Filmmaking Craft Quotes

Getting to work with good filmmakers and getting to play good characters in films is so special.

I love filmmakers.

It's not a film-maker's job to explain his technique, but to tell his story the best way he can.

My heart is in independent film-making. For me, it's where the fun, gritty storytelling is being told.

Cinema is a territory. It exists outside of movies. It's a place I live in. It's a way of seeing things, of experiencing life. But making films, that's supposed to be a profession.

All I want to do is to make movies that are appealing to people.

There’s always been this hocus-pocus or magical, mystical thing associated with the making of film that sort of psyches people out and makes them think that this cannot be done; that this is a craft that cannot be learned.

Without a doubt, I was born to want to make cinema, but the kind of cinema I want to make is not like commercial movies, which I enjoy myself, but I wanted to be the kind of filmmaker who wrote original work, sort of like a novelist would who deals with who we are and our times or our relationships.

Filmmaking is a thousand choices a day, and it's important to just let those choices potentially be informed by something deeper.

I'm not educated as a filmmaker, so it's quite a jump for me.

Ah, there's a director. Astonishing, Spike Lee. A feisty guy, but a guy who's, I think, incredibly misunderstood. I think people review his politics or his color as opposed to his filmmaking sometimes. Because he's a wonderful, wonderful filmmaker and a lover of the art.

I like to entertain all kinds of audiences with my films.

I've worked with some of the greatest filmmakers in the history of the medium, and they all have something in common: a quality that is creative, comfortable, and thoughtful.

It could be sci-fi, love story, historical drama what counts for me is the fact that they're made by great directors with a great point of view who bring the audience to be elevated and at the same time entertained. That's what cinema is.

As a filmmaker, you want nothing more than to have people say, 'I love your movie.'

Toy Soldiers was my introduction to film. I certainly didn't think I was doing art by any stretch of the imagination.

I always felt that if I was going to do a movie, I wanted it to be authentic.

The profession of film director can and should be such a high and precious one; that no man aspiring to it can disregard any knowledge that will make him a better film director or human being.

I hope I can become a good enough filmmaker where I can take a script that I'm not 'heart and soul' into, but I could still make something really great out of it.

I always say that I am a big fan of films but I am an even bigger fan of the filmmaking craft.

I think there's not a lot of real filmmakers. There are only a few people who make real cinema. I can count them on my fingers.

Many filmmakers pretend that they never see anything, which has always seemed odd to me.

I have to keep making films, getting better in my craft, and the way to do that is to work with people who know what they're doing and who can help me.

I want to go make an original movie. It's all very personal, but I want to define myself a little bit more as a filmmaker and hone my craft.

You are only as good as the movie you make. I really believe that.