Alan Parker Quotes

Films are not mathematics - that's the first thing you need to understand. At least, that's how I feel. They are not words on paper. Films are made with people, with teams and with individual bundles of creativity coming together to fulfill the vision of an individual who is the director of the film.

If I'm talking to a photographer, I'm talking to a stylist, I'm talking to a makeup artist, we're kind of creating and collaborating and making something that is artwork and is special and is different.

When you make a movie, you can only make the movie that you would want to see.

What's great about making movies is the sort of additive process of bringing people together and having an idea and watching the idea be added to and at the end you have this thing.

Movies are very hard to make, to get it all to come together. So many people have their say in what the end product of films are.

Some of the best art in the world is collaborative, a mix of voices that are stronger together than separate. Take the Beatles, for example. Or every great movie ever made. We like to say they're the director's vision, but really, they're huge collaborations between directors, writers, actors, even producers.

Movies are the work of a collective conscious. It takes 500-800 people on a movie to complete a vision.

I like to just work with great directors.

It's not that there aren't people who care creatively in the world of television, but there's always a bit more time in making a movie. I always feel films are more of a creative journey.

When you make a movie, it's up to so many things and so many people.

Every film is a human encounter. It's people trying to collaborate and create something together.

Most of the people that I've worked with when shooting films that I really respect, there is a point which you do become obsessed in a good way. And because it's a collaborative medium, you're not by yourself in a room tearing your hair out, you're in a room with a bunch of people. And we're all tearing our hairs out, or trying to get something right, or caring deeply about something. But that's fun.

Making a film, you're in a really dark tunnel and the only kind of illumination is the shared experience you're having with your fellow cast and director.

A film is not done by one person. It's done by a lot of people. I love this whole collaborative aspect. When it works well, you end up with something better than any of us started out to do.

I'm proud of 'Sinister' because Scott and Cargill did a great job on the movie, and I set up a framework for them to make what they wanted to make. They gave me the idea, and I figured out how to get it out into the world.

If you're lucky enough to work with great actors and creative people, they're always just going to be who they are, so I don't think there's a difference between the Brits and the Americans.

And I think one way or another it's evident to those who work with me that as a writer, a director, a friend, as somebody's there that's very anxious to get the movie made.

The most important thing for Quentin and the most important thing for me is to make the best film possible.

So I've had really great assistant directors for my last seven movies.

You have to really work with someone who you think is going to be a collaborator, who you think understands what you want to do with this movie and how you want to do it.

A film takes a lot of time, and yet not enough to share with the people you're making the movie with, I think.

I realized what you could do in motion pictures by surrounding yourself with geniuses.

The great directors managed to dissolve and disappear into the work. They make other people look good.

I mean, '8½' to me is such a great dissertation on the whole, you know, act of filmmaking and creativity.

In truth, I have always been amazed by a group of people who all work toward putting one person's vision forward - that's an interesting story for me.