Tom McCarthy Quotes

Filmmaking, like any other art, is a very profound means of human communication; beyond the professional pleasure of succeeding or the pain of failing, you do want your film to be seen, to communicate itself to other people.

Well, I want to do everything in sort of a documentary style, ever since I started in the '80s.

A documentary film is a great way of helping people understand because, somehow, when one is able to see the people involved, it lends a certain immediacy and understanding that is hard to get on the page.

I'm not a big fan of there being voiceovers in movies. I really prefer it when the film tells it story.

It's a funny thing with documentary films - you want them to feel as entertaining and as gripping as a fictional film. With a fictional film you want it to feel as realistic as a documentary film.

A lot of the distinctions that we make between drama and documentary are spurious. We're deeply confused about these issues. About the difference between the two, about where documentary ends and drama begins.

I love talking directly to the fans.

When I make a film, the yardstick is my mind. If I laugh at the jokes and feel sad at the serious undersides, then the subject works.

We can talk and get feedback about our videos directly from some of our biggest fans. We can't stress the importance of that connection enough.

Being a host is about being able to communicate and build up a rapport with the audience.

'Devdas' isn't a real film. It isn't in the same genre as Mira Nair's 'Monsoon Wedding,' where the camera's presence is so understated it almost disappears.

You can generate a phenomenal relationship with an audience. It's very gratifying, a real privilege.

Television takes you to an altogether different audience and directly to people's living room. On television, I'm being myself, and that's why people relate to me more.

You can't worry too much about what you think the audience wants to hear. You just have to hope that you're a likeable enough person that what you're saying will relate to other people, so they can laugh at it as well.

I always make sure there's something for the audience to connect to, in terms of my movements relating to the sounds being heard.

Whatever films I make, the mandate is that it should touch the audiences and engage them from the first scene.

I'd rather have Ben Affleck feeling something than twenty minutes of punching CGI Zod. You want moments that resonate with your audience.

Cinema is a director's medium; it's his story and his vision. If it's a good story, people will connect to it.

For me, there's something about a certain kind of genre film that has real potency in its emotional landscape.

Books are really fun because your 'voice' is pretty undiluted. There is a very direct connection between yourself and your audience. You will have an editor, but their job is to help you clarify or improve your voice, not change it.

With a movie, you have the power of putting out an idea about the world and for people to take it seriously.

My basic mission as an artist is to communicate with people. Therefore, I am conscious I have to make films that people can digest.

With Quentin Tarantino, he makes movies imagining himself as the audience. To be specific and true to what he wants resonates to people who like his movies.

Television has power.

I'm very proud of the work I do, but I genuinely can't involve myself with an audience as early as somebody who's not part of the film can. So there's that side of theater that appeals to me, where you give something and the response to what you've created is a communion between you and the dark that contains however many people. It's thrilling not having a reflection other than through the people you're communicating with. But people ask, "What do you prefer?" and I don't have a preference. I love them both. I really do.