Filmmaker Quotes - Page 39

• I think any filmmaker will tell you when they wandered from theater to theater to watch their prints, it was disheartening to see the poor levels of light and the disrespect for films that existed in certain theater chains. It was always inconsistent.

  Oliver Stone

  Thinking, Disrespect, Film

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you're not connected emotionally to a story, then you're dead. You're as a filmmaker really just opening the door for people to lose interest and their minds to wander, for them to start picking it apart. That's what people will do, people will naturally tear stuff apart because they're trapped with it, they paid money for it. And they came into it wanting to love it. So all you can really do is piss off the audience. Unless you do things right.

  Paul Feig

  People, Mind, Tears

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A young artist can become popular more quickly with the Internet providing instant access to ones work. That might lead to more opportunity and an accelerated career. But it seems as if funding may be harder to come by and filmmakers are being prompted to give away their work for free in hopes to become part of the conversation.

  Jillian Mayer

  Artist, Opportunity, Giving

  Source: www.indiewire.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I've been joking that if Madonna taught us anything, you've got to reinvent yourself. I think it's important as a filmmaker, as any person working in the arts, that you've got to try new stuff and challenge yourself and take chances. I've tried to take a chance with every film I've done - I've never done it the easy way, and I think that's because that's what excites me, is making as big a mountain as I can in front of me, and just trying to mount it.

  Darren Aronofsky

  Art, Thinking, Challenges

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think Frank Capra was a much craftier filmmaker, a wonderful filmmaker. He had enormous technique, and he knew how to manipulate the public quite brilliantly.

  Woody Allen

  Thinking, Wonderful, Manipulate

  Source: www.commonwealmagazine.org

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The creative process for a musician is very different than for a filmmaker. I have an idea and I can pretty much execute it. As old as I am now and as long as I've been doing it, I can pretty much get it done in a week. While a filmmaker has a great idea that should be out tomorrow, but he has to go through this process of getting financing, then selling it, then casting. I've always been in awe of filmmakers and their patience in realizing their vision because I could never do that.

  Mike Patton

  Long, Creative, Vision

  Source: pitchfork.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• We were just trying to make the films that we could get made, and to push the envelope. We didn't realize how far we had pushed the envelope. That all came later. That all came from books and articles about the golden age of the '70s. Believe me, to a lot of us, it was no golden age. The studio heads were very powerful then. They would fire guys right and left. They would look at your dailies and tell you what was wrong with them... a lot of stuff that doesn't go on today. Young filmmakers who are successful today, they don't often have that to put up with.

  William Friedkin

  Powerful, Believe, Book

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Documentary has been a way for me to establish myself as a filmmaker. It's my way of proving that I have a language, that I can say something through film.

  Mano Khalil

  Language, Film, Prove

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Even if you make a movie about a criminal locked up in prison, you may not support him as a criminal, but you have to like him on some level. You have to love your protagonist and respect him. He will only open his heart to you when he believes that you are treating him with respect, with love. Only then will there be no more walls between the filmmaker and the protagonist.

  Mano Khalil

  Wall, Love You, Believe

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I've been exploring a lot of different avenues with a number of very different and very, very exciting filmmakers and writers. That's been the trip. I like to find something very, very different from the last thing I did, which might be similar to something I've done before, but as long as it's different from the last thing I did, it keeps me entertained.

  Dan Stevens

  Long, Different, Done

  4 Copy quote

• It's a do-it-yourself kind of era with these pieces and bits of technology called iPhones. You can film your own stuff and throw it up on YouTube, I think is just a fantastic novelty and opportunity for young actors, young filmmakers to learn and hone their craft.

  Tamlyn Tomita

  Opportunity, Thinking, Technology

  Source: thecelebritycafe.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I love independent films because I love to help, I love to assist, I love to pass along knowledge or experience to young filmmakers because usually, that's what they are. They're young filmmakers who are trying to either just simply tell their stories or trying to break into show business, and this is their calling card. But either way, I just really respect young filmmakers who are trying to tell a story that means something to them.

  Tamlyn Tomita

  Mean, Independent, Trying

  Source: thecelebritycafe.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Why do we tell stories? It's because we want to connect to people, we want to tell them who we are, we want to tell them a story that affects us, that impacts us. And to help a young filmmaker doing a short or independent film is my testament, I think, is my desire to really make sure that our younger generations get passed along all the elders' experience and to literally have the image - to literally carry them on their shoulders and say, 'This is what the world is. This is how the world operates. Let me show you how.'

