Mike Figgis Quotes

I'm a visual filmmaker so the camera is a big part of my storytelling tool and it's something that I really rely on to tell a scene or create the suspense that I need and create the emotion of a scene or a sequence.

I think you can say a lot with the movement of your camera but you can also say a lot by keeping it still.

There are some scenes that work beautifully in a moving, sweeping master, which is how I like to work.

We had a script that was really solid and we knew how we were going to shoot and how the energy of it was going to go. So it gave us a lot of freedom to use the camera as a character.

I don't study films particularly. I plan to direct, but I'm not watching film - I watch the entire film to see how the story goes, but I don't say, 'Oh, so he does a slow pan here, or he pulls here, watch the crane shot, or look at the composition,' because it's got to be my eye.

A shot is only as every as good as how well it tells the story.

Making a movie is universal. Directing a movie is universal; it's a universal language.

Hitchcock loved long convoluted shots that contained a lot of tracking and camera moves.

The thing is, as a film director, you're essentially alone: You have to tell a story primarily through pictures, and only you know the film you see in your head.

The visual architecture of 'Biutiful' is the most sophisticated of all the films I have directed.

I've directed a fair amount of television series - so I'm always trying to learn new things. One episode was all hand-held and I'm trying to get better at when you should do things and when you should just shut up and watch what the people are saying.

The great thing about having spent all this time on film sets is that I've been able to watch directors and how they work. I now know that this is what I want to do as well: to tell stories visually. But it's definitely my vision that I want to put across, nobody else's.

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.

As a director, you're looking for ways to tell the story with the whole image and not primarily dialogue.

You don't want to be the guy whose back's to the camera in the emotional part of the movie. So, you have to be aware of the camera movement and what the camera's doing.

I believe that the best cameraman is one who recognizes the source, the story, as the basis of his work.

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

I think from an early age I was aware of how a camera can tell a story, how a movie camera can affect how the narrative is told.

People who are good at film have a relationship with the camera.

I have considered the directing, actually. Not so much the writing. That is not really interesting, but the directing is really interesting to me.

I try to learn from both, from features and documentaries. In both cases you have to find a way to make the camera as discreet as possible, and flexible enough to be able to capture the moment when it happens. I know from documentary how to not have a preconceived idea of what the scene could be.

I really love Hitchcock; I think he was a complete genius, to me one of the best directors. Such a sense of how to put things together.

I have a great little camera, and I had a theory that if the story is interesting, it doesn't matter what medium you shoot it on. You just have to make a good film.

I have always believed that directing a film is like telling a story. You have to tell it well so that it is appreciated.

I'm a storyteller - that's the chief function of a director. And they're moving pictures, let's make 'em move!