Alan Parker Quotes

It's always a challenge to shoot a period film and not have it look like you hit the tea stain button in post.

When working on a period, it is the finer details that evoke imagery that helps in cinematic adaptations.

I find that with period pieces, you're sort of able to really take advantage of what's around you because prop-wise, wardrobe-wise and location-wise, it's all so specific due to that time.

As for radio and movies, I like the movies better, although the work is much harder. The cinema has microphone technique, staging, and glamour all wrapped up into one.

Of course, it's wonderful to film any period piece - but especially 'Foyle's War' because the art direction is so imaginative and yet at the same time so real. You can open a drawer on set, and even though the camera never sees what's inside, it'll be filled with genuine 1940s documents.

There's so many interesting aspects of making a movie: the costume department, the set design, the casting itself, the locations.

Lighting practically whenever I can when shooting period really helps with authenticity.

The girls in 'Downton Abbey' do what they do so well, which is make it so natural despite the fact that you're living within these constraints and taking so much from the research aspect of it.

One of the reasons I love to jump back and forth between mediums is that film does allow me to be more literal. I can go to the real place. I can go to the Coliseum, and I don't have to fake it.

This is my first experience working in a foreign movie, but the mechanics, I think, are pretty much the same all over; you still have to wait in the trailer.

My brother knows more about film sets than I do, because he works at New York Film Academy.

I like going on location for films.

I really love diving in, head first, with directing and not having to worry about hair, makeup or lines.

I'm purely most happy on a film or television set. That's where I feel I am home.

Working in films, there are hundreds of odd moments.

Being on the set of 'Super 8' was a very fun and relaxed environment.

Filming is a funny combination of having a good time and not being able to wait until it's over.

The BBC is very good at period drama - world-famous for getting the details right.

I loved being behind the scenes and finding out how they make movies.

It's more interesting because you get to research the history of the period, and all the different aesthetic elements that make a film, particularly this film, so stunning.

I think the good thing about Dogme is that it forces you into an extreme sense of reality because there's no artificial light and no set design and all of those icings on the cake that you usually have on a movie.

People say I pay too much attention to the look of a movie but for God's sake, I'm not producing a Radio 4 Play for Today, I'm making a movie that people are going to look at.

With the black and white films, one was concerned with tone.

I was going out for absolutely everything that was in Backstage.

I think George just nailed the whole thing, the whole time period, the whole look and feel of what that newsroom was like. I did a lot of research for the role and believe me, it's all pretty genuine, down to the very last cigarette butt.