Bob Greene Quotes

TV and film taught me to think cinematically. Teaching others to edit, for example, provides a great deal of insight into the millions of ways in which given elements can be put together to tell a story.

We talked a lot about The Best Intentions and how we could shoot certain scenes in different ways with slightly different bits of dialogue and information, so that later on, we could cut the piece more easily and it would still feel complete, even though it was shorter.

I've always been a relaxed person on set, but I think the main thing is I think about it from an editing point of view way more than I did before.

As a director, you're looking for ways to tell the story with the whole image and not primarily dialogue.

If you think about it, episodic filmmaking has not been something that people have really done.

Being a good television screenwriter requires an understanding of the way film accelerates the communication of words.

The only reason for using another cut is to improve the scene.

In film or TV work, you can have this amazingly dramatic pause, and they'll just edit it out.

I think from an early age I was aware of how a camera can tell a story, how a movie camera can affect how the narrative is told.

I have my ideas of what a good documentary is, but drama is a different animal because you're arranging everything.

When you make a movie, you know you're making a long-form thing, so the visuals are different than for a video where it has to be more obvious or in your face, I think, a little bit.

For whatever reason, from a young age I've always been able to shoot images and cut them together with sound in a way that was very engaging.

For a film, when you condense, you don't want to keep going back to the same setting over and over.

Make movies. Don't make videos. Videos are evil.

I fell in love with film and its potential. The idea of putting one image next to another image and creating meaning blew my mind.

Every director knows it is his job to be manipulative. When you make an edit, you are trying to manipulate.

I started in documentaries, and that was a great help to me with improvisation, because with documentaries, you're handed a big lump of footage, and you have to shape it and make it into a story - which I love doing.

From 2005 to 2010, I was exclusively shooting 'The Act of Killing' and then editing it.

I remember walking into the editing room when I was a junior in college, and I watched the guy make cuts, and I didn't know what the hell was going on. He was just putting these shots together and telling the story, and it was amazing.

Docs, in general, are made in the edit bay, archival docs even more so.

It's wonderful to work on footage by someone who understands how to get it to cut right, which a lot of directors don't.

I never intended to be a documentary filmmaker. I think I became a documentary filmmaker because I had trouble writing, and I had trouble finishing things.

The craft of putting together a performance on film or television is incredibly intricate; you're putting together a story that is completely out of order, that you have to make some sense of, that you have to keep some coherence to the story, to the character.

Even other movies I wasn't involved with, I'd watch them edit 'cause I really enjoy watching them go through their process. It's a very economical, educational process.

It's great when somebody is able to communicate an actual shot sequence to you and you know the world you're inhabiting with that. It's literally a haunting tune.