Rostam Batmanglij Quotes

When I'm a part of someone else's creative process, it's all about facilitating their ideas and hopefully bringing their perspective and making it a part of a song.

You have to really work with someone who you think is going to be a collaborator, who you think understands what you want to do with this movie and how you want to do it.

Jeph Loeb has been great to work with, and he's been really supportive of some really bizarre ideas I've had.

I just can't say enough about the actors having faith and trust in the writers and the writers having faith and trust in the actors.

I'm proud of 'Sinister' because Scott and Cargill did a great job on the movie, and I set up a framework for them to make what they wanted to make. They gave me the idea, and I figured out how to get it out into the world.

A great movie evolves when everybody has the same vision in their heads.

I don't want egos and personalities on the set that make it more difficult to make the film. I don't want people who take the focus away from the movie and the ideas behind the movie.

I love working with directors who have good taste. It's incredible when a director can say something and things open up for you. I went to The University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and some of my best experiences on sets have been working with other alums.

Sometimes two artists wanna work together, but it doesn't mean it's gonna happen, because you have to find the right idea.

You can never tell when an artist really will take up someone's work and work with it happily.

I have tried to preserve in my relationship to the film the same closeness and intimacy that exists between a painter and his canvas.

I view the whole thing as a collaboration. As an actor, I always found that to be the most freeing thing, when the director would collaborate with you, so that together you'd come up with something exponentially better.

People think if you're a movie star, you're the boss. But first of all, I'm not a movie star, I'm in a very different place. I'm not looking to do what I want - I am looking for what we can find. It's a creative process.

In truth, I have always been amazed by a group of people who all work toward putting one person's vision forward - that's an interesting story for me.

I've never had an issue with studios. I believe in them as true creative partners in the process.

You can be playing a line some way and the director wants you to change that, or you can disagree. But I always think that the creative conversation between director and actor is what leads to good work.

That's the most important thing to me - that if I'm gonna spend however long it takes to make a movie, give up 14 hours a day for however many weeks or months, then it's very important for me to know that I'm working with people who I respect and enjoy and that we're going for something together.

I think most co-directors and co-writers just hold hands.

Basically, I see myself as a maker of things who knows how to support other makers of things. At the end of the day, I am just committed to helping put good stories out into the world in whatever role is appropriate and needed for that particular project.

I like to come to the set with very strong ideas and strong opinions about how to do things. And I like also dealing with somebody who's like that.

Whatever Kanye tells me, I just try to put it in my little machine and make the perfect solution for it. That's always our collab formula, and that's just how 'Gorgeous' came about.

I see my actors as my collaborators.

When I work as an art director, I don't ask to see sketches from illustrators or photographers. I give them a basic idea, and then I say, 'Send it to me, it'll be fine' - I get out of the way.

Usually, with me, the project is always the second thing. The film-maker comes first. Films grow out of the relationship.

Film is a collaborative art form. If you're not being collaborative, you probably shouldn't be working in film. You don't do it on your own. People who understand that, cultivate that, get the best results.