Michael Apted Quotes

I don't get to make many features. It's not like that's something I can just snap my fingers and make happen.

As filmmakers, you're not working on just one project, you're producing something, directing something, shooting something, and so it becomes hard to do it by yourself.

Filmmaking is the ultimate team sport.

At our best, it's a good experience but we do 22 episodes a year, so there are some clunkers.

Films are not mathematics - that's the first thing you need to understand. At least, that's how I feel. They are not words on paper. Films are made with people, with teams and with individual bundles of creativity coming together to fulfill the vision of an individual who is the director of the film.

If a script comes together, and you end up liking the people who are part of it, that's when you can make magic happen. It's a huge combination of trying to find something you think you can deliver on and a director you think you can collaborate with to make a good picture.

I had a brilliant time working with the entire cast and crew at 'Return To Nim's Island.' It's amazing how, after working on a film, you really become a family, and you build these really special bonds together.

The filmmaking process is a team effort. A screenwriter cannot possibly do exactly what he wants as if he was writing a novel.

Honestly, when you're making a movie, you never say, 'Oh, this one's going to suck and go straight to video.' When you're in it, you think you're doing the best work you can do. You're surrounded by people who are working hard. Everybody's hopeful.

Movies are very hard to make, to get it all to come together. So many people have their say in what the end product of films are.

I just find the people I want to work with and put it all together, and it's a lot of hard work, and all kinds of catastrophes happen, but I don't really get too much resistance. But when you make a movie, it seems like there's nothing but resistance. It's kind of a miracle that any movie ever gets made.

If making movies was easier, there'd be a lot more good movies. So you kind of learn that if it's just a good script, or if it's just a good producer, that's not always enough. You need an entire team of creative people coming together.

I'll work with a director if I think I'm going to get into a comfortable situation, and if it's someone I respect and who respects me, even if they're not so well known. Movies are hard to make, and you have to work toward a common ethic and do your best.

You can't direct without a good crew.

Larry Kasdan wanted us all there, all the time, even if we weren't filming.

I love the process of working with a filmmaker and the writers and the actors.

A movie is like a city. There's, like, 150 people working, and it's all because of something that came out of your head.

The size of the budget doesn't make that much of a difference because the kind of issues I have on a low budget film I have on a big budget film as well, but they're just much bigger.

The size of the budget doesn't make that much of a difference because the kind of issues I have on a low budget film I I have on a big budget film as well, but they're just much bigger.

That's what I learned most about directing on my own - you've got to build a family, a filmmaking family.

I wish I had more control over my career, but making movies is something you do with lots of people.

I think the biggest thing you take from the stunt world is your understanding of the filmmaking process. For years, you've worked with every other department closely. You know hair, makeup, wardrobe, special effects, and you know what everybody's needs are and their expectations. You also know how to collaborate with them.

A film unit is like a family, you not just work together but laugh, cry and fight also.

As a director, it just makes my life fantastic to work with people like Elizabeth Hawthorne.

Everything is always against you when making a movie, and if you don't have a solid blueprint that the entire team can get behind and understand and then execute, then you're going to be lost on the set.