There's two aspects of film crafting that I'm very strict about, and that's how I move my camera and where I cut the film.
The long takes process doesn't allow for that many takes. In the past I have shot over 50 takes of different shots. Sometimes you end up using take 64, sometimes take four.
I'm too big a fan of rhythm and editing. I'd much rather my editing be brave than my shooting.
You realize as a director that when you are cutting a film, you want to have alternatives. You need color and choices. You don't want four takes that are identical.
I've done my best to avoid B pictures.
I'm not one of these directors, so far, that wants to have a whole separate director's cut of these things. So far they've turned out to be kind of the length that they wanted to be.
Veteran' is an exercise in editing because there is a lot of moments I took out and some that almost didn't make it.
I don't like DVD extras. No. Especially when they do things like put out alternative endings? I find all of that a little bizarre, because there should only be one ending. I don't like to be told, 'Oh, we could have had it this way,' for the director's cut.
I've cut myself out... I've cut scenes out that I was in and that's when you realize that you've got to make the best movie you can.
In something like 'Frank,' which is a comedy, albeit a strange and emotional one, you can absolutely put in deleted scenes, and we did because they were just funny and great, but they weren't necessary in the overall structure.
It's rare in a documentary film that you have a repetitive act. So when you do, you can shoot it in different ways so that you have more choices when you're sitting down to edit that sequence six months later.
All the actor does is, he tries to get as many takes as he can out of the director that day. So he can walk away and say to himself, "Hey, it's in there. I'm not going to edit it. I'm not going to make those choices. If they want to blow it, it's fine. But I've done all I can." You're right. I'm always amazed when actors bash films as if those grips and that cinematographer didn't work hard enough.
