Cary Fukunaga Quotes

To me, the director is the most important, rather than the story.

When you shoot a movie, the camera is always taking, taking, taking and not giving anything back.

I have always believed that when a film is being made, it has to be the director's vision.

The reason I wanted to start directing is that as an actor I felt I came into a job late. There's a whole team of people who have been working on it for months before you start. You have this really intense period of filming and then you leave it, knowing that the director will work on it for another few months.

In a movie, you're raw material, just a hue of some color and the director makes the painting.

People think that the directors direct actors. No. Really, what the director's doing is directing the audience's eye through the film.

Well, I think that when you direct a movie or write it. And in the case of the two movies I did, I wrote and directed, they occupy a special place for you.

The way I work with my cinematographer is not based on general principles, but the ideas are triggered by the locations where we shoot.

I knew that I'd end up directing because I'm so hands-on with my films.

When you're actually making the film, you're constantly battling to maintain its integrity.

I feel like I'm a filmmaker; I don't feel I need to yell action and cut.

I enjoy setting the scene and coming up with interesting frames. 'True Detective' was a very hands-on set.

It's the director's job to piece together my performance, his interpretation of my takes, each take, and string them together and make a statement. I'm red paint on a canvas for a painter.

Films are a director's medium. We're all stemming from the director.

It's one of the things I love about my job: it's my job to help a director tell the story, to just be willing to help.

Once you turn on the camera, making a movie is making a movie. I don't care if it's $9 million dollars or $50 million dollars. You have bigger toys, bigger set, actors who are better paid, but once you turn on the camera, it's director and performance, and I don't find a big difference.

A movie contains literally tens of thousands of ideas. They're in the form of every sentence; in the performance of each line; in the design of characters, sets, and backgrounds; in the locations of the camera; in the colors, the lighting, the pacing.

Scorsese has very defined ideas about how to shoot a scene, and he's an editor himself - we cut together. It means he's constantly thinking about my problems while he's filming.

The timing for directing is usually because it takes that long to develop a piece and then do pre-production and then post-production. It takes at least a couple of years. I prefer directing to doing other things. Directing and writing seem to be infinitely more creative

The directing process is often a continuation of the writing. This is just a different skill-set.

The work of a director can be summed up in two very simple words. Why and How.

You have to have the essential pleasure of making a movie. It's such a huge factor and adventure for a director because you really are the leader and the captain.

You definitely want to do the little films. They're always going to be harder, but you don't do them to make money. You do them so you can see what you can make with the research that you have.

I had a philosophy, which may have been proven right, that directing isn't as hard as everyone says it is.

A lot of directors in my experience are very receptive. They see what you do first, and then they want to find a place to put the camera, and they tweak you here and there.