Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I hate the narrative that people have to be tortured in order to be good artists. I think it's a solipsistic view that people use in order to be selfish.
My dad always said there's four phases in an actor/director's life. There's 'Mario Who?' There's 'Get me Mario!' 'Get me a young Mario,' and 'Mario Who?'
If we have anything to offer, as filmmakers and as TV makers now, it's this ability to feel as close to a documentary as you can get in a narrative form.
And as I've gotten older, I've had more of a tendency to look for people who live by kindness, tolerance, compassion, a gentler way of looking at things.
Always get to the set or the location early, so that you can be all alone and draw your inspiration for the blocking and the setups in private and quiet.
A wise man once asked me, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" I thought for a minute, then I slapped him across the face. That got him off my back.
We really wanted to know all the unknowable things about each other and how we were the same and how we were different, if we even were, maybe nobody is.
In a way, art is a great way to release your love, fantasy, and desires. It's like a fetish. It's a comfortable way of excising a lot of your conscience.
For me, it's all about having the performers feel confident in their movements and surroundings. And then I'll figure out how to photograph it afterward.
I started buying films a couple of years ago. The first film-maker I began to obsessively collect was Andy Milligan. He was a New York frustrated artist.
I don't like to think that maybe I'm just getting old. I'm not too excited about watching a huge explosion. I'm more interested in people and characters.
It isn't those who are taken by force, put in chains, and sold as slaves who are the real slaves; it is those who will accept it, morally and physically.
I grew up in England, and at the time, cinema was very heavy arthouse cinema, and there was no one making movies that were designed to be in multiplexes.
I remember myself at 10 years old telling stories to my sisters and brother. This is something I did through my adolescence and even through my twenties.
With this silent film, I wanted to hide what was going on in the clinic. I wanted to cover it up in the best cinematic way and in an entertaining manner.
A lot of the issues I faced in junior high was what got me into animation. It was easier to sit on the side and draw cartoons than to engage with people.
I don't judge my characters, and that's my job not to judge them. It's my job to treat them with respect and to just look at it from their point of view.
I loved cutting together simple commercials about margarine or soft drinks - all kinds of silly products - but I tried to make the commercials different.
Of course, when you're making a documentary, you don't have actors, but nonetheless, there is a writing process that does take place in the editing room.
Low budgets force you to be more creative. Sometimes, with too much money, time and equipment, you can over-think. My way, you can use your gut instinct.
I try to remind people, whether you have a growth manager or a value manager, you're going to go through cycles where you think you have a village idiot.
I was, it was very high. Especially with international (box office), we did something that I didn't think this movie ["2012"] would do. I was very happy.
Very good coaches for ski jumpers stand at the top of the slope and watch the jumpers prepare, rather than standing at the bottom and watching them land.
Social media has taken over in America to such an extreme that to get my own kids to look back a week in their history is a miracle, let alone 100 years.
When you listen, you learn, You absorb like a sponge - and your life becomes so much better than when you are just trying to be listened to all the time.
The Japanese had a very strong belief in Bushido, death before dishonour. They were fighting for their country; they were the aggressors in World War II.
In '83, not only was there no such thing as performance motion capture technology, there was no such thing as digital animation. This was the analog era.
You know, I don't really do that much looking inside me when I'm working on a project. Whatever I am becomes what that film is. But I change; you change.
I love music and I enjoy creating sounds. I got into making music when I was a child, starting with the spoons and the koto before moving onto the piano.
Editing is not merely a method of the junction of separate scenes or pieces, but is a method that controls the 'psychological guidance' of the spectator.
The informing idea of what you want to say and do, that's what will take you from film school to professional - the idea. That's what is original to you.
I'm not a fan of 3D. But I am a huge fan of digital imagery. Because it allows a filmmaker much more latitude to appreciate their own visions and dreams.
A director must push his actors to the utmost limit to get everything possible out of each scene - without being corny or sentimental or going overboard.
A good movie is made by an initial burst of energy, the way that, when you are in school, your class exercises are always better than your final projects.
I was a choreographer in the '80s and I was doing these videos. I did an Extreme video, which was really weird having them here. I did "Get the Funk Out".
Humor is such a strong weapon, such a strong answer. Women have to make jokes about themselves, laugh about themselves, because they have nothing to lose.
Be yourself. Don't pretend that you know something you don't. Don't create the appearance of fake authority. Speak about the things you really care about.
Making a film is so hard that if you don't have your main actors going along with the ride with the rest of the crew it can make your life very difficult.
I think we are defined as human beings through our families, no matter what kind of family - through our relationships with parents, brothers and sisters.
I have always been very wary of what would happen when I die. I feel I would die every day, and that thought sometimes made me more aware that I am alive.
And it says something about our level of disassociation, that we can provoke these wars abroad but we're not allowed to see people get killed as a result.
There's always the pressure on the director of how to transition from one scene to another, especially when it can really be oblique on 'Game of Thrones.'
When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script.' If he says, 'But what's my motivation?, ' I say, 'Your salary.'
I never rehearse scenes with the whole ensemble, because I need to preserve some surprise. Instead, I work with the cast individually on their characters.
We love the Stooges, and young kids today don't watch them. They think it's their dad's comedy. So we thought we could reintroduce them to a new audience.
Do I have a small movie in me? Yeah, probably, when I'm 60. But I'm not Hal Ashby, I'm not Roman Polanski. I'm true to myself. Whether you like it or not.
Quite a few operas are still being commissioned around the world, although nothing apart from audience popularity can ensure more than a few performances.
In the writing phase, normally I try not to envisage any particular actors because I like to let the characters sort of reveal themselves in that process.
That's just how I see things. I think things that are the most dramatic or tragic can also look the most ridiculous and funny. That's part of being human.
I must say, I am a 10,000-times better director because I am in therapy. I'm serious. I can understand more the actors. I can manipulate them more easily.