Zal Batmanglij Quotes

As a director, you try to find what is creative.

Making a movie and not directing the little moments is like drinking a soda and leaving the little slurp puddle for someone else.

I like acting, but I like filmmaking better. I went to film school. I want to make films.

I know I'm incapable of orchestrating an entire film.

I definitely in filmmaking more and more find writing and directing a means to harvest material for editing. It's all about editing.

As a filmmaker, I'm very collaborative. I don't pretend to know everything that is needed to make a movie. What I like to do is get together with a group of people, starting with developing the story and bounce around ideas.

Whether I'm acting or making it, at the end of the day it's telling the story; action, drama. You want the audience to feel it - the story, the action, the scene, or a particular shot. I just keep working on crafting my art, on how to make action movies.

Everybody is always trying to make the best movie they can. It's a process.

Making a movie is difficult enough to sort of have a premeditated length that you're going for. I don't know a single filmmaker on the planet who does that.

As a filmmaker and film student, I think it's really interesting to hear what a director did and how they figured out how to do things.

I think you should make movies as long as the story dictates.

I still have my talent to produce and direct.

More often than not, the experience of shooting the movie has been disappointing and the end product has been a mere shadow of what I hoped it would be. But immersing myself in the story - that's what I like best of all.

Writing and directing your own film, for me, has been the best experience of my life.

As far as writing or directing a film, I've worked with enough people who have done that that I know it's just a whole other level of responsibility and chaos and murder that I could not see happening. For now, I'm just going to see what comes. I know what I like and what direction I have.

Being a director is almost like being another sort of character, but you're out of view.

Ever since 'Star Wars,' there was a rash of how a movie was made. I remember that as a kid. I never really understood how movies were made until that movie, because it was such a technical accomplishment. Since then, you've seen more and more and more, for all different kinds of films, about what goes into the process.

Movie-making is telling a story with the best technology at your disposal.

I think films are bigger than structure.

I love doing features, but it's a very different ballgame. Sometimes I yearn for short films again, working with a small team, getting my hands on the clay.

I'm a student. I want to do better, and I want directors who can find the actress in me and be my teachers. I'm interested in the whole process of editing, post-production and direction.

I grew up on film sets but more around the process of making films. I saw a lot of the editing process and the writing process, which takes years. That really affected me growing up, that side of it.

I love editing. It's one of my favorite parts about filmmaking.

Directing, editing, and everything about filmmaking has definitely changed me as an actor.

I think each movie-making process is a very exhausting and satisfying and fulfilling experience for me.