Filmmaker Quotes & Sayings

I'd love to just think of myself as a filmmaker, and I wait for the day when the modifier can be a moot point. — Kathryn Bigelow

I wanted people to know that I'm not just a guy who does weird videos on the Internet. I actually am a filmmaker, and I can tell stories, and I can create something that's 90 minutes long that feels just like any other movie you see in the theater, and hopefully enjoy. — Shane Dawson

A viewer as opposed to a filmmaker might see a film differently. But I'm extremely comfortable with my style. — Alain Resnais

To be an original is probably the hardest quality to find if you're a young filmmaker. — Peter Jackson

Guys like Spielberg and Zemeckis and really anybody who is a storyteller-filmmaker today has studied Hitchcock and the way he visually tells a story. He was the master of suspense, certainly, but visually you would get a lot of information from what he would do with the camera and what he would allow you to see as the story was unfolding. — Ralph Macchio

I've got a feeling I'm leaving stardom behind, you know. I'm gradually becoming more of a filmmaker, acquiring a different kind of dignity from that which you achieve in acting. After all, I'm no matinee idol, and I'm getting older. I don't think I can be doing my kind of thing in the seventies; I want to be on more of the creative side of business. — Steve McQueen

I already have legitimacy as a filmmaker and now I'm trying to do stuff that's just fun. Until I find a cool tangible subject again that I want to tackle. — John Singleton

If you're a filmmaker, and every time you finish a film, you just naturally go, 'Oh, I could have done so much better,' that's not much fun, is it, really? You might as well go pick another profession if that really is how you derive satisfaction from it. — Peter Jackson

As a filmmaker, I always try not to concern myself with the outcome of things. I make the movie, and I do that as honestly and good as I can. I don't want to pollute my thoughts with what is going to happen with it afterwards, because I have to work inside-out. — Susanne Bier

Pop music can get inside us and enter our memory bubbles. It provides those true Proustian moments, unlocking sensations, unlocking our imaginations. Music inspired me as a filmmaker. — Todd Haynes

I am very happy to be part of European and world cinema as a British filmmaker. — Mike Leigh

I was as equally influenced by Bergman as I was [low-budget sexploitation filmmaker]. — John Waters

I can always tell when a filmmaker doesn't care about his or her characters; they just care about setting them up to kill them off. — Drew Goddard

Roger Ebert was such a champion of underrepresented filmmakers. He was a very big deal to me. It shows the power of critics. People who write about film, like you, can really affect the confidence of a young filmmaker. He did that for me, so it was such a pleasure to have an opportunity to talk about Roger in the movie. — Ava DuVernay

I'm free - but I'm also not free because there are millions of young people living in Iran. A filmmaker can only do a little. — Bahman Ghobadi

I suppose once in a while, a filmmaker makes a movie that's more than just a sum of its parts, more than good acting or good filmmaking. It's something else that has nothing to do with what you've done. This is in 1999, made by people in 1999 for people in 1999 about people in 1999. — Sam Mendes

You need contrast and conflict in order to tell a story. Stories need to have dark and light, turmoil, all those things. But that does not mean the filmmaker has to suffer in order to show the suffering. Stories should have the suffering, not the people. — David Lynch

Peter Kubelka is the perfectionist of the film medium; and, as I honor that quality above all others at this time finding such a lack of it now elsewhere, I would simply like to say: Peter Kubelka is the world's greatest filmmaker - which is to say, simply: see his films! ... by all means/above all else ... etcetera. — Stan Brakhage

As a filmmaker, I've had films that over-achieved and I've had films that under-achieved. You always go in trying to do your very best. — Joseph McGinty Nichol

When you start out as a filmmaker, you do parodies, because you can't really compete on a studio level. — Bill Paxton

I think every filmmaker wants ... I don't know about every filmmaker. I certainly want my films to just exist. I want them to be judged for what they are and analyzed, accepted, criticized, whatever you want to call it, on their own terms, not as part of some mall-cop genre. — Jody Hill

Ultimately, I am very filmmaker oriented, as a producer. — Nina Jacobson

If you think you are a filmmaker ... make a film, and then show it. You need to be able to finish what you started so it is presentable. When you screen it and see if your film has an effect on an audience, you will understand what it means to be a filmmaker. — Tamra Davis

My style of songwriting is influenced by cinema. I'm a frustrated filmmaker. A fan once said to me, 'Girl, you make me see pictures in my head!' and I took that as a great compliment. That's exactly my intention. — Joni Mitchell

