Paul Bettany Quotes

I grew up as a cameraman, so it's much easier for me to shoot it myself. I work with an operator and a crew, but it's way easier for me to function as a cinematographer, than to have a cinematographer between me and the lens. I don't need that.

I'm definitely moving more towards directing now.

I have a great little camera, and I had a theory that if the story is interesting, it doesn't matter what medium you shoot it on. You just have to make a good film.

You ought to have a perspective when you're making a film.

I have to make little movies. I have to sit and film.

I've worked with some of the great cinematographers. So I'm always watching what they do and I'm watching how the director composes his shots, just because I find it interesting as an actor; you're trying to help them out as well.

Everything about camera movement, about how film was made, shot architecture, and time management... I was horrible at all that.

In films, you have to follow the director's vision. Filmmaking is a director's medium. So everything happens as per the script and his vision.

Sixty-five days principle photography, five-day weeks, which is the only way I'll work. With my cinematographer Russell Boyd, we take as much time as possible before pre-production, looking at stills. The next most important thing: he will come to me and talk about lenses. And I'll see his plan, which is generally great, and I might talk about how the light will be, handheld or not? I talk very freely, and try not to talk specifically, just talk around it, because it can unlock all sorts of things.

When I did my first film, I didn't have formal training; I didn't work under any director. I really didn't know how to make a film.

Back-light is the cinematographer's friend.

I went to film school to direct.

Some of the actors who came to cinema much later than me have tried their hand at direction. But, I don't intend to wield megaphone anytime soon, since it is tough and requires a lot of your time.

There's always the temptation, as a cinematographer, to make the shot look as perfect as possible.

The more I work in the film business, the more I see that those guys, the directors, have the most fun on set.

Three years at the institute had not taught me as much as two weeks on the sets of 'Susman.'

I really enjoy behind the camera stuff and I'm a frustrated photographer myself and just love the camera. I love that side of it and that part of the filmmaking world and I enjoy developing things. It's an area that I'll continue to be more active in as time goes by.

I am so impressed with people who can really make a big movie, a good movie. The amount of work that goes into it is incredible.

As much as I love movies, it would be presumptuous of me to think that I know how to make one.

The long takes process doesn't allow for that many takes. In the past I have shot over 50 takes of different shots. Sometimes you end up using take 64, sometimes take four.

I think maybe making films is something innate you can't really teach to begin with.

It's very, very technical, what we do in film. While all of the lights are there and all of the crew members and directors are staring right at you, you have to be honest. It's a very difficult, but technical medium.

I take bits and pieces from every director. I'd say Sylvain [White] and Nimrod [Antal]. They were more about teaching me lens sizes and depth of field and how to move the camera and lighting. I do want to direct and I didn't go to film school, so having a director that are very much hands on that way and looking to let me learn, that is a key factor.

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.

If I'm ever working on a set and anyone talks about a master shot, I say there is no master shot. Before I even went to film school, I learned about movies by being in a British feature film, where everything was shot master shot, mid-shot, close-up. But I reject the idea of a master shot. You don't shoot everything mechanically; you find imaginative ways that serve the action.