Rick Famuyiwa Quotes

Obviously, for me, story is first and foremost, even in the face of the attractive idea of having all the cast there, or having a great piece of talent come to it.

You can be technically strong, and focus all your efforts on elements like casting, music, cinematography and sets, but they are all just add ons. End of the day, filmmaking is really about how well you tell a story.

When you're doing a concept album, it's easy. It's like a movie: you already know what you're dealing with.

I don't think in terms of optimism and pessimism when writing a story. I am telling a story.

When I was working on 'Big Fan,' I didn't really feel like any lines needed to be changed or enhanced or expanded upon in any way. I thought it was a solid script. All you had to do was what it said.

I love telling stories. Creating a character, a world, a whole universe out of nothing. That part I can't get enough of.

I want to tell a story and shape it all the way through to the end.

When I make a movie, I have both a specific and vague, amorphous dream idea of what the movie is going to be. Of course, I don't actually know what it's going to be, but I'm still striving to get to some place with it.

What always leads me in terms of my movies are characters.

Films are all about decisions, and that's what I love.

When you're actually making the film, you're constantly battling to maintain its integrity.

Always, your work is the same: You have to tell a story, you have to make a character. It doesn't matter if there are thousands of dollars, millions behind it, or if there is nothing.

To me, it all comes down to things being character-driven. It's hard for me to look beyond that. CG and all this cool stuff - so be it. But to me, it pretty much begins and ends with character-driven plots rather than technologically-driven plots.

No other aspect of filmmaking has tempted me to do a film other than the script and the story itself.

For me, the most important thing is the writing - and certainly the director. But if the writing isn't there, it doesn't matter who the director is!

You can read a character that feels amazing, but if the world around it and all the writing around it - even the way the stage descriptions are written - don't feel just right, then you know there's no point in doing the project. No character is ever bigger than the whole film.

I always look for stories that really try to tell the world that I see, a world that values and is full, in fact, of stories that are important.

The greatest thing that you have when you're a showrunner is this opportunity to create worlds.

These days, you don't need a song or glamour to make your film work. It is all about a good story.

In my films writers are more important than actors.

Listen to Your Heart' was a blank slate. Yeah, there was this outside idea of 'Bachelor in Paradise' meets 'A Star Is Born,' but what does that mean? You have to actually define that, make it happen.

There's more to directing than plotting scenes out.

As a director, what I'm trying to do is to create interesting stories.

I've always believed that the script is the boss.

Every filmmaker has his own vision, and when they write a film or characters, they see certain people in those characters.