I am an emotional and fragile person. I observe life, I am perceptive and can read a person's body language. I have a strong journalistic streak in me, and had I not been a filmmaker, I would have become a film journalist. I have combined my perceptive and journalistic traits to create my own brand of cinema. — Madhur Bhandarkar

Every filmmaker's different, every filmmaker has a different approach. — Johnny Depp

I've been involved with violent movies, and then I've also said at a certain point, 'I can't take it anymore. Please cut it.' You know, you've got to respect the filmmaker, and it's a really tough issue. — Harvey Weinstein

I decided to be a filmmaker between my sophomore and junior years at Morehouse. Before I left for the summer of 1977, my advisor told me I really had to declare a major when I came back, because I'd used all my electives in my first two years. I went back to New York and I couldn't find a job. There were none to be had. And that previous Christmas someone gave me a Super-8 camera, so I just started to shoot stuff. — Spike Lee

Me, as a moviegoer, before being a filmmaker, I try to think about what movie I would like to see. — Alexandre Aja

As a filmmaker, I'm very collaborative. I don't pretend to know everything that is needed to make a movie. What I like to do is get together with a group of people, starting with developing the story and bounce around ideas. — John Lasseter

The first monster that an audience has to be scared of is the filmmaker. They have to feel in the presence of someone not confined by the normal rules of propriety and decency. — Wes Craven

I'm really interested in having a studio one day and being a filmmaker. — Ryan Phillippe

All I want is the same opportunities as the filmmakers I grew up admiring. But you know, I've had lots of amazing opportunities to do the movies I wanted to do. If I could write my future, I'd want to keep making character-based films that can make use of my voice as a filmmaker. — Tim Story

But if you, as an independent filmmaker or a 'serious' filmmaker, think you put more love into your characters than the Russo Brothers do Captain America, or Joss Whedon does the Hulk, or I do a talking raccoon, you are simply mistaken. — James Gunn

If you want to tell stories, be a writer, not a filmmaker. — Peter Greenaway

It's just incredible. When you're French, coming from a non-English language country, you don't even dream about Oscar recognition or nominations. It's just beyond the dream. It's something very, very special and unique. It's the highest recognition any filmmaker could dream of. — Michel Hazanavicius

I am very filmmaker oriented, as a producer. I think the most important thing is that you have to really choose the players carefully. — Nina Jacobson

By the time you arrive at Sundance as a filmmaker, you've been living with your film intimiately, and scrutinized every frame, and probably aren't happy with - or at least I'm never happy with it - and you've seen it in the roughest of states, and you lose perspective, really. — James Ponsoldt

As I have been paving my career as a filmmaker my parents have been there for me every step of the way. They have believed in my dreams despite how steep the mountain has been. — Aurora Guerrero

You have to really be able to trust the director. It's about the filmmaker and whether or not I'm going to be able to have a relationship with them and want to follow them down that road, wherever it may lead. — Cameron Diaz

I needed to do a lot of saying no. I had a lot of [interest] from people who I just didn't think were quite right for it. And I didn't want a bad film to be made of the book, either a sentimental one or a creepy one, so I did a lot of, "No thank you." Then when the right filmmaker came along, yes, I suppose I presented myself very much as wanting to be the writer. — Emma Donoghue

There was a time when emigration from Cuba was a definitive separation. There were no visits. In the '80s, '90s, it was incredibly difficult. I'm not the only one interested in this as a filmmaker - other Cuban filmmakers have dealt with it, too, because it's such a part of our reality. — Fernando Perez

I love the French. They're the biggest film buffs and protectors of cinema in the world. They really look out for the filmmaker and the rights of the filmmaker, and they believe in final cut. — David Lynch

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. — Francis Ford Coppola

You can't second-guess yourself as a filmmaker. — Ralph Bakshi

Xavier Gens is probably the busiest filmmaker that I know. — Michael Eklund

I actually grew up wanting to be a filmmaker. I wanted to make movies, and music was a detour, almost. — Damien Chazelle

I think you could go back to any filmmaker or musician or artist, and look at what their input was in their formative years, and you could trace all the lines. — Andrew Stanton

My father was an amateur filmmaker who shot 8mm color documentaries. — Lasse Hallstrom

I have yet to meet a filmmaker who upon seeing her footage for the first time, didn't want to simultaneously bust open a bottle of Champagne, and move to another country to take a job as a bike courier. This is normal. — Roberta Marie Munroe

