Things I’ve Learned As A Moviemaker

Successful Directing
The best guys interpret the material.

Too Much Prior Knowledge
I like to put myself in the position of the audience, because they
don’t know any of that stuff anyway.

Drama vs. Documentary
Drama is judging performance; in documentaries, the performance
is so real that you never have to do that.

Editing Without Sound
I don’t want to get fooled by the effects and the music-masking
any problems that might exist or clarity that should be there that
isn’t.

Strong Storytelling
Sometimes the story is told though the dialogue and other times
just with images. The best movies are a combination of both.

The Importance of Assistants
They can have a better sense of the big picture because they have
a little more distance from it. It’s good to have someone there
who can stand back and look at it as any viewer would.

The Ideal Director
[An ideal director has] a grasp of the big picture-the whole movie-rather
than getting caught up in details of specific shots.

Classic Moviemaking
It’s all performance: not really a lot of editing, not a lot of
music or a lot of snap. It’s just pure moviemaking in a simple way.
Many of those old classics are seamless, really-they don’t call
any attention to themselves, in a good way.

On Preview Screenings
They’re just so painful. If you can relax, though, they can be great.

Problem Sequences
Any veteran will tell you that if you’re bored in a scene it’s not
that scene-it’s usually something earlier.