Todd Phillips Quotes

Television is in a different time because of reality television, so it's not as exciting.

Reality television hasn't killed documentaries, because there are so many great documentaries still being made, but it certainly has changed the landscape. There is this breed of gimmicky documentary that is basically a reality show.

Many people have this memory of traditional TV documentary-making that aims to portray pure reality, and I just don't see that as the only option.

There's a wide range today of documentaries on politics. The central mass of it is made by networks, and nothing's changed.

I love documentaries, I like observing real people.

I'm a big fan of documentaries. I've always loved them, and I've just never had the opportunity or the time to make a feature.

I did documentary film for a long time, and I spent a lot of time behind the camera, fervently wishing that the reality I was filming would conform to my narrative propriety. But you can't control it.

I don't think the subject of a documentary film should be producers on it.

When I started my filmmaking journey 17 years ago, I honestly didn't know what a documentary film was.

With portable cameras and affordable data and non-linear digital editing, I think this is a golden age of documentary filmmaking. These new technologies mean we can make complicated, beautifully crafted and cinematic films about real-life stories.

I've always been interested in how to present something that relates to our reality - which is not really... I don't even know if documentary itself does as good a job. It has its own problems in trying to get at the reality of the situation.

I don't know if I'd mastered that documentary format, but I wanted to move on from it.

With documentaries, what's beautiful about them is that you capture something unique in a shot, something that will never repeat itself.

I'm not trying to acquire a reputation as serious documentary maker for its own sake.

When I'm filming a documentary, I feel like I should be the straight man, watching with a raised eyebrow.

I started as a documentary maker, and they're my first love.

I don't want to be on a soapbox, but I feel like a lot of documentary filmmakers are part of the ancient tradition of writing down notes, of saying, 'Hey people, hey people!'

I suppose making documentaries is like doing journalism on film.

The making of the documentary is an involving and collaborative process where you go deeper unlike in movies where you just borrow someone else's script.

Brilliant documentaries are about so much more than their subject.

Reality television is a scripted hyper-life that employs writers, but won't allow them to call themselves writers or join the union.

Donald Trump was underrated, but he understood social media and he understood reality television.

I think society has become more and more immune to reality television which is the most frightening thing in the world to me.

If I had created reality television I would have had a much greater influence, but then I would have had to KILL MYSELF.

I had a TV show called 'The Apprentice' and it's one of the most successful reality shows in the history of television. And now I'm doing something else.