Craig McDean Quotes

I went to film school, trained as a director, have made a lot of movies, and taken a lot of photographs, so I tend to envision things spatially. As I'm working, I need to have a map of the space. I need to know what's happening in all corners simultaneously.

Visual elements are, of course, the director's job.

Every film deserves its own unique look.

Great art direction is NOT the same thing as great film direction!

Visually, I'm always considering shots and composition quite a lot, and I love putting art into films, and I do a lot of the art.

As a director, I start with the visual.

It's hard to go back to shooting contemporary apartment interiors after you shoot something like 'Mudbound.'

My directors of photography light my films, but the colours of the sets, furnishings, clothes, hairstyles - that's me. Everything that's in front of the camera, I bring you.

You have to give directors and cinematographers a word blueprint for visuals, but I had to learn that from experience.

I think all the stuff that happens before the pictures are taken is much more exciting.

In a movie, you're raw material, just a hue of some color and the director makes the painting.

People say I pay too much attention to the look of a movie but for God's sake, I'm not producing a Radio 4 Play for Today, I'm making a movie that people are going to look at.

All my film ideas and subjects have come from photography.

I enjoy setting the scene and coming up with interesting frames. 'True Detective' was a very hands-on set.

When I'm on set, I know what I want.

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.

I sort of feel like my job is to be a conduit to opportunities, to maximize the creativity of the day itself - because that's when the cameras are running. That's the important thing to me. Some of these shots you need to think about in advance; you need to have some ideas for them.

A lot of cinematography is intuition. It's an art, not a formula.

A movie contains literally tens of thousands of ideas. They're in the form of every sentence; in the performance of each line; in the design of characters, sets, and backgrounds; in the locations of the camera; in the colors, the lighting, the pacing.

I never think about it much, the visual aspect of it, until we start making the movie. I don't really think about it when we write. When we finish, and I start putting the film together, and we pick the locations, I do think about that a lot.

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

The job is trying to create movie shots that have depth, that have the meanings you need them to have, and then good enough so that they will add something to the final picture. They will make the picture; they'll get into the picture, and give them what they need. It's an interesting job.

In film, you're painting a canvas. I got really excited about that.

I like to be on set and see what the camera guys are up to. I like to see all the jobs that come together to make the thing you are also making.

I don't like to watch playback. But being on the set, watching the way the camera is being moved and the way the light is being used, you do get an idea of it.