Taika Waititi Quotes

Every film deserves its own unique look.

As a director, I start with the visual.

I never think about it much, the visual aspect of it, until we start making the movie. I don't really think about it when we write. When we finish, and I start putting the film together, and we pick the locations, I do think about that a lot.

The job is trying to create movie shots that have depth, that have the meanings you need them to have, and then good enough so that they will add something to the final picture. They will make the picture; they'll get into the picture, and give them what they need. It's an interesting job.

It's more interesting because you get to research the history of the period, and all the different aesthetic elements that make a film, particularly this film, so stunning.

I really got into filmmaking through photography.

With the work that I do as a director, I've got dialogue, camera movement, and character blocking to help create a tone to the piece. In photography, those elements are somewhat void so that tone becomes a bit more subtle but still equally important.

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.

Visual elements are, of course, the director's job.

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

All my films have been larger-than-life. And since I've sat on almost all the scripts of the films I've produced, I do not compromise on aesthetics and visuals that could add to a scene.

I've learned that I've just barely scratched the surface of knowledge of the profession, and I have deep envy of and appreciation for filmmakers who really, truly understand the physics, the design of filmmaking. They can do story and color and composition and geometry and math and science all at once.

My directors of photography light my films, but the colours of the sets, furnishings, clothes, hairstyles - that's me. Everything that's in front of the camera, I bring you.

Filming is like a house, you have to feel comfortable in it.

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

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

Film is a dramatised reality and it is the director's job to make it appear real... an audience should not be conscious of technique.

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

I think you cannot make films without choosing everything.

I like making black and white films in natural surroundings, but I much prefer shooting a color film inside a studio where the colors are easier to control.

I was very glad later when I was directing that I wasn't in the hands of a cinematographer and hoping that he would do it well. I would know what he was doing, and we could discuss how that scene would look.

When you make a movie, you know you're making a long-form thing, so the visuals are different than for a video where it has to be more obvious or in your face, I think, a little bit.

I've heard it said many times, 'Let's work on the look of the film,' but that doesn't work with me.

Architecture has a strong link with the movies in terms of time progression, sequencing, framing, all of that.

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