Top 35 Rachel Morrison Quotes

I lived within walking distance of Harvard Square, and that’s where I discovered my love of cinema. I saw a lot of foreign and independent films there.

We shot ‘Mudbound’ in the South in the summer, which meant we were working in extreme heat and humidity at all times and that it could go from glaring sun to overcast skies to pouring rain in a matter of minutes, often shifting multiple times a day.

For me, I just like new challenges.

I find beauty in imperfection.

There’s something so inspiring about being in real locations, where you can feel the tactile qualities from the layer of paint that has been chipping off and the hundreds of years that have been lived in the space.

Usually, if you notice good cinematography, then the cinematographer’s failing. I try to make light feel like it’s always motivated and natural in some way and hope that the lighting goes unnoticed.

The theatrical experience is also a communal one. When people saw ‘Fruitvale’ in the theater, there was not a dry eye at the end of the movie, and you would look to your neighbor and have this shared moment together that had a real weight behind it.

It’s always a challenge to shoot a period film and not have it look like you hit the tea stain button in post.

Part of the reason why I love to operate is because I find that so much of what we do is instinctual. It’s dancing with the actors and responding to their body language, and you feel what the right place for the camera is at any given moment.

Your movie becomes much more narrow-minded when you have like-minded department heads. Whereas if you can surround yourself with people who have been a mother before, been a grandmother before, you get a much broader and wide-reaching swath of human emotions.

You just sort of get used to being one of the only women on set, so it’s really refreshing to start to enter a time when that’s not the case anymore.

‘Fruitvale’ set the bar for what I wanted to do with my career, which was to make films that had consciousness and messaging in an entertaining package. Once I hit that mark, I never wanted to go back.

I think you can make a gorgeous movie on any piece of equipment. Look at ‘Tangerine,’ which is a beautiful movie shot on an iPhone. You see so many movies that are impeccably shot but are vapid, and there’s no audience for that except for other cinematographers who just like to watch two-hour-long music videos.

Half of ‘Mudbound’ were shots I stole in between other scenes.

Sometimes it just takes a little longer to get to your destination, but if you make sure to enjoy the journey, eventually you will get there.

I love the team aspect of filmmaking.

I didn’t want ‘Mudbound’ to feel stylized in any way.

Documentaries are inherently instinctual; you’re constantly moment to moment, determining what the best place for the camera is to tell the story, usually in service of natural lighting.

I might be one of the very few people in this industry who doesn’t have a ‘me too’ story.

Cinematography speaks to everything that women do inherently well: It’s multitasking, it’s empathy, and it’s channeling visuals into human emotion.

I think ‘Sound of My Voice’ was the first film where suddenly I could point to something I had done that I was proud of and say, ‘Look at this piece of work.’ And that’s probably what led to ‘Fruitvale Station,’ which was the real break.

I think there’s this assumption that everybody would rather be a director, and I don’t know that that’s the case for me, so we’ll see.

Lighting practically whenever I can when shooting period really helps with authenticity.

The biggest difference for me was that I operated almost every frame on ‘Mudbound,’ and I didn’t operate on ‘Black Panther.’

I gravitate much more toward realism, realism in the work that I do, but magical realism got me hooked on film. I think it was my first time realizing that there was something besides popcorn movies.

It would be naive to say that you could make a movie on film for the same price you can digitally.

To me, as an audience member, movies always come to a screeching halt when they get to their action scenes. They always feel like they drag on to me.

My experience – I’ll never know what happens behind closed doors or why I don’t get hired for something, but I’ve never had an experience that made me feel any less than.

Cinematography is so much about instinct and intuition – you want the same range of experience going into behind the camera as what you see in front of it. Your life experience will come through the lens.

Photos have the real task of bringing exposure to places that we otherwise don’t have much awareness of.

My dad, before he passed away, never understood what I did. What I say is that I’m responsible for translating the director’s vision, hopefully turning an idea into something people can connect to and relate to.

I kind of grew up with a camera in my hand.

For me, it’s just always about trying to tell stories that I care about.

The best kind of entertainment is the kind that also makes you question something or think outside the box or live another life. Those are the stories that I’m drawn to.

You can only shoot small movies and documentaries for so long if you want to have a family that you support; eventually, you need to get let into the big leagues.