Jonathan Levine Quotes

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.

Some directors are interested in acting, and others are only interested in cranes and moving the camera.

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.

I'm one of the few directors that actually shoots a lot in camera.

I also know what looks good before the camera, how to move the camera, and how to get a story on the screen.

Finding where to put the camera is probably the most important thing you have to learn when you're a young director, and it's something that's a mixture of instinct and technique.

I'm in total awe of the technique of great film people. Because if you get your emotional life up to perfection by miracle on Take One, you better have a technique to keep doing it again and again and again.

For a lot of my childhood, I didn't want to direct movies because I didn't really know what directing was.

I've always had the utmost respect and awe of what the lens can do and what a director can do with just a camera move.

There are some scenes that work beautifully in a moving, sweeping master, which is how I like to work.

I always loved Japanese movies. And they had an enormous impact in France - the Nouvelle Vague took so much from them. It taught us how the camera was placed in the centre of the action.

I discovered that, in order to write a magnificent piece, you should shoot the images because once you are filming, you are writing the script in your mind.

You don't want to be the guy whose back's to the camera in the emotional part of the movie. So, you have to be aware of the camera movement and what the camera's doing.

I design my shots. I walk the rehearsal as the camera and say 'this is where I want to be... I want this look.

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.

Would I like to direct? Maybe one day.

People who are good at film have a relationship with the camera.

Technically, maybe I learned most of all from George Stevens, and among his movies I learned the most from 'A Place in the Sun.' It's a lesson in moviemaking.

I have considered the directing, actually. Not so much the writing. That is not really interesting, but the directing is really interesting to me.

I'm a storyteller - that's the chief function of a director. And they're moving pictures, let's make 'em move!

I really got into filmmaking through photography.

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

I was never one for multi-cameras; my approach was always... I always considered there was only one place to be to do a shot.

When you shoot a movie, the camera is always taking, taking, taking and not giving anything back.

I want to direct. Definitely a goal of mine.