David MacKenzie Quotes

Everybody is always trying to make the best movie they can. It's a process.

The reason I wanted to start directing is that as an actor I felt I came into a job late. There's a whole team of people who have been working on it for months before you start. You have this really intense period of filming and then you leave it, knowing that the director will work on it for another few months.

One of the most interesting aspects of the film project was collaborating with so many people - directors, filmmakers, and writers - over a five-year period. I learned that there are two components to this.

Filmmaking is such a collaborative medium.

So you know, as a filmmaker you have to get it all right in the writing stage. After that, one has to leave it on the judgement of your trusted ones and the audiences.

When you are writing and directing and producing, there is a lot of stuff to do. I like to finish one; then while I am editing, I will think of the next one.

I have always written - since I was a kid. I might say that I am essentially a writer who is bored to be alone in the room writing. I need to have more people around me. So, I 'write' with a film camera and have a party at the same time by having a bunch of people around.

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

You need the words, you need the script, you need the material, you need the commitment, you need the passion, it's like we depend on writers, we depend on producers, directors depend on us and once things are in the divine order as they happen.

Filmmaking is the ultimate team sport.

I'm a filmmaker, so I always think: When is the breaking point? Sometimes you've got to go beyond the breaking point, and then you catch it. When is long enough? It's one of those things you have to look at, walk away, and go home and find out what it is.

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

What's important in the filmmaking process has stayed the same. Keep it small, keep it personal, keep it authentic, work with people you like and trust. That process is much longer than the filmmaking process. The development process is a long one, so try and say something of importance.

With directing, you've got to find something and drag it up from its inception, and I'm at the early stages of doing that again. There's something all-consuming and addictive about that.

When you're making a film, you become incredibly close. It's not like you're filing away papers all day. You're creating with human emotions, so you do become very connected, so it is familial and romantic.

I depend on good editors and a good director.

Making a movie is a lot of problem solving.

People go to extraordinary lengths to get films made.

I grew up on film sets but more around the process of making films. I saw a lot of the editing process and the writing process, which takes years. That really affected me growing up, that side of it.

I think the most satisfying part about filmmaking is seeing a production in full bloom. When I write, I write in isolation.

I've never read a screenplay in advance. You trust the artist.

For me, it's painful to make a movie. It's not my normal rhythm.

I think each movie-making process is a very exhausting and satisfying and fulfilling experience for me.

As a director or writer, you have to be so controlling.

Filmmaking is a much more collaborative thing than literature, so you know you're going to be working with a group of people at the start. You know it's going to be a compromise.