James Wan Quotes

The thing I've come to learn is that what's great about small independent films is the intimacy and the communication that occurs when you're making them.

Sometimes I feel like doing smaller budget stuff. When I did 'Young Adam', for instance, I'd come out of 'Black Hawk Down' and 'The Island', and I really wanted to be on a small film set. I wanted to be on something intimate and small again, and then 'Young Adam' cropped up in a pile of scripts I was sent.

I can't say that I wouldn't prefer to make small films, basically because I think they are probably more interesting in terms of the material. But every now and again, it's quite good to do a big one.

'Ten Year' was probably - I might say 'Ten Year' was my favorite filming experience of anything I ever worked on. It was totally different from 'Moneyball' in that it was a small budget, independent movie. It had a giant ensemble of actors, all of whom were basically working for free.

In 'Haraamkhor,' I have explored a few things which I wouldn't have been able to do in bigger films. The process of shooting this film was so organic that it enhanced me as an actor and an artiste.

I did very much enjoy being part of an independent film. It was just the energy.

My good films were independent and my bad films were not.

The problem with doing a schlocky or big budget studio film is that it wouldn't actually be fun for me. It wouldn't be exciting.

You make a movie for 9k for the freedom it allows you.

I think that there's a lot more freedom in the low budget, the independent films where, unfortunately, you don't have the money, necessarily, to get the orchestras in there to play a lot of stuff. But, you have a lot more freedom, very often.

I'd like to enter in and out of that big budget world, rather than staying in it. It's not the case that the bigger the film, the better it is.

At least I want to be making films that are somehow born out of me that are stories I want to tell. The challenge is figuring out how to do it where you can make them personal, yet still deliver to an audience a film experience that is satisfying and emotional, and that's what I'm trying to do.

With independent film, simply because they don't have the money to make a big-budget film, they're forced to make a story that's important to them, that they would like to see on film, a personal story that people can relate to, about people, where you can see the love of the characters.

Ultimately, the film industry has always pushed out its biggies, and I don't have a problem with that. I just wish that we'd spend more time nurturing the smaller ones.

My heart is in independent film-making. For me, it's where the fun, gritty storytelling is being told.

I love doing short films because they're much more intimate and there's far less waiting around than on the bigger films.

Plan B is really a little garage band of three people, and our mandate has been to help get difficult material, that might not otherwise get made, to the screen and to work with directors we respect.

I want to get into producing and writing more for myself - setting up my own films and seeing what kind of personal touch I can put on movies, as opposed to just being in them.

I would love to do anything from a really gritty, interesting, indie type film, to that commercial, bigger stuff.

When you work on big commercial movies, of course there's more money involved and you can still do some good work. But with an independent, you get films that are really close to the writers' and directors' heart. Somehow it becomes a little deeper. A little more meat and not as much flash.

Someday, I'd like to sit down with a small group of people, in a relaxed environment, and make a film that feels more independent. That way we can be a little more free in terms of storytelling and subject.

The cool thing about those small-budget movies is that there's a tremendous amount of freedom the filmmakers have since there's less money at stake.

I think you do independent movies because you're looking to cut away from commercial movies.

At the end of the day, the less money you have, the easier it is to make a movie.

I sort of straddle the line... between personal movies and mainstream Hollywood.