Dee Rees Quotes

Of all the things I've done in life, directing a motion picture is the most beautiful. It's the most exciting and the nearest than an interpretive craftsman, such as an actor can possibly get to being a creator.

I would love to be able to get behind the camera and direct actors. I think that would be a lot of fun.

When I was on set I tried not to bug Steven Soderbergh too much. "Why did you put the camera there?" But he was very open to my questions and definitely being on his set was really thrilling because he's such a master.

I prefer to think of film making - you know, um, the sweat is supposed to be invisible. But a lot of sweat can go into making a film. But of course, if you enjoy doing it, you enjoy doing it.

The directing of a picture involves coming out of your individual loneliness and taking a controlling part in putting together a small world. A picture is made. You put a frame around it and move on. And one day you die. That is all there is to it.

Most screenplays depend primarily on the vision of a director.

When you make a movie, you can only make the movie that you would want to see.

I need to have my hands on the DNA of a film.

When you create a movie, you create something in your image.

There is a director for a reason, because a director knows what's best for the movie. You just give your director as much as you can to work with, and hopefully, the decisions they make are going to be great.

I have always believed that when a film is being made, it has to be the director's vision.

Partly why I love to operate is that I love to watch an actor within a shot. When you watch a shot, and you know that everything's come together, I feel I'm the first person watching it. I always get pleasure out of that.

No film ever ends up exactly as you would like it to, but with minor exceptions, THX came out pretty much as I had visualized it, thanks to some excellent assistance -- and a whole lot of luck.

I love working with actors. I love visual things. I always intended to be a writer who directs and a director who writes.

Filmmaking is a creative process so there is a lot of collaboration that happens on set between an actor and director, but at the end of the day, we're there to actualize the director's vision and things happen organically.

I don't watch a lot of films. I'm usually involved in making them.

I really enjoy talking to actors or filmmakers that enjoy that process of creating and how they go about doing it.

A lifetime isn't long enough to learn how to make films.

With film, so much is in the director's hands. Once something is cut together - unless you're in the editing room - you don't really remember what the alternatives are.

I know the pleasure you get from making your films. The intense involvement in every aspect: the acting, the camera, the colors, the costumes, even the hair and makeup. Editing is thrilling. Everything to do with films is absorbing - everything but the money part, the business. But I'm deeply glad I've had that experience.

I'm happy - at times - making films. I'm certainly unhappy not making films.

In film, you're painting a canvas. I got really excited about that.

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.

You become the movie you are making.

I have stories that I'd like to maybe one day consider directing, but you need a lot of time to write and put it together.