David R. Ellis Quotes

When I was younger I didn't really know what a director did: I knew I loved movies and I figured the actors made it up! And then when you get to 12 years old you start thinking, What does a director do? It was really an organic beginning: this looks like something I want to do, I can't believe people get paid to do it!

Film work can be very interesting, but it also can be awfully boring because who creates the film? The actors? No. It is the director. It's his piece of work.

After directing movies, I respect any director in this world, because making a movie as a director is tons and tons of work.

When I did 'Gilbert Grape,' Lasse Hallstrom let me be on the set with him and in the editing room and in the casting sessions and so on. And so I got a firsthand, rather intimate, high-pressure look at how to make a film.

When I make a live-action movie, it's a very physical process. It's like running a marathon.

Most screenplays depend primarily on the vision of a director.

I'm in awe of directors like the Coen brothers who can shoot their script and edit it, and that's the movie. They're not discovering the movie in postproduction. They're editing the script they shot.

I realized the exciting place was behind the camera with the producer, director and so on.

You could get in rehearsals, pre-production, anything that would actually contribute to the understanding of how a film gets made. I actually find those things increase people's interest in a movie and like that better than worrying about showing the tricks behind the curtain.

When you direct your first film, you always start by telling stories that you are familiar with.

When I made my first film, I didn't think of it as directing, so it wasn't like I set out to become a director.

I just love being on a movie set. I like making movies.

We make a lot of movies, and we make them fast.

I know how to write a movie. I know how to direct a movie.

I love telling stories. But I believe that nobody could teach you to direct a movie.

The idea of directing my own movie is definitely more challenging than choreography.

You never have any idea where your movie's going to go when you're shooting - you're in this little bubble. Everything you care about is getting the next step right: getting the script right, finding the right actors, shooting it. Then you spend half a year in a dark room editing your film, and you don't talk to anybody.

I am eternally impressed and amazed by what directors do.

It's kind of dangerous to cut in the camera, but that's the only way I know how to direct.

As a director, you try to find what is creative.

I do want to direct a movie from horseback one day.

I am incapable of directing a film like 'Agneenath.' I can do only what I am good at, so I would have been the worst choice to direct it. It has aggression, action and an inherent violence in it - things I am not capable of directing in my films.

Making 'Beloved' was an awesome experience.

With me, I probably work a lot more than people assume I do, but people don't realize how much work goes into writing and producing and making a movie.

I like to direct movies, but I don't like to goof around for eight years talking about it.