Daniel Barber Quotes

I don't have a style. I've never thought of myself as a stylist like the visual stylists I admire enormously - Adrian Lyne, Ridley Scott, Alan Parker - in which every shot has a great idea in them.

I've heard it said many times, 'Let's work on the look of the film,' but that doesn't work with me.

My directors of photography light my films, but the colours of the sets, furnishings, clothes, hairstyles - that's me. Everything that's in front of the camera, I bring you.

The visual architecture of 'Biutiful' is the most sophisticated of all the films I have directed.

Directing is creating a whole. You're able to combine different elements and create a film that is unique and true to your vision.

You ought to have a perspective when you're making a film.

You need these experiences. Just know that sometimes, the director has a specific look in mind.

Every film deserves its own unique look.

Wes Anderson deserves an award for sheer persistence of vision.

As a director, I start with the visual.

You have to give directors and cinematographers a word blueprint for visuals, but I had to learn that from experience.

The great thing about having spent all this time on film sets is that I've been able to watch directors and how they work. I now know that this is what I want to do as well: to tell stories visually. But it's definitely my vision that I want to put across, nobody else's.

There are some scenes that work beautifully in a moving, sweeping master, which is how I like to work.

When I was in pre-production for Trees Lounge, I was hearing the cinematographer talking with the production designer about colours and this and that, and feeling like I was losing control.

If you shoot with a billion cameras, then there's no perspective. You want to use one shot at a time, so it's better to discover what that is before you shoot, rather than trying to make something in the cutting room, and then it just becomes generic.

I think I'm drawn to films more as a director with a directorial mind even as an actor. I make movies to make the films, not to act.

Ever since 'Star Wars,' there was a rash of how a movie was made. I remember that as a kid. I never really understood how movies were made until that movie, because it was such a technical accomplishment. Since then, you've seen more and more and more, for all different kinds of films, about what goes into the process.

The director is the only person on the set who has seen the film. Your job as a director is to show up every day and know where everything will fit into the film.

The film is a direct mirror of the director. If your director doesn't know how to dress, there will be an aesthetic of the film that won't come through - whether it's in the costumes if he doesn't know exactly what he wants or the look of the film.

All these directors, and I would include the Coen brothers and Quentin, have a very unique vision of what they want. They listen to ideas and make people feel like everyone is making the film.

After defining an idea of what I want to achieve, through a series of storyboard images, I'll go to the ends of the earth to create it, whether that involves obscure camera lenses or the latest electronic techniques.

As the director, I try to go in and know as much as I can about the material. I really try to go in and understand what all the characters are about, what the movie's going to look like.

A director shouldn't get in the way of the movie, the story should.

Great art direction is NOT the same thing as great film direction!

I think I would like directing. I really like coming at the work that way.