster I really started understanding how hard it is for first time directors. I think there's a lot of great stories out there, but it's high risk.

I came to New York, and it was a really cool time. People like Jim Jarmusch and Spike Lee were making their first movies, and they were making movies that were personal narratives.

Making films is too big an undertaking to be doing it on a whim, so you're waiting all the time, until you finally meet the person who gets it.

I get offers all the time from film makers, but they are unknown quantities. I don't go there and do experiments.

I say to first time filmmakers that when they're asked, they should go to America as you're far more likely to get a chance.

Strangely, I always have a lot of cut scenes. I keep writing shorter and shorter scripts, thinking that this time, I'll get all my scenes in.