Ivan Reitman Quotes

Movies are hard work. The public doesn't see that. The critics don't see it. But they're a lot of work. A lot of work.

My point was that it's hard to make good films, but I'm not under any illusion that you do all the time.

A perfect movie is a different thing, but a funny movie is easy. I was really happy that I got everyone that I got. Everybody got to play to their strengths and was paired up in the right scenarios. It was very fortunate. It was exciting, the whole process. It makes more difficulty in editing 'cause there's more footage, but the guy I had handle it was a documentarian editor for a long time, so it was very useful.

The thing is, as a film director, you're essentially alone: You have to tell a story primarily through pictures, and only you know the film you see in your head.

With me, I probably work a lot more than people assume I do, but people don't realize how much work goes into writing and producing and making a movie.

If I start thinking, 'Is this movie going to open? Is this movie going to do well?' I'm not focusing on the job. The job is to make a good movie.

Making a film is very hard work, and you live or die by the sword just a little bit every time you do it, but I wouldn't chuck it in.

Movies don't look hard, but figuring it out, getting the shape of it, getting everybody's character right and having it be funny, make sense and be romantic, it's creating a puzzle. Yes, having been a writer for so long, I have an awareness of when things are going awry, but it doesn't mean I know how to fix them.

When you look at a movie, you look at a director's thought process.

Writing is part intuition and part trial and error, but mostly it's very hard work.

Honestly, when you're making a movie, you never say, 'Oh, this one's going to suck and go straight to video.' When you're in it, you think you're doing the best work you can do. You're surrounded by people who are working hard. Everybody's hopeful.

I want to direct, I want to be part of something creative, something with quality.

There are so many things that have to go right for a movie to be good that it's a miracle whenever one is.

The beauty of doing film is that you construct whatever you do block by block and you can build something that will stay.

I work very hard on getting the songs as direct and examined as I can before I go in the studio.

I have so much appreciation for movies because I understand how hard it is to make one.

All the truly great stand-ups say, 'I go onstage, and I work on jokes. The inspiration will happen while I'm doing my work.' To me, in the end, the surest thing is work.

If you want to just make a good movie, if you don't enjoy every step and become a master of each little moment, then you shouldn't be doing it.

Movies are really hard to make. You put a lot of work into them, and you want people to see them.

You're always just trying to make your film, tell the story you're trying to tell - best you can, you know.

What I realized halfway through writing romance is that you start out intuitive, and you make all these choices mostly based on yourself and what you like and what talent you have, and... if you want to have any quality control over your product, you have to stop being intuitive and start being more of an analyst.

There's some good films, there's some films that could be improved. So we keep trying until we get it right. That's the nature of storytelling, whether it's on paper or on film.

You have to have a great director to make a great movie.

Filmmaking involves a lot of money and hard work, which should not be wasted, though nobody knows which film will be a hit.

If the script is not good, the film will not work.