Quotes About Filmmaking

My style of working is I'll often be behind the camera, or right next to the camera yelling words at people, like, 'Say this, say this! Say it this way!' I'll straight-up give Anthony Hopkins a line reading. I don't care.

I've realized that what you think of when you make a 'big movie,' if it's actually a green screen movie, it's like doing independent New York theater because you don't have any backgrounds or props. So it's kind of like making the lowest budgeted film you could possibly imagine, plus $100 million.

I've made so many films in New York. There was an assumption I think a lot of people had that I am a New Yorker, that I am from New York, and I always felt like nothing could be further from the truth.

Making movies is eating candy. It's a very expensive candy, so you value when you can do it. So when you can do it twice at once, it's like, you know, a kid in a candy store!

The biggest thing I have realized was that you have to choose your collaborators very carefully, and that not everybody can like you. The process of filmmaking is so difficult, there's no point in doing it unless you can do it the way you want.

When you go to set, they just go, 'OK, let's see what you guys do!' The camera moves around what you initially feel.

Scorsese's been a hero of mine since I was young. If you saw 'Swingers,' you know I was definitely fixated on his body of work.

I was influenced by Ray Harryhausen and Lotte Reiniger, with her twitchy, cutout animation, which I happened to see at a very young age, but also by the Warner Bros. cartoons, 'Tom and Jerry,' and of course Disney. And also by Fellini's 'Giulietta of the Spirits' and Kurosawa's 'Ran.' And by other American illustrators and painters.

I really took filmmaking very seriously... It was an honor and then a crutch also, because at a young age, I was like, I guess I'm a serious filmmaker. I never set out to be a serious filmmaker. I just set out to make movies.

For whatever reason, from a young age I've always been able to shoot images and cut them together with sound in a way that was very engaging.

I think we've faced all the typical challenges that young filmmakers go through over the years - time, money, negativity - but it's a lot easier to manage when you can learn from and laugh about all those mistakes and anxieties with your best pal.

I've seen so many young filmmakers - even professional filmmakers who get a Hollywood deal - they don't quite know where to begin, where to end, and they'll waste a lot of time making this perfect shot, an establishing shot, and then there's no time left to shoot the dialogue.

I find a lot of young filmmakers make too much of an effort to be trendy and they can be pretentious.

I always tell young filmmakers, don't go make a feature. Make a short. When you're ready to make a feature, people will tell you. Your friends will tell you. Your fans will tell you. Festivals will tell you. Listen to your audience.

Perhaps it sounds ridiculous, but the best thing that young filmmakers should do is to get hold of a camera and some film and make a movie of any kind at all.

Some young filmmakers, unfortunately, don't have the ability to resist attempts to maybe cut their films down unfairly.

I think it's a mistake for young filmmakers to just buy digital equipment and shoot a feature. Make short films first, make your mistakes and learn from them.

For young filmmakers, Saw is a perfect film. It doesn't cost the GNP of almost every country of the world.

'Beyond the Lights' was my fourth film. I gained a lot of knowledge, and I'm excited to share that with young filmmakers because I know how lost I was coming out of film school with that question of 'What's next?'

Whenever I can make it work out, and schedule permitting, I like to help young filmmakers.

I am delighted that young filmmakers want me in their films. They have open minds and a fresh take on old attitudes. I derive a lot of energy from them. Most of all, I find their love and respect utterly disarming.

My understanding of films was just as much as any young girl who watches Bollywood films. I had no idea about the whole process of filmmaking, about dialogue writing, scripts, screenplay etc. I had probably gone to two or three film shoots in my childhood.

I was writing, directing, and editing my own films as a young kid with my parents' video camera.

I want 'Like Brothers' to answer young kids who ask, 'How could I possibly become a filmmaker?' This book will step that out for you.