Clark Gregg Quotes

I just love working with actors, and I love working with writers, working with designers. I feel that I am just a storyteller, and whether I am wearing the director hat or the playwright hat, it doesn't matter. And the rooms I tend to be in are pretty democratic, and the best idea wins.

When I sign on for a project, I'm there to give the director all the material he or she might need to tell their story, and that's the number one priority.

What I love most about animation is, it's a team sport, and everything we do is about pure imagination.

There are times when the writers ask us to improvise. Sometimes the animators are inspired by what you do, and sometimes you are inspired by what the animators do.

When you're writing, it's all up to you, and you don't have to make any compromises. And when you're directing, there's this intense pleasure you get from working with all these really talented people, and pooling the efforts towards a common goal. I like all the aspects of film-making.

It's sort of one ongoing process where writing ends and directing starts.

Writing is a solitary existence. Making a movie is controlled chaos - thousands of moving parts and people. Every decision is a compromise. If you're writing and you don't like how your character looks or talks, you just fix it. But in a movie, if there's something you don't like, that's tough.

Filmmaking is so heavy: there are so many people and trucks and teamsters and costume people and hair people and makeup people. I try to make it light and as simple as possible. It's great for actors. It puts the story up front. It's not about shots and dollies and lighting and sets.

One of the things I've learned from animation is that some guys are really good at writing, some guys are really good at design, some guys are really good at directing. It's almost like working in a band - not everybody plays every instrument.

I like to be involved with the scriptwriter early on, helping shape the story, and working out how the story can be told directorially.

As a director, you try to find what is creative.

I'm proud of 'Sinister' because Scott and Cargill did a great job on the movie, and I set up a framework for them to make what they wanted to make. They gave me the idea, and I figured out how to get it out into the world.

A great movie evolves when everybody has the same vision in their heads.

And I think one way or another it's evident to those who work with me that as a writer, a director, a friend, as somebody's there that's very anxious to get the movie made.

I love being creative. I love acting, but I also love directing because you get to have a vision for the whole and bring that vision to fruition.

Part of the process of acting in a film that you're also directing is really trusting the people around you to capture your vision, which hopefully you have communicated well to them.

The first and primary requirement for me in a director that I'd want to work with is: do they love writing, and do they love the collaboration process with writers?

I love involving actors at all levels - and they have to know that I want to hear their contributions, with dialogue, with story suggestions, with script changes, whatever.

Films are not mathematics - that's the first thing you need to understand. At least, that's how I feel. They are not words on paper. Films are made with people, with teams and with individual bundles of creativity coming together to fulfill the vision of an individual who is the director of the film.

I suppose directing on set is the most fun because it's a good crack and you feel you're on the battlefield whereas writing is a fairly solitary undertaking.

I love writing. I think writing and directing go hand in hand.

There is no sense in doing a wonderful script with somebody who can't direct because that is a disaster.

All these directors, and I would include the Coen brothers and Quentin, have a very unique vision of what they want. They listen to ideas and make people feel like everyone is making the film.

Even when I'm not directing, that doesn't stop Owen from having ideas for what I should be doing.

I think what makes a good actor's director is the same thing that makes a good director. Acting is just one of the trades necessary to make a movie.