Albert Brooks Quotes

When I make a live-action movie, it's a very physical process. It's like running a marathon.

It's great to have a good relationship with the directors and learn about things you do with cameras, and how you direct.

When I did 'Gilbert Grape,' Lasse Hallstrom let me be on the set with him and in the editing room and in the casting sessions and so on. And so I got a firsthand, rather intimate, high-pressure look at how to make a film.

I'm attracted to directors in general because I appreciate the work and the job they have to do. I watched the post-production, I watched the pre-production... post-production is something that I'm very interested in and I did spend a lot of time in editing rooms when I was young pretending to be sick.

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.

When I'm in a movie, what I always do, instead of sitting in a trailer or watching a DVD, is I go on the set and watch the director work and the actors work, and sometimes I'll hang out with B camera and watch what they're up to and ask questions because there's so much to learn about the medium.

I loved being behind the scenes and finding out how they make movies.

Any actor working a long time should know how a shot is set up, where to place themselves, how to handle the lines. I'm a member of the crew, like the best boy, the electrician. What I'm good at is making eyes at the camera.

I just love being on a movie set. I like making movies.

I've always been fascinated with everything behind the camera and in front.

If you're writing a screenplay for a feature, you don't have any involvement with the casting process, the editing process, the set design, the costume design, or any of that stuff.

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

The most creative phase of a film is in shooting, because structure is the defining element of that phase.

I am eternally impressed and amazed by what directors do.

On returning to India I took up a short assignment as assistant to the secretary of jury at the International Film Festival, and Satyajit Ray was the chairman. He was on the lookout for an assistant, and that's how I went to Kolkata. I learnt a lot - the discipline, conceptualization, planning your shots.

As a director, you try to find what is creative.

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.

For a lot of my childhood, I didn't want to direct movies because I didn't really know what directing was.

I had fun doing it, but acting ain't really my thing. I am more of a production/director type. I would rather be behind the scenes and organizing and putting things together like that.

Filming is like a house, you have to feel comfortable in it.

I really love diving in, head first, with directing and not having to worry about hair, makeup or lines.

You can't work in the movies. Movies are all about lighting. Very few filmmakers will concentrate on the story. You get very little rehearsal time, so anything you do onscreen is a kind of speed painting.

On a film, you do your own work, you come together and meet on set, and then you shoot. It's great.

Film-making is a physically hard job.

When you're in front of the camera, for a small budget or a big budget movie, there's no difference.