Scott Ellis Quotes

I film quite a bit of footage, then edit. Changes before your eyes, things you can do and things you can't. My attitude is always 'let it keep rolling.'

I used to be very rigid because I just wanted to get through it. Now, if I think a scene should go a certain way and it goes another, I'm able to go that new way with ease.

A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.

For me, the movie's always evolving as I'm doing it. I throw things in as we shoot, and I take things out as we go. I want to create a whole life and then select the pieces that best sort of describe it later, you know? So there's a lot of wastage when I make a film.

I like to leave a little room to innovate and change things around while I'm working.

My directing is really weird. Everything is based on whether it's working or not. I don't try to fix something if it's not working, I'll just change it.

I just go with the flow, so any style can be in my music - that makes it exciting.

If there's one thing you can say about my apartment it's that it's constantly evolving, constantly changing. I think that is the mark of a good apartment; you can never really be done - It's like a proper wardrobe.

It's a weird thing when you make records. You try to hear it before you make it, so you walk into the studio with this idea of what you expect to happen, and that usually changes. That usually turns into something else, and that's a good thing.

I just find things that work and embellish them.

Sometimes you don't want to get married too much to a lot of rehearsing, I feel, when it comes to film, because there's so many technicalities. So if I'm in my head, I've gotten settled on something, I'm gonna have to change it if I get there and something was set that's completely different.

I never stop making sure that what I say is the best of what could be said about a particular thing. It's a constant evolution. If I planted a tree one way yesterday, and somebody tells me of a better way to plant a tree, I think, 'You know, they're right, that's better.' Then I change my way to accommodate the new way of planting trees.

I'm not able to go in with an act that I use month to month year to year all the time. It's constantly evolving and changing and that keeps me on my toes but certainly adds to the challenge.

We go in and I do my thing, and then we supplement it with whatever we want.

I don't feel that I have to control every aspect of things that I appear in. You learn a lot performing someone else's writing.

Part of being innovative in government is sometimes not trying to plot out the last chapter of the book, but to be open and see what comes back.

I'd much rather do one or two takes of one thing and then see how it goes.

I never had any master plan about directing, and I don't really write.

My style is constantly changing.

I have always believed that it's important to show a new look periodically. Predictability can lead to failure.

Scenes change all the time. Scenes will change while you're shooting them, and you just have to roll with it 'cause that's what makes it funny. It's not being stuck in your character and how you're gonna do something, but to react to other people and to really have a real-life conversation.

When you make new musicals, you have the great freedom and the great burden that it can be changed.

I leave a lot open so I can fill it in later. If I don't have any ideas right away, I can fill it in later.

I change my method and field of reference from book to book because I can never believe in the same thing two times running.

You have to be very flexible and understand as a director, especially as a writer/director, that you cannot hang onto stuff really hard. You have to be ready to accept those happy accidents and to anticipate that they are going to happen and capitalize on them.