J. J. Abrams Quotes

Fundamentally, whether directing in the theatre or a film, you have to be a good storyteller, regardless of the form. The thing I had to work hardest at was thinking in shots.

I design my shots. I walk the rehearsal as the camera and say 'this is where I want to be... I want this look.

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

Every scene is a lesson. Every shot is a school. Let the learning continue.

You have to give directors and cinematographers a word blueprint for visuals, but I had to learn that from experience.

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

I learned a lot about how to shoot and how to put together sequences.

All these directors who do different locations forget that one room can be shot from a million different angles and a million different ways. When I direct a movie, I'm going to use that.

All my film ideas and subjects have come from photography.

I feel every shot, every camera move, every frame, and the way you frame something and the choice of lens, I see all those things are really important on every shot.

And later I thought, I can't think how anyone can become a director without learning the craft of cinematography.

Finding where to put the camera is probably the most important thing you have to learn when you're a young director, and it's something that's a mixture of instinct and technique.

If you know how to shoot a scene, then you know how to shoot an action scene. If you've seen an action movie, and you watched it, and you paid attention to how scenes are constructed and where the camera is and how the camera moves, then you know how to do it.

Film gives us the luxury of deciding where the viewpoint of the audience is, and by knowing that, we can very effectively design around what is actually seen on camera.

The films I love are very precise, and every shot means something; every shot should convey something new.

Before I started to make films, I didn't give much thought to the way the characters were physically positioned in the story world.

A movie that I'm involved with and have a lot of love for, which is 'On The Road,' does use a lot of handheld. It can be done beautifully. I'm proud of that. It's a very beautiful movie.

Film in many ways is very literal.

The way you present a stunt is tied in to the way you photograph it, so you're hanging out with the cinematographer.

If you shoot with a billion cameras, then there's no perspective. You want to use one shot at a time, so it's better to discover what that is before you shoot, rather than trying to make something in the cutting room, and then it just becomes generic.

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.

The way I work with my cinematographer is not based on general principles, but the ideas are triggered by the locations where we shoot.

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

Lesson number one: Pay attention to the intrusion of 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.