I think it's a mistake for young filmmakers to just buy digital equipment and shoot a feature. Make short films first, make your mistakes and learn from them.
Television is an excellent training ground for a director. If you work consistently in television, as I did, you have to come in on time and on budget. What you are allowed in feature films are, fortunately, more time and a larger budget.
To make a documentary is one thing, to make a feature film is quite another.
I have two sisters that are directors: one's in documentary, one's in film. My mother was a writer and a painter, so I've been surrounded since childhood by dynamic women and female voices in arts.
We did this film in 13 days, mind you. And 13 days is not very long for a feature film. Nobody in their right mind would argue that. Nobody in their right mind would do that.
After a couple of attempts at making shorts, I decided to make a feature film with a friend, Tom Hall, whom I've worked with ever since.
Angel was the first Irish feature film. Neil's first movie and my first movie.
With a series, keeping the quality high and writing incredibly fast, that's the first lesson you learn. You can't be real precious. When you're doing a feature film, you have 2 1/2 months; you sort of take your time. It's a different animal.
I went back to Dallas for a little while to finish my short film 'Rusty Forkblade.' It was not the instant success I thought it was going to be. There's a false narrative that if you make a short film right after senior year, you'll be plucked out to make a feature length film, and the rest is history. I didn't do that.
With feature films, it's a one-time judgment once your film is premiered. Reviews, box office, and then you move on to the next project. With TV, you are being rated and judged weekly for an eight-month stretch.
We wanted to make movies back in college before Rooster Teeth. Our roots have always been in feature filmmaking, and we've always wanted to go back to it.
I took a leave of absence from the internet company where I was working and bought a camera and a copy of Final Cut Pro editing software and made my first feature film, "Street Fight." It followed a crazy, racially charged mayoral election in Newark, NJ in which a young guy named Cory Booker was taking on the political machine of that city. It went on to be nominated for an Oscar and Emmy and was a real example of DIY film-making.
There's so little difference between television and features as far as you make the film. I mean, you have less money and it's a little quicker, but the concept is all on television.
I was working in commercials and music videos, always with the goal of working in feature films.
I started off writing TV adverts. I saw those as rehearsals for a feature film.
I know that my mind is so A.D.D., and I want instant gratification - and photography can provide me with that - but at some point, I want to make an independent feature.
The first writer I developed a script with was John Hughes, and that was 'Mr. Mom.' That was my first feature film.
I don't think there's so much difference between making documentaries and feature films. I think it's even harder to make documentaries.
I want to do feature films. I am flying to Malaysia to be in another feature film. We will be filming that in Malaysia, the Phillipines, and back in California.
I graduated from UC San Diego, wanted to work in film to get my hands-on real experience, did music videos, TV, feature films, all kinds of stuff.
As a DP who mostly does features, I'm normally in a director's pocket, 24/7.
Often times people complain about the lack of time in television, but I have to say, you don't have any more time to film in feature films then you do in television. It's just a question of how many scenes you'll be doing in the course of a day.
I think I did fifteen long features and fifteen documentaries, or something like this, which is very little when you think of people making a film every year. Some people have done fifty or sixty films.
