Lenny Abrahamson Quotes

With the work that I do as a director, I've got dialogue, camera movement, and character blocking to help create a tone to the piece. In photography, those elements are somewhat void so that tone becomes a bit more subtle but still equally important.

Film has to describe and show.

The cinematographer's basically translating the director's vision into imagery.

My love of visual sequences stems from live-action films like Sergio Leone westerns, Kurosawa, some '70s action films, Tex Avery, and my general love of animated movement.

TV helped me understand camera angles, close-ups, master shots.

The job is trying to create movie shots that have depth, that have the meanings you need them to have, and then good enough so that they will add something to the final picture. They will make the picture; they'll get into the picture, and give them what they need. It's an interesting job.

I can still recall the thrill of shooting my first film.

I don't like to watch playback. But being on the set, watching the way the camera is being moved and the way the light is being used, you do get an idea of it.

There are a lot of similarities with film and TV, but also a lot of differences, especially in the way they film stuff.

I don't think of myself as a director or writer. I think of myself as a filmmaker.

As a director, you're looking for ways to tell the story with the whole image and not primarily dialogue.

I went to USC and tried to learn about the other side of the camera a little bit.

You can manipulate the viewer in film. With theater, what you see is what you get.

The challenge of film is making it right there at that moment, and then you get to move on.

I think you cannot make films without choosing everything.

I had a pretty steep learning curve in film - as I'm still learning.

Film, I think, is my medium.

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

Technically, maybe I learned most of all from George Stevens, and among his movies I learned the most from 'A Place in the Sun.' It's a lesson in moviemaking.

I was very glad later when I was directing that I wasn't in the hands of a cinematographer and hoping that he would do it well. I would know what he was doing, and we could discuss how that scene would look.

I make film to make time pass.

Making a movie and not directing the little moments is like drinking a soda and leaving the little slurp puddle for someone else.

When you make a movie, you know you're making a long-form thing, so the visuals are different than for a video where it has to be more obvious or in your face, I think, a little bit.

In film, we sculpt time, we sculpt behaviour and we sculpt light.

I have a great little camera, and I had a theory that if the story is interesting, it doesn't matter what medium you shoot it on. You just have to make a good film.