At the beginning of each project, I like to create a palette of sound for that particular project.
I just like to have the ideas. Other people can help see them through.
No one ever said movies are for developing your range. Hardly anyone gets that opportunity. Which is why I think the stage is so good. It's less bread, but you can play different types, and you can initiate your own projects.
When you start a new project, you wonder whether it's the right choice.
I never had a movie that I wanted to do turned down in my whole life. I always write the script first so it speaks for itself.
I always have a strange feeling that projects choose you. It's always mysterious.
When you start a new project and they say, "Your director is going to be Joe Blo," you're hoping that Joe Blo will be the next Martin Scorsese, but it doesn't always work out that way.
I called Scott Rudin, and I told him I wanted to do the play [Fences], so that's how the ball got rolling. I never said, "I'll do the play, and the next year I'll do the film, I just wanted to do the play."
When you start a new project, no matter if it's a movie like Enigma or an album like Goddess, you are always learning something. While I search, I find something new.
The first two projects I did out of my dorm room were mock film soundtracks.
When it's time to let go, I don't look back, and I start another project as soon as possible. One thing I remind myself is that I don't want to Photoshop my past.
Directing is something I've sort of always felt like I'd like to do at one point, and I thought the best way to start it is to write something myself or with someone and I'd go from there. My own material.
I pushed the process forward by saying, 'We should do this, this, and this right now. Please find the budget for me to find a structural engineer, a mechanical engineer, a civil engineer, so we can do the preliminary work.'
[ Oval House] director, Peter Oliver, gave you the right to fail. He had a philosophy that came from Winston Churchill that you go from failure to failure with enthusiasm. So Peter gave us a go and that's how Ray [Hassett] and I ended up starting Sal's Meat Market at the Oval House.
Every once in a while, I would say, 'I don't want to do this anymore,' and I would go back to third grade, and after six months, I'd say, 'OK, I'm bored. Let's go make a movie.'
I went to start the first Ethiopian-led project in paleoanthropology, ever. Doing that was not easy.
The original reason to start the project, which was that the Germans were a danger, started me off on a process of action, which was to try to develop this first system at Princeton and then at Los Alamos, to try to make the bomb work.
I think a lot of developments start with the desire of the developer to get what he really wants so that he can use it. It's not just the technical fascination or the business opportunity.
If I don't have a project going, I sit down and begin to write something - a character sketch, a monologue, a description of some sight, or even just a list of ideas.
All the signs were right. And when I mean all the sings were right, the only signs that we care about when we start a project of making a record is, do we have the songs - it's that simple.
Getting a project started is like moving a ship. It takes a lot of energy to build up momentum.
I never talk about a job before the contract is signed and I've shot the first three days.
I approach each project with a new insecurity, almost like the first project I ever did, and I get the sweats, I go in and start working, I'm not sure where I'm going.
I like starting projects in January. That's the best time to start something. It's so inward.
The most important question for me when I begin working on a film is where to start. For a book, what makes you convinced there is a story that is worthwhile?
