Terry Zwigoff Quotes

When I am shooting a film I never think of how I want to shoot something; I simply shoot it.

I didn't really know how to make a film when I made 'Control'. I had to create my own language, just as I did when I started taking photographs. I never studied either one.

I film quite a bit of footage, then edit. Changes before your eyes, things you can do and things you can't. My attitude is always 'let it keep rolling.'

I really got into filmmaking through photography.

As I began making my feature films, it was a great adventure. It was about constructing something I saw in my head or I had designed on storyboards and capturing that on film.

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

You ought to have a perspective when you're making a film.

I don't storyboard, and I don't really shot list. I let the shots be determined by how the actors and I figure out the blocking in a scene, and then from there, we cover it.

What is filmmaking but groping in the dark?

My interest in filmmaking was always very much the visuals and images.

I originally went to school to be a filmmaker. And so it's a big part of how I think and how I write. And it inspires me a lot.

The mystery of film is not in the script. It's in the shooting, in the interacting of humans and space and time.

I think the way you make a movie dictates the movie that you make.

With filmmaking in general, I have never absorbed the traditional knowledge of film history or filmmaking. It has always been just pick up the camera and go figure it out.

I can still recall the thrill of shooting my first film.

Every cinematographer I worked with had his own way of solving problems.

I don't like to watch playback. But being on the set, watching the way the camera is being moved and the way the light is being used, you do get an idea of it.

I really, really love directing films.

The only way you can learn about making films is by making them, by putting your stamp on the thing.

I love filmmaking, and I love the process. And I would rather do nothing else. It's a privilege to be able to paint such big pictures, so to speak.

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

I discovered that, in order to write a magnificent piece, you should shoot the images because once you are filming, you are writing the script in your mind.

Anybody can direct a picture once they know the fundamentals. Directing is not a mystery, it's not an art. The main thing about directing is: photograph the people's eyes.

When I make a live-action movie, it's a very physical process. It's like running a marathon.

When I write a screenplay, and when I direct, I always pull lines out.