Scene Breakdown Quotes

Sometimes you do complete run-throughs of scenes, sometimes you break scenes down into little bits. It just depends on what the actors like to do. It's almost like jamming.

For Closer, we've had five weeks. You go into every single word because it's very, very concentrated dialogue.

Actors always feel more comfortable when there's an actor directing, in terms of vocabulary and breaking down a scene.

We just started filming, and after every scene was shot, we had a rehearsal for the next one.

To this day I over prepare. I draw storyboards for every scene - chicken scratches so crude that they amuse and horrify the crew. I send out shot lists, act out the scenes, and search for a theme that I can relate to. It's my favorite time of the process.

The biggest surprise about making a movie has got to be the wait in between takes.

I'll generally write out every scene that's in the film on a couple of pieces of paper, just with a little one-line. And then I can scan it a bit and go, 'This first third of the film, generally, I'm kind of calm.' Then I might do something on one piece of paper that just relates to the energy of the character.

I learn so much from watching films like that with commentary and then when you get to hear another filmmaker talk about their films it's a really great experience.

When you are signing a film, you should not miss the beginning process which involves workshops and discussions; otherwise, it is difficult to understand the character.

I always go crazy over every scene and have to discuss it with my director many times. Even Sekhar Kammula, who directed me in 'Fidaa,' knows this.

The only real difference between shooting 'Firefly' and 'Serenity' was that on 'Serenity,' we had a lot more freedom with time. When you're shooting a television show, you usually have anywhere between six and nine pages of script to shoot a day, and only twelve hours to do it. But with 'Serenity,' we could shoot one scene all day long.

You could do a scene that takes 15 hours, but in the movie, it's only 10 minutes. The scene where they put the sauce poisoning in; it took eight hours.

Well first of all, it's hard to shoot a movie and break for a long time and then come back and do, in a sense, one of the biggest scenes that each character had.

I think film requires a lot more patience and concentration and each day you're keeping the entire picture in your head throughout a two to three month film shoot. Whereas TV, especially half hour, is like doing a play a week or live theater.

When you explore a scene, the most important thing is who to cast.

I never storyboard. I hate it. I don't understand why so many directors want to make comic strips of their films.

I love more than anything looking at a movie scene by scene and seeing the intention behind it. It allows you to really appreciate the hand of the filmmaker.

On 'Awake,' we would take a couple hours per scene. Whereas on 'Anger Management,' we can take maybe 10 minutes on a scene if we're lucky.

Some people manage their writing by saying, 'I need to get 2,000 words written today,' others by saying, 'I will write for X hours.' Not me. I start with a plan for the book, break it down into scenes, and I know what scenes need to get written each day. If the scene takes more words than I thought, so be it.

Often times people complain about the lack of time in television, but I have to say, you don't have any more time to film in feature films then you do in television. It's just a question of how many scenes you'll be doing in the course of a day.

In daytime, you're shooting an episode a day, which is on average about 90 pages of script a day. That is very hectic. On '90210,' you get to work through it a little more. You're not just flying through it just to get it done.

Not every director does this, but I did: I made a list of every shot you're going to set up for every scene in the script.

I have a color-coded computer spreadsheet that divides things down to chapter fragments. Each character's point-of-view is a different color. The text of the manuscript is color-coded the same way. The last thing I do before submitting the manuscript is turn all those colors back to black.

I love more than anything looking at a movie scene by scene and seeing the intention behind it.

I rely upon the directors to fill me in before a shot.