Quentin Tarantino is a genius. I want to do every single film with him.
A really irritating thing when you’re watching a film is if somebody’s accent isn’t bang-on – it distracts you from getting into the story because you’re thinking: ‘Where are they from?’
I was Paul Schrader’s assistant for six months before I went to film school, and he’s very much about knowing what’s going to happen on every page before you even start writing dialogue – the entire plot and character arcs are mapped out.
I don’t want to make a comfortable film. I’m not interested in that. I’m not interested in answering people’s questions; I’m interested in posing questions. I’m interested in sparking a conversation between two people about what something means. That’s enough for me, as a writer and as a director.
So if I keep making mistakes on Broadway or tape or film, producing, directing or acting, I can go along and do it – so long as I’m not investing too much capital in these things.
Ashok Mehta was the man who brought contrast and lighting back to mainstream Hindi film cinematography.
It’s always hard when you’re working on a project, and you’re seeing it in bits and pieces, whether that be film, television, video games, animation – you only really have perspective of what you’re interacting with.
The success of a film at the box office will ensure happiness to the entire unit, but individual awards are like vitamin shots that will help boost the morale of an actor.
One of the biggest challenges in my job is letting go of the movie once you go home at night, and knowing you can’t do anything to your performance once you’ve laid it on film.
When we talk about how movies used to be made, it was over 100 years of film, literal, physical film, with emulsion, that we would expose to light and we would get pictures.
The greatest films ever made in our history were cut on film, and I’m tenaciously hanging on to the process. I just love going into an editing room and smelling the photochemistry and seeing my editor wearing mini-strands of film around his neck.
I can sit in front of the TV and watch an old romantic film and be transfixed.
When I was 19, 20 I faced rejections. When I turned 20 I signed my south film and by the time I was 23, I had done three south films. I would go to different production houses everyday for auditions and they would reject me saying you cant talk, smile, dance or act.
My family loves movies. My dad and I used to eat a huge breakfast, and then we’d just go hang out at the theater all day together. We loved movies like ‘Indiana Jones’ and ‘James Bond.’ We were both big action-adventure movie fans. So I kind of grew up with an appreciation for film.
I made some truly awful movies. ‘Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot’ was the worst. If you ever want someone to confess to murder just make him or her sit through that film. They will confess to anything after 15 minutes.
When kids like Steven Spielberg were eight and nine and 10, they had little cameras, and that’s all they wanted to do. When I was 10, I was in my attic pretending to host my own variety show. Spielberg wasn’t. That’s why he’s a film director, and I’m doing what I’m doing.
‘Pulp Fiction’ was probably one of the first films I ever saw that really kind of took effect on me. I was about four years old – obviously wasn’t supposed to be seeing that film; my sister kind of sneaked it out and we got to see it. She’s older than me. That was something I always used to watch.
I think it was very important for me to look at starting to build a safety net so that I didn’t feel the insecurity of the ups and downs of finances because I might do no film a year, or I might do six commercials, or I might do none.
Now and then, someone would accuse me of being evil – of letting people destroy themselves while I watched, just so I could film them and tape-record them. But I didn’t think of myself as evil – just realistic.
If you’re sitting in the audience, you probably can’t see the preparation and work that goes into creating a great scene or a great part, but I can assure you that a good film depends on lot of different things falling perfectly into place.
When you have Liam Neeson in a film, no matter how good everyone else is, it’s a Liam Neeson film. And if there’s wolves, and you’re running, it’s about Liam Neeson running from wolves.
If African film makers had one-tenth the amount commanded by film makers the world over – even the amount used by so-called shoestring film makers – I think we would see quite an explosion of African films on the world scene.
I’ve never figured out who ‘Heath Ledger’ is on film: ‘This is what you expect when you hire me, and it will be recognizable.’
Everytime I get offered theatre I get offered a film role too.
Toy Soldiers was my introduction to film. I certainly didn’t think I was doing art by any stretch of the imagination.
I love being able to come in every single day and work out and watch film and practice with guys who are all striving for the same goal.
Before the film begins shooting, in your head, you need to be the character. You have to convince yourself somehow.
Every morning when I wake up, I am grateful and happy that I come to the film set. It is home.
I did do a film that I refer to as ‘The Unpronounceable’ by a guy named Yvan Attal with Charlotte Gainsbourg. I had a bit part in there. That was quite fun, doing scenes in French.
I’ve been acting for 25 years, living out of suitcases on theater tours or film locations.
I think the cinematography in ‘Mr. Robot’ is some of the best I’ve ever seen, honestly. Not even as being part of the show but as somebody who enjoys cinema and movies in film and TV.
A film writer is very much like a party girl. While you’re good-looking and still unlined, the possibilities seem endless. But your appeal doesn’t last long and you’re quickly discarded.
Whenever any person in the creative field does a film, they think it is going to be of good quality or this is something people will like. The intention is always positive.
At the end of the day, when I kick back with some barbecue and a CokeZero in front of a blockbuster film playing within the convenience of my fully air-conditioned house, I’ll say a small prayer thanking God for the American culture.
And the Institute sent me a little film footage of Kinsey himself preparing to do an interview for television to talk about his work, so that was quite valuable for me.
E. Klimov’s ‘Come and See,’ about partisans fighting the Germans in Byelorussia, is the greatest anti-war film ever made.
If I dream that I’m directing, it’s not a film, it’s like a commercial for cotton candy, and I’ve got four feet of cotton candy all around me that I’ve got to break through, like a brick wall or a fortress.
When I was in college, I wanted to study film. My first passion was to be a cinematographer. So maybe there’s something innate in my music where it partners well with images.
I probably learned, being in ‘Taxi Driver’ before I made my first film, I would come to the set every day just to watch how that film came about. It’s like a graduate course: it’s terrific. You talk to the cinematographer during the breaks. You ask the electrician why they are doing this.
Loveleen Tandon, the casting director of ‘Brick Lane,’ understood my capacity and suggested my name to director Sarah Gavron. The film has such universal appeal that given a chance I would like to remake it in Hindi.
Awards are an encouragement. An award is not something we aim at while making a film.
I don’t care if it was 2 o’clock in the morning after a night game. I had to break down the film by myself before I watched it with the team. I wanted to see everything I did wrong and did right or I wouldn’t be able to sleep.
The first thing that strikes a person when it comes to Southern film industries is the hard work, professionalism and the punctuality that people religiously adhere to.
To have a film where there’s an evil figure and a good person fights against the evil figure and everything becomes a happy ending, that’s one way to make a film. But then that means you have to draw, as an animator, the evil figure. And it’s not very pleasant to draw evil figures.
The film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ portrays the spirit you feel in India. For those who haven’t been there, the film says it all.
I think there’s escapist moviemaking, and we want to be captivated and taken away. If it’s done right, you can craft an incredible film. There have been superhero films that I think are brilliant pieces of art.
Going out at night and having a fabulous social life takes a lot out of you, and I don’t know if I have that much to give, honestly. I would rather give that time to my kids or spend that time reading a book or watching a film. I am selfish and lazy.
I believe in the theory that one cannot make a good film; it just happens.
I always shoot my movies with score as certainly part of the dialogue. Music is dialogue. People don’t think about it that way, but music is actually dialogue. And sometimes music is the final, finished, additional dialogue. Music can be one of the final characters in the film.
What I love about research is when I’m having a bad day and I can’t write, I’ll just research some more, I’ll learn some more and I’ll have better command of the world of the film.
