William Mapother Quotes

When I did 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', I had the idea on Monday and the following Tuesday it was in budget at Paramount. I couldn't walk.

I have a notebook, and I know what decisions will be made in pre-production. Everything is pre-determined in the pre-production period. I visually design the whole thing, and I know when things will happen.

I don't like to dwell all day over one scene as you do in a big feature.

But it's mostly about pacing yourself when you do these movies.

I like to direct movies, but I don't like to goof around for eight years talking about it.

You can act in five, six, or seven films in the time it takes to direct one film.

I guess I'm a good manager now. Moreover, I'm loving the concept of donning the producer's hat. It's all very exciting as well as a great learning experience. You're a part of a film right from its conception to its execution, and that's an amazing feeling.

In America, they shoot budgets and schedules, and they don't shoot films any more. There's more opportunity in Europe to make films that at least have a purity of intent.

I think the toughest thing is to describe what a producer does because they basically do everything. They follow a project from the start through the rest of its life and, along the way, are a part of every single aspect of its growth. It's tremendously enriching, though, because you get to know and live with the movie in its entirety.

Studios are an assembly line. They can be a very good assembly line. As a producer, you concentrate on one project at a time. As an executive, you're in charge of a slate.

Scheduling is always tough, no matter what the budget size is, and we had our own run-ins with that on 'Fading of the Cries.'

Making a movie is a lot of problem solving.

I think any filmmaker looks back and thinks, 'Boy, if we only had four hours more on that day when the sun was going down,' or, 'If we only spent more time and went back.'

I usually work on a film soundtrack for two years, turning in a song every few months, and that keeps my creative energy high, because I'm constantly rotating projects. The trick is to make sure I don't work too hard and get exhausted.

Every project that you write about or read about, it goes through years of hard work. We write a screenplay; we design. Then you submit those and the budget, and it's out of your hands.

I have been working on one film at a time. One film recovers a little cost and that helps me move on to the next one.

In management terms, directing opera certainly prepares you for a film set: the magnitude of it, the experts in other fields that you have to call on. Both are massive ensemble jobs in which there's incredible pressure to get things done on time and on budget - so much so that making the wrong decision may be better than making no decision at all.

I think everything you do, whether it's low budget things when you're first starting out or full feature films or when you're working with Hollywood, you're always learning, all the time.

Ever since my first film, I had more producers than scripts. And I've realised that a certain project requires a certain kind of producer for it to be made well.

At least in films you will go, you shoot for four to five months and then you can take a break. But I know how TV works… the directors are mindblowing, they work non-stop.

Filmmaking is all about people management.

I do one film at a time. I can't wake up early. I can't do too many films.

Even as an actor, much before I turned director or producer, I was somebody who was very involved with every film I was doing. I would pretty much be a part of a project from the time they toss the ball to the marketing. It's very simple.

I've learned more, and I understand the process a bit better now. I can try to see how long I want to take in each aspect of the filmmaking process, and then arrive at around the two-year end mark.

Well, we try to - we definitely try to have a balance. And I think things have gotten a lot better at Pixar. When we did "Toy Story," that was an all hands on deck situation that really was time intensive.