John Carpenter Quotes

Other writers, producers, and directors of low-budget films would often put down the film they were making, saying it was just something to make money with. I never felt that. If I took the assignment, I'd give it my best shot.

Now, more then ever, we have the ability to make films for almost nothing and that's broken down all barriers of entry. I think it's a new golden age of film-making. With that, there needs to be the ability to recoup investment dollars, people need to make money.

I believe in making movies very inexpensively; I think that way too much money is spent on making movies. Enough movies are being made, but not enough experimental ones.

Definition of an independent film is torture with less money and time.

I was in the first 'Friday The 13th,' and that was a microbudget horror film.

I got a horror film, 'The Burning,' and suddenly I was making crazy money, like a thousand a week, so I moved into an apartment on Amsterdam with a guy who was also in 'The Burning,' Jason Alexander.

Making an independent film is so different.

It's not like I wakeup everyday and say, 'You know what, I need to do a horror film.' Statistically it's only like forty percent of my output but it's a great ride and the fan base is really dedicated and that's always cool. When you're lucky enough to be in a good one it's fantastic.

I'd love to make a horror movie, that's definitely where I want to be one day.

Australia, most of the filmmakers there write a film and they direct it. There's a lot of writer/directors there, because nobody wants to write a script and then let it go when they've had that much of a personal investment to it, because you're not getting paid huge amounts of money in Australia to direct.

Thanks to 'It,' you're going to see the studios take a lot more chances on a very specific vision. An R-rated horror film about children being eaten by a monster that lives in a sewer is not normally something that a studio would throw their weight behind. But we've seen the success of it, which props everyone up.

I booked a horror film called 'Where the Devil Hides.' It's... you know, a horror film. But it was the first full-length movie I'd ever done, and it got me my visa, and I could start work.

A lot of low-budget genre films you see are horror movies, because horror is the friendliest movie to lack of money.

Usually with me, the ideas I have for movies just sort of pop into my head. I've read a bunch of screenwriting books over the years and, to be honest, they're mostly pretty crappy.

There's a few things I learned from my experience on 'Hieroglyph.' First of all, I learned that building a world doesn't need to be as expensive as a summer blockbuster. Yeah yeah, newsflash, I know.

I didn't go to film school; I studied fine art - I learned how to be a filmmaker on everybody else's money.

Like with 'Starlet,' we intentionally did not look at 'Boogie Nights' before making 'Starlet,' and I should have. Because there are one or two scenes that come too close and it looks almost like - because it's about the same industry, and you're going to be covering certain subjects.

I want to direct a feature film. Horror is my main genre.

See, nobody understood how we were able to make a film like 'A Room With a View' so cheaply, for about $3.2 million, and have it look as good as it did.

You can't do anything yourself on TV... unless you have a LOT of money, but you can do an independent movie.

My initial idea was I wanted to make it a horror film, very much. At times I do enter that world.

I usually don't like to talk about money, but I talk about the movie, and the other aspects of directing, etc.

Making movies that are really cheap and that can be owned and that you maintain your control of is really exciting.

Gian Luigi Polidoro and his girlfriend had written this script, it was an American comedy, and they decided I was the guy to play the part. I was young, they offered me the lead in the film, and I said, "Sure, I'll do it." And I'm telling you, there is a movie waiting to be made about the making of a movie like that, particularly at that time in New York. I mean, we shot all over the streets of New York without permits. We would literally grab a shot and run. But Rent Control... I think the total cost was $100,000, and to this director's credit, I think it looks like $200,000.

If Shakespeare had lived in our age, he would have been sued for writing Romeo And Juliet, because as everybody knows, he plagiarized that from an Italian play.