  Tamlyn Tomita

  Independent, Thinking, People

  Source: thecelebritycafe.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I usually try to connect with young filmmakers over the phone so I can hear them and just pick their brain as to why they want to tell the story. And usually, I'm on board. I go, "Yeah, I'd love to help. And I just need to know why you want to do this,' and it's usually an easy process because a filmmaker usually reveals his or her heart in telling the story. And that's why I'm pretty much of a softy when it comes to helping along the young ones along the way.

  Tamlyn Tomita

  Heart, Brain, Trying

  Source: thecelebritycafe.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Somehow, in the novel format, I don't really like to do upfront, ideological discussion. In my heart, literature remains a poetic and ambiguous medium. On the other hand, I trained as a documentary filmmaker in film school, so my films very much reflect reality and socio-political problems. They're less subtle I would say.

  Xiaolu Guo

  Heart, School, Reality

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It seems like the world is so fast to move its interest to someone else. When I think about filmmakers and actresses that I have admired my whole life, I've admired their entire body of work. I have admired what they began with and what they're doing now. And now I feel like there's such a weird pressure to find the new face. I don't get it at all. I want to see women evolve. I want to see a body of work. I want to see all of it.

  Dakota Johnson

  Moving, Thinking, World

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sidney Lumet is one of my favorite filmmakers. I feel like his approach to filmmaking was always so human. He was always making movies about the people. He wasn't about the tricks, you know what I mean? From 12 Angry Men on. Another film of his which I really, really love is Prince of the City, with Treat Williams, which is kind of a lost classic. Lumet is one of those film heroes that changed movies for everyone.

  Derek Cianfrance

  Hero, Mean, Love Is

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I wouldn't recommend it, because art school is a funny business. Yes, if you can find a situation where they'll give you money to live at the school and do whatever you want and pay for all your materials, if you're a painter or maybe a filmmaker, do it. But acting should be the most fun thing in the world; you're surrounded by other people who are as obsessed with Anton Chekhov as you are.

  Sigourney Weaver

  Art, Fun, School

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Most Southerners recognize when a story about their own experience feels off-kilter or offensive. But Southerners are also fascinated by the way their region is presented in popular culture. It is exciting to see how filmmakers take great care to present worlds in which race, region, and food are deeply intertwined.

  Marcie Cohen Ferris

  Culture, World, Care

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm not an activist. I'm a filmmaker. I'm a dramatist. My strength is to tell a story, to find a way to tell a story that makes it exciting. Our Untold History was a huge challenge. Snowden was no piece of cake, because writing code and breaking code is some of the most boring stuff you've ever seen.

  Oliver Stone

  Writing, Challenges, Boring

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• An awful lot of filmmaking and playmaking is taken over by marketers and publicists, who set about to tell people what to think. And people feel safer that way. But it's not safe, and the whole wonderful thing that cinema and filmmakers can contribute is to go into the not-safe land of real life.

  Vanessa Redgrave

  Real, Taken, Thinking

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• "Ageism" or whatever you want to call it, is a very English phenomenon. You don't get it too much in many other cultures. And no one says it about authors or poets or filmmakers. "Oh, they're too old to make films or write books." You know what I mean?

  Paul Weller

  Book, Mean, Writing

  Source: pitchfork.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Why has Scandinavia been producing such good thrillers? Maybe because their filmmakers can't afford millions for CGI and must rely on cheaper elements like, you know, stories and characters.

  Roger Ebert

  Character, Stories, Elements

  7 Copy quote

• 'Hunger' definitely changed my life, in terms of being recognized by filmmakers, since that was very much a filmmakers' film.

  Michael Fassbender

  Film, Hunger, Changed

  7 Copy quote

• The reason most comedies don't win awards is that the filmmakers put the comedy first. This means you have to create a story around the jokes.

  Paul Feig

  Mean, Winning, Awards

  "'Bridesmaids' Director Paul Feig Reveals How Twitter Saved His Movie and Why Awards Matter (Q&A)". Interview with Stacey Wilson Hunt, www.hollywoodreporter.com. November 22, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source