All I want is the same opportunities as the filmmakers I grew up admiring. But you know, I’ve had lots of amazing opportunities to do the movies I wanted to do. If I could write my future, I’d want to keep making character-based films that can make use of my voice as a filmmaker.
Film making is an expensive, as well as a serious business. We should be able to entertain our audiences, who are fully aware of what they want. Every filmmaker has a different point of view and presents facets of society.
I feel like too many horror writers and filmmakers sort of just assume that the default is, ‘The horror movie must be all atmosphere first and everything else second.’
The filmmakers have a story they want to tell, and they go get the material they need for it. The film either exceeds or fails to meet up to their expectations or it’s different.
I’ve been encouraging documentary filmmakers to use more and more humor, and they’re loath to do that because they think if it’s a documentary it has to be deadly serious – it has to be like medicine that you’re supposed to take. And I think it’s what keeps the mass audience from going to documentaries.
I wasn’t predestined to be a filmmaker; this wasn’t an obvious choice to me.
You want to give the person as much freedom as you can within the boundaries of being a responsible producer with a contract to a studio. It’s about giving as much freedom as you can, and the more the filmmaker proves he or she is on the track that you feel good about, then you just kind of watch dailies.
I have no great interest in being remembered as a great creative filmmaker.
It’s difficult for one filmmaker to criticize another. That’s a job best left to critics.
I think I’m always conscious of not letting things fit into a specific box. Being a filmmaker and trying to chart a career, you never want anyone to be able to pigeonhole you into one specific thing.
We’re able to push the envelope with what we’re doing, both on a technical and artistic level, which is the most that any filmmaker can ask for.
I had to see if I’m a real filmmaker. I mean, I have proven myself in movies and franchises, but am I an artist? Can I contribute something to a medium that I love so much?
I want to work with amazing filmmakers and tell important stories, and if I have to audition to do that, I will.
As a veteran, I am always appreciative when filmmakers bring to the screen stories of those who have served.
What I try to do with my career as an actor is what I’ve learned in the theater: I am rigorous with myself as to whether I’m telling the truth, and I try to surround myself with filmmakers and content creators who are also interested in the pursuit of the truth.
I think of myself as a cultural filmmaker.
I think there’s not a lot of real filmmakers. There are only a few people who make real cinema. I can count them on my fingers.
When I was 20 years old, I had no plans to ever be a filmmaker.
You are as old as you look. If you are fit and pretty at an X age, why won’t filmmakers want to cast you, whether you are married or not?
I actually grew up wanting to be a filmmaker. I wanted to make movies, and music was a detour, almost.
I’m always coming back with too much footage. Most filmmakers do, but I’m always surprised that it keeps happening to me.
I think all the great studio filmmakers are dead or no longer working. I don’t put myself, my friends, and other contemporary filmmakers in their category. I just see us doing some work.
I keep pushing buttons and trying to grow as a person and as a filmmaker.
I’ve never felt that my job was difficult because I’m a woman. It’s a difficult job regardless, and it’s even more difficult in Lebanon because there’s no film industry. There’s no structure, funding, or institutions for filmmakers.
It’s tricky to ask a filmmaker to explain his own work; usually we’re the least qualified to make sense of what we’ve done, unfortunately, because of the tunnel vision required to create anything over four years.
When I talk to some of the younger filmmakers, they are so worried about their films that, eventually, this state of being worried reflects itself in and helps the final work. Whereas, with projects that are meticulously planned, you look at the end result and it is full of emptiness.
I decided to be a filmmaker when I was 12. I had utter clarity that this would be my life.
There is no filmmaking legislation because distributors are not interested in sharing their money with the film industry – for instance, by giving a percentage of ticket sales back to filmmakers.
I started in theatre when I was a teenager, and I sort of fell into screen acting by accident because I had friends who were at university studying how to be filmmakers, and they didn’t have to pay me to be in their student films.
I came out of ‘Che’ a different filmmaker.
A filmmaker chooses an actress keeping the best interest of the film in mind. If he doesn’t cast you, it doesn’t mean there’s a personal agenda. Change is constant, and if you have agreed to be part of this industry, you will have to go with the change. The films and filmmakers, even the audience has changed.
I would love for there to be a ‘Voodoo Dreams’ movie, especially after seeing the glorious ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild.’ I so admired how the filmmakers captured Louisiana and the magical atmosphere. I cried.
The interesting thing is that when you start out, people have no judgment and they see you young and fresh as a filmmaker – and because you have no experience yet, you’re much more naive and think anything is possible.
I’ve been lucky in my career. I’ve worked with some of the greatest filmmakers and actors around. I’m so proud of some of my work.
Cinema is not about format, and it’s not about venue. Cinema is an approach. Cinema is a state of mind on the part of the filmmaker. I’ve seen commercials that have cinema in them, and I’ve seen Oscar-winning movies that don’t. I’m fine with this.
I don’t think you can figure this stuff out. If you could figure all this stuff out, then all the great filmmakers would come out of Yale and Harvard. It’s not an intellectual process.
Writing has certain advantages; film is another way to tell a story. An experienced filmmaker will take what she needs from the book and leave out other things. With adaptations, you never get the texture of the writing: it’s a different mode.
Hopefully with digital projection, a film will always look the way the filmmaker intended.
It’s kind of the filmmaker’s job to use visual, cinematic language in a way possible to tell a story that reaches and touches as many people as possible.
My home is Montreal. I will stay in Montreal and continue to make movies in Montreal. But it’s also very healthy for Canadian filmmakers to work outside the country. You learn so much.
It’s not always clear whether the filmmaker intends our alienation or is even aware of it.
As a filmmaker, you have to stand in front of what you did and make choices that you could do with a clear conscience.
I’m a commercial filmmaker.
The question of religion in black America is something filmmakers don’t want to touch.
I’ll always see myself as a British filmmaker, powerfully so.
I don’t know of a filmmaker who does not feel buoyed and lifted when their peers embrace the work.
Suddenly, all the giant Hollywood franchises are being driven by alternative filmmakers.
I understood the importance of doing an Aaron Sorkin film. He’s a political filmmaker.
That’s a battle we are always fighting whenever we cut trailers or promos for films. We always wonder how much to say, and every filmmaker wants to say the minimum. You don’t want to reveal your film and ruin the viewing experience.
All filmmakers want the option to make another film, to have it not always be such an uphill battle – for it to be our life, our working life.
I don’t have a typical filmmaker background. I didn’t grow up with a super eight camera or a video camera. I didn’t start cutting movies when I was four or five.
The smartest thing a filmmaker can do is to become a good editor.
When you work with filmmakers, and it’s their first film, there’s an exuberance and optimism, which is quite… There’s no room for being jaded. Thinking that you know it all.
I don’t need to prove that I’m some great international filmmaker. It’s not really on my list of goals.
I’ve never wanted to be an actress. I came into the industry to be a filmmaker, but let us say fate had other plans for me. I don’t want to be the next glamour queen.
In a way, perhaps, there’s an advantage of being on the edge of something and looking in as the observer, because as the filmmaker, you’re the storyteller, and you’re pulling out this universal story.
As a filmmaker I find it much more rewarding to work with actors who are classically trained. It’s about the work and only the work.
I’m big into not drawing conclusions for people. I think that’s what makes for the most exciting, compelling films. I get bored when the politics of the filmmaker are the subject of the film that I see.
I’m not the best filmmaker, but on the sets, it seems like everybody is having fun.
Having to make a blockbuster every time puts unhealthy pressure on creatives. The pressure on the filmmakers is so intense, I think it stifles the creativity.
