When there are tiers of meaning in an ad it intrigues the audience and they look for it again and again.
Nobody's tuning in - let's check the TV Guide listings and see what game Joe Buck is calling. Nobody cares. They want to see the Cubs. They want to see the Packers. They want to see the Cowboys. They don't care who's calling the game.
If you put me in 'South Park,' that audience is going to fall asleep in five minutes.
Have I ever presented a programme I don't watch? Well, I've done loads of programmes that no one else watched!
I know that if I were to take ugly photographs, no one would be interested in looking at them.
If a film or any piece of work doesn't entertain, it fails - and that is using the word entertain literally, meaning it holds you there and you become absorbed by it so that you don't walk away and get bored and so on.
If you're not connected emotionally to a story, then you're dead. You're as a filmmaker really just opening the door for people to lose interest and their minds to wander, for them to start picking it apart. That's what people will do, people will naturally tear stuff apart because they're trapped with it, they paid money for it. And they came into it wanting to love it. So all you can really do is piss off the audience. Unless you do things right.
I'm always thinking about the viewers.
I am interested in doing anything that makes for a good watch.
I like audiences to crane their necks.
The game's the thing. That's why people tune in. They don't tune in to hear an announcer.
We're going to try to create some programs that are going to generate viewer interest and appointment viewing. We still will have news on Headline News.
It was the first thing I learned when I started. An old boss said to me, 'Your job is to reflect interest, not to create it.' And what I've taken from that is, if you're not talking about things people are interested in, then they're going to find someone who is. It's not any more complicated than that. But if you forget it, you won't have a show for very long.
I’ve been on a lot of shows that nobody cared about. This one’s fun because a lot more people are interested in the show, wanting to talk about the mystery and that kind of stuff.
What makes a show good for me, personally, is a mystery that just doesn't quit. I want to know why. Why did this happen? Why is this phenomenon occurring? Why did that person do that? A series is really good to me that takes its time in answering those questions.
There's a great appetite for smart television. Every day I get up and there are interesting stories I want to do.
If you have skills to pull off even a four-hour film, people will go and watch it.
I think I would struggle with any job if it was purely about effects. Even as a viewer, those aren't the kind of things that interest me. I think ultimately you have to be connected to characters and their relationships. Otherwise, it's not drama to me.
We must have options to make tennis more attractive emotions-wise.
I write the kind of stuff I'd like to watch.
To me, a good film is one that can keep me engaged for two hours.
If the regular length of a shot is increased, one becomes bored, but if you keep on making it longer, it piques your interest, and if you make it even longer, a new quality emerges, a special intensity of attention.
It doesn't matter how good you are, it's about connecting with your audience. It doesn't matter how technically good you are, if nobody wants to watch you then you're no good to anybody.
You can make as many films as you like, but if nobody wants to put them on, whats the point?
You could put on monkeys jumping up and down and get bigger numbers than MSNBC.
