Burnie Burns Quotes

I had originally written 'Pariah' as a feature, and we shot the first act as a short film, and then we used the short as a marketing tool to fundraise for the feature.

If the movies that I'm going to make anyway go mainstream, that would be the coolest thing ever. But I have set up a plan that I've been working on for a long time.

It would be nice to make a movie that other people want to make, because every one of these movies, I basically have to find the only company in the world that's willing to make it, and it's always a big challenge. I end up spending a tremendous amount of energy and time trying to get money to make these movies and it's exhausting.

I think producers are more interested in backing concepts than directors and writers. I don't think that's the right way of making a decision about whether you're going to back a film or not.

We shot ten minutes of the movie, and now we're looking for completion funds.

When you're struggling to get a feature film off the ground, there's no big overarching tenure plan or anything like that.

For 'Filth,' we had about 12 producers on the thing. The opening credits go on for months. Most of them are actually financers rather than producers. And the only way that we could raise the budget without interference from a studio was to have a lot of different financers on board.

There's a long history of people who spent that $300,000 on their first film and weren't quite ready, and then they never did it again 'cause they were out of synch with where they were, and they would never raise that money again.

I've done my fair share of fundraising over the years, and I know how difficult that can be, so I could only imagine people's reaction when I was asking them to part with their hard-earned cash for a movie.

I've seen it happen with other directors. Sometimes there's a period where, if they're lucky, they get the financing where they can make two films in a year.

Financing for 'Shotgun Stories' was initiated with money from close friends and family. This is where the money to go into production came from. After production, a company called 'Upload Films' came on board and provided post-production funds and services. In both instances, people were taking a gamble on us.

I was not the producer of 'Vaanaprastham' earlier. The first producers backed out when they became doubtful about the monetary benefits. I do not blame them. But as an actor, I wanted to make the film. So, I told Shaji sir that I would produce the film. It was only then we started shooting.

There's no need there to sit with the filmmaker for 11 years to develop the script, or go round the world raising money.

My challenge is that because I am not self-funding... I'm going out leaning on the generosity of everyday folks.

I was in a very lucky position to be able to consider studio films and had decided to not go that route for a very long time until I read a script that I loved called 'Aeon Flux.'

Kickstarter is perfect for us. It wasn't something we heard about and just got to it. We did our research, met with the people at Kickstarter - they are brilliant, and they're excited to work with us.

If I focus on the short-term goals, then the long-term goals are going to be in my favor.

I gotta admit, when you've been doing this a long time, going out to the audience and asking for them to help out with crowdfunding, it's a gut check. You never know how that's gonna turn out. Luckily for us, it turned out well.

There's plenty of examples of films where they're greenlit to move forward, and they want to get X actor. And they don't get X actor, so they go with Y, and it doesn't turn out to be as good of a movie as it should have been.

When I begin a film, I want to make a great film. Halfway through, I just hope to finish the film.

Making a film, I've learned, can be an exhausting process, due to the need for backing, distribution, etc.

No film ever ends up exactly as you would like it to, but with minor exceptions, THX came out pretty much as I had visualized it, thanks to some excellent assistance -- and a whole lot of luck.

I think it's the same thing for a country. We are lucky then that we can get some financing from the government, because it means when I get the money, when I get the grant to do the film, of course it's based on the script, but I have total artistic control and I can do personal stuff.

If we are to achieve long-range goals, we must learn to set up and accomplish short-range goals that will move us along the way. If we do not consciously select our goals, we may be controlled by goals not of our own choosing - goals imposed by outside pressures (such as the expectations of others) or by our habits (such as procrastination) or by our desire for the approval of the world.

I know what to do with the camera because I see the giant in the camera when I'm operating it live on the set.