Aaron Ruell Quotes

I really got into filmmaking through photography.

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.

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

I always saw photography as a way to get to film.

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

The process of shooting - of choosing shots - is intuitive for me, and I just feel my way towards what seems right.

When we say 'cinematic', we tend to think John Ford and vistas and wide-open spaces. Or we think of kinetic camera movement or of a certain number of cinematic styles, like film noir.

Visually, I'm always considering shots and composition quite a lot, and I love putting art into films, and I do a lot of the art.

For a cinematographer, every frame has to be important.

My whole approach is very much about using the locations as a world, trying to find the beauty in the time of day we shoot or the ugliness of it, in cases.

There are a thousand ways to point a camera, but really only one.

Photography can be a volatile situation. It can be very potent.

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

Videos are more like photography. It's not as much about trying to tell a story as it is creating images.

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.

When I am shooting a film I never think of how I want to shoot something; I simply shoot it.

Every shot is unique, even if it's just a close-up, an insert of your hand. You've got to work with the guy behind the lens to get it right, focus in. Those are critical little nothing things, but you've got to work with the people who are trying to put it down, in order to get it.

I was never one for multi-cameras; my approach was always... I always considered there was only one place to be to do a shot.

When you shoot a movie, the camera is always taking, taking, taking and not giving anything back.

I don't study films particularly. I plan to direct, but I'm not watching film - I watch the entire film to see how the story goes, but I don't say, 'Oh, so he does a slow pan here, or he pulls here, watch the crane shot, or look at the composition,' because it's got to be my eye.

Film has to describe and show.

I'm one of the few directors that actually shoots a lot in camera.

Visual elements are, of course, the director's job.

I've always been interested in the camera and the effects of it - that's what drew me to film in the first place.

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.