Robert Forster Quotes

I feel every shot, every camera move, every frame, and the way you frame something and the choice of lens, I see all those things are really important on every shot.

When I am shooting a film I never think of how I want to shoot something; I simply shoot it.

The process of shooting - of choosing shots - is intuitive for me, and I just feel my way towards what seems right.

Cinematography is so much about instinct and intuition - you want the same range of experience going into behind the camera as what you see in front of it. Your life experience will come through the lens.

A lot of directors in my experience are very receptive. They see what you do first, and then they want to find a place to put the camera, and they tweak you here and there.

I'm not an artist. I set the camera up and tell my story.

I really got into filmmaking through photography.

When you shoot a movie, the camera is always taking, taking, taking and not giving anything back.

I'm one of the few directors that actually shoots a lot in camera.

I always wanted to know what lens they were on, how close they were. I didn't do it with a plan in mind, but I would instinctively gear what I was doing toward what lenses they were using.

Nobody will ever notice that. Filmmaking is not about the tiny details. It's about the big picture.

Finding where to put the camera is probably the most important thing you have to learn when you're a young director, and it's something that's a mixture of instinct and technique.

For a cinematographer, every frame has to be important.

The job is trying to create movie shots that have depth, that have the meanings you need them to have, and then good enough so that they will add something to the final picture. They will make the picture; they'll get into the picture, and give them what they need. It's an interesting job.

I like to be on set and see what the camera guys are up to. I like to see all the jobs that come together to make the thing you are also making.

Every cinematographer I worked with had his own way of solving problems.

I don't like to watch playback. But being on the set, watching the way the camera is being moved and the way the light is being used, you do get an idea of it.

I've always had the utmost respect and awe of what the lens can do and what a director can do with just a camera move.

Whenever I arrive on a real location, I have to move around and work out what the best angles are going to be. When I was moving around with the lens, I discovered things that the naked eye would not have.

I'm not a photographer, so I didn't get into F-stops or ND filters or background, foreground, cross-light, all that stuff. But I was interested in the camera and the lenses. That's the world that I'm moving in, in terms of acting and giving a performance.

I'm always secretly the most pleased when a show just really, really looks good and when my camera guys are really happy with the images they got.

I learned a lot about how to shoot and how to put together sequences.

The camera must point at the exact spot the audience wishes to look at any given moment. To find that spot is absurdly easy: you only have to remember where you were looking at the time the scene was made.

I was very glad later when I was directing that I wasn't in the hands of a cinematographer and hoping that he would do it well. I would know what he was doing, and we could discuss how that scene would look.

Well, I've learned something from Michael Robison just about maximizing your shots. For example, if I'm shooting a scene and someone's driving at the wheel, you could steal an insert in the same shot.