Jonas Akerlund Quotes

I like to give dimension to shots inside action scenes. It's demanding because you have to rehearse a lot of things happening at the same time and frame all those things in a shot. But I feel like when you accomplish that then you've got a cool action scene.

You really get to direct the movie three times when it comes to the action sequences and the set pieces.

As a second unit director, you're entrusted to shoot the action sequences. On every movie, it's slightly different.

No question that 'Birdman' is a breathtaking technical achievement, not a stunt. Shot in 30 days after a long rehearsal period, with the actors' and the camera's movements calibrated to the inch and the millisecond so the action flows smoothly, the picture has the jagged energy of a long guerrilla raid choreographed by Bob Fosse.

Fight scenes are like learning a dance. You learn it move by move, and then you put it all together and it looks awesome when you edit it together. It's great!

I worked for Sam Peckinpah on quite a bit of action in his films, and he got excited once in a while.

An action choreographer is kind of like a dance choreographer. You choreograph the moves and you let the director, cinematographer take into positioning their cameras.

I had no special effects, no monsters running around, nothing blew up; those things are all things I've done so many times that they lose their allure after a while.

I've done all sorts of different kinds of action. We did a thing in 'Blood Diamond,' the attack on Freetown, where I carefully staged the action but did not show the camera operators what we were going to film - so it has the feel of documentary, trying to capture something, and that gave it a whole different feel.

I think with any movie, directing is more in the preparation. You just have to prepare for everything that's going to happen.

As a stunt guy, you become a mini-director. You're talking to actors about performance.

For me the stunts are so cool, they're one of my favourite things when we're doing the film.

I don't look at rushes, or I don't go to the dailies. I don't even really look at playback... unless it's an action scene or a move that I need to do better, something like that.

Film is shot in fragments, and the same moments can be shot again and again until the director is satisfied.

I'll need every ounce that I have to drive it through. Film and TV require that energy. Sometimes fight scenes can be pretty intense. When I was shooting 'Heaven' it was truly guerrilla film-making.

You will find hardly any improvising on camera anywhere in my films. It's very structured, but it's all worked out from elaborate improvisations over a long period, as you know.

In Hong Kong, particularly, we craft this art for decades. The action choreographer actually is the action director. He takes over and he choreographs with - by himself or with his team, and place the camera where he feels cinematic effect to bring out that choreography.

I couldn't do what I did in 'Deadpool' without 'Transporter,' categorically.

Stunts have to be meticulously arranged. Choreographed. You could take a fight scene and set it to music.

Intimate scenes or a kiss is a very technical aspect of filmmaking. It is extremely mechanical.

Making a movie is universal. Directing a movie is universal; it's a universal language.

It is a challenge to direct any film.

When you're shooting a TV show, sometimes it's more about, like, the blocking: it's usually - it's really fast. 'Walk here, walk here, walk and talk here.'

Most of music videos were short films - they had dialogue, action sequences. I shot with cranes and helicopters. I wanted to created cinema-like moments.

Action scenes are not that different from other scenes.