Paul W. S. Anderson Quotes

On 'Y Tu Mama Tambien,' we started exploring shots that are longer, where the camera is moving around the actors, and there are no cuts, and you feel like you're there.

There's a fashion for a macho style of filmmaking. How long can your longest take be? And shooting things in one shot. For me, if you can sort of disappear and make people feel that they are there, that involves massive amounts of work.

In a regular theatre, you'd be kind of moving your eye from one character 5 feet over to the right on the cut. In IMAX, suddenly that's like 20 feet. So I would love to do something. I think I would really want to take the massive screen into consideration so that it would be done properly.

In Goodfellas they have this one scene where the camera goes down some steps and walks through a kitchen into a restaurant and the critics were all over this as evidence of the genius of Scorsese and Scorsese is a genius.

Nowadays you don't get to see composition in a movie because nobody ever keeps the camera still long enough to see it. Actors don't have the thrill and the power of working with space.

What's genius about 'Gravity' is that you are close upon the actors, but 3D works best when you have foreground, middle ground and background.

I think you can say a lot with the movement of your camera but you can also say a lot by keeping it still.

I like being able to go to the cinema and sit and spend time observing something without thinking about plot or what one character is saying. I feel like I'm able to connect on a much more profound level.

I don't like fast cuts. I'd rather shoot something that dances to the music.

I'm not a big fan of shooting something that looks like it could belong in any movie. I'm not a fan of, okay, 'wide shot, wide shot, medium shot, close-up, close-up - we'll figure it out in post.' I hate that.

I don't love cinematography that's very flashy because I find that it keeps the audience from becoming a part of the film; it becomes sort of self-reflective.

I use depth in my visuals even in 2-D, and found that 3-D is actually liberating.

The pursuit system is an ideal way to shoot action sequences. It enhances the picturisation and captures the scene so well that the audience can feel the thrilling speed of the chase sequence in the film. 'Dhoom 3' is the first Hindi film to use this technique.

My favorite way of making films - and what has allowed me to get key scenes in 'Cartel Land' and 'City of Ghosts' - has been when I've been able to operate alone.

I don't like to shoot on sets at all. As much as possible, I try to shoot on location.

What makes a lot of suspenseful films work is very, very particular points of view and very subjective use of the camera.

Hitchcock loved long convoluted shots that contained a lot of tracking and camera moves.

I feel like my job as a storyteller and director is to create an experience where the audience forgets they're in a cinema and can get lost in the story. Things popping out of the screen call attention to the artifice of what you're doing, so I use 3D as more of a window into a world behind the screen.

My favorite films left the camera rest, and the actors and characters have a stage to act. Move the camera when it's motivating.

The experience of a film is immersive, and music is supposed to underline and help that experience.

My first film was very static.

To me, the art of movies is to take a two-dimensional image and give the illusion of depth.

The funny thing about me is I move from genre to genre, but I essentially shoot all the movies the same way.

3D really altered the way I shot the movie completely, and it was exciting because, after 20 years of filmmaking, I felt like I was making my first movie, all over again.

I'm really not trying to do everything that comes to mind because that's when it can be dangerous. For instance, I believe as much as possible, how your camera moves and flies around should be limited to the physics of how you could do it in real life.