I think as a filmmaker my first contribution would just be to make a good movie that people would love to see and leave the theatre charged, with a sense of excitement. — Michael Moore

As an independent filmmaker, the biggest challenge is finding the money. Whenever you have interest in a film project you need to find investors who are real. I think most independent filmmakers would echo that sentiment. — Harrison Smith

In a way, perhaps, there's an advantage of being on the edge of something and looking in as the observer, because as the filmmaker, you're the storyteller, and you're pulling out this universal story. — Sarah Gavron

Music is, for me, a great tool of a filmmaker, the same way cinematography, the acting, editing, post-production, the costumes are. You know, to help you tell a story. — Spike Lee

I'm a small filmmaker, making my small, low-budget movies, but I'm super lucky to know that everybody reacts differently to my movies. That's interesting. — Quentin Dupieux

There are consequences with age, so you have to evolve. I've loved becoming a filmmaker. But I would love to continue modeling, and there isn't really any job for me. It's being marginalized - that's the sad part. — Isabella Rossellini

It really depends on what the screenplay is asking of you, and what your responsibility is to that character. You have the author's intent to deal with, you have the filmmaker's vision, and then you have your own wants, desires and needs for the character. It's collaborative. But I knew, right off the bat, that there was no way to go into some sort of pink-haired, clown-nosed character with Ronald McDonald shoes. — Johnny Depp

Without art, a film is pure wastage of time and resources. — Abhijit Naskar

I think the biggest challenge was being aware of a certain audience that was going to see this film [lone survivor]. There's a big difference from a typical movie, journalists and critics and film goers that go see it find that, that's the general experience you have as a filmmaker. So that just kind of proves my point that there's a really different audience. — Peter Berg

Well, he's got a much bigger circus to play with, and he has a lot more financing available, and he has a lot more time available. I think that makes a huge difference. I think he instinctively knows how to make films and all the different ways that you can make stuff. He's very gadget-wise, and he's very smart about all the different things that are available to a filmmaker nowadays, and he makes very good use of them. He has a theater in his house, for God's sake. It has proper curtains on it and everything. It's pretty wild. — Michael Madsen

If a Million People See My Movie, I Hope They See a Million Different Movies. — Quentin Tarantino

It's interesting for myself, growing up as an Asian-American filmmaker. Coming into the industry, my parents always said, "No one's going to give you the opportunity. You just have to do the work. Be better than everyone else, so they can't deny it." — Daniel Radcliffe

I'm a filmmaker, not a scientist. — Roland Emmerich

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

When the American documentary filmmaker Donn Alan Pennebaker wanted to do a film on Dylan, Dylan asked him what he'd already done, and Pennebaker answered, Nothing except shots in the street. Dylan asked to see them, and he agreed to let him do the film. — Raymond Depardon

A filmmaker can never be distant from his roots. — Walter Salles

I was, and am, a frustrated filmmaker and film student, and my passion and love for movies was so broad that, in the earlier part of my career, I stumbled into doing 'Sports Night' and was a comedy director. — Alex Graves

If there isn't a deep core reason for a film existing, what is the point? For me to be known as a filmmaker that makes films that have a point, I'm stoked. — Neill Blomkamp

I don't want to be an old-man filmmaker, making old-man movies, and I don't want to be the one not to know when to leave the party. — Quentin Tarantino

I think as a filmmaker you try not to have any expectations other than that the film have a fairly substantial beginning, middle and end. — Mark Boal

Filmmaking is not the work of the weak-minded. It may not be rocket science, but it requires ten times more strength of the mind than that. — Abhijit Naskar

Every filmmaker's just going to keep trying to make it the best you can make it: make it as potent and interesting and entertaining and exciting and tough and sexy as you can. — Catherine Hardwicke

You do sometimes have to work on things where you love the cast and you love the filmmaker, and the role might not be great but it's fun. I'm totally down to do those things, and will continue to do those things, as well, but it at least has to be peppered with roles that are really interesting and that are hard. — Mary Elizabeth Winstead

I think as a filmmaker and as a director, you shortchange yourself if you inhibit the ability of your actor to bring their own personal experiences to the characters. — Joe Carnahan

As a filmmaker coming from one of the youngest lands in the world, New Zealand - safe, green and democratic - I was intrigued by Afghanistan, with its literature and poetry, its old land and its deep history. — Pietra Brettkelly

