Brian Baumgartner Quotes

American television is very much created by the writers, just the volume of it. The writers are so key. You're just trying to do something that serves that script. And in general, film isn't all about the script, really.

When you decide you want to become a television writer, you naively assume it's going to be like the writers on the old 'Dick Van Dyke Show.' You'll write something and they'll just put it on TV. But what you quickly discover is that American network television is television by committee.

I love TV, don't get me wrong. But with film, you're just banging out this one product and you're not waiting on another script. You have your script. It's great, in that way.

The director in TV and the writer and the creator are working very much hand in hand.

Actors don't request what scenes to be written in. That's just not how it works.

I'm currently trying to direct my own material.

I have an amazing team; I have amazing producers; I have amazing writers, but at the end of it, it's me making the decisions on the writing, the tone, the editing.

I don't think I'll ever be a producer who's into taking the meetings and fighting the big fights with studios. I really don't like that part. I'm much more interested in the material.

I wouldn't want to direct - I think that's a very different job. You have to be a very specific type of person to do that.

I would always rather do a mediocre script with a great filmmaker than a great script with a mediocre filmmaker.

For me now, it's about what you would write and what you wouldn't write, and that's how I select what I am going to do. It can be quite nice being brought a concept by a studio for me to work on.

As far as writing or directing a film, I've worked with enough people who have done that that I know it's just a whole other level of responsibility and chaos and murder that I could not see happening. For now, I'm just going to see what comes. I know what I like and what direction I have.

I'm thinking about directing, but I know it's a lot of work and I appreciate what directors do and I would like to be good at it. The opportunity has presented itself four to five times, and I usually said no because of the script.

I think it's always good for the author to stay a good cattle prod's distance from the actual moviemaking.

Ultimately, I am very filmmaker oriented, as a producer.

The idea of being a show runner was very attractive to me, to create and control something.

I'll always love movies. But there's something I love very much about TV, when you shoot episodes while other episodes are still being written.

As a director or writer, you have to be so controlling.

In the TV world, we are seeing a lot more power going to the writer. I sense it is a writer's medium.

It's great, getting the scripts and working with somebody like Sam Esmail, who is such a great leader.

In TV, it's so much more about the writers because they're the ones creating the universe. The writers are the ones who know what's up.

I would love to direct one day. I value the relationship that I have with a director so much, and I would be really excited to be on the other end of that relationship.

It's only when you're privy to the conversations and a member of the production team that you can direct the course of a series and make sure it flourishes.

I definitely want to develop my own film or TV show at some point. I constantly strive to be as productive as possible, even when I'm not on set.

Showrunning is when you're the constant creative voice in the show. For a year-and-a-half, you are working on the scripts, you're fine-tuning them, you're the final say on the edit, the music and the cast.