Cary Fukunaga Quotes

A director shouldn't get in the way of the movie, the story should.

I would love to start directing. I just hope to find the right thing and, if I was afforded the opportunity, I think it would be something great. It would be really hard, but I think it would be a great privilege.

I think the best work of the director is to listen to what all the technicians around him have to say, but then the thing is to take the best decision, what you think is the best. Then, that is the moment where you have to have all the film in your head and imagine how all of that will fit together.

The work of a director can be summed up in two very simple words. Why and How.

The director makes the movie. The director has to have the story in their head, has to know the style of the piece, has to answer questions from actors, design, set, lighting, every department throughout the pre-production, production, and post-production, because they've got it in their mind. They've got to know exactly what they want and what the style and story of the movie is. It's them. They make it.

The thing is, as a film director, you're essentially alone: You have to tell a story primarily through pictures, and only you know the film you see in your head.

Some directors don't get involved in the cinematography and are just about story, but I'm definitely more tactile than that in terms of my involvement in the minutiae.

The great thing about having spent all this time on film sets is that I've been able to watch directors and how they work. I now know that this is what I want to do as well: to tell stories visually. But it's definitely my vision that I want to put across, nobody else's.

People think that the directors direct actors. No. Really, what the director's doing is directing the audience's eye through the film.

To me, the director is the most important, rather than the story.

The director is the only person on the set who has seen the film. Your job as a director is to show up every day and know where everything will fit into the film.

You can be a smarty-pants director, but that won't matter if the movie doesn't work emotionally as well as intellectually.

The film is a direct mirror of the director. If your director doesn't know how to dress, there will be an aesthetic of the film that won't come through - whether it's in the costumes if he doesn't know exactly what he wants or the look of the film.

Although filmmaking is collaborative and involves trust, ultimately it is the director who holds the whole picture together in their head.

The director's very important to me, particularly when the director has a recognizable style.

Now I'm kind of established as a director, I much prefer directing to writing.

There are only so many movies you can direct. And yet there are movies that I want to make sure make it to the screen in as honest a way as possible.

As a director, you never think about how an audience would respond. You can think about that, but you will never change what you're going to do.

I believe that the director is really the soul. It is a collaborative effort, but the director is the one who needs to have that vision. It could be a great script, but it starts from there. You need to have good material, at least, but if you don't have someone with vision, it's just words.

Good directing is good writing and good casting.

Films are a director's medium. We're all stemming from the director.

Essentially, it is the director who is the creative head of a film. The final authority on all decisions lies with the director. That is how it should be. And then other team members can give their creative inputs.

I want to create films that will speak to different parts of our hearts and brains, stories told from a different angle.

I want to make my kind of films but make them work commercially, too. When my presentation meets the director's imagination, the result will be great.

I never intended to be a documentary filmmaker. I think I became a documentary filmmaker because I had trouble writing, and I had trouble finishing things.