I don't call myself an 'independent filmmaker'. Either a concept works within a studio system or it doesn't. If it does then you should try to get a studio budget so that you can use all of the tools they have to get what you want. If it doesn't then you look elsewhere, or make it yourself. — Andrew Neel

The comments you'll get from a filmmaker about your performance are going to be very different. My writing workshop is about mixing it up, cross-pollinating, not only in genres but in occupations. — Sandra Cisneros

There's nothing creative about living within your means. — Francis Ford Coppola

No saint, no pope, no general, no sultan, has ever had the power that a filmmaker has; the power to talk to hundreds of millions of people for two hours in the dark. — Frank Capra

An Oscar means a lot of things because it's like the ultimate award for a filmmaker so it feels great. But I think you have to consider awards with some distance and not get obsessed with it. When you're creating you shouldn't think about it. — Alejandro Amenabar

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

I love acting. I think that's the best job in the world, but I don't really enjoy the career of it so much. You don't have as much control over your life or the material as you do, well, certainly when you're a director or a producer, so while I love acting, I prefer to make my living as a filmmaker, but my rule on acting is if somebody asks me to do a part, I'll do it. — David Hayter

I was inspired by Maya Deren because she was the first woman filmmaker whose films I saw. I also loved Fellini and Goddard because they were so different from Hollywood films. But when I saw the cinema verite films that were made by Drew Associates with Leacock and Pennebaker I found my passion. — Chris Hegedus

As a media artist and filmmaker, I'm constantly considering the role of situational context when creating my work. — Jason Silva

I was a filmmaker. I made movies. I made films. And I always took photos and made films, always from the beginning. — Robert Barry

I'm not a fan of 3D. But I am a huge fan of digital imagery. Because it allows a filmmaker much more latitude to appreciate their own visions and dreams. — William Friedkin

I understand the rules of Superman - not necessarily better than anyone else - but better than a normal filmmaker would. After doing 'Watchmen' and digging that deep into the why of superheroes, when Superman is presented to you, I felt like I was in a unique position to say 'I get this guy. I know what this is.' — Zack Snyder

I don't have any bone to pick with critics. In fact, if I wasn't a filmmaker I would probably be a film critic. Most of my bone is I would be a better film critic than most of the film critics I read. — Quentin Tarantino

It's valuable to me as an artist and actor to explore all kinds of outlets. So if a local filmmaker in Milwaukee had a good story, I'd be part of it in a second. — Tanya Fischer

The main reason why I'm a documentary filmmaker is the power of the medium. The most powerful films I've seen have been documentaries. Of course, there are some narrative films that I could never forget, but there are more documentaries that have had that impact on me. — Richard Ray Perez

I'd meet a new filmmaker that I'd always loved, and I'd think, "Great! I'm in the right place." It's a weird way to look at it, but I don't care as long as I'm able to make stuff that I want to make. — Amy Seimetz

There's got to be something you want to tell and that's the engine which spurs all of the work you have to do in order to create the story, but you have to love some sort of nugget of what you're telling to be a filmmaker. — Bradley Cooper

When industry people see something different they don't know what to do with it, so filmmakers who make films about women, they kind of fall through the cracks. If a woman filmmaker makes film about war, they say "Okay, this is a war film, it has ninety percent men in it, we know what to do with it." But then it still gets attacked for not doing it properly. But even though it bothers me I don't want to dwell on the sex and gender thing. — Signe Baumane

So much can be learned by any filmmaker by studying his work, in terms of blocking, staging, editing and sound. — Ramin Bahrani

Being snarky and smug doesn't equate to providing insight, and there's more than one occasion when the filmmakers lose sight of this in their zeal to spread the Gospel According to Maher. — James Berardinelli

With the Ford Foundation grant all of a sudden instead of being an artist that had made a couple of short films, I became a filmmaker who dabbled in the arts. — Bruce Conner

'Coriolanus' has been around for 400 years, and it's going to be around for another 400 years, and nothing I can do is going to mess it up. So, going into it, I felt sort of very free to look at it as a filmmaker does. — John Logan

In my view, the only way to see a film remains the way the filmmaker intended: inside a large movie theater with great sound and pristine picture. — Ridley Scott

Any filmmaker who has translated some personal vision into a film that actually gets shot and distributed is wildly successful. Congratulations! Anything after that is gravy. — Paul Dinello

Christopher Nolan's 'Batman Begins' set the bar very high for the superhero movie, as it showed that you could get a great cast for these movies and take a real filmmaker's perspective. — Jon Favreau