David R. Ellis Quotes

Movies are in a much longer production conversation before an actor is even involved. I always thought of actors as the last piece of the puzzle - so you're a tool.

Writing, directing... anything behind the camera is what I want to do.

I'm really interested in having a studio one day and being a filmmaker.

The type of producing that I did for many years involved working very closely with directors.

Once I went to film school, I realized that film directing was actually much better than theater directing, because you kind of get to stay in control of it all the way through. You don't relinquish the piece to the actors like you have to in theater; you stay in control through the very end.

The amount of coordination it takes to shoot a television show is mind-numbing. There are so many things that have to be exactly right to create the correct environment for a single shot, let alone a whole scene or the full episode.

I fell in love with the whole process of making a movie. I loved the sets. I loved watching the actors and the crew.

I'd be really interested in making a dramatic, low key 3D film.

I know I'm incapable of orchestrating an entire film.

I like to be on set and see what the camera guys are up to. I like to see all the jobs that come together to make the thing you are also making.

I'm attracted to directors in general because I appreciate the work and the job they have to do. I watched the post-production, I watched the pre-production... post-production is something that I'm very interested in and I did spend a lot of time in editing rooms when I was young pretending to be sick.

Making a movie requires 20 to 500 people to make and a lot of money and the stakes are a lot higher.

It is not as though the process of production holds any mystery for me, I know exactly what it involves and I know the predominant concern in shooting one of those things is production values - or as they would say, seeing it all up there on screen.

The organization that it takes to make a movie like 'Star Trek' is amazing, intimidating and fascinating.

When you think of a movie, most people imagine a two hour finished, polished product. But to get to that two hour product, it can take hundreds or thousands of people many months of full time work.

As a filmmaker and film student, I think it's really interesting to hear what a director did and how they figured out how to do things.

I've worked with actors before where I was like, this is not working, and then I've seen their work on the screen and I've been like, Wow, that was a really great performance. Because there are a lot of elements with film. It's not like stage. It's not a kind of performance art anymore; it's a highly tuned kind of collaboration - a symphony.

Movie making is really, it's a director's medium, it's not even so much an actor's medium.

From my experience as an actor, choreographer, action director, and producer, I understand the elements and the dynamics of being a film maker.

I've produced a couple of films and really enjoyed starting it from the very beginning and seeing it all the way through to the end; that was very gratifying.

The great thing about being a producer on a project is that you get to see the ins and outs of every piece of the puzzle. There are so many elements involved in every aspect of a film's development that I don't think the average person is aware of, which is, I guess, why the whole process is referred to as movie magic.

I want to try and be as involved in the art of filmmaking as possible. I feel that the only way to really do that is to take on as many roles as possible, whether it be as an actor, an editor, a director, a cinematographer.

Editing is not a part of the filmmaking process I've ever been privy to as an actress.

If you think about filmmaking as an entire spectrum, starting with the writer and ending with maybe the marketing department, the actor's contribution is a rather slender band.

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