David Mitchell Quotes

The visual architecture of 'Biutiful' is the most sophisticated of all the films I have directed.

My photography changed from being more documentary-like to arranging things more, and that came into being partly because I started doing music videos, and I incorporated some things from the music videos into my photography again, by arranging things more.

For me the visual is just as important as the music.

Manipulating shadows and tonality is like writing music or a poem.

I love telling stories with images. But I think there's more to just saying a movie is great visually.

For me, I'm not a great wordsmith, and so maybe from lack of great dialogue writing, I thought it's easier and better to express a story through visuals.

I was always interested in language. I thought, why not? If a painting, by the normal definition of the term, is paint on canvas, why can't it be painted words on canvas?

I definitely associate music with color. For example, my first record has a red cover but it is totally green and blue to me.

The sound of colors is so definite that it would be hard to find anyone who would express bright yellow with base notes, or dark lake with the treble.

I've generally got a good eye for design and proportion.

So I like to try to go back and develop pure visual storytelling. Because to me, it's one of the most exciting aspects of making movies and almost a lost art at this point.

I love making up visual works of art in language. I get to be an artist without actually being an artist in that sense.

I like finding a great shot and then just staying with it for a long time, not trying to pump things up with some kind of artificial energy by cutting.

My films are an extension of my poetry, using the white screen like the white page to be filled with images.

My work is not about 'form follows function,' but 'form follows beauty' or, even better, 'form follows feminine.'

Certain directors are known for a certain kind of beauty; it becomes their signature.

A special effect is a tool, a means of telling a story. A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing.

A style is not a matter of camera angles or fancy footwork, it's an expression, an accurate expression of your particular opinion.

The way it works for me is my sight and sound senses are combined. Every sound I associate with a color and every color I associate with a sound... The way I see things is constant streamers across the room, bouncing off from every touch and every sound. Over the years, I've learned what color palates I love most.

I think of myself as a writer who photographs. Images, for me, can be considered poems, short stories or essays. And I've always thought the best place for my photographs was inside books of my own creation.

In Hitchcock's eyes the movement was dramatic, not the acting. When he wanted the audience to be moved, he moved the camera. He was a subtle human being, and he was also the best director I have ever worked with.

Americans think cinema is about storytelling; I don't believe that. I think it's a language and everyone has to find their own way of speaking. It's not so much what you say as the way you say it.

I love it when television is shot in a cinematic way and I think to aspire to that is no bad thing.

The narrative of serial art works more like music than like literature.

If the chemistry is right between star and photographer and the geometry of the pictures pleases the star, often the two people end up with a long-term professional friendship during which they continue to work together and to produce highly personal images.