Sam Esmail Quotes

With moviemaking, the audience always has to keep asking, 'What happens next?' If you have the wrong piece of music over a scene, people aren't going to get the scene. If you have the wrong camera angle, people aren't going to pay attention. That's as much a part of the process as getting people to talk to you.

Every film requires a different process. You learn about these particular actors and the particular chemistry between these actors. Recognizing when you don't need to shoot a scene because it's going to be cut anyway.

When I shoot a film, I take my camera and put it among the characters and let it show you their world, their problems, their happiness and the little things that matter to them.

Directing has completely changed the way I write and watch films.

My two great loves when I'm shooting are working with great actors and composing images.

When I write a screenplay, and when I direct, I always pull lines out.

Would I like to direct? Maybe one day.

I have always believed that directing a film is like telling a story. You have to tell it well so that it is appreciated.

I love films for the fact that it is like working under a microscope. It is sort of like a laboratory.

Every single director stops at the moment he thinks he has the shot. Sometimes, directors shoot an establishing shot where everything is in the shot. He's going to use this at the beginning and the end.

I think actors do make really, really wonderful directors.

I still want to direct. That's my main love, and that comes from being obsessed with subtleties and people.

I want the camerawork to fit the narrative and tell the story from the point of view of the character, but sometimes, to be interacting with the sensations of the story, you almost become like a ghost, you know? Like, someone that is floating, observing, not really judging what's going on.

Some directors are interested in acting, and others are only interested in cranes and moving the camera.

The way I'm used to telling a story is by looking through the viewfinder and being really close to the actors.

When I make films, I don't think of any other directors or their work in terms of the rhythm of the editing or the tenor of the performances.

There are people who've told me cinema is a visual medium and you don't need to say so much. When I write the script, all these lines of what the characters are thinking are written. Once the film is shot and the lines are dubbed, I tone it down in postproduction if I feel it gets heavy.

I don't cover my scenes. We approach it visually. Sometimes we go out of our way to do awkward blocking so that we can tell whatever the emotional heartbeat is of that scene in the most interesting way possible.

Jason Reitman is an amazing director; he's really amazing with his actors and crew.

I thought Jack's directing job was the best thing about the film.

Directing is a tremendous art.

Before I started to make films, I didn't give much thought to the way the characters were physically positioned in the story world.

I've always had the utmost respect and awe of what the lens can do and what a director can do with just a camera move.

I just use all the skills that I learned in film school, and I just incorporate them into my sketches. People don't realize that, with a story, there has to be a beginning, middle and end. There has to be a problem and a resolution. Just because it's six seconds doesn't mean it's not a story.

I discovered that, in order to write a magnificent piece, you should shoot the images because once you are filming, you are writing the script in